A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 11:04 PM

Well dang....what a shame. Two songs and she's tapped out. No way she could possibly sing anything else............damn.......I'm really sorry to learn that......................

And here I was makin' a list of all the songs I'd love to hear her do. But I guess its over for her after coming in second to Julie London........****sigh****.................Wonder if she'd be any good on some Ethel Waters/Bessie Smith, torchy kind of stuff........nah..............maybe some jazz standards like "When Sunny Gets Blue"...............no.....no.........

She's just to MOR I guess.............................geeziz......gimmee peace........

Spaw

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 11:34 PM

Oh, Spaw, it isn't that bad. Maybe she'll do very well in the rest of the competition - but she'll never be another Julie London. And what about Diana Krall? She'll never be another Diana Krall, either. Are you going to desert Julie and Diana and run off after this upstart Susan Boyle? I dunno, Spaw. I just don't know.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: catspaw49
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 11:42 PM

I've reserved a spot for you Joe at the newly reopened and improved NYCFTTS!! Rest quietly now....The Insanevac Chopper is on its way and you'll soon be in the hands of the lovely Nurse Sins Ratched. I've ordered more Nose Flutes and a supply of Fleet Enemas.

Spaw---Developer and CEO of the NYCFTTS

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Big Mick
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 11:45 PM

Hey..... save a few of those trinkets for me. I am sitting here on my hands waiting for my 17 year Ciara to come home from her first prom. Given the events of July 5 past, I am OK with that. Move over ..... wait ..... what the hell do you think you are going to do with that tube ...........

Mick

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:19 AM

Ron, Hugo's Les Miserables is a monumental book, and not only were the movie versions, of necessity, "Reader's Digest Condensed" versions, I knew full well before seeing the musical that it would also be a condensation, so I had no illusions. Also, since high school, I've had classmates and, later, friends who were (are) involved in musical theater—including my neighbor immediately upstairs (not the woman who writes her own "folk songs," she lives on the top floor). So there, too, musically I knew pretty much what to expect.

Within the parameters of the possible, I think the musical was well done. Certain aspects could have been done better, but all-in-all, well done. Some parts were even better than I expected.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Genie
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:57 AM

Diane, you are certainly entitled to choose not to waste your time on a TV show contestant singing music from a musical or a song from the pop/blues/jazz world, and far be it from me to put you down for expressing that opinion.   But may I suggest that if this subject is one you feel is a waste of time, you really don't need to spend any more time weighing in on it?

Just as the person/people who think Alice's "caption" threads are a waste of time doesn't need to open them, I'd say there are many other threads here at Mudcat that are on topics you'd probably feel are more worth your time. : )

Genie

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Genie
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 01:20 AM

BTW, I know full well what "MOR" means. But since when are songs from musical theatre or the pop or rock or jazz world, by definition, more "middle-of-the-road" than "traditional" or "folk" music?

FWIW, I hear the Gershwins' (and DuBose Heyward's) song "Summertime" done all the time in both folk and jazz music gatherings. That song is from a friggin' OPERA, fer cryin' out loud.

Damned pigeonholes!

Genie

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Genie
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 01:25 AM

Yes, Alice, I got the impression that a primary reason why Susan has never had a love life has to do more with her having had major responsibility for taking care of her ailing mum than anything to do with either her looks or personality. Sometimes the demands of real life can be so consuming that one doesn't have the luxury of pursuing a "personal life."

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Alice
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 01:44 AM

Judge Piers Morgan was on Larry King with Susan Boyle tonight, and he apologized to her for the way he acted when she first came on stage before the judges.

"I sort of feel like apologizing to Susan," he said. "I'm sorry, because we did not give you anything like the respect we should have done when you first came out."

He said the judges had been through a long day with "lots of terrible auditions."

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 02:05 AM

In the first place, I didn't invent the term "schlock". I was merely quoting one of several other contributors to this thread who were as astonished as I was that a karaoke singer from a downmarket TV talent show was being discussed at all on here. The expression was so apt I nicked it.

