Checked it out, and that's one of the best posts I've read on all of Substack! You manage to say so much about so many of Life's most difficult issues in such a concise way! Bravo!
She's great! For the longest time I knew her only as being one of those few who can legitimately be said to have *the* voice, but not long ago I learned that she was an excellent drummer and that Richard had to do a lot of convincing to get her to sing initially because she preferred to be in the background as a musician. Apparently they started as a jazz trio before they went the pop route. Anyway, the fact that she's singing like that and drumming while doing it (at least on their earlier records) makes it all the more amazing.
As for writing about her, I have a hazy idea for a short story I've been mulling over for the past few months inspired by "Yesterday Once More." Someday I'll stop procrastinating and write it. The mood they were able to create with their songs, like that one, is otherworldly in its power and depth.
There's a quality to the melancholy her songs can inspire that I think was described by CS Lewis in Surprised by Joy and Susan Caine in Bittersweet. It's not just regular, run of the mill sadness, it's almost like a religious experience, like a reminder of a different dimension to our being that gets suppressed in our overly materialist culture. Some songs just have that power to give you goosebumps, and she sang on a few of them.
She was special - time has proven it. But there’s another great white chick singer, a bit more recent and not as well known, who had excellent pipes and deserved much more recognition before dying of cancer in her mid-30s. If you’ve never heard Eva Cassidy you should check her out.
I was just thinking of Staley. The day they found his body was one of my saddest days. I think about that from time to time, how isolated he had become. I love singing his songs.
Yeah, his story is one of those that really grips and haunts you, especially how it all ended for him. And then the combination of his and Jerry Cantrell's songwriting and harmonies on the vocals was a once-in-a-generation kind of pairing.
I was thinking about Staley because two Friday's ago I heard a local guitarist singing Heaven Beside You, which is one of the songs sung by Jerry Cantrell, which is the only song of the Staley era I did not like, until I heard that local guitarist sing it, who I thought sounded better than JC, though he would have a much harder time singing Staley style.
Yeah, I wasn't so fond of that song either. I didn't hate it, but I'll put it this way: it would have been the worst song on any of their prior albums or EPs. Still, a subpar Alice in Chains song (at least from the Layne Staley era) is still better than most bands best efforts.
The causality might well run in the other direction. Make enough sad faces and you will feel sad.
Notice how messed up so many child actors end up being. I wonder sometimes if we should have workplace regulations which demand that child actors take an extended break between roles.
That's a good point. You spend time mining those moods for artistic inspiration, and those moods can consume you, until you get caught in a doom loop and cannot break free of it. You raise a fascinating possibility about child actors, that this is a contributing factor in their tendency towards bad life outcomes.
Thank you for writing this. You are 100 percent correct.
You may find my reflection on Karen Carpenter interesting.
https://disaffectedpod.substack.com/p/what-you-are-you-have-to-be
Definitely will check it out! Thanks!
Checked it out, and that's one of the best posts I've read on all of Substack! You manage to say so much about so many of Life's most difficult issues in such a concise way! Bravo!
Someone wrote about Karen Carpenter who wasn't me. Thank you.
I miss her more every day. Voice from God that will never come again.
She's great! For the longest time I knew her only as being one of those few who can legitimately be said to have *the* voice, but not long ago I learned that she was an excellent drummer and that Richard had to do a lot of convincing to get her to sing initially because she preferred to be in the background as a musician. Apparently they started as a jazz trio before they went the pop route. Anyway, the fact that she's singing like that and drumming while doing it (at least on their earlier records) makes it all the more amazing.
As for writing about her, I have a hazy idea for a short story I've been mulling over for the past few months inspired by "Yesterday Once More." Someday I'll stop procrastinating and write it. The mood they were able to create with their songs, like that one, is otherworldly in its power and depth.
Oh, please do write it.
I confess, I can't think about her or listen to her without tearing up. I hope you enjoy my piece on her that I linked in my response to her comment.
There's a quality to the melancholy her songs can inspire that I think was described by CS Lewis in Surprised by Joy and Susan Caine in Bittersweet. It's not just regular, run of the mill sadness, it's almost like a religious experience, like a reminder of a different dimension to our being that gets suppressed in our overly materialist culture. Some songs just have that power to give you goosebumps, and she sang on a few of them.
Yes. No one can communicate pure emotion, deep emotion, the way Karen did.
She was special - time has proven it. But there’s another great white chick singer, a bit more recent and not as well known, who had excellent pipes and deserved much more recognition before dying of cancer in her mid-30s. If you’ve never heard Eva Cassidy you should check her out.
I haven't, but I will check her out. Thanks for the recommendation!
I was just thinking of Staley. The day they found his body was one of my saddest days. I think about that from time to time, how isolated he had become. I love singing his songs.
Yeah, his story is one of those that really grips and haunts you, especially how it all ended for him. And then the combination of his and Jerry Cantrell's songwriting and harmonies on the vocals was a once-in-a-generation kind of pairing.
I was thinking about Staley because two Friday's ago I heard a local guitarist singing Heaven Beside You, which is one of the songs sung by Jerry Cantrell, which is the only song of the Staley era I did not like, until I heard that local guitarist sing it, who I thought sounded better than JC, though he would have a much harder time singing Staley style.
Yeah, I wasn't so fond of that song either. I didn't hate it, but I'll put it this way: it would have been the worst song on any of their prior albums or EPs. Still, a subpar Alice in Chains song (at least from the Layne Staley era) is still better than most bands best efforts.
The causality might well run in the other direction. Make enough sad faces and you will feel sad.
Notice how messed up so many child actors end up being. I wonder sometimes if we should have workplace regulations which demand that child actors take an extended break between roles.
That's a good point. You spend time mining those moods for artistic inspiration, and those moods can consume you, until you get caught in a doom loop and cannot break free of it. You raise a fascinating possibility about child actors, that this is a contributing factor in their tendency towards bad life outcomes.