Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Discuss all things Richard Wright from his epic keyboarding to the wonderful songs he created for the band!
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bpmolder
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by bpmolder »

Part of an artist's growth involves working around their limitations in as creative of a way as possible. If he is slipping, he should consider singing in a way that will sound the best. Either that, or pack Jon Carin along to sing with him like he did on the DSOT tour. :lol:

There are a lot of people who are older and whose voices change or become limited in range, but most of them will adapt their style to fit that range or change of timbre or whatever.

Roger is suffering from that as well and has been for a few years now, hence the whole lip syncing thing, but it's just another way to ensure that you can sing an old song without sounding like crap.

The first idea that struck me when I watched this clip was that if Gilmour would have sang with him, it would have sounded a lot better, not only because their voices sound good in harmony, but also to keep Rick steady because it's far easier to sing along with someone than for one to carry a tune by themselves, even for some of the greatest singers in the world.

Also, David's voice sounds more like Syd's than Rick's does, so it would have provided a more identifiable sound and that's very valid because most Pink Floyd fans are after nostalgia since the prospect of a future for the group is bleak. Any way in which they can make their performances sound close to the original without being too close that it's boring will provide for a much more pleasurable experience for most fans.

It's all we have left besides ROIOs, reissues and occasional one-off performances with one or two members such as this.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by AnyColourYouLike »

A shame really, he sounded pretty good on the OAI tour, but can't be helped I guess.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by bpmolder »

Hey, everybody has a bad night from time to time, no matter how generally good they are. I think that the key difference is that OAI was recorded and there were ways to get it right, such as comping multiple vocal takes and utilizing pitch correction and effects processing. That's the easy part. Live performance isn't so easy. Limitations come out a lot more. The only thing they can really do to hide a voice that isn't up to par in a live performance is to drop it back in the mix and have others singing along.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by fatoldbob »

bpmolder wrote:Hey, everybody has a bad night from time to time, no matter how generally good they are. I think that the key difference is that OAI was recorded and there were ways to get it right, such as comping multiple vocal takes and utilizing pitch correction and effects processing. That's the easy part. Live performance isn't so easy. Limitations come out a lot more. The only thing they can really do to hide a voice that isn't up to par in a live performance is to drop it back in the mix and have others singing along.
Which is exactly how they performed it. At the end of every verse, the entire band is singing along and when this song is mixed properly, they sustain the notes that Rick is having trouble with. Someone intentionally remixed the sound to isolate Ricks voice in that first video. If you watch, you can see everyone singing along, but you can't hear them at all. In fact, the rhythm guitar should be as loud as Rick's voice. This is how it was supposed to sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8KvKu8YYHE

Admittedly he was having an off night, but what was broadcast was significantly better than that first Utube video.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by 3Dasha »

fatoldbob wrote:This is how it was supposed to sound:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8KvKu8YYHE
The video is deleted. Is it uploaded anywhere else?
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by raisemyrent »

I haven;t found it, but I saw it years ago and it sounded fine. in the new mix, his keyboard solo is dampened significantly too. made it look like amateur hour (it wasn't).

rick I think had a combination of things:
- stated loss of voice due to cocaine
- smoker of many years
- nervousness when on the spot (thanks, Roger!) the same odd rhythm singing is heard on night of a thousand, and even on wearing the inside out. typical nervousness when you're singing.
- at least in this performance, poor monitoring
- singing songs that he never sang originally

perfect storm.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by raisemyrent »

brilliant. what a difference. someone in the comments brought up the fact that he was probably ill at the time. made me think there's a chance his cancer affected his singing even by then? we don't know and I for one leave their lives private to that extent, what kind of cancer he had.
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Re: Richard Wright on Jools Holland - WHY?!

Post by kjek1 »

bpmolder wrote: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.
Might be 7 years late here. But Rick didn't sound bad singing it at the gigs I attended.

He does sounds absolutely dreadful in that video but given he didn't sound like that at the gigs i'd guess perhaps he couldn't hear himself, it does sound a lot like what happens when you can't actually hear what your singing, to make matters worse someone has altered the mix so Rick's dodgy vocals are several levels above everything else.