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Original poster

Elton John

300 replies

GreenLunchBox · 03/10/2021 23:34

I love the Dua Lupa song and there is a Blue song I love. But please can people tell me why Elton John is so legendary. He doesn't have the best singing voice, does he?

OP posts:
escapeyou · 04/10/2021 07:07

@StarryNightSparkles

Singer Song writer Massive charity giver Massive charity fundraising person Has and still does a lot for HIV/Aids Has and still does a lot for human rights A shoulder to cry on and a place of refuge for many people. Made music videos that were groundbreaking Fought for gay marriage The list goes on Fought for gay adoption Has done a lot for many different additions Gives a lot of money to many different charities Is the face/person to attract people/money to a lot of charities And on and on

Sorry op you sound really young and shallow.

All of this

I saw him in concert quite a few years ago now and he was an excellent showman. His performance was good and his overall show was fantastic.

WhileMyMeringueGentlyWeeps · 04/10/2021 07:20

Elton is a great music composer and with songwriter Bernie Taupin they made some of the best music of the 70s.
Try
Border Song
Your Song
Tiny Dancer

My children can't understand how singers who aren't conventionally good looking are successful but there's more to success than looks as many a failed pretty boy or one hit wonder can attest.
They nearly had apoplexy watching a Pet Shop Boys concert on tv recently

kristplankook · 04/10/2021 07:23

No idea. He's awful.

Zilla1 · 04/10/2021 07:27

I suppose it depends on what you value from a singer and from music but best not listen to Bob Dylan, OP, based on your posts.

If you value singing based on a benchmark set by Dua Lipa and Blue then I've little to add.

PickUpAPepper · 04/10/2021 07:27

My children can't understand how singers who aren't conventionally good looking are successful but there's more to success than looks as many a failed pretty boy or one hit wonder can attest.

I think that’s the originating thought of the thread. Raised on the modern generic sex industry they don’t know what real music is any more.

SoupDragon · 04/10/2021 07:27

@GreenLunchBox

He doesn't have a good voice! How has managed to get to where he is?!!Confused
Performance and good, well written songs. I think there are many singers who don't have great voices - usually they are with bands though.
RobinsReliant · 04/10/2021 07:30

@Quirrelsotherface

Everyone on this thread has given me what I wanted apart from you

I do hope you stamped your foot when you wrote that.

Grin
katplva · 04/10/2021 07:37

@Dita73

‘Haveyoubrushedyourteethtoday best Elton song. It’s beyond brilliant’

Anyone else read this post with a sleepy head, miss the @ sign and think this was an Elton song they hadn’t come across? Sung to the tune of Can you feel the love tonight, obviously Grin

MyOtherProfile · 04/10/2021 07:38

Sung to the tune of Can you feel the love tonight, obviously
😆😆 I'll be singing that all day now!

BalloonSlayer · 04/10/2021 07:39

I think he had a great voice, shame it has now largely gone but it happens to everyone.

These days people are so autotuned that they sound utterly perfect. I like the less perfect sound, and I like men to sound like men. Freddie Mercury's voice was quite rough, and what about Rod Stuart??? I also love Shane McGowan singing voice Grin They sound real.

( I don't think he is actually auto-tuned at all as he sung live and proved his voice on pop idol and you can't hear that buzz, but to me Will Young sounds like a computer singing, not a person.)

Zilla1 · 04/10/2021 07:41

It would be interesting how many of the singer song writers or song-writing bands who, unchanged, would pass the current standards of appearance and shiny-ness to succeed in a Tiktok 5-second decision making about a short video world. In practice, many would adapt but the songs that would be lost. I'm not sure how many of the commercially-successful song writers write whole songs now. I was chatting to a pop-song composer who just worked in collaboration with about 30 others before the artist and producers both took the credit and NDAs all around. This composer's speciality was collaboratively polishing the melody line. Others specialised in hooks or rhythm. I know many older singers never wrote a note and old song-writers wrote often in partnership and music is a collaborative medium and there are still one-person outfits but it all felt so corporate and sterile.

TheVanguardSix · 04/10/2021 07:43

The album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, that's why he's legendary OP.
I'm assuming you're young OP, but I'm 50. I came of age in the fashion industry back in the late 80s and into the 90s when AIDS was a shadow over all of our lives. I knew and saw all sorts of friends and acquaintances die from AIDS. Elton John's AIDS foundation, in my opinion, is one of the main reasons we can now live with HIV rather than die from AIDS.

If you can't like the guy's voice or music, fine. But read about his work in this area and you'll understand why he is legendary.

Yogsgirl · 04/10/2021 07:43

Whether someone has a good voice is subjective. Elton is 74- he had throat surgery which changed his voice quite a long time ago. However at the peak of his career in the early 70s when in his 20s (probably before most of you were born) his voice was good- he had a great range.

