What should Susan Boyle sing next?

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 12 Jun 09 - 10:58 AM

New video

sorry, had to post this.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 12 Jun 09 - 11:24 AM

Blackburn west Lothian is a village - not to be confused with the city ...

I am well aware it's not the same place as the township/parish/conurbation/arrondissement/oblast in Lancashire. I've been to the West Lothian one Boyle comes from, not to the other one that you seem more familiar with.

Blackburn (the real one) is a post-industrial shithole surrounded by bings of mine waste with a Third World level of unemployment, the visual appeal of Norilsk and a drug problem like something out of New Jersey. It has as much community spirit as a petrol station at 2am.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 Sep 09 - 12:44 PM

Not just a flash in the pan?

PreSales at Amazon outsell big names:

Susan Boyle Already Bigger Than Whitney Houston, New Moon & the Beatles

Whitney Houston, the Beatles and Jay-Z ought to step aside. Susan Boyle is the new queen bee of the album charts.

Too bad no one will get to hear her record until Nov. 24.

Britain's Got Talent's undeniable breakout star—whether she won the grand prize or not—is nearly three months from the release of her debut album, yet, thanks to presales, stands at the very top of Amazon.com's best-seller list.

Houston's comeback album, reissues of the Fab Four's classics, Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 and even the soundtrack for New Moon are eating her dust.

Talk about dreaming a dream!

---

Threads combined. Messages below are from a new thread.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Susan Boyle
From: Rasener
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 05:47 PM

Well you can say what you like (I don't particularly like her) but I think its wonderful what she has achieved in such a short time. Good luck to her.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8378194.stm

I will now wait for the grumps who want to knock her down :-)

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Maryrrf
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 05:53 PM

It isn't the kind of music I usually listen to but she has a gorgeous voice. I'm thrilled for her!

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Rasener
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 06:12 PM

Yep, Good luck to the lass.

I know that there are so many excellent performers in the Folk World that never get that opportunity and I can understand if they feel a bit jealous or think that she should have served her trade, but I just think its nice to see somebody who I think was struggling socially to have this happen to her. Gives other people hope.

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Acorn4
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 06:49 PM

In the folk world no one gives a monkeys about what you look like as long as you can produce the goods, so I would think we should all be glad for her because of her proving that image can be secondary to talent.

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Rasener
Date: 25 Nov 09 - 06:52 PM

Well said Acorn

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: michaelr
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 02:04 AM

I think this remark is worth quoting here from the Eddi Reader thread, if only to point out how mean-spirited some of the UK posters here have become:

Subject: RE: Eddi Reader - Undervalued?
From: Jack Campin - PM
Date: 23 Nov 09 - 05:10 PM

...Eddi Reader comes across to me like a Susan Boyle without the mental retardation to excuse the tastelessness.


Inexcusable, IMO.

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 02:12 AM

Agreed. Surprised at Jack, whom have never met but who usually writes much better sense than that, I think. Susan Boyle comes over to me as modest and likeable.

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 02:29 AM

I hope we are not going to see the same situation on this thread that seems too often to be happening on other threads.

Michaelr, I know Jack said that on the other thread and it wasn't very nice, but did you need to copy and paste that over into this thread. It will only fuel the aggro so to speak.

Lets keep this thread sensible and no flaming or attacking individuals on here please, otherwise I will be asking Joe to remove the thread or at least moderate it.

Whilst I am happy for her, I see on the news this morning, that she may not be coping with all this fame. For me that is very concerning, as in a way, she has no control over her own destiny, which I suppose is the price of fame. I just hope that behind all the money involved etc, that somebody is taking a firm grip on looking after her health..

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 02:58 AM

What she really needs is to be ' discovered ' by Lizzie Cornish.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 03:29 AM

Michaelr, Jack C is ONE of the UK posters, not SOME, unless he has developed multiple personality disorder. This constant knocking of and lumping together of UK posters is getting pretty tired.

Susan Boyle? Not my cuppa tea, but sooner a middle aged woman who's had a difficult life than a bunch of overexcited teenage gibbons to win these things...

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 03:29 AM

Lets keep this thread sensible and no flaming or attacking individuals on here please, otherwise I will be asking Joe to remove the thread or at least moderate it.

So no opinions to the contrary or else you'll be petitioning Pope Joe for an excommunication, huh? Well - I always thought Mudcat was a discussion group where people are allowed to think for themselves regarding matters of minority relevance - not some society for the mindlessly mutual adoration of the latest fabricated phoney MOR celebrity superstar, whatever human interest element has been woven into the mawkishly grotesque and sickening fantasy by way reality. Reality TV becomes reality music! Except reality isn't real any more - it's been annexed by the spectacle!

I tell you - it was this sort of diabolically commercialised soul-deadening CRAP that pushed me out of the box as a somewhat desperately inquisitive 12-year-old (circa 1973) thus leading me to the real stuff. It's a journey that continues to this day - and the merest thought that such mind-numbingly manipulative culture-killing so-called music still exists ensures that I remain well and truly out there - where the wild things are, the real things, the truly wonderful things which includes a whole world of human & musical possibility. Hey, and that includes folk - remember that, you guys? Mesmerised as you are by the tinsel-glare of the Susan Boyle image-myth-making marketing super-star machine.

Snap out of it. Keep it real. Here's the antidote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZmJnY6N56M

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 03:32 AM

Moderated thread, eh? I'm outa here!

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Smedley
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 03:37 AM

I don't begrudge Susan Boyle her success, and her rise to fame certainly merits attention from any cultural sociologist looking to explore how the contemporary musiic/fame machine works.

She has a very good voice in her genre.

But her genre (which I would define as that hideous middlebrow zone where show-tunes get pretensions of operatic status and pop/rock songs get 'respectabilised' through pseudo-classical singing) is my utterly least favourite zone of music ever.

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 03:49 AM

her singing has got to be better than a lot of the crap that is pushed over the music scene

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Smedley
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 04:01 AM

Technically better, to some ears, yes. But does it *mean* anything ?

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle
From: Alan Day
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 04:17 AM

What a load of snobbish rubbish some of you write.
Al

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 04:38 AM

Hey! My post was missed off in the merger! Never mind; here it is again.

Lets keep this thread sensible and no flaming or attacking individuals on here please, otherwise I will be asking Joe to remove the thread or at least moderate it.

So no opinions to the contrary or else you'll be petitioning Pope Joe for an excommunication, huh? Well - I always thought Mudcat was a discussion group where people are allowed to think for themselves regarding matters of minority relevance - not some society for the mindlessly mutual adoration of the latest fabricated phoney MOR celebrity superstar, whatever human interest element has been woven into the mawkishly grotesque and sickening fantasy by way reality. Reality TV becomes reality music! Except reality isn't real any more - it's been annexed by the spectacle!

I tell you - it was this sort of diabolically commercialised soul-deadening CRAP that pushed me out of the box as a somewhat desperately inquisitive 12-year-old (circa 1973) thus leading me to the real stuff. It's a journey that continues to this day - and the merest thought that such mind-numbingly manipulative culture-killing so-called music still exists ensures that I remain well and truly out there - where the wild things are, the real things, the truly wonderful things which includes a whole world of human & musical possibility. Hey, and that includes folk - remember that, you guys? Mesmerised as you are by the tinsel-glare of the Susan Boyle image-myth-making marketing super-star machine.

Snap out of it. Keep it real. Here's the antidote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZmJnY6N56M

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 04:44 AM

I suppose if Susan Boyle sang a song or two in my presence, I wouldn't mind. She has a nice voice and style - but her entire repertoire can be performed in an hour or so. I can't see what's left to say about her, but apparently people want to talk - and I can't see a good reason why they shouldn't. The thread started today had the makings of another Mudcat brawl after about three messages, so I moved the whole thing over to an existing thread to water down the nastiness.
This whole Susan Boyle thing bores me to tears.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: melodeonboy
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 05:49 AM

"This whole Susan Boyle thing bores me to tears."

And me!

Perhaps the long, cold evenings have sapped some people's will to live!

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Smedley
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 05:55 AM

She is currently breaking sales records -   this doesn't make her music significant, but it mnakes *her* significant for those of us who like to reflect upon the cultural/historical/social aspects of music.

I've never criticised those Mudcatters who want to wrangle over the chord sequences on a particular banjo to some old fart's version of 'Froggy Went A Courting' - that's your thing & good luck. But others here, me included, like to look at music's impact as well as its content.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 06:20 AM

music's impact as well as its content.

