It’s American Idol. If it was Wagner Week and all contestants had to sing selections from Tannhäuser, I can guarantee you that you’d hear melisma in German from at least two contestants.
Ich wanderte in weiter, wei-ei-eeeeeiiiiiiiiter Fern’ -
da, wo ich niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmer Rast noch Ruhe fand.ch wanderte in weiter, weiiiiiiiiiiitttter Fern’ -
da, wo iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiich nimmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmer Rast noch Ruuuuuuuuhhhhe fand.
How do you forget “jingle jangle morning”?
Great write-up Sam Stone.
I get the feeling that Jason Castro has been going into rehearsals, laying it down once, and going, “fuck it, that’s good enough.”
Man, what I would pay to see a giant sandbag land on David Archuleta’s head in the middle of a song, like some old-timey slapstick movie. What a fucking douche.
I recall you being from the City. You never heard Super Booty’s version? 
OK, here’s a treat for you guys. (Or not). I’d never seen this show before[sup]*[/sup] - I’m on vacation and it’s this or TNG in German. and I jjust saw it - time for a virgin opinion. I have to type fast b/c I must quickly post or pay lots of money - sorry about the typos and the not reading other posts. My opinions:
David Arcialeta: Advice: don’t sit on a barstool. I was expecting an arm growing out of your back. You’re tiny and creepy - don’t exacerbate this fact by looking like an effin’ ventriloquist’s dummy. And stop licking yourself - what’re you - Matt Williams?
David Cook: No memory…oh wait - Duran Duran. What were their options again? The most influential Rock of all time?? Nobody wanted The Wizard? OK.
Syesha: No one is Tina Turner, fool.
Jeremy Castro: I remember you. You’re me at your age, w/o dreds b/c apparently I was slightly wiser, but I certainly had the same confidence that smoking pot made me “life coach.” For example, I wouldn’t have lost my mind and picked that shit. I guess “Truckin” wasn’t influential enough. <grin/>. You are done, sir.
One more? Two more? No memory. Now if you’ll excuse me…“bekämpfen.”
[sup]*[/sup][sub]OK, to my shock upon Search, I had, in 2002, and I have clearly forgotten.[/sub]
I’m so sick of David A’s humility act. He’d be a really good soap actor with that obvious overacting. It would be hilarious if he were voted off, but I would feel bad that he’d feel the wrath of daddy (allegedly). I wonder if the people that have to work with the winner are secretly hoping that he loses so they don’t have to work with the (alleged) stage dad from hell.
YOU ARE DEAD TO ME!! DEAD!!*
Seriously though, I thought the same thing that **Dio ** said. The whole R&R Hall of Fame and he sings Duran Duran?
*I’m 37 and still squee like a 13 year old for them. I’m a little ashamed.
Great introduction about Alan Freed and the earliest days of rock ‘n’ roll in Cleveland.
DAVID COOK
Hungry Like The Wolf, B+
Baba O’Reilly, A-
I’m not going to fault him for selecting Duran Duran. These kids honestly don’t know the hatred canon that our generation wrote way back when, so they just pick what they like. I thought his crescendo in Baba was damn good. Great, in fact. But sometimes he’s like the artist who doesn’t know when the painting is finished and does these inexplicable and unnecessary steps and half-steps up on the ending note.
SYESHA MERCADO
Proud Mary, B-
A Change is Gonna Come, C+
When she mentioned a Tina choreography in her interview, I winced. Then when the time came to cut loose in Proud Mary, her eyes betrayed a moment’s hesitation as if to say, “Okay, the first move is this…” It looked thought out and hurriedly rehearsed. Can’t see that on Broadway, but you’d damn sure see it in a music video. The second song was yet another exercise in screeching. The scary thing is that she’s begun to build a large fan base, and could upset one of the Davids for the final two.
JASON CASTRO
I Shot The Sheriff, C
Mr. Tambourine Man, D
There’s no point in getting into this. Dial Idol predicts him to be booted, and so do I.
DAVID ARCHULETA
Stand By Me, A
Love Me Tender (Norah Jones version), A-
The wrap up of his first song was brilliant in both its conception and its execution. It was probably the highest note he could hit without falsetto, and it was strong and sonorous. As for his second number, thank God he did not do the Elvis version. Nothing could be less suitable. But Jones’s unique take on the melody suited him perfectly. Once again, his voice broke — rather, it went completely silent — for a partial measure. I hope it doesn’t mean he’s singing in such a way that he’s damaging his instrument.
I just watched it again, and it seems like a trailer for the “real” performance. Not really that interesting to watch on its own, but I bet the full-length version will kill. I think I’ve now officially paid for more songs from DC than any other Idol contestant (er…except Kelly Clarkson. hrm.).
The “start slow then rock out” thing is a little predictable for him. I agree with everyone that balls-out is the way to go. Eh. I’ll still buy it.
Here’s the only recording of Sam Cooke Change is Gonna Come that I could find – link
It’s part of a political ad but it’s not so intrusive that you can’t get the true flavor of the song. Makes me wish even more that Syesha hadn’t gussied it up.
Thanks. What a great song!
If we play the “Who’s The Most Marketable” game with the final 4 you probably get how this season will play out.
#1 David Cook. Let’s face it, Daughtry is hot right now. If Cook can pull a Daughtry post Idol he could sell a good amount of albums and get some air play. He just needs to get a band together and write some decent songs or have someone write them for him.
#2 David Archuletta. Could be popular with the pre-teen crowd for a while as the flavor-of-the-week but I can’t see him making a career by recording albums. Can he act? Maybe Disney of Nickelodeon could get him his own show. We see where the vanilla good singers end up like last years winner (can’t even remember her name right now). They put out a vanilla album with no real identity and it flops. People lose interest fast.
#3 Sayesha Mercado. Girl can sing but really, how many female black artists are there right now than can belt out a ballad? Like a gajillion? The competition is pretty fierce outside the Idol universe. And if you’re going to sit around waiting for people to write material for you then you’ll have to get in line.
#4 Jason Castro. Sorry kid, the mellow grooves niche is full right now with Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, James Blunt, David Gray, etc. and you’re just not up to par with any of them. Plus they all write their own material. Can you?
Ooh, I just got chills - instead of Hungry Like The Frikkin’ Wolf, David Cook could have done “Come Undone” - that would have been incredible. For all you Duran Duran haters, have you ever seen them live? They put on a fantastic show, Simon LeBon is a very good singer, and the band is tight. Boomers. Bah. You think nothing done after 1979 has any merit at all. If you’re not Boomers, you sound like them.
Rachael, I’ve bought four David Cook songs, compared to my previous - none. 
I got a nice fat iTunes gift card for xmas, so I’ve bought five DC songs and one each from Brooke, Michael Johns, and Jason. DC and BW sound pretty good in the studio. MJ and JC? Not so much. JC does inspire me to buy other people’s songs, though - like Hallelujah and Over the Rainbow.
Revision:
It turns out that I was mistaken about David A’s voice breaking in Love Me Tender. It was actually a blip in our cable broadcast. In fairness, I’m therefore revising my grades for him.
DAVID ARCHULETA
Stand By Me, A
Love Me Tender (Norah Jones version), A
I thought this too, until I listened to the original “Who’s Next” recording this morning on my way to work.
You know that song is a grand total of five minutes, has only two verses and the entire last minute and a half is a fiddle solo? I know, I forgot too. David C. I think only skipped the second verse and the “They’re all WASTED!” line is actually the last line of the song. So he didn’t butcher it as much as it seems. It’s just a really well-constructed song with a lot of instrumental bits, so it’s hard to chop down. And that last emo-fied “Teeenage waaaaaaste…” was sort of lame.
David C - Hungry Like the Wolf: it was ok. It seems like it never went anywhere… it didn’t build to anything. He’s set the bar for himself really high, so I expect a lot from him and I was hoping for more.
Syesha - Proud Mary: best performance of the night (dunno about best vocals). She looked like she was having fun up there, and even the dancing stuff, which was obviously heavily choreographed and rehearsed looked like a joyful thing that she was loving every minute of. She makes me smile.
Jason - I Shot the Sheriff: I liked it a lot more than the judges did. I didn’t think it was great, but I enjoyed it and would consider putting it on my mp3 player.
David A - Stand By Me: I figured out what David does. He plays with the melodies of these songs, right? I’ve complained about this before. But what he’s doing is changing them all to the same melody. That’s why he’s so boring. He sings different lyrics to the same basic melody every week. He has “pet note combinations” that he returns to over and over regardless of whether they are in the melody or not. I hated this song HATED it. He ruined the melody and doing all the runs up and down the scales was totally out of place.
David C - Baba O’Riley: This was a good, solid performance, I thought.
Jason - Mr. Tambourine Man: does this guy have a good attitude or what? It’s probably the weed. He screwed up, he knows he screwed up, but he laughs it off and still has a good time. The judges were harsher on him than I would have been overall tonight. When he forgot the lyrics he just hummed along and didn’t miss a beat and kept up with the guitar and everything until he got to the words again. I think he handled it well. The last note… he just doesn’t have a strong enough voice to hold a note that long. (This is probably why a lot of singers do those irritating runs–to cover the fact that they can’t stay on one note for a really long time without slipping.)
Syesha - A Change is Gonna Come: I think she did well on this one though I didn’t care for the ending, it was a little too Mariah.
David A - Love Me Tender: ruined another melody. Plus, he just can’t pull off a song like that looking like he’s eleven years old. What are the judges smoking, because I want some. I do NOT get what the judges are seeing.
I think it’s time for Jason to go home. He seems like a nice guy, but he’s out of his league here.
OOoooOOoooOOooooooh! :eek: I love that song so much… that would have been drool-worthyingly* hot!
*make this word up? Of course not! It’s from the old Norse drølwærðinglý…
David A - Love Me Tender
Y’know y’know, I agree with a lot of the comments upthread on his constant reworking of the melody into the same old sound every time. And honestly, his pandering to the young girl crowd is creeping me out. He’s 17 and he plays like he’s 11. As for his honey toned voice, if those young girls ever found out that his insane dad castrated him when he was 7 they would…well they would probably love him all the more.
At least we get to see Bo Bice tonight.
Opal-so right. David A makes all his songs sound the same, you have nailed it.
Had he done Highway to Hell, it would still sound like that! lol
Anyone know where I can watch videos of last night’s performances? I tried You Tube but all of last night’s videos have been pulled for copywrite infringement of something.
Is it me or did Jason say something like “Here she comes” when Simon started speaking on one of the critiques? I’d link to it but the Fremantle Saracen seem to have started going house-to-house on YouTube and slaughtering the videos (which they do sometime which I don’t understand because unlike NBC and ABC they don’t make the episodes available on their web page). Jason with his dreads pulled back is much more attractive and should consider acting. (He’d be great for westerns- if they ever do another remake of Little House on the Prairie he could be pull his hair back into a bun and be the prettiest Ma ever.)
A few seem to have survived the YouTube massacre, but not the ones that mention the song itself. If you’ll type the name of the singer and then limit it to recently added you can find a few. (No idea why Fremantle [who is, admittedly, notorious for being strict on copyright] is doing this so late in the game for, as you can see, there are a billion versions of previous A.I. songs on youtube.)