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Big music. The Women

Agaton Sax

Agaton Sax

Active member
Joined
Jul 10, 2023
Messages
205
Location
South Africa
My now dead mother ,a lady of larger than life personality and opinions would pull herself up to her full 5 feet 2 and glower at me and my uncle, both avid readers. " The problem with you" She'd say " You don't read any female writers!" I suppose she was right.

Ongoing conversations has been about "Big music". It mainly refers to 80s ,mainly British, music that sounded big. I first picked up the term when the Waterboys set out a change in direction and the founder said they wanted "To make big music" like the others and the result was certainly a Big Album : This is the sea.

But that made me think. What female singer makes "Big Music" ? This was partially brought on by Grace Slick saying she is incapable of singing softly. Like her personality it was all or nothing. So I thought and I came up woefully short. I suppose I have been reading the wrong people. Still what say you?



She certainly sounds big.





Joe! This one is dirty. Suppose I have to read...errr listen to more women





Is she really big sounding? She is certainly very skilful and the voice! She is everywhere on back up vocals from Neil Young to Warren Zevon but it is as a back up on Zevon that she really sounds big. Ok,Ok mum. I 'm sorry.



She is shopworn and knows more profanities than your average sailor, but does she sound big?



 
Definitely Marianne Faithfull, for sure. I just recently read her memoir (written in the 90's). Aristocrat, wife, mother, groupie, singer, junkie. It's all there. In that order.

That is one crazy turn table you have there!
 
As Your obviously very wise mother said Johan You need to see things from both sides, having spent a week in Denmark now (a magic country in many ways)
and meeting this in the pub next door to our hotel:

IMG_2790.JPG

In Sweden You can not smoke in any restauarnt of any kind, nor on the outside seats/&patios, in Denmark the owner decides which, fair play I think.

(not endorsing the use of tobacco thou, but to late for me to quit)

This pub (the Skagen Harbour Pub) also played very good music, very common in Denmark so just thinking about Denmark, music and especially "Big Music" from the ladies, this is, to me, just that, in Danish so never reached any of the big markets but so what, this is good, period.


Ingvar
 
You missed Janis Joplin, Kate Bush and Bjork (of the famous ones), but otherwise yep Grace Slick had a serious vocal ability!

Probably said it before on another place in another time, but Patti Smith lost none of her power from 1975 to 1995 when I was lucky enough to see her do an acoustic set with Jim Carroll at a festival beer garden (sat about 5m from her feet)
 
Was listening to a shuffled version of my playlist last might and Laurika Rauch popped up. I guess not everyone will like her vocal range, which seems the exact opposite of Kate Bush, but I love her songs. "Toemaar die donker man" is my favorite. I know that Ingrid Jonker wrote the poem for her daughter, but how she manages to conjure up those images with words will remain a mystery to me, forever.
 
JohnDoe said:
Lucinda Williams may also deserve a honorable mention. Here is a track from her latest album
Click to expand...
Absolutely agree that Lucinda should be in here, not sure if what she has done fits in to Johans "Big Music" IE music that sounds "BIG" but then my perceptive abilities are nothing to write home about, nonetheless I think that her voice was absolutely best on the West, Car wheels on a gravel road albums and World without tears albums.





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cunMki0ZTJo&list=PLiN-7mukU_REsXTLvrdS1pKqzSOtpv5Y6&index=13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEI9batGlV0&list=PLiN-7mukU_REsXTLvrdS1pKqzSOtpv5Y6&index=9

Ingvar
 
Refering to Ingvar's post above. I dont know if you explored her album "Down where the spirit meets the bone" yet but it contains some strong song as well. And the CD version's sound quality as a bonus not bad at all.


 
It is like a ClassA amplifier. It does not mean AB is inferior. Class A does not mean 1st in class.

Likewise a big voice does not mean the best voice.There is a difference between best and big. Best can be big.

That is a big voice. Thanks Trompie, that is what I meant! Very nice, definitely one to explore!
 
Agaton Sax said:
It is like a ClassA amplifier. It does not mean AB is inferior. Class A does not mean 1st in class.

Likewise a big voice does not mean the best voice.There is a difference between best and big. Best can be big.

That is a big voice. Thanks Trompie, that is what I meant! Very nice, definitely one to explore!
Click to expand...

She is a force. Love listening to her. The only drawback - if there is such a thing, is that much of her lyrics are a tad melancholy (as befits the blues-rock genre). I find I appreciate her music the most when I too am feeling a tad miserable and am seeking answers to life, the universe & everything else. (with thanks to Douglas Adams)
 
I referred to her before but I believe this is a BIG voice. But time has not been kind-to any of us.


And we discussed this:


And of course!

 
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I had a crush on Francoise Hardy in the 1960s. She came to South Africa in about 1967 and I went to her show at the Alhambra twice. It was that sultry Bridget Bardot French look.

Amazingly, at that time I was attending the Alliance Francais to improve my spoken French as I was doing French elementary for first year UCT. At the end of one lesson the lady tutor said we were invited to a cocktail party on the following Saturday evening as there was a distinguished French person visiting Cape Town. When she said it was Francoise Hardy, I nearly wet my pants. I don't think I slept at all that night. There must have been 300 people at the event. Anyway, I got her to sign a LP record cover. She was not very friendly in person. Typical French I thought. There is only one country in the world for them

1693322190087.png
 
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