Somebody or other asked whether I'd criticise this Caledonian warbler if she'd sung a "f*lk" song. Jock O' Hazeldean was mentioned at some stage. How far from the point can you get? She wouldn't be doing material which falls within the remit of this forum on dumbed down telly in the first place. Her voice might be OK; I haven't heard more than a snatch of it because I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than listen to tired and tainted material from Claude-Michel Schönberg or even A L Webber (to name but two inferior composers) in the first place.

I chose instead to comment somewhat scurrilously on the activities of Cameron Mackintosh's accountant as they are marginally more interesting than the travesty of Victor Hugo's work produced by the paymaster. I don't have a "musical specialty" nor indeed am I especially good at anything at all. I'm "quite good" at lots of things and anyone who was vaguely interested could find examples of my work in appropriate repositories.

Looking down the list of posters, there's not a single one known to me personally. They can't even get my name right and I'm unlikely to bump into any of them by chance if they spend their time hanging out at West End / Broadway mainstream theatres watching populist, MOR tripe. They can if they really, really want to but they ought not to inflict it forcibly on the rest of the population. This is, apparently, what they mean by "inclusive" and I'm certainly not that. I might have remarked before: If elitism = excellence, long live elitism. (Again, not mine but from a member of Hammersmith Morris).

I don't wish this wannabe either well nor ill. I don't care. It doesn't interest me. Do I stick music into various categories? Ah yes, guilty, but only two. Good and bad. And what you get on this sort of TV freak show is by definition the latter. IAFWAFIAWM(orW)WQ. Life's too short, etc etc . . .

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: GUEST,Steamboater
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 02:53 AM

When I saw Boyle, even before she began to sing, I immediately thought of Bette Davis as Charlotte Vale, pre her Claude Raines make-over from "Now Voyager". . Next? Boyle in a stage musical adaption of "Now Voyager". She's perfect!

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 03:01 AM

Strange how this thread has become about one poster. It always does, when she doesn't like a particular thread. That way, it usually ends up getting closed down, and voila, she's achieved her goal.

Life's too short for pedantry, acutally. It truly makes no difference to the way the world turns if people on Mudcat are discussing Susan Boyle. She deserves to be discussed, she has an incredible voice.

What the fook her private life has to do with anything though enrages me utterly. Tell the nosey bastards to bugger off. I expect she prefers life with Pebbles to any other life. Everyone is different. The lady oozed happiness to me.

I think one poster in here could learn a great deal from Susan's sweet nature.

Joe, promise me you won't turn into a Grumpy Ol' B*gger! :0)

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 04:52 AM

Good singer. Bloody awful song. That is the sum total of my thoughts on this obviously engrossing subject.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: caitlin rua
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 05:11 AM

Normally-cynical muso columnist Bob Lefsetz has this to say:

Susan Boyle went on to become the biggest superstar in music today. It's no longer a top-down world. If you want to succeed, you have to realize you're in PARTNERSHIP with your audience/consumers. These same teeming masses decide who is a star, not radio or other traditional gatekeepers. How long would it take for radio to go on Susan Boyle? You'd need SET-UP. The record would have to be tested. But none of this interference is run on the Web. You can get an instant spike on YouTube. Sure, Susan Boyle sprang from the platform of "Britain's Got Talent", but they don't air that show in the U.S. and my inbox was burning up moments after she appeared on the show. That's how fast you can make a star today.

Will she last? She's an outsider, a virgin who's never been kissed. She was dissed by her schoolmates. She's not a Barbie. The same people suing the Pirate Bay are the ones who are foisting unreasonable "stars" on the public, less and less successfully. The public knows it's cookie-cutter, that you've got to be beautiful and have true desire. Talent? The handlers will take care of that.

The public saw something in Susan Boyle. Somebody who's not playing by the rules, who believes in herself. For all the bullshit about the end of civilization, the death of record companies and newspapers, those of us not employed by these entities, sans the blinders, view this as the most exciting period of our lives. Suddenly, the Davids have power. Our lone voice now means something. Truth holds sway in a way it has not previously. It's no longer who you know, but how good you are.

