Whitney Houston R.I.P.

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

Rest in peace.

the reverb on so many of her vocal tracks sounds so dated which is a shame

vocal track of how will i know:

http://jakefogelnest.com/post/17460767716

― scott seward, Saturday, February 11, 2012 10:11 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh jesus christ

no -- whitney houston

i love million dollar bill but it's absolutely a referendum on her state. in many ways an oddly appropriate exit note though there's an inevitable flood of material on the way that will outchart it

I am really sad. She was one of my favorites as a kid and just . . . not surprising but fuck. How will I know was one of my first favorite songs as a kid. :(

do you remember the video? i was so obsessed with it + thought she was the prettiest ever.

"How Will I Know" redeems that zippy Narada Michael Walden sound.

yeah i loved her as a kid, i wonder if my cassette of 'whitney' that i got in 1987 is still around here!

certainly she does more with him than Aretha did in that period.

do you remember the video? i was so obsessed with it + thought she was the prettiest ever.

― horseshoe, Saturday, February 11, 2012 10:15 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Hell yeah I do! I did too. Aw, it's just so sad. Listening to those isolated vocals now. Man. RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3-hY-hlhBg

We also did a dance to "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" in a dance class I took the year it came out and I swear I still remember at least 1/2 of the moves. Loved that one too.

First one to post the David Byrne cover gets four SB's.

do you remember the video? i was so obsessed with it + thought she was the prettiest ever.

omg me too! i got a perm and tried to do my hair like that. it didn't work out so well but i kept trying

she really pulls off that purple eyeshadow magenta lipstick gigantic metallic minnie mouse bow look

i think "i wanna dance with somebody" might still be my favorite whitney song, real talk. or "it's not right, but it's ok."

she sparked some early heterosexual identification for me on friday night videos

^^^she lived a worthwhile life then