His career has survived on the strength of his early work and his continued song writing- he's well respected for his charity work and he is also a distinguished flamboyant and controversial character.

MichelleScarn · 04/10/2021 07:44

@Redsquirrel5 have also seen Cohen live at Edinburgh Castle, amazing!
@GreenLunchBox listen to 'Too Low for Zero' an amazing and in my opinion under appreciated album especially the song 'Saint'.

TheVanguardSix · 04/10/2021 07:45

If you value singing based on a benchmark set by Dua Lipa and Blue then I've little to add.

That is so well said! Grin
I have a hunch nobody will be asking why Dua Lipa is legendary 40 years from now.

Daisymaybe60 · 04/10/2021 07:46

[quote katplva]@Dita73

‘Haveyoubrushedyourteethtoday best Elton song. It’s beyond brilliant’

Anyone else read this post with a sleepy head, miss the @ sign and think this was an Elton song they hadn’t come across? Sung to the tune of Can you feel the love tonight, obviously Grin[/quote]
Oh yes. And about to google it when I got to the end of the thread….. Blush

Dontfuckingsaycheese · 04/10/2021 07:50

I agree. I 💕 his songs but not him singing them. Not now anyway. Earlier recordings sound much better. He is getting on. I’m sure my voice isn’t what it used to be. Not that I could sing then either!! I have the album (do we still call it that? It is a cd!) Revamp. It’s amazing. Beautiful voices singing his beautiful songs. Check out Florence and the Machine’s Tiny Dancer 🥰

Clawdy · 04/10/2021 07:52

Wonderful songs, I've always loved him. My heart sank when I saw the name of the thread because I thought he'd died! There aren't many songs more beautiful than Your Song or Sacrifice.

RedToothBrush · 04/10/2021 07:56

Tiny Dancer is one of my all time fav songs.

These days he sounds like Vic and Bob singing in the club style.

Its very sad, but really he should have given up live performances some years back and just done song writing for others.

There are numerous singers who wreck their voices. He is far from alone.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 04/10/2021 07:56

@Zilla1

It would be interesting how many of the singer song writers or song-writing bands who, unchanged, would pass the current standards of appearance and shiny-ness to succeed in a Tiktok 5-second decision making about a short video world. In practice, many would adapt but the songs that would be lost. I'm not sure how many of the commercially-successful song writers write whole songs now. I was chatting to a pop-song composer who just worked in collaboration with about 30 others before the artist and producers both took the credit and NDAs all around. This composer's speciality was collaboratively polishing the melody line. Others specialised in hooks or rhythm. I know many older singers never wrote a note and old song-writers wrote often in partnership and music is a collaborative medium and there are still one-person outfits but it all felt so corporate and sterile.
That's depressing. I was born in the early 1960s and grew up with marvellous music. Rough round the edges very often, but full of character, and quite a lot of the top notch singers/bands wrote at least some of their own songs, often scribbled on the back of a fag packet during a break in rehearsals. I expect it would be difficult for most of them to get a break nowadays. Session musicians at best.

Not everybody was good, of course - those BBC4 re-runs of Top of the Pops are a salutary reminder of that!

Nitgel · 04/10/2021 07:56

Odd thread wonder what op thinks of Bob Dylan Grin

Clawdy in 1980s my school music teacher taught us all to sing Your Song .

BalloonSlayer · 04/10/2021 08:01

@dita73 I strongly disagree.

Haveyoubrushedyourteethtoday should of course be sung to the tune of 'Someone saved my life tonight.'

JinglingHellsBells · 04/10/2021 08:02

I think like a lot of musicians you can easily spot 'an EJ'. They all sound very similar in many ways and a bit formulaic.

RedToothBrush · 04/10/2021 08:02

My children can't understand how singers who aren't conventionally good looking are successful but there's more to success than looks as many a failed pretty boy or one hit wonder can attest.

I think the instagramisation of the world is a different subject to how Elton' s voice isn't what it used to be and now sounds like arse.

Being able to sing with emotion and sound sincere was much more touching and you could connect with it.

I never got over polished pitch perfect boy bands who are identikit PR machines with very little that I could connect with.

I think it says a lot about generations that only understand heavily marketed products rather than actual talent.

lottiegarbanzo · 04/10/2021 08:04

Elton is a very good songwriter and a strong performer, so has made a great career out of performing his own songs. His voice isn't the greatest but it's not bad.

Likewise Madonna, whose voice is very average but was a gift to MTV and the (then new) music video format.

Bob Dylan has an annoying, whiney voice that many people (including me) actively dislike listening to, yet has made a career from singing and is a legend.

Leonard Cohen's voice is much nicer to listen to but he wasn't much of a singer. In fact he was a poet, who only reluctantly moved into performing his work as songs.

There are endless good songwriters, who are not the greatest singers of their own work.