We're not building stars, we're building careers. Stop laying your album-length opuses on people who don't care. Give us more Susan Boyles, who don't have a fake bone in their body, who own their identity, who follow their path so independently, that we follow them.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 05:16 AM

Actually, I have now had another thought. Where were you all for the last twenty years of Susan Boyle's life? And where are you now, for the Susan Boyles of our own communities? She's a local pub singer. Do we all support our own local pub singers? I hope so.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Teribus
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 06:18 AM

Actually Greg that would make a good subject for a thread - Pub singers that you rate - Far better than the recent best singer that you know, where loads of posters named singers that might be known to them, i.e. they've listened to but that none of them actually "know".

As to the MOR crap being spouted here by some - I would have thought it self evident that if you enter a "Talent" contest where you will be required to perform through progressive rounds for that first song you have to pick what material you perform for the "Judges" who decide whether or not you carry on with great care. Ideally the song should be known so that the audience can react to you if you sing the song well (as was the case with Susan Boyle), that first song must also demonstrate your range to show the "Judges" what you are capable of and what the power of your voice is, lastly if at all possible the song should have a degree of difficulty that the "Judges" can acknowledge ("Big Song" was mentioned by one of the "Judges" on the show when it was announced).

On Diane's criteria on what makes a song or music worthwhile listening to, I'd condemn about 95% of the navel gazing contributions of modern "singer-songwriters" to the trash-can as meaningless tripe, best dscribed as being full of 15 year-old angst poured out and written in a bedroom where it should have remained unnoticed. I like songs that tell stories which is the reason I like "traditional" Folk, possibly because the passage of time has sorted the wheat from the chaff.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 06:33 AM

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Genie - PM
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 12:46 PM

"Piers, I think you may be right about Susan going along with a partially staged episode on BGT. And I don't fault them, or her, for that."

No, I don't fault them, either. That's show biz. It's not a show I would watch. I don't know about the versions in other countries, but the German one ("Deutschland sucht das Superstar" == "Germany Seeks the Superstar") is based on the "Gong Show" premise and it involves the judges insulting the "bad" performers. I whole idea of it makes my skin crawl.

"PS,
Leo, you're so right. Susan Boyle isn't anywhere near the grotesque that some reviews are making her out to be. She's a rather average-looking 40-something woman in an entertainment world [...]"

I agree. Besides, who cares what a singer looks like? Not everyone can be gorgeous like me. (I don't like to boast, but I've been told I have the perfect face for radio.)

"Walter Mathau can be paired with Sophia Loren as a romantic couple, for instance, but not Bea Arthur with Paul Newman."

Oh, I thought Bea Arthur was a very attractive and impressive-looking woman.

I also like the way Peter Pears sang Benjamin Britten's folksong settings and I love Kathleen Ferrier's recordings of folksongs. There's not just one right way to sing folksongs. And I like Ethel Merman, though not so much when she's belting out songs. She didn't only sing like that.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 07:56 AM

back to Susan Boyle, who I still wish did folk music. Maybe she does.

No. The Linlithgow Folk Club has had regular singarounds going for about 20 years, a few miles away from where Boyle lives. (I've been to quite a few of them, despite coming from much further away). There are many other singers' events in West Lothian she could also have gone to - Tattie Bogle could give a better list than me, she helps organize some of them. These range from solidly traditional to completely singer-songwriter.

Boyle obviously doesn't give a flying fuck about folk music however you slice it. She's going to spend the rest of her career, however long or short it may be, doing the same sort of garbage as she did on TV.

I'd rather listen to almost any of the Linlithgow FC regulars.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: kendall
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 08:09 AM

I have never been a fan of musicals. Like Teribus, I prefer songs that tell a story. That being said, I was enthralled by Susan Boyle's voice. I would like to hear her sing "Song for Ireland" but that's just me.
This site is dedicated to folk and blues but nowhere is it written that it is restricted to those narrow parameters. In my not so humble opinion, talent transcends such limits.
Diane, ease up and while you are at it, define folk music.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 08:21 AM

yes ,I remember LinlithThgow Folk club,Nora Devine used to organise it,.
I played the club three or four times.really friendly atmosphere,and good singers.is Nora still around?she used to run a wool shop, I think,and the pub was the Black Bitch,
I never saw Susan Boyle there.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Alan Day
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 08:23 AM

