Comments on: Singing Gender into a Vocal http://bolesblues.com/2010/02/22/singing-gender-into-a-vocal/ Sounding the Devil Note Wed, 16 May 2012 15:49:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Gordon Davidescu http://bolesblues.com/2010/02/22/singing-gender-into-a-vocal/#comment-679 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:49:37 +0000 http://bolesblues.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/singing-gender-into-a-vocal/#comment-679 I think that just means we love the great lyrics :) So the latter it is, then!

]]> By: David W. Boles http://bolesblues.com/2010/02/22/singing-gender-into-a-vocal/#comment-678 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:05:26 +0000 http://bolesblues.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/singing-gender-into-a-vocal/#comment-678 I, too, sing along to “Speechless” and I don’t change one word of the lyric! Does that make us Gay like Elton — or are we above the fracas of sexual identity because we are honoring the integrity of the intent of the song lyric?

I can’t believe how you looked at me
With your James Dean glossy eyes
In your tight jeans with your long hair
And your cigarette stained lies

Could we fix you if you broke?
And is your punch line just a joke?

]]> By: Gordon Davidescu http://bolesblues.com/2010/02/22/singing-gender-into-a-vocal/#comment-677 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:54:19 +0000 http://bolesblues.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/singing-gender-into-a-vocal/#comment-677 Funnily enough, I love singing along to Speechless. :)
I agree with you about the West Point rewrite.
I suppose it is more about public sexual identity. It seemed so much more about lyrics in gender when I was writing it! :)

]]> By: David W. Boles http://bolesblues.com/2010/02/22/singing-gender-into-a-vocal/#comment-676 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:19:07 +0000 http://bolesblues.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/singing-gender-into-a-vocal/#comment-676 I feel pretty strongly that songs should be clear and lyrics remain untouched. A lyric that can be “interpreted” as gender neutral when it comes to a topic of love, obsession or passion is not a lyric that had definition or a point.
I am also against changing a lyric to suit the passing moment of the gender of the singer. Why ruin a song? Sing the song as is or don’t sing it at all.
Lady Gaga’s “Speechless” is very specific. A man singing it would ruin the song and changing the lyric so a man could sing it would ruin it entirely forever and become a joke. However, when Elton John sang that song with her on the Grammy awards, it was right on point and delicious because, as a Gay man, it fit him just as it fit her.
I wonder if this article topic is more about public sexual identity than lyric gender assignment?
The great thing about The Beatles is they were always singing about loving a woman. That was what made them and that was how they found such astounding success.
As for neutering the West Point anthem — the much better course would have been to write a whole new song to honor the blending of the genders and the new mission of the school. Their solution desecrated the original and made the “more better” version mean absolutely nothing at all.

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