The impact of Susan Boyle is but another nail in the coffin of our culture; its only purpose is to make everything the same in order to facilitate marketing.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: GUEST,Mad Spaniel
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 07:09 AM

"The impact of Susan Boyle is but another nail in the coffin of our culture; its only purpose is to make everything the same in order to facilitate marketing"

Have you ever heard of Vesta Tilley!! This is not a new thing and if you can sing (as Vesta could to) then why not have your five minutes.

Of course we would like to hear her sing some traditional stuff instead of the songs she is told to sing but heh that's becuase that is what i want to hear, we don't like it when people tell us to sing stuff we don't like either.

Good for her that she has had this success.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Smedley
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 07:24 AM

"The impact of Susan Boyle is but another nail in the coffin of our culture; its only purpose is to make everything the same in order to facilitate marketing. "

Too gloomy, not least because she so palpably isn't the same as previous artists marketed via the same channels. She isn't Will Young, she isn't Leona Lewis - you can generalise about the techniques of selling being the same, but there remain differences of style & emphasis.

But I don't want to get too Cukltural Studies about it all.......

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 07:32 AM

"But I don't want to get too Cukltural Studies about it all......."

I wonder what the etymology of culture is? And what relationship it has to 'cult'.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 07:49 AM

'The thread started today had the makings of another Mudcat brawl after about three messages, so I moved the whole thing over to an existing thread to water down the nastiness.,

Where to, Joe — can't see it anywhere.

---

See? It worked!
But in the thread started yesterday, somebody brought in mental retardation in the sixth message, and Lizzie Cornish a few posts later. Here, they don't stick out and are far less likely to cause a brawl.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 08:24 AM

I wonder what the etymology of culture is? And what relationship it has to 'cult'.

'Culture' is derived from the latin cultiva

'Cult' comes from (again Latin)cultus meaning worship.

There is no etymological relationship. (apart from their being from the same language)

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 08:45 AM

Cultiva Cultus - I like it!

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 09:02 AM

Cultiva Cultus - I like it!

LOL! It does have something about it, mind.

It would make a great Pantheistic slogan...

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: michaelr
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 11:58 AM

Spleen Cringe - note that I didn't say ALL UK posters. But just look at the recent dust-up between SO'P and MtheGM, and you'll see why saying SOME is justified. There are more examples I could find, but it's not my intent to fan the flames, just to hold up a mirror.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 12:27 PM

MichaelR: Sweeney & I had, as you say, a 'dust-up'; i.e a brief disagreement just between the two of us; now reconciled if you look. I can't feel it just to call that 'mean-spirited' in the same sense as the drawing attention to the comment about Ms Boyle's intellectual capacities on another thread, about which you may recall I agreed with you in the very next post to yours denouncing it; but from which you nevertheless extrapolated the generalisation over which SpleenCringe took issue with you.

You appear to me to be confusing two different sorts of discourse to mount an ill-considered attack on the bona fides of UK posters in general — American ones being invariably sweetness·&·light in their posts, no doubt!?.

You say you were 'just holding up a mirror': are not those who do that liable to catch sight of their own faces?

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: michaelr
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 05:10 PM

Splitting hairs there. Fact is, most of the nastiness here on Mudcat, as well as most of the plain silly nonsense, originates from the UK. I'm tired of it, as are Joe and Max.

This used to be a good forum with many knowledgeable contributors. Now, most of them have been driven away by the vast amounts of crap that appears here. Shame, really.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 05:20 PM

The simple answer is Moderate strongly with people who can't talk to each other in a civil tongue. Once that message gets out, some of these people will stop posting and come into line.

Michaelr, you didn't help things on my thread by copying over a post by Jack Campin. That was pure shit stirring, so please don't get high and almighty. You are as bad. It caused Joe to stop my thread and merge it with this.

Hey ho, I will get my coat.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: The Sandman
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 05:46 PM

Splitting hairs there. Fact is, most of the nastiness here on Mudcat, as well as most of the plain silly nonsense, originates from the UK. I'm tired of it, as are Joe and Max.[quote]
I see some fairly nasty things from A Couple OF American contributors,and a couple of American guests, I believe Martin Gibson was an American[who seems to have been banned],Gargoyle is first rate objectionable, and there is one member[American]who is very unpleasant.
I found the clip from Peter Laban[American guest],tasteless and unpleasant.
I am not a fan of Susan Boyles Music,but I wish her every success,she has a good voice,and she is trying to do something creative, fair play to her.

