Till the fat lady sings
By now, most of you who use computers—and if I take a wild guess, that would be all of you—have probably heard of Susan Boyle, the dumpy 47-year-old from Scotland who stunned the world with the beauty of her voice and her spirit. Most of the many words that have been written about her have focused on the message of her story: that we often judge people harshly by their exterior, and if that package is less than perfect, we jump to invalid conclusions about their state of their minds, hearts, talents, and accomplishments.
Here’s an excellent example of so many of the essays written about the Boyle phenonemon and what it tells us about ourselves (Hat tip: Gerard Vanderleun):
The answer is that only the pretty are expected to achieve. Not only do you have to be physically appealing to deserve fame; it seems you now have to be good-looking to merit everyday common respect….Susan is a reminder that it’s time we all looked a little deeper. She has lived an obscure but important life. She has been a companionable and caring daughter. It’s people like her who are the unseen glue in society; the ones who day in and day out put themselves last. They make this country civilised and they deserve acknowledgement and respect.
Well, I certainly can’t quarrel with that, as far as it goes. But although the audience’s initially snarky attitude towards Susan Boyle was exactly as described, and I agree that her actual life story is worthy of great respect, I want to add that the audience was initially made uneasy and dismissive by more than Ms. Boyle’s extra pounds or the fact that her dress and hairdo weren’t au courant.
As humans beings, we size people up all the time. And although some of our snap judgment are wrong, based on surface characteristics that are fundamentally unimportant, we are nevertheless constructed to make those snap judgments because they help to quickly orient us to other people in the world. Without even being aware of it, we are perceiving thousands of bits of information in the first few seconds of any personal encounter, deciding who this person may be and how to interact with them. And though, as I’ve said, sometimes we are wrong, this radar is a survival technique from Mother Nature.
In Ms. Boyle’s case, the audience perceived not only her weight and lack of fashion, but a naivete and an isolation from popular culture. She seemed like a person from another time and place. What’s more, if you study the longer videos—the ones that include the judges speaking to her right before she sings—she does something that’s at variance with her innocent exterior: she throws in a bold pelvic roll that confounds them. Her gesture probably reflected both her extreme nervousness and her uncertainty as to what was expected here—a paradoxical expression of her naivete, after all. But the boldness and risque nature of her move read, to the casual observer, as odd and eccentric. And this is part of what the audience was reacting to—a perceived “offness” that made them uncomfortable.
As soon as Boyle started to sing, the audience was shocked, and then entranced, by the deep, rich power of her beautiful singing voice. And yes, as most people have written, part of the shock was the confounding of the expectations based on reactions to her superficial appearance—for example, her weight. But another—and less examined—part of the surprise was her inner transformation, whereby all Boyle’s nervous energy and quirkiness fell away as soon as the music began, replaced not just by a powerful voice but a grounded wholeness as well, a calm certainty that here she was on solid ground at last, doing exactly what she was always meant to do. And her voice reflected that emotional quality as much as it showed her musical qualities.
But to get back to the physical, judging entertainers by their looks is not just a recent tendency of our shallow age. Susan Boyle kept reminding me ever-so-slightly of someone, and after a while it struck me that it was singer Kate Smith. Smith had a powerhouse voice, and was perhaps the original referred to in the phrase “It’s not over till the fat lady sings” (see this). She was a hefty lady, but had a popular TV show in my youth.
I found this interesting and relevant passage in Smith’s Wiki entry:
Kate’s broad figure made her an occasional object of derision from fellow performers and managers; however, in her later career, some Philadelphia Flyers hockey fans…lovingly said about her performances before games, “it ain’t BEGUN ’til the fat lady sings!” Smith, who weighed 235 pounds at the age of 30 was unfazed, and titled her 1938 autobiography Living in a Great Big Way. She credited Ted Collins, who also gave her the break into the radio business, with helping her overcome her self-consciousness, writing, “Ted Collins was the first man who regarded me as a singer, and didn’t even seem to notice that I was a big girl,” She noted, “I’m big, and I sing, and boy, when I sing, I sing all over!”
