Whitney Houston R.I.P.

The fact that her first record was a Soft Machine cover featuring Archie Shepp completely blows my mind.

xp

was just singing the bridge to 'how will I know' in the shower last week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdCDLQew0LI

imo this was the best of 80s pop whitney

Yeah, I'd heard she sang fairly well Friday night, seemed like she was continuing uphill--so this is fairly startling, disheartening if not a shockah. Whether she was sober, and something like a long-damaged metabolism finally running all the way down, or toasting Friday night's recent little victory, with one last rock too many: "Memories, they hang you up and hold you."

ts: anita baker whitney ("you give good love") vs. teenpop whitney ("how will i know") vs. new jack whitney (the '90s)

crazy this happened the night of Clive Davis' pre-grammy gala

wonder how much of this is still going to happen

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501368_162-57375894/clive-davis-gala-is-white-hot-kinks-to-perform/

clive cancelled the event btw.

love this so much
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdoamCoYTs0

xpost makes sense

At the Beverly Hilton on Friday, Alicia Keys was getting ready to rehearse. Monica and Brandy will also hit the stage. Vintage clips of the annual event played on the big screen, showing performances from Houston, Lou Reed, Rod Stewart, Aretha Franklin and Usher.

Houston isn't on the performance list, but that could change.

"It's her favorite night of the year ... (so) who knows by the end of the evening," said Davis, who founded Arista Records and is now the chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment.

http://justjared.buzznet.com/2012/02/11/clive-davis-grammy-party-canceled-after-whitney-houstons-death/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDzdqranbUc

:(

90s whitney was the best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J538b-OLRU

i forgot how good love will save the day is; total winner.

I am truly shocked, still hard to even process this.

apparently this sparkle remake was first going to happen around 2001, and was pushed aside after aaliyah (who was supposed to co-star) died

"It's Not Right..." is the last time I remember her as a Billboard/cultural force. That Thunderpuss remix was everywhere in '99.

so sad...r.i.p. whitney.

Holy shit Whitney what the fucking fuck

yeah that moment of "it's not right but it's okay" being released was sort of a revelation--i fucking love that song.

my sister somehow didn't know about her drug problems and she was sort of shocked that whitney houston had extensive enough drug problems that they might conceivably have caused her to die at 48. she was like, "courtney love's still alive!" and i considered whether the only difference between the two in terms of their demons was that whitney houston had powerful handlers for the early portion of her career.

"Whether she was sober, and something like a long-damaged metabolism finally running all the way down"

judging from the pictures of her the night before, she definitely wasn't sober...

shit, 48. RIP

or earlier this week. not last night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=4wsCdxdRIL4

dammit let's try that again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wsCdxdRIL4

that thunderpuss remix was the stone cold shit for real

I remember Elvis Costello doing a Guest VJ hour on MTV when Blood & Chocolate came out. He played one of her videos, "How Will I Know" I think, and came on afterwards saying "please please please please Whitney, please can I write some songs for you? omg what a voice"

i have the first album on and was just reminded of a great album track called "someone for me":

http://open.spotify.com/track/57gkU8WvqF62FTRDIIHqjH

When she was on, she was ON

she is a great example of taalent elevating horrible source material, because so many of her singles were schlocky nonsense that she imbued with so much depth and feeling

yeah that Thunderpuss remix is 10/10 classic.

"you give good love" will always be my favorite song of hers, though. this performance is absolutely perfect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM3rM1DTJ9Y
the last minute or so in particular... just staggering. what a voice, for real.

I remember the EC MTV thing. I thought he had said, "Please. Let me write you some good songs."

xp

i remember reading an interview with her where she said she hated a lot of the material she was given, and that was a big reason for her going over to more hip/young r&b stuff later on.

she is a great example of taalent elevating horrible source material, because so many of her singles were schlocky nonsense that she imbued with so much depth and feeling

― I spend a lot of time thinking about apricots (DJP)

100% OTM. I've always had reservations about her recorded output - a little too schlocky, middle-of-the-road, AC - but there was no denying her voice.

"You Give Good Love" is still the shit. She sounded so sweet and ready for non-Clive-Davis-validated experience.

I remember the EC MTV thing. I thought he had said, "Please. Let me write you some good songs."

Ah, I think you're right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_yiCIow6fI

Elvis Costello would be, like, the last person I'd ask to write Whitney Houston songs.

for better or worse she was stuck with these ridiculous, histrionic, hysterical songs; the little things like "Memories" were just that.

he'd probably write her bacharachy stuff. i have mixed feelings about that.

iirc there was a lot of criticism of whitney in the 80s for the sound of those first two records.. 'in living color' did a really mean sketch on her for singing pop songs and not being much of a dancer.

i wonder about that. then we got new jack whitney (those songs was great) but if you look up the shows on youtube they have her during the faster songs with all this choreography (it is kind of awkward) and not singing live. like it wasn't enough at the time that she had the most amazing voice in the world

she couldn't be anything other than WHITNEY HOUSTON singing songs that made Clive Davis wet. It's up to us to separate the crap.

I mean -- imagine Tennant-Lowe giving her a Dusty Springfield number. As awesome as this looks on paper I don't think it would've worked.

this is depressing me so much in this way where i feel like i could just as easily have started a joke thread about it. i think i've mentioned before that the first single i ever owned was her version of i will always love you, which still feels about perfect. i listened to it last maybe about a week ago. it was a gift from my aunt who i guess passed the black sheep mantle to me sometime during the course of my teenage years. i still own that cassette but i've lost the cover. it still feels like we were making some sort of pact. i guess i have this thing with whitney where i've kindof loved her music in this weirdly personal way, thinking about it almost feels autobiographical. but her voice was so clean, and her singing so efficient and capable. and i feel like a big part of her later narrative was how the messiness of her life gradually encroached on that voice. i find it hard to draw the line with her, where one thing starts and another ends. that career comeback with wyclef. her being the absolute opposite of lauren hill. the clean lines of her voice, dancing in a blackout. and all the things people will say about her being "troubled". and bobby brown. and the absurdity of it. and bittersweet memories, that is all i'm taking with me. RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxZD0VQvfqU

the clean lines of her voice,

otm

http://youtu.be/3JWTaaS7LdU

Yeah, it was either then or another occasion when Costello wondered why she was doing "The Greatest Love": "That's for when you're 37 and living in Vegas", approximately. So maybe getting disgusted, then apathetic with the biz so young made her more likely to compensate (yes, I'm auditioning for Nancy Grace)

xpost - oops, can't type - those songs *were* great

the really sad thing to me was that single 'million dollar bill' from a few years back, song ok i guess but you could just hear that voice was gone

vocal track of how will i know:

http://jakefogelnest.com/post/17460767716

yeah i like that song, but you can tell her voice has suffered on it

xp about million dollar bill

isolated vocal tracks from "How Will I Know" - smart as a whip.

http://jakefogelnest.com/post/17460767716

xp scooped in the xpost