MR

Are they double timing on the refrain or doing something else? Also, would there be a reason other than sounding different that they would do it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQvQVYbtpGA

A show from Osaka on that same tour. The song sounds different again (to me at least). Were they just experimenting?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReoIPENpHUw

Just playing around with it I reckon...what bands should do

I think there are two things going on here. One, the tempo is running fast compared to the record. This is typically done to make it easier on the singer. The difficult notes are shorter duration making it easier muscles running the vocal chords that get tired.

I also think Steve is just messing around mixing the melody up. The dude is good and not many can do that well. Here's an example of Perry knocking it out of the ballpark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwEOOgv5unE

Listen to Loggins and Hall sing the exact same part over and over again on each take. Perry walks up does a different melody on almost every take and they are all brilliant. There aren't many people that can do it effortlessly like Perry. The dude is magic.

yea its hella sped up.. and Perry is just taking some liberties with the vocal melody..

In cuts like this, I realize how much I miss the Smitty/Ross combo. There's a crispness to it that I don't get from Ross and Deen. Not sure why.
Ross sounds amazing here. Really stretching himself. But these days, whether it's boredom, or the lack of chemistry with Deen -- I don't feel the rhythm section's chops.

Ross, who seems like a great guy, is pretty much a musical non-entity. I didn't even realize this band had a bass player until Randy Jackson took over on ROR.

Don wrote:Are they double timing on the refrain or doing something else? Also, would there be a reason other than sounding different that they would do it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQvQVYbtpGA

A show from Osaka on that same tour. The song sounds different again (to me at least). Were they just experimenting?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReoIPENpHUw

He's singing second voicing but as the lead singer. If another lead singer was there and just singing the song at the regular notes, they would be harmonizing the vocals together.

The_Noble_Cause wrote:Ross, who seems like a great guy, is pretty much a musical non-entity. I didn't even realize this band had a bass player until Randy Jackson took over on ROR.

Listen to him and Deen playing La Raza Del Sol on the 2001 DVD.

Archetype wrote:

The_Noble_Cause wrote:Ross, who seems like a great guy, is pretty much a musical non-entity. I didn't even realize this band had a bass player until Randy Jackson took over on ROR.

Listen to him and Deen playing La Raza Del Sol on the 2001 DVD.

Agreed... that is impressive. But it's still .... (searching for a word).... "loose" compared to how he sounded w/ Smitty. Bottom line, Steve's a better drummer. But he brought out the best in Ross, I think.

Meh. Stick to the recorded interpretation, Steve.

[quote="Don"]Are they double timing on the refrain or doing something else? Also, would there be a reason other than sounding different that they would do it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQvQVYbtpGA

A show from Osaka on that same tour. The song sounds different again (to me at least). Were they just experimenting?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReoIPENpHUw[/

Experimenting on stage is always a good thing. I love the calypso portion that they threw into Opened The Door (@1:40). Just enough for a little added flavor. Unexpected, and it works. Plus it keeps it interesting for them as a band, after playing it night after night after night......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nR2KVBnh-g

I think he did this to stave off the creative boredom. Most bands get tired performing the same old set list again and again, and I have to believe Perry was tired of AWYI at this point. I love it when Perry changes up the songs like this. There's a right way and wrong way to do it, and Perry always managed to do it the right way. He was a master of melody.

eshepherd2000 wrote:I think this was one of the ways steve tried to save his voice when he wasn't feeling good or had a few shows in a row...

At first I thought maybe that was part of the reason for the choice, but I don't see how singing virtually the whole song in his upper range helps to save his voice. Seems to me it would do the opposite, no?

STORY_TELLER wrote:I think he did this to stave off the creative boredom. Most bands get tired performing the same old set list again and again, and I have to believe Perry was tired of AWYI at this point. I love it when Perry changes up the songs like this. There's a right way and wrong way to do it, and Perry always managed to do it the right way. He was a master of melody.

eshepherd2000 wrote:I think this was one of the ways steve tried to save his voice when he wasn't feeling good or had a few shows in a row...

At first I thought maybe that was part of the reason for the choice, but I don't see how singing virtually the whole song in his upper range helps to save his voice. Seems to me it would do the opposite, no?

Yeah, he pretty much went for all the money notes at the end regardless.

Don wrote:

STORY_TELLER wrote:I think he did this to stave off the creative boredom. Most bands get tired performing the same old set list again and again, and I have to believe Perry was tired of AWYI at this point. I love it when Perry changes up the songs like this. There's a right way and wrong way to do it, and Perry always managed to do it the right way. He was a master of melody.

eshepherd2000 wrote:I think this was one of the ways steve tried to save his voice when he wasn't feeling good or had a few shows in a row...

At first I thought maybe that was part of the reason for the choice, but I don't see how singing virtually the whole song in his upper range helps to save his voice. Seems to me it would do the opposite, no?

Yeah, he pretty much went for all the money notes at the end regardless.

Yes, and don't forget, that's in addition to singing almost the whole song in a higher range to begin with. So I don't see how this was done to save his voice here. I also think this version of the song is at a faster tempo here because it was coming off a fast tempo song in the set list. They jumped from one song into another and kept the tempo of the previous song. That would make it more of a performance choice to keep the audience energy up. Of course, it does have the added benefit of shortening the length of the money notes. Nothing wrong with that.

STORY_TELLER wrote:I think he did this to stave off the creative boredom. Most bands get tired performing the same old set list again and again, and I have to believe Perry was tired of AWYI at this point. I love it when Perry changes up the songs like this. There's a right way and wrong way to do it, and Perry always managed to do it the right way. He was a master of melody.

eshepherd2000 wrote:I think this was one of the ways steve tried to save his voice when he wasn't feeling good or had a few shows in a row...

At first I thought maybe that was part of the reason for the choice, but I don't see how singing virtually the whole song in his upper range helps to save his voice. Seems to me it would do the opposite, no?

Exactly. He wasn't "limping" on any of those notes in that video, not even close to it. He was "spanking" them out of the ballpark. If he was "limping" along, he would have been singing at lower notes, not higher as he was doing throughout the song, (most vocalists know exactly what I'm talking about), which is what usually the backup singer does to accompany the lead singer when there are two people singing the same set of lyrics and such. Since the tune was sped up, it was probably really easy for him to hit those highs without much effort, because he didn't have to stay at that level so long. The first time I ever noticed songs sped up to assist the vocalist was back in the mid 90's when watching Air Supply during a live performance. They sped up a few tunes during their show as I recall. Being a singer in a band, I took that experience with me and we tried doing a song sped up and I realized at that point why it was sped up. Makes it much easier to hit the very high notes and even beyond.