American Idol: Accidentally Telling the Truth
Joshua Ledet, Jessica Sanchez, and Phillip Phillips
It’s not about whether you hit the notes or not, if the passion is there. —Steven Tyler, giving away the game in a rare (semi-) honest review of Phillip Phillips’ singing.
In a moment of perhaps unintentional candor, American Idol judge Steven Tyler committed a gaffe, defined as accidentally telling the truth. Phillip Phillips’ performance of an overblown 1970s power ballad, Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight,” proved, as usual, that he can’t sing. He sat, inert, on his stool, straining and struggling to hit even the limited high notes in this song. The performance was so boring that, at one point, I thought he was going to fall into a deep sleep and topple off the stool. On the final note, he grimaced and strained as his voice wandered around like a drunk trying to hit the urinal, finally settling on more or less the right spot but not before leaving a mess all over the floor. He’d been assigned the song by mentor-in-chief Jimmy Iovine, and at first I though that he’d been sabotaged, given a song that was sure to sink him.
And then what happened? The judges gave him a standing ovation. What!? Did they hear the same performance I did? They lauded him for his passion. Passion? He slept-walked through it. They said he’d had a “moment”—whatever that is. (I’ve had similar “moments” after a night of heavy drinking.) And then came Tyler’s bit of truth-telling. Yeah, you didn’t hit the notes. You rarely do. But, hey, this is only a singing competition. Let’s make up some bogus excuse about “passion” to make sure this year’s American Idol ends like so many others, with a mediocre WGWG (White Guy With Guitar) beating out some truly talented singers. On results night, the only suspense was whether Jessica Sanchez or Joshua Ledet would be the sacrificial lamb. Alas, it was Joshua.
My friend I have read your blog now on Idol for several weeks and your inability to get it that Idol is not just a singing contest is astounding. If that were the case most of the eventual winners would have never made a dime as performers. You blast Phillips every week but for those of us out here that enjoy Watching as well as Listening to him we get it. Your description of his performance is nothing like what I saw or heard. He shows a lot of emotion as he sings and the words seem to have more meaning than just a song. Obviously the American audience feels the same way since they are the ones that vote for him and not the judges. Maybe you could look for some other line of work where a tin ear and 200/200 vision is not a handicap!
Teenybopper bubblegum adolescent girls with cell phones who vote hundreds of times every week because “he’s so cuuuuute” feel the way you do. Phillips is awful, a lame Dave Matthews imitator with a bad attitude.
AI seriously needs to revamp its voting to make it more difficult for people to vote more than once. It might not get those impressive figures “90 million people voted last night,” but no-talents like Phillips and Scotty McCreary would never make it into the top 3, let alone win the competition.
Agree with all you said.
But as I always point out – most reality shows select for mediocrity.
his voice wandered around like a drunk trying to hit the urinal, finally settling on more or less the right spot but not before leaving a mess all over the floor.
omg that’s hilarious. I don’t watch American Idol, but I’m going to make sure I don’t miss Tom Neven.
Must take exception to your characterization of “We’ve Got Tonight” as an overblown power ballad. It is ONLY if sung that way. Try Richie Havens’ version, or even Bob Seger’s original, to see the much gentler and subtler way the song was written to be sung.
Oh, and my sincere thanks for being precisely and absolutely right about “Imagine.” I hate that song. It’s as if that song reminded me of Obama when Obama was still a little kid…
I was unaware of the Richie Haven’s version. It’s great, and it’s now in my iTunes library. Thanks for the tip!
Catch a clue here. It’s a TV show not a singing contest. It’s there to sell product.
I always have to go by whether or not I could stand to listen to a whole album by these guys.
Jessica, probably not, although on Broadway, she’d be fantastic. Joshua, maybe, depending on how unique of a niche he can find.
Phillip, yes, absolutely. I like his voice.
Stellar fun and precisely how I saw it, also.
Just like Tyler said it’s not the voice, it’s about passion to Philip, I would say the same to Jessica. She HAS the voice, but she has no passion or style. The girl is boring as shit. Joshua was great, best this season. I’m just not sure what they would do with him at Interscope. It’s really tough out there for the male R&B artist.