The physical resemblance to Susan Boyle was stronger in Smith’s later years (the close-up starts around 1:15, although the audio is not very good):
Here’s a much better audio—and a younger Smith—-in an excerpt from “You’re in the Army Now,” a 1943 film in which Smith sang “God Bless America,” the song that was to make her famous (Smith makes her appearance at 00:25). Note, as you watch, the unabashed sentiment of patriotism expressed in the movie; Hollywood would never do this today. Note also the appearance of a very familiar figure at 4:22, reading Variety.
[ADDENDUM: Listen to this earlier recording of Susan (hat tip: commenter “kcom”). It proves that she’s not just a one song pony:
It’s also interesting that Smith got her start in radio, as did many others of that era. She was a star before she was seen.
A reverse effect happened when sound came to movies. Silent screen stars with less than appealing voices struggled in the new environment.
Another point about Smith and her era might also be that the then standard for female beauty was much more “ample” then it is today when the, in Tom Wolfe’s phrase, “boy with breasts” seems to be the dominant standard.
It is true that, sometimes, you should not “judge a book by its cover.”
“Discrimination” i.e. evaluating something or someone and comparing and ranking them against some standard–has gotten to be a dirty word, but being able to discriminate between, say–a lying, politician of no real accomplishment but with a talent for demagoguery, and a politician who may not be so polished or such a talented orator, but who has a long track record and is more genuine in his beliefs–could be a very useful talent right about now. We all use “templates” to make quick judgments and navigate through our world, things like deciding to walk on the sidewalk and not cut down a dark alley in a crime-ridden neighborhood, regarding with suspicion someone who is instantly our friend and inquisitive about our finances and private life, or deciding that the guy with the gold grille, a huge gold chain, a foul mouth and his pants below his butt crack is somebody we need to keep a careful and wary eye on–he may really be a Rhodes scholar of dazzling intellect and exquisite taste in disguise–but the odds are against it.
Tyrants find it very useful if the people they are attempting to get control over are unable to talk and debate freely, to analyze, compare and contrast and thus arrive at the truth; that is why the Left has been so careful to destroy all of the old standards and values, and to decry such “discrimination” unless, of course, it is they who are doing the discriminating.
A friend sent me the Utube video of Susan Boyle — the longer version so I saw the pre-judgement as well as the stunning performance by Ms. Boyle, as well as her giggly-as-a-schoolgirl reaction to both the judges’ and the audience’s shock, and then overwhelming appreciation of her “secret” — her very real gift.
(The performance was further enhanced because she sang a song from “Les Mis,” and I nothing if not a showtune lover).
Neo’s description
Can you imagine, the song asks for God to “guide her , stand beside her” sort of what Sarah Palin said and was roundly criticized for during the recent presidential elections. I can imagine, I was a child during WWII. Kat Smith was a really big, no pun intended, star during that time. Some of us still tear up at that song. I wish everyone felt it that way.
Didn’t quite finish..something wrong today — keeps going to Post before I complete.
So briefly, I will finish with the thought that I hope Andrew Lloyd Weber has had opportunity to catch the phenomenal Ms. Boyd. He is known to have written most of his shows for his leading ladies. I wouldn’t mind seeing him write a new one just for this most gifted woman. I think it would be entirely appropriate, in an age when many of us baby boomers approach maturity and beyond, for “une femme d’un certain age” to become a star, based on her gift, which clearly has already shown that it can mesmerize audiences of all ages!
I guessed the secret at star at 4:22 would be Ronald Reagan and, sure enough, it was. Not that it was that hard a guess in the context of this blog, but hey, I’ll take it.
And, of course, if you’re following all things Susan Boyle you should really listen to her sing “Cry Me a River” from a charity CD recorded in 1999 that’s recently come to light. There’s no audience noise or applause to drown out her voice so you can really hear her sing. It’s quite amazing. Listen to the song and then try to reconcile what you hear with Neo’s description of the somewhat socially awkward person doing the singing.
Cry Me a River
Kcom, thanks for the link. Just Wow!
I don’t think its a coincidence that this woman strikes a chord with the world now. They’re probably struggling with how they could have been so duped by her polar opposite, Barak Obama.
Under promising and over delivering has been out of style for way too long.
I am dumbfounded. That 1999 “Cry Me a River” is an entirely different genre from the Les Miz song, but sung as flawlessly as if she’d inhabited blues joints all her life, and with effortless emotional authenticity.
I really don’t care any more what she looks like — she’s making all that irrelevant. I just want to listen.
It’s unlikely that Humphrey Bogart could be a leading man today.
Of course, her looks have something to do with the cognitive dissonance I feel seeing/hearing it (like nearly everyone else I’m fairly conditioned to picture good voice with pretty face – though I’ve watched/listened to enough Opera to know better) I would also say it has to do with her talking voice. Frankly it is not too good, coupled with her accent it sounds even worse.
I would not associate her talking voice with her singing voice at all even if I had heard it only on the radio.
Its bigotry in the art world that keeps artist like this down. There are plenty of Susan Boyle sculptors and painters too. They just aren’t politically correct lockstep conformist that the art world demands.
I don’t quite see it that way… (what else is new).
What I saw was the people in the audience being a collective and following the pre-judgments of Cowel, and the others.
It was the leaders who could damn or bless those coming up on stage and it was the leaders who actually did do so most of the time and before people sang, and no one noticed this screwing with things.
What you saw is what is played falsely in movies of the 40s. The person in front of authority that holds all the cards. Who through that position, has everyone else side with them. and through some rousing oratory (in this case song), slam the authority, slam the gallery, and change the nature of things.
It was the best of times it was the worst of times, it’s the thing that power fears most and why power trammels little people.
We promote minorities over the best performers (meaning that even if the minority is a best performer they may be passed over for a lower performing minority, forget if your not even in that game). Why? Because we are pressing that they are pretty and the others are ugly, they are capable, the others are not, they are victims, the others are oppressors.
Same thing as boyle. The oppression of the infirm, the ugly, and such has been so long and so assumed that when the socialists stood up and pretended to fight for them which side did they take?
Television shapes our beliefs as to the world and whats important. Boyle shakes that. and by doing, shakes the very foundation of why is it that some handsome nasty person gets to choose what we the people watch or don’t watch? (and there are quite a few of those now in that we rarely see organic things coming up, and mostly see faked or designed things that were put together and don’t know it. the beatles vs monkees is a very old start to that trend).
In a world pre feminism ms boyle would probably have been married. But in the current milieu where sex is the selector (and the other selection points are made secondary since sex is not made secondary. Sex is an overwhelming selector, and in cultures that don’t in some way push it back, it becomes a race to the bottom and the selector of choice bringing much misery. The misery of our natural lives sans thought), boyle has little choice or ability.
Elizabeth Barrette Browning wrote poems cause she wasn’t having sex with 10 guys on weekly hookups.
Boyle in a similar but natural state of removal from sex as a selector did similar, she sang and practiced.
Well, that same truth is all around. Who are more smart and capable, geeks or jocks? Who can build, design, conceive, make and execute? What do the song WRITERS look like? Since they often became so because they can’t perform.
The organization I work for is capped off with pretty people appointed because we perceive them to be competent, and these people are more often just pretty, manipulative, and completely incapable of work, conception, follow through, etc. (the doc I have teamed up with just woke up to the fact that he makes pittance while the idiot in charge he went hat in hand to makes a quarter mill plus a year, and cant tie his own shoes. From here a Marxist would rail, but I just say that’s the nature of the beast. No ones hiding it from you but you).
