UKC

I am not a huge Bowie fan but when I saw a post on a site that claimed to be a great interpretation of 'Heroes' I was tempted to listen. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03vbc5t
It was by Catherine Jenkins whom I respect highly as a singer in her own genre but I have to say that I think her version of Heroes - although technically superb - is soulless and hollow.
Am I alone in this view?

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:
Alone? No.

I thought it was crap.

Heroes is near the top of my YouTube playlist atm ,with Jack Savoretti (Catapult) ,and.. Country Roads

I'm not a fan of Miss Jenkins.and her operatic cleansing of Heroes renders the song into just a stream of flat,meaningless words.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Saw her performing it on Michael Macintyre last night. I thought it was pretty bland.


.....I still would though.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:
Bowie's Heroes is one of my desert island discs.
I always thought he sang it with tangible pent up desperation, it evokes feelings of doomed love across the Berlin Wall for me.

Despite Ms Jenkins' obvious charms I managed to get to 0.45 before clicking off, why would you turn something so potent into something so anodyne?

In reply to DerwentDiluted:


potential easy money?

In reply to Le Chevalier Mal Fet:

Err...Macintyre really? With that bouncy fringe?!

Takes all types I guess

In reply to summo:
Oh yeah, that.

Engages rant gear, why would you mourn somebody, hail them as a unique genius, and then do what they did only crapper and a whole lot less unique? What next? Susan Boyle doing Barry and Freda as a 'Tribute' to Victoria Wood? Olly Mursdering When Doves Cry? Joey Essex doing the 'cut your heart out with a spoon' diatribe on Comic relief? James Corden and Russell Brand doing Fork 'andles?

Drowning in a sea of mediocre, tepid, insipid, bland, turgid, populist, X factor inspired ...
Out of steam. Feel better now.

Those ideas above, mine, remember that, when it happens pay me but don't blame me.

Edit, actually I could see the attraction in SuBo doing B&F;

"I've never done it, never done it, never done it but tonight couldn't care less,
No man ever looked at me till I was a millionaire-ess,
Let's do it toniiiiiiiiiiiiiight
I can't do it, I can't do it, I've got a bit of a cough,
I can't do it, I can't do it, your moustache just puts me off"
There's no way we've got enough lube, I'd rather watch your audition on you tube, I can't do it toniiiiiiiiiiiiiight.,"

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Not a fan of Katherine Jenkins, a mediocre singer of her type who wouldn't have got anywhere had she looked like Susan Boyle.

I like this version, another peroxide blonde but much less plastic:
youtube.com/watch?v=ABEqQKlWLC0&

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

This is the best 20 minutes of video I've seen this year. Utterly fascinating

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03g18sx

So sad to witness the appropriation of Heroes. For me, it is numinous, the greatest of all rock records.

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Did you ever see the TV programme on which Robert Fripp claimed that he gets an erection every time he plays the guitar part to Heroes?

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

no. This isn't right. I've the same issues with choral interpretations of...... well pretty much anything that isn't originally intended to be sung with a choir. Shoehorning some very specific and technical singing tricks into a song that was never intended for them hardly ever works, as BBC2, a gaggle of hapless innocents and that idiot in the bowtie* periodically prove.

Which isn't to say you cant re-interpret an old song, but you have to at least acknowledge the roots of it.


*Gareth Malone - couldn't remember his name

In reply to andymac:

I think your Missing the point of Miss Jenkins it's not her singing, it's her chest

In reply to keith-ratcliffe:

Not sure if the Blondie mentioned above is the same as the live version on the B side of the 12" single version of Atomic, that is alive recording with Robert Fripp on guitar and its a very good version of the song, close to the originalin terms if quality IMHO.