FEMALE VOCALISTS

FEMALE VOCALISTS – A theme evening – 18th November 2009

The background:
The Audiofiles had reached a crisis – as all great artistic movements must.

A period of angst-ridden debate, held in dark corners of smoky bars in middle European cities, had created a mood of discontent.

Questions were being asked about the central tenets of the movement. These hushed-toned mutterings produced merely variations of the same one mantra – that the original freshness of the Audiophile format had faded.

A simple metaphor crystallised the dilemma – that of sexual relationships…

After all, the early Audiophile meetings were a love-affair in its first flush of hormonal rush, full of snatched, adulterous excitement at a variety of secret venues.

As time had gone on, however, the relationship had become a tired and repetitive ritual. Yes – the Audiophiles had become, in a slow and creeping way, somewhat marital.

The relationship had become tedious – choices of conversational subjects no-one really liked… increasingly long periods between meetings.. spiky badinage of a negative nature when the partners did spend time together…

Divorce – in the form of defections, breakaways, even alternative audiophile groupings – was being discussed.

Relate counsellors were summoned and advised the adoption of a new format… that the session should focus not on one single album but a set of unconnected tracks grouped by theme.

The comrade-brothers met in Cde Mason’s office to discuss
Cde Newson’s suggestion of a first theme, that of FEMALE VOCALISTS.

Preliminary discussion concerned the degree of female presence in collections or on our respective ipods.

Cdes Deller, Phillips and Walsh all confessed to having discovered a misogynistic bias in their collections but Cdes Callas and Mason were much more in touch with their female sides. (Cde Callas was to show this later in a tearful response to Tracy Chapman. For the moment speculation focused on whether there really was enough Kate Bush to fill half his collection. Genesis: The Female Years was mooted as a possibility.)

Cde Brothers then presented their choices. Given that female vocalists clearly have the capacity to affect redblooded males in many and various ways, it was not surprising that the relationship theme continued to surface throughout the discussions.

Our resident marraige counsellor observed the proceedings through one way glass and highlighted one sentence in each brother’s response to his selected track. These give some insight, he feels, into the sexual psyche of the individual and perhaps might help to understand their predilections, musical and other. Freudian analysis can be conducted at the reader’s discretion.

Choices were as follows:

1. Cde Deller: Unfinished Sympathy/ Massive Attack (1991/2)
Selected as the female vocal track played most over the years. A club sound, but a small club, not a big one. Much used as sound wallpaper for high-class ITV thrillers. ‘Some kind of submission thing’.

2. Cde Turner: Hedonism/ Skunk Anansie (1993?)
Superb singing, yes, but ultimately selected purely for its filth. ‘One of the filthiest songs I have ever heard’. Melancholic, but one for a dark night turned up loud in the car.

3. Cde Phillips: Hey Eugene/ Pink Martini (2007)
Selected for the quality of the voice, but also for its narrative element, its jazzy elements, its odd, sweet-bitter, stylishly transatlantic orchestration. ‘Something straight off Facebook.’

4. Cde Callas: Oh To Be In Love/ Kate Bush (date uncertain, but link to youtube clip given below.)
Chosen for its rough sound (it was some sort of bootleg/ demo early track). Not rock and roll, but stripped back from the overproductions of the later years. ‘She was thoroughly progged by Dave Gilmour later.’

5. Cde Walsh: Elvis Presley Blues/ Gilliam Welch (2001)
Picked for the purity of the voice in a basic, stripped back setting. Tapping into the simple folk-country-retro end of things. Basic, yet strangely mysterious.

6. Cde Yates: Brass In Pocket/ Pretenders (1981)
Selected on similar grounds to Cde Turner’s, though with the somewhat worrying realization that Cde Yates was only ten when the record emerged. ‘Pure dirt.’

7. Cde Mason: A Woman’s Worth/ Alicia Keyes (2001)
Just chill – if this was in a blues setting we’d be purring. Superb voice. Selected to include some women who sing the blues, even in the R&B medium. Emotional, but not overfilled’.

Those for whom absences were recorded were also represented:
8. Cde Newson: Turn Into/ Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2006) (‘Contemporary’)
9. Cde Attwell: Kids in America/ Kim Wilde (1982) (‘Cheesy’)
10. Cde Anderson: Good Fortune / P J Harvey (early 90s) (‘Siouxsie-ish’)
11. Cde Bawtree: Baby Can I Hold You Tonight/ Tracy Chapman (?) (Each morning, I wake up, forgive myself and go off to work.’)

General conclusions to be drawn from the theme…

1. Female vocalists were appreciated across a wide range of genres.
2. Female vocalists have a masturbatory role in young men’s lives. (Stevie Nicks needed to be mentioned.)
3. Men generally listen to more male vocalists than female, though we are strangely vulnerable to cheese (Carole King, Luka by Suzanne Vega).

Overall an artistic rinascimento had occurred. The movement had refreshed itself.

Favourite track plebiscite:
Skunk Anansie took four votes, Gillian Welch two, Massive Attack one.

Next meeting’s choice of theme: ‘First track of the album’. Any album (can be the first track of a first album if you want to be purist) but considering the way in which the opening track might have a particular impact.