Simon Cowell!<\/p>\n
What did you expect, it’s television!\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think they’re going to waste time focusing on the cardboard contestants?\u00c2\u00a0 No, they coronated the true star, Simon.<\/p>\n
Not that it was satisfying.<\/p>\n
The reason network TV is a shadow of its former self is because it’s trying to be all things to all people.\u00c2\u00a0 Is there really someone out there who watched this show and felt warm all over?\u00c2\u00a0 Music is inherently niche, not broad, it’s too edgy to appeal to all.<\/p>\n
But the oldsters who gripped the mic were horrifying.\u00c2\u00a0 They missed notes, appeared aged and looked like they were at some low rent audition, begging for future gigs.\u00c2\u00a0 I was into Hall & Oates, they played the zippy, yet still surprising, "You Make My Dreams"…but although I was rooting for him, Daryl Hall ultimately faltered, the song would have worked in a club, but on live TV, in a cavernous hall, we could not forgive the lack of perfection.<\/p>\n
Alice Cooper was outsung by the contestants.<\/p>\n
Michael McDonald should have canceled, there was something wrong with his voice.<\/p>\n
As for Chicago, the city should revoke the use of its moniker.<\/p>\n
And then there was Alanis…<\/p>\n
Crystal Bowersox is singing "Ironic"…\u00c2\u00a0 How many times did we watch that video on MTV?\u00c2\u00a0 And then the song changes, and from the wings we hear…<\/p>\n
I want you to know<\/span><\/p>\n And my heart skipped a beat.<\/p>\n You oughta know that song, Alanis’s initial hit, was not written by committee, hacks in a back room, but her.\u00c2\u00a0 And, as a result, it cut to the bone.<\/p>\n You seem very well, things look peaceful<\/span> Ever been dumped?\u00c2\u00a0 I’d say it hurts, but it’s worse than that.\u00c2\u00a0 You didn’t see it coming, sometimes you don’t even have a premonition. Yesterday you were lovers in your own cinematic vignette, now you’re broken down and busted on the side of the road.<\/p>\n And you never really recover.\u00c2\u00a0 You grow a rhino skin.\u00c2\u00a0 You learn to cope.\u00c2\u00a0 But you never quite trust the same way again, you’re suspicious. Most regain hope.\u00c2\u00a0 Some never do.\u00c2\u00a0 They soldier on silently, alone, forever.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want to risk being hurt again.<\/p>\n Your friends are sick of hearing the story.\u00c2\u00a0 Then along comes a twenty one year old woman telling your story.\u00c2\u00a0 With all the anger and frustration you feel inside.\u00c2\u00a0 And you can’t stop listening.<\/p>\n And I’m here to remind you<\/span> You finally get to the point where you speak your truth.\u00c2\u00a0 Previously, whenever they called you were nice, you didn’t want to drive them away, you still had a kernel of hope…that they’d come back.<\/p>\n But they never do.\u00c2\u00a0 They cry too.\u00c2\u00a0 But they’re done, they’re gone.<\/p>\n Tommy Mottola left a mess.\u00c2\u00a0 And Clive Davis did too.\u00c2\u00a0 They no longer believed in the soul of classic rock, they no longer wanted to give the artists that much control, they wanted to bring in the usual suspects, create safe salable music.<\/p>\n And then we had the faux divas.\u00c2\u00a0 The Mariah Careys.\u00c2\u00a0 The melisma multitude.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point where young people today think that’s talent.\u00c2\u00a0 To trill up and down the scale and blow the house down.<\/p>\n But it’s not.<\/p>\n Talent can be about a great voice, but that’s at best part of the package.\u00c2\u00a0 Great art comes from deep inside, from personal experience, from the soul.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not made by hacks on holiday, but people who’ve slaved for 10,000 hours, because they truly cannot do anything else.<\/p>\n Alanis was the only artist who hit every note, who sang with power, who delivered her classic song.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Carrie Underwood sang pretty well, but if you think she’s an artist, I want to buy you a dictionary.<\/p>\n Yes, the National is better than anything on "American Idol".\u00c2\u00a0 The Hold Steady too.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re speaking their truth.\u00c2\u00a0 But once upon a time, the best and the brightest were vying to tell their truth in song, to the point where the acme was stratospheric, the quality of material was staggering, we couldn’t help but bow at the altar, we needed to own the music and go to the show.<\/p>\n Yes, Alanis collaborated on that record with Glen Ballard.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, she’s never come close to following it up, except maybe for that great soundtrack song "Uninvited".\u00c2\u00a0 But in the midnineties, music and marketing met.\u00c2\u00a0 Alanis was so good, and the power of the media so great, that she became the biggest star on the planet overnight.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s amazing she’s still alive, that she didn’t O.D., that she can live a somewhat normal life.<\/p>\n Because it’s tough to have that spotlight upon you.<\/p>\n It’s one thing if that’s the only thing you’re providing, an appearance when everybody is paying attention, like glam-boy Ryan Seacrest. That’s a skill, but not much of a talent.\u00c2\u00a0 The real talent is developed in the back room when nobody is watching, when you encapsulate all your hopes and dreams in one three minute song, hoping and praying that you connect.<\/p>\n Alanis hit a bullseye.<\/p>\n Nobody else on this show came close.\u00c2\u00a0 Certainly not the wannabes.\u00c2\u00a0 And even though almost all of the oldsters had their moments, they were running on fumes, clinging to what once was, praying that we suspend disbelief.\u00c2\u00a0 Alanis triumphed in the present.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Simon Cowell! What did you expect, it’s television!\u00c2\u00a0 Do you really think they’re going to waste time focusing on the cardboard contestants?\u00c2\u00a0 No, they coronated the true star, Simon. Not that it was satisfying. 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I’m not quite as well, I thought you should know<\/span><\/p>\n
Of the mess you left when you went away<\/span>
It’s not fair to deny me<\/span>
Of the cross I bear that you gave to me<\/span>
You, you, you oughta know<\/span><\/p>\n