Subject: Susan Boyle and Mudcat
From: GUEST,Betsy
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 08:09 PM

Surely , whatever the merits of this good lady, her achievements do not belong to a music site dedicated to Blues and Folk.
Mudcat does not need to descend to the-sheep like mentality of the rest of the knobheads who support the T.V. programmes / system control - from which she came.
I try to escape all that shite by reading and contributing to Mudcat.
Joe can you remove such references to Ms Boyle into the "other " batch, but with the acknowledgement from me that (not having heard her sing) wish her every good fortune in her musical career and life in general.
Bless 'er
Betsy

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle and Mudcat
From: Alice
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 08:19 PM

We've discussed many types of music over the years, not just folk and blues.

Subject: RE: Susan Boyle and Mudcat
From: Leadfingers
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 08:19 PM

YES !!

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 08:45 PM

I hear she has a single covering the Rolling Stones' Wild Horses' which is getting lots of airplay and is pretty good from accounts of people whose judgement I trust.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 08:50 PM

Just googled it...pretty impressive interpretation. Good luck to her.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/2635301/First-listen-of-Susan-Boyles-new-single.htm

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Alice
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 08:52 PM

Hi, Tug, if you look at the links above on this page, you'll see the thread for Wild Horses. I still like her "Cry Me A River" best of what I've heard.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 09:51 PM

Record-breaking pre-order sales for her on Amazon, I understand. What I find most impressive is that that seems to imply that people are actually shelling out money for her music, rather than just take it off the Web.   I'm not tempted to buy anything by her, but if people are actually buying her music, good for her. I've read somewhere that 90% or some amazing percentage of music these days is not bought but procured through other means.   Sometimes I think Jan and I are the only ones who buy CD's--though it's classical for me and current country for her. Of course I like liner notes etc.   By and large an MP3 doesn't make it for me.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Alice
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 10:26 PM

Ron, re what you wrote about mp3's, I'm sad for what young people today are missing - the shared record albums that we would sit around and listen to with groups of friends, passing around the album covers and discussing the illustrations and liner notes. Music was a group bonding experience. Now I see people plugged into their personal ear buds, solitary, alone.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Ron Davies
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 10:32 PM

Good point, Alice.   In a lot of ways we were really really lucky to grow up when we did--particularly when pop music was a lot of fun, you could do it yourself without a boatload of electronics---and it wasn't so damn nihilistic as it seems to be now.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Nov 09 - 11:11 PM

There may be some hope. The first thing my grandson did when he turned on the mp3 player we gave him, was to turn to his friend and hand him one of the earbuds so they could listen together. His parents bought him speakers for it, so he can share more easily and it is turning out to be a great way for him to learn lyrics.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Tug the Cox
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 07:23 AM

I remember in 1970 a group of us were camping in brittany. We had a battery operated deck and a collection of records. One of these was the Bridge over troubled Water LP,whichhad all the lyrics printed on the cover. Sitting round the camp with french youngsters joining in the words , reading from the cover,, was a great highlight.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 07:43 AM

The Sony Walkman came out in 1979! Thirty years ago now, and people have been using some form of personal music system ever since - when *out and about* of course. Most people when at home however, still continue to switch on the stereo - or at least I certainly do.

I have my amp & speakers connected to the laptop, and of course there are docking stations for iPods too, which do essentially the same thing. I don't think anything's really any different than it was.

Kat, you could get your grandson a twin headphone socket and a spare set of ear-phones to go with it, that way if he has a friend round they both get a set. Though it's possibly more sociable to have one ear free for chatter! On my old Sony Walkman, I even had a Mono/Stereo option, which meant when sharing you didn't lose half the music..

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Alice
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 11:28 AM

I guess because I am an artist as well as a singer, the LP covers with the illustrations and photos and the liner notes and sometimes lyrics were part of the whole shared experience for me. We'd talk about not only the music but what was on those LP covers. Just not the same now, even with CD inserts. It doesn't seem like a group experience as much as it was back then with those big albums of visuals. I worked in a radio station through college, and the covers had info we dj's would share with the listeners, too.

Subject: RE: What should Susan Boyle sing next?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Nov 09 - 01:26 PM

One hopes that with a lifetime of singing in her home community that Susan does have a good-sized repertoire. Once the hoopla and the managed stuff has run its course, perhaps Susan will be able to default to her own personal favorites and you'll hear some of the local or folk type songs that have gone unnoticed until now. So much of what people know about Susan is the stage-managed press side of things that emanate from her performance last spring. The "real" Susan may surprise people. I certainly hope so.

SRS