Kendall I totally agree a wonderful song.
I second that
Al

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 09:16 AM

a song for Ireland was written by Phil Colclough,I am not sure I would like to hear Susan Boyle sing it.
She should sing that which she enjoys,which seems to be what we have heard so far,it is as silly as asking a singer of folk songs,to sing opera,or jazz,or Barry Manilow.
having heard Peter Pears[a good classical singer]murder the Water is Wide,I am not sure Susan Boyle would make a good a job of Song for Ireland
Sean Cannon does a supreerb version,but Sean Cannon,is someone who is immersed in the Irish tradition,anmd who clearly relates to the song.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 09:25 AM

Ahem! The NYCFTTS has been alerted to the ongoing situation here and is on full emergency standby.

Please govern yourselves accordingly.

This has been a public service announcement.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Marc Bernier
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 09:28 AM

There is a recurring theme to the effect that "this song/performance" should not be discussed on Mudcat because the song comes from a stage production. Do folks realize how many songs in contemporary repertoires come from theater? How many folk singers are singing songs that Ewan MacColl, or Brendan Behan, composed for Stage productions 50 years ago? Almost anyone who does music of the sea sings Jolly Roving Tar, which was written for a stage production 120 years ago. Harrigan and Hart are considered by some to be the originators of the American Musical Theater, and I can think of a few of their songs that are part of the performance repertoire of some pretty successful "Folk singers".

Regardless of the origins of the song she chose, this average looking person, walked on to a stage with a few thousand people in the house. She maintained her dignity whilst being very rudely treated by this audience, and then started to sing. Now I realize a certain percentage of us readers of Mudcat actually have performing experience, but to maintain ones composure with an audience response like that is not an easy thing to do. She never wavered once. She planted her feet firmly on the stage, said this is what I do, and did it. There are a lot of people with opinions here that will never do that in a million years. Who gives a Fuck what song she sang, she's got balls, and did a great job. I applaud the performance.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: GUEST,Ana
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 09:31 AM

Dick Gaughan commented during a performance that he'd decided there was no such thing as bad music - just music he either liked or disliked. Good sentiment to hold I reckon.
Folkies can sometimes be so critical of each other's music. Kind of odd when we could just be celebrating each other's pleasure in the creation of music.
Great to see an ordinary person doing an extra ordinary performance. Whether you liked the song or not, it's grand to take pleasure in her success. It's a big jump from a pub or church venues to the big audience, studio, lights etc. What guts. She not only dreamed a dream, she did it.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: kendall
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 09:53 AM

I also performed at the Black Bitch back in August 1990. It would have been easy to have not seen Susan Boyle there.
It was a wonderful audience and they treated me like family.Typical of Scotland.
I ended with Flower of Scotland because I knew they would all sing along, and I was feeling really down at the passing of the man who wrote it. The wasn't a dry eye in the house. Not one.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 10:03 AM

"If elitism = excellence, long live elitism"

The sad thing is, there are actually some people that believe that failed premise. There are also people who get hung up on trivial minutae such as spelling (long live Slip Mahoney!) or perceived rules for forums and end up completely missing the point.

The story isn't about whether one likes showtunes, television, or the potential oxymoron of "Britain's Got Talent".   Most rational people understand that the takeaway from the video is the valuable lesson about prejudging people. I'm just as guilty

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: jacqui.c
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 10:06 AM

Those who can do - those who can't criticise.

I get great pleasure listening to anyone with what I consider to be a beautiful voice. It really doesn't matter what they are singing, but when you listen to an almost perfect rendition of what is obviously a difficult song to sing, that speaks to something, I think, in the heart of any true singer. Folk music is my main love but I will admit to liking musicals, classical and pop music. That gives me such a wide range of sound that can make me happy to sing along.

