If he did it back in 2003, could he do it today ?
 

Hello there everyone !

I´m no vocal specialist here, so I´m curious about something: IMO, this is the greatest perfomance ever of Keep the Faith:


Here Jon produces some screams that takes us way back in time ... And this is 2003, the year which his voice went downhill ... We all know he´s got a lot better nowadays, so could he sing like that again ? I don´t know if he could do it every night, if it would cause too much damage on his vocals. Maybe he was so into it that night that he thought: "f**k it, just one time isn´t going to do any harm" ...

Any thoughts here ?

Regards

Eduardo

Aloha !

He sings very differently nowadays. His higher register is completely gone, he's just able to go higher with his lower register. The clear sound he used to have from 1986-2003 is completely gone, so no, he won't be able to pull it off. He still often sings "know...live...rain" instead of "you know you're gonna live through the rain" and I can't see it change anytime soon. He's able to hold the notes a lot longer than a few years ago, but if he has to do it very fast as in Keep The Faith he's lost, which is why the songs from the first 2 album sounded so horrible when they did those live this tour.

Salaam Aleikum,
Sebastiaan

Thanks for the answer ! Just one last question, since I'm completely ignorant about this subject: What do you mean by lower and higher register ? Because even thought I noticed he's using some "tricks" to sing, during both LH and TC tours he hit some high notes that he wasn't able to hit during the 2003-2007 period.

Vocal registers refer to the use of the larynx when singing and in this case the range - basically he's losing the high notes. It happens to everyone with age, especially pro singers. He's using different techniques to reach higher notes these days but if they're relatively new to him he probably can't use them that often... think of it as vocal stamina.

Tbh for me Jon's always been about the showmanship anyway, he's worked out ways around the bits he can't sing anymore so it's luckily for him not such a big issue.

Should be the same with Richie's voice then.

This high, clear tone he had on Stranger in this town seems to be gone completely nowadays.
Now there's more a kind of low, rough, bluesy tone in his voice, probably also due to the escapades he had between 2005 and 2008.

He skips a lot of words live also, just as Jon does.... which means it's Dave, Hugh and Bobby who keep the vocal parts stable.

I've noticed the same with Richie. The backing vocals on Prayer since 2006 haven't sounded nearly as good. I'm pretty sure they used a backing track on the chorus, but I'm also pretty sure that Richie was doing the backing vocals on the bridge.

Jon combines things so much like. He needs to enunciate. Instead of
"Ohhh, we're half way there"
it's
"EEEEOhhhweeafweetheeah".

It bugs the hell out of me how he puts that "E" in front of everything.

He's been doing that ever since 2000 and during Crush and OWN tours it was thousand times more frequent and annoying that it is nowadays IMO.

I just listened to three performances of Prayer from 2000-01 and found 2 of those "E"s combined, and in ONE performance from 2010 I found 3. He even did it twice in London 95.

That's just one song. Compare Blaze Of Glory from 2001 to 2010 (or 2008, because in 2010 it was quite a rarity).

If you notice the way he sang up to the Bounce tour and since the HAND tour, his technique seems to have changed significantly since 2005. IMO, he sings way better now than on the Bounce tour, he's a lot more consistently good, but you can't deny that the change in tone and technique is really noticeable.....

Continuing on the same issue, does anyone know when did they start to tune their instruments half step down ? I was checking some recordings of the SWW and NJ tours, and I couldn´t tell ... On the Wembley DVD and recording, Dry County and These days are clearly tuned down , so on the These Days I know they already did that ...

First of all, I don't think they physically tune down their guitars, but rather play different chords. I believe it was on the NJ Tour. Look at performances from 1988, you'll notice it. In 1993, they played KTF and ITA on key, but then changed that afterword. By 1995, everything was tuned down.

From Lost Highway, AOD and WGIGO, and possibly a couple others are played on the correct key. So is TMTC.

Hi there !

I´m pretty sure it´s physically tuned down. Pay close atention at Jon when he is playing his acoustic during Just Older, Wanted and Who says ... He plays the same chords used in the original recordings, yet all the songs are tuned down !

If my ears are correct, the 2 performances of Let It Rock last year were done in original key as well :) (except back vocals)

I like Richie's voice, always and still do. What annoys me is his lack of remembering LYHOM. Drinking/drugging don't help. Jon blew his voice out on the NJ tour. He had to take steroid injections just to make it through. Now he warms up better and has a vocal coach, at least last time I checked.

I think his voice is better than it has been. I even think its better this go round.Even IML has a vocal backing track just like Prayer does.He can sound nasally and his enunciation maybe different but I enjoy it none the less.

ROTFL I thought it was just me hearing that!! Makes me piss myself whenever I hear him sing that. He sounds so ridiculous.;)

i remember me hearing him doing a scