AesopFan: I got a real shock when I heard the lead singer for Simple Minds (“Don’t You Forget About Me” from “The Breakfast Club”) interviewed on NPR. He had a thick Glaswegian accent near unintelligible to my American ears.

Terry Gross asked him about his accent and he said he learned to sing rock from listening to American records.

Re: Jim Nabors — I too was surprised when I heard him sing, really sing, in a tuxedo on one of the variety shows back them.

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The disconnect between appearance and sound was amply demonstrated by Susan Boyle’s competition on (IIRC) the same program. And then there is the Jim Nabors / Gomer Pyle disjunct. What a voice that man had!
I also note that the priest’s very noticeable Irish accent completely disappeared when he sang; I don’t know whether that “means” anything deep, but it does demonstrate that a musical idiom can be so well learned that it effaces the normal speaking voice.
Henry Higgins might know something about that.

Neo’s last point is generally correct, but it is amazing how much passion a younger person can sometimes bring to a song that might be more “routine” to an older one after singing it for decades.
Mark Steyn makes a point of mentioning that Sinatra put a lot of personal angst into his songs throughout his career (I personally never cared all that much for Frank in his later years, FWIW).

They would be arrested by the PC Police today for Culture Appropriation and Racisss.

Susan Boyle put it on a Christmas album! It was the first song, followed by Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” then a raft of Christmas carols.

What are people thinking about when they push “A Perfect Day” like this? Are they listening to the lyrics? I guess the hipsters like putting one over on the squares. I’m sure Lou Reed was amused.

But geez louise, this is a depressing song. My money is on the narrator overdosing later that night after the “perfect day.”

“Imagine” is pure leftie, ideological poison, yet embraced as a utopian anthem answering the big questions.

Lou Reed’s “A Perfect Day” (in which I believe Reed is winking at Salinger’s “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” as not a “perfect day” at all) has become another peculiar anthem, at least in Europe.

BBC did a big glitzy production of it as a benefit for a children’s charity, complete with Reed, Bowie, Bono and Pavrotti.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDirNhQ1Gq0

Susan Boyle has even covered it, apparently with Lou’s bizarre blessing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrQobQMZYnY

I can’t tell whether the song is about a bad relationship or heroin or both — Lou will never tell — but while it’s got a majestic melody and superficially happy surface, it’s a deeply troubling song.

Yes, yesterday was 38 years since he was killed.

That’s why I say I’m a little conflicted by with him. In my opinion ‘Girl’ is one of the most amazing songs ever. It may be my favorite Beatles song. And it was the contradictions between John and Paul that made the Beatles truly special. I always use ‘Getting Better’ as my example. Paul says ‘you have to admit it’s getting better’ and John answers ‘it can’t get no worse’. For me that is Lennon/McCartney summed up in two lines.

But ‘Imagine’ is the worst song ever. EVER. Hate it. The man with multiple mansions including a Park Avenue apt. going on about no possessions. That is my problem with him. But the good far outweighs the bad for him.

It’s hard for me to hold his politics against him. For my money Lennon was one of the most angry, tormented, screwed-up rock stars ever — which is saying something.

Yet he helped manufacture the Fab Four image of the fun-loving Mop Tops, and then he had to live within that image for years. It must have been very painful, which occasionally peaked out of his lyrics in songs like “I’m a Loser,” “I’m Down,” and “Nowhere Man.”

According to the bios by those who knew him, in spite of all his success Lennon was not a happy man, not at all.

So his life became a classic sixties/seventies journey from one Big Answer to another — from Love to LSD to Transcendental Meditation to Primal Therapy to Peace to Working-Class Hero to househusband.

And when he said he was “Starting Over,” he got that wrong too. He was killed three weeks after the album was released.

I’m helped on that by the fact that I never much cared for Springsteen. Always seemed so damned depressed and musically not very interesting to me at all. I think where I draw the line in my mind is if I have liked someone before I have any idea what their politics are then I can separate the two but someone new, not so much. Of course, there are some tough calls like John Lennon. Great respect for him as lyricist but the hypocrisy of his words and his lifestyle always made it hard for me to fully buy into him. But others, like my brother, worship him so to each his own.

Griffin: Likewise, but I do get weary.

I find it difficult to listen to Bruce Springsteen anymore, since he took to being the Voice of the Common Man who lives in multi-millionaire-dollar houses and will boycott performing in states with gender-designated restrooms.