Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

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TheLazenby
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Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by TheLazenby »

I just tried to suffer through Richard's "performance" of Arnold Layne on Jools Holland... but gave up after the first verse.

I guess my question is, what the hell went wrong? I mean, they had to've rehearsed that... Dave had to notice that obviously Rick was not capable of singing. An even bigger concern is why the hell they let that go on the air anyway... I mean, it's a pretty damning tribute, isn't it? A tipsy Richard Wright blowing the fuck out of the dead guy's song?
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Annoying Twit
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by Annoying Twit »

I presume you mean this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKWtZWmFUss

His singing does sound unprofessional. Needs more practice I think. I've seen Robert Palmer on TV singing way out of tune and grimacing at the end of every line. Could just be a one-off poor performance. Also, maybe he couldn't hear himself due to poor monitoring. Think "Gemini at Eurovision".

Does he sound that bad on the single? (Yes, I don't have it yet)

If I could get access to his vocal track, I'd like to have a go applying pitch correction to it though.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by David Smith »

He didn't sound so bad when i saw it performed live in Glasgow

That's a downright awful performance. Maybe he was just having an off day or overly nervous because it was going out to a whole country rather than just a small audience
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by oz1701 »

okay - had a quick listen - you ever listened to someone sing when they headphones on? they sound just like that. he clearly has really poor foldback.

its just about impossible to sing in tune if you cant hear yourself sing.

it is pretty terrible but i don't believe its his fault on this occasion.

give the man a break he isn't known for his singing anyway.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by nosaj »

When was this?
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by Damn!t »

Yes...Reechard really tends to sound awfull lately... aspecially singing the tunes that are a bit too high for him. But it's actually kind of neat that Dave let him sing ...for old time sake I guess.
Tho, wearing the inside out allways sounded great with him singing it. On the division bell and on ofg's last tour too. He sang that tune every concert perfectly.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by snifferdog »

To be fair, it's a lot easier to sing Wearing the Inside Out than Arnold Layne. But yeah, I agree. The vocal on that particular version of Arnold Layne was shocking. Who's to know what went wrong - I'd like to think it was something technical. As for Annoying Twit's original question, he sounds fine on the single.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by TheLazenby »

He sounds great in the Madcap's Last Laugh version, too.

But I guess it could've been because he couldn't hear himself... I mean, apparently there are some pretty dire live Beatles boots where they're just absolutely out of tune. (I seem to remember hearing that their Budokan performances were the worst, especially when they tried to do harmonies.)
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by WishIwasthere »

Well I'd agree with all of the above. Who knows why he sounds so bad? Maybe he had a tummy ache or something. I've always liked Rick and I'm sure he would not have been happy with that.

I really liked 'Wearing the inside out' and he did a great job of 'Breakthrough' on the Meltdown concert (I think), better than Sinead did on his album.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by Syd'sSexy »

I have both the vinyl and CD of the Arnold Layne single, and Rick sounds just fine. No, that is not the most flattering performance, but why didn't the sound engineer attempt to do some adjustments and mute the vocals a bit? Regardless, I still love Rick's voice. :smt055
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by fatoldbob »

The real culprit is the mix on this recording. It's like someone intentionally tried to make Rick sound as bad as possible by lowering everything else.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by nosaj »

fatoldbob wrote:The real culprit is the mix on this recording. It's like someone intentionally tried to make Rick sound as bad as possible by lowering everything else.
There are tonnes of people who don't like dinosaur bands, so hey, that is plausible!
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by Zarquon »

I watched the original BBC transmission, and it is obvious that this version, which was broadcast after the fact, had its mix changed.

This is the original - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8KvKu8YYHE
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by 2066 »

Rick is a terrific singer *cue: Paintbox, Time or Echoes*. I bet as someone said before that he had a bad monitor mix. It's literally impossible to stay in tune if you can't hear yourself on stage amongst all the other noise. I've been there...
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by bpmolder »

Ummm.....that's not a bad mix or bad monitoring, it's a failing voice. He is relatively in key, it's that he wasn't able to sustain a note for more than a certain amount of time. Listen again and notice how he hits all of the short notes just fine, but the longer ones waver.

I love Rick like the rest of you do, but looking at it through rose colored glasses doesn't do any good. He is over 60 years old and at that age, a voice that isn't cared for is going to fail. There's no shame in admitting it and automatically pointing fingers of blame towards the engineer(s) is unfair as well because part of the reason why music has declined the way it has is due to engineers and producers covering up and/or correcting flaws in performances.

Rick and Roger both have had their voices deteriorate as they have gotten older and Gilmour's has as well, but to a much more minor degree. He is definitely the fortunate one of the bunch in that respect.

I know as well as the rest of you that Rick sang beautifully when he was younger, even a full octave higher than Gilmour on such tracks as Breathe, Time and Echoes. He's just old now and I think it's time that he seriously consider not singing songs that he can't get his voice around anymore.

So if you want to blame anyone for the quality of that performance, it should be Gilmour, because he is the one who is truly in control and we all know it. There is no need to pretend that Rick can sing as well as he did 30 years ago because he absolutely can't. I don't like it any more than anyone else here does, but it is the truth.