At the FSGW Getaway we have had doowop sessions that I am sure the purists would want to have run out of camp on a rail, but they were FUN. To me, music should be about enjoyment, singing for the sheer joy of the moment and Susan Boyle showed that with every fibre of her being. I'm glad that, at last, she is getting her place in the sun. It's about time.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 10:19 AM

Those who can do - those who can't criticise.
not true.a cliche,and a generalisation.
for the record,I have not criticised her.I too am pleased for her,furthermore I think she will perform best those songs she enjoys,which is why it is silly for people to say I would like to hear her singing folk music or this or that song.
every performer if they are to perform well,will choose that which they like.
nobody expected ElvisPresley to sing Lord Randall
I am really pleased that merit has won out over image.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 10:20 AM

News flash! Twelve hours ago, my husband returned home from a trip to Arizona. He reports that Susan Boyle's performance was on TV at the hotel, in the airport in Tucson and in the airport in Las Vegas.

Amazing, isn't it?

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 10:28 AM

I'll skip past some of the more analytical posts and add a remark on her musical skills--I was searching for the Larry King stuff last night and see that CNN has also posted the audio of her "Cry Me A River."

She may not be Julie London, Joe, but her voice in places reminded me of Shirley Bassey.

"MOR" or popular culture--the elephant in the room on a folk site? A lot of people make a darned good living in that cultural venue. Some of them stray into specialty recordings when they get a chance.

SRS

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: greg stephens
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 10:33 AM

Surely, the crucial thing is she didn't succeed in spite of her image. She was put on the TV precisely because of her image.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:02 AM

Greg - does the reason matter as much as the lesson?

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: NormanD
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:04 AM

"Surely, the crucial thing is she didn't succeed in spite of her image. She was put on the TV precisely because of her image."

Yes, fully agree, Greg. The logistics of this prog, and others like it, are to ensure a good revenue flow through viewers and further advertising / sponsorship / franchising. Any way of generating interest is money in the till. Every show like this will have an outsider who does well, in spite of....

Susan Boyle has made it to the front page of today's Daily Mirror. She is obviously good copy. In the final outcome, however it's judged (by the panel, or viewers' telephone votes, I don't know the details of this) she will have won, whether she formally comes first or not.

That's entertainment.

I think I'd like to re-visit this thread in, say, six months time and ask how many of us here have gone out & bought her first released piece of music? Or gone to see her live?

There's a lot of gushing now, but a few months down the line I bet tastes will be different.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: jacqui.c
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:06 AM

I think that she would have been chosen to take part even if she had measured up to what is considered to be 'attractive' by the media. Not to have allowed that voice to be heard, when the opportunity was there, would IMHO, have been criminal.

Who knows, maybe this will encourage others with exceptional voices to try another time. Maybe, if enough 'ordinary' people found their voices in this way the public perception of what is 'acceptable' might be dented.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:26 AM

she suceeded because of her voice,despite her ordinary image.
she has not been manufactured,unlike some of the stars of the folk and pop scene ,
Iagree with Jacui c,this is a great victory,for everyone that believes in home made music,and everyone who follows the philosophy of William Morris,that all ordinary people have the abilty to do something creative.
it is the difference between the highest common factor or the lowest common denominator,it may not be my kind of music,but it proves there are many people out there with talents that are not recognised,they may be literary or artistic rather than musical,but every ordinary person should have the oppurtunity and belief thatthey can be creative in some form or other,and, those talents need to be encouraged rather than smothered

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:33 AM

It's actually somewhat tragic that we're even discussing this womans 'looks' here at all, though I understand that it's in reaction or response to the banal bullshit the media pumps out so predictably.
Woo, big shocker! Someone 'ordinary looking' can sing.. And there was me thinking that one must be Barbie incarnate to manage a tune. Funny old thing, but I was scouring YouTube earlier today, and what a fine bunch of women singers we used to have (though to be fair I was primarily looking at American female singers - incidentally discovering the kick ass Big Mamma Thornton I Smell a Rat in the process!)- and composed of so many sizes and shapes and with missing teeth and all...

Where did all these class act ladies go?
Not that I'm knocking girls possessed of natural beauty - who can also sing, but somethings wrong with this picture when it becomes a shock to modern audiences (and cause for debate!), that a woman who isn't also exceptionally physically lovely, can sing well...