I predict the PPD (pretty perfect diva) will win, but I think the WGWG will probably sell the most records of the top three.
You’re going to criticize the singing and not say one word about the awkward, if not perverse, leg rubbing going on the entire first 3 minutes of the song??? Take a second look at the tape and from the very beginning, Phil Phil is rubbing his hip and upper thigh repeatedly (and not even in time with the song). Nervous habit or someone’s bad idea of suggestive? Almost as distracting was the line of violinists behind him: 4 attractive females of uniform height and one guy with a bloomin’ onion Afro. Add it all up and it had to be a hit job by someone in the production team.
Tom – I just read your article out loud to my husband and we both enjoyed it immensely. We stopped watching AI many seasons ago because all the bad singing was just too painful to endure and when it ended with the least talented people winning – which happened all too often – we felt played.
Also appreciate reading someone express my exact opinion of that Lennon song – makes me cringe every time I hear it and I avoid it like the plague. Alas, music has been dumbed down just like everything else.
Longtime conductor of the Chicago Symphony, Georg Solti, was once asked why he didn’t program more modern repertoire. Solti’s response was, I thought, illuminating. I will paraphrase, and I hope I’m doing it justice: all of us reach a point in our lives where the music we already know is sufficient for us and forms the basis of what we cherish, and we lose the ability to truly appreciate anything (stylistically) newer. Solti said, for him, music stopped sometime around 1950. So, yes to Bartok, Hindemith, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich; no to Stockhausen, Lutoslawski, Carter, and Xenakis.
I notice the same sort of thing in pop/rock music. For me, music stopped sometime around 1980. So, yes to Gerry Rafferty, Dire Straits, Supertramp, Robert Palmer, and ZZTop; to Madonna, Pat Benatar, the Culture Club, rap, crap, and hip-hop.
Once upon a time, a musician did not need to be charismatic to sell a good tune, but it helped. Elvis was king, but there was also Roy Orbison and Bobby Darin, neither man being a sexual god. Barbra, for crying out loud, was no beauty queen, though Barbra might disagree. What I’m seeing nowadays is the opposite situation: the music has become a mere vehicle for the charisma (such as it is). Britney Spears is not a musician or even a particularly talented singer, and the songs — if you’ve heard one, you’ve heard ‘em all. Britney Spears shakes her rear end and the music helps with the packaging. That makes her a rear end shaker, not a singer.
Lawrence Welk was once asked how many musicians were in his entourage, and he replied drolly, “Oh, about half of them.”
The same (or less) might be said about a typical Grammy Award show today, without the drollery.
That’s a good one. I had a music instructor once — a graduate of Julliard — who told me with a wry grin, “At Julliard, there were two types of students: singers and musicians.”
Well, but there was this one little thing….
They could SING.
That doesn’t seem to matter much anymore.
On another note, I don’t see why anyone should be surprised at Steve Tyler not caring about being able to hit notes.
Tom, I have to agree with your assessment.
I also watched the dreadful butchering of “We’ve Got Tonight” by PP, and after all the high praise, actually shouted at the TV, “dammit, what did you judges just hear?”
When they got down to the final 10, I stated to the couple people who watch Idol with me, that Jessica is the only contestant I’d actually pay money to see perform. I agreed with you that Joshua and Hollie will probably have solid careers; I’d also throw in that Skylar will probably collect a couple checks on the country stage.
I’d be willing to bet that in 5 years, PP will have trouble selling out the ballroom at the Exit 13 Holiday Inn.
I personally couldn’t stand Joshua’s singing (or should I say screeching)! My dog actually left the room during “Its a Man’s…World”. I soon accompanied him. As for Phillips, he will out sell Joshua a million to one!!
I don’t know what was worse about American Idol: the talent, or the ridiculous “judges” who just give blanket adoration of everything like three bobble-heads. I’d watch it, and feel stupid for wasting the life energy.