[edited for length by neo-neocon]
people become kings not by force, but by assuming the role, and no one stops them.
think about it…
the leaders of cliques and countries are all those who got into position and just took up the role… and everyone else took up their roles…
when boyle first stood up, everyone was playing their roles… the pretty rulers who did nothing to earn those places other than take up the roles, have the gallery on their side. the gallery by following them feels intimate (which is lacking their lives), and so really thinks what they think.
that is till reality hits them hard… then the kings have no more power, the roles have been broken, and we are all excited, but dont really realize why.
I found the original hoopla over Susan only mildly interesting, as well as the song she sang, and I wondered if she was a karaoke adept with a very limited repertoire. However, her rendition of Cry Me a River is simply superb. I wonder if she gets into the blues, can you imagine?
Huh! Whaddaya know? I always thought “the fat lady sings” comment was a Yogi Berra-ism. You learn something new every day….
Kate Smith was well-loved in my parents’ house. They were of the WWII generation and knew a good song – and singer – when they heard it. They were pretty happy when the Flyers “adopted” her. Me being a rabid Flyers fan, I am trying to pass that on to my kids.
Kate’s singing and the words to that song always give me goosebumps and a little misting in the eye. There are so many elements to it that are so uplifting, from the singer to the lyrics to the performance itself. I don’t know anyone else could have a performance anywhere close to it. It would be great if someone would try – that would be a good sign.
I wonder if she gets into the blues, more extensively, that is, can you imagine?
I love Susan Boyle because she answers (at least) two questions that needed answering:
When should you stop blossoming?
When is it too late for there to be a future?
I think the immediate dismissiveness toward Boyle had more to do with the fact that on some level one could immediately sense the slight lacking of mental faculties, a more intelligent but equally naive Forest Gump. (Reports say that she lost oxygen for several minutes as a baby and that she was always “slow” thereafter. You can tell from the way she speaks that she retains an innocence that most of us lose as we “mature.”) Like dogs in a pack that instinctively attack a weak or infirm dog, some primitive us/them urge, goaded on by the judges, encouraged the crowd to assert itself (the very appeal of the show, a modern version of the Coliseum). Had the scene been a bar, fisticuffs might well have ensued. Instead, the voice rang out, and suddenly this frumpy little woman displayed a power that most everyone in the audience, both at the scene and on TV, lacked, and it told us to back off, there’s something special going on here. The event–complete with a paradoxical song about one’s dreams being destroyed by life–was, to me, a sublime subversion of the dominant paradigm. The underdog winning out.
Leslie, you make a nice point. Sometimes people with disabilities have gifts, too. Neither the disability nor the gift makes the whole person.
Does Boyle have a learning disability?
Or maybe she has Savant syndrome, perhaps? The symptoms described seem to match her to a tee.
I don’t know what words to put on it. I just thought while watching her interact with the judges that there was childlike quality to her, so when I read about the issue of oxygen at birth (I certainly don’t know if the report was correct, but it was in a British paper), I thought ooohhhh, that’s what it was. But, again, it was just a thought I had while watching her. The singing voice, so mature, even sophisticated sounding; the speaking voice, that of a gleeful little girl. A pleasantly jarring contrast.
God, what a beautiful voice! The song itself is stunning, but it’s just delightful that such gorgeous, sultry singing could becoming from someone who doesn’t fir most people’s conceptions of sultry beauty. God bless her! I wish her every success.
God, what a beautiful voice, and what a beautiful song! God bless this woman. She moves me to tears.
The condescension of the judges and audience towards an obviously impaired individual who happens to be able to sing well was disgusting. I couldn’t finish watching it.
I think Susan Boyle came across as quite clever. I’m totally serious. She did of course seem, frumpy, child-like, and out-of-style too. But she was part simpleton, part smart-ass, with tons of talent and a good portion of charm.
And the news that she has spent her entire adulthood caring for her parents until their deaths. And that when her mother died she was too depressed to sing for months. She took care of her parents because she loved them!!
Forget Johnny Cash. God Bless Susan Boyle.
Spengler from AsiaTimes has a rather gloomy perspective on this issue:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/others/spengler.html