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: frogprince
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:40 AM

What Captain Birdseye said; amen
What Captain Birdseye said; amen
What Captain Birdseye said; amen
What Captain Birdseye said; amen
What Captain Birdseye said; amen
What Captain Birdseye said; amen
What Captain Birdseye said; amen
What Captain Birdseye said; amen

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Folkiedave
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:44 AM

she has not been manufactured,unlike some of the stars of the folk and pop scence

Which stars of the folk scene have been manufactured?

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:49 AM

The old Hollywood studio system was famous for manufacturing stars. Kim Novack is one of that group.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: catspaw49
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 11:59 AM

I am offended that this folk and blues site has threads about friggin' Morris Dancing. While they might use folk music, Morris Dancing itself is NOT folk music........No one really knows what it is but it sure as hell isn't folk or blues music.

So take all that weird shit to a site where they talk about it like http://weirdfuckinshit.com

Spaw

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: The Sandman
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:07 PM

think about it Folkie Dave,think hard.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:10 PM

"So take all that weird shit to a site where they talk about it like http://weirdfuckinshit.com"

Spaw, you're a terrible tease, a whetter and dasher of unnatural appetites and quite possibly a jadrool. There I was, ready and willing to take your seemingly excellent advice (goddammit, it sounded like my kind of forum!) when I discovered to my dismay it was all faked.

Bah.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: GUEST,Spleen Cringe
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:10 PM

Above.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:11 PM

Kendall asked me Diane, ease up and while you are at it, define folk music

No to both.

What, moi? I don't even use such a sell-by-expired term. It means all manner of different, often extremely peculiar, things to too many people. Like PPM, the Seekers, Julie Felix, CSN&Y, Joan Baez on a non-political day. Or here in the British Isles it means something for the nasty right to latch onto, or else Vashti (clip-clop) ,Bunyan, men in woolly jumpers or wifty-wafty, celticky, tie-dyed, wicker-person-type, patchouli-tinged Enyaesque twee nightmares.

On my way to Fiddles On Fire this morning, I was looking over somebody's shoulder at the Sun on the tube (just scanning the day's posts, ha!, a place in the Sun, jeez who wants that?). It had a full-page pin-up poster of the Scottish warbler, I kid you not. If she's allowing herself to be exploited in that way, is the publicity machine that's already huffing and puffing behind her going to let her take a gig headlining your local festival? That's assuming any organiser would be bonkers enough to try and book her. I think not. She wants to be Elaine Paige, apparently.

I also see someone is standing on their head and going into the most improbable contortions trying to equate Lloyd-Webber-like / C-M Schönbergish-type shit with music of the agitprop theatre. Stop now. Such comparisons are total bollocks. [Historical note: Ewan MacColl certainly had the music hall as a role model, but Carousel and My Fair Lady? Oh no].

Ease up on what anyway? Musical standards? I've just spent the day in the company of some of the finest string players in the universe. In the words of someone you might recognise from one of your dumbed down adaptations of a Shaw play: "Not bloody likely".

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:17 PM

Diane, you aren't jealous of her, are you?

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Penny S.
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:20 PM

guardian piece today

There was also a nice piece by AL Kennedy, but it seems only on paper.

Penny

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: frogprince
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:21 PM

Actually I slipped past Captain B's reference to manufactured folk performers, with the rest of his post resonating as it did for me. I can't think of anyone here on the U.S. scene who would come to mind. I don't see anyone in the mainstream media here as being apt to try to manufacture a folk "star". Going back a few decades, something like the New Christy Minstrels or the Serendipitty-doo-da Singers. Even those put out some vinyl that was good for a little fun if not taken at all seriously.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: kendall
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:22 PM

Captain Birdseye, I said I would like to hear her sing Song for Ireland. Thats all I said. I did not say she should or shouldn't. I hate it when some wag reads between the lines. I say exactly what I want to say, no more, no less.
Diane, what I meant by ease up (quite clear to me) is by now it should be obvious even to a self centered, pedantic, verbose pain in that ass that you are like a wet dog at a wedding.

Subject: RE: A Most Heartwarming Performance-Susan Boyle
From: Penny S.
Date: 18 Apr 09 - 12:24 PM

kennedy piece

Here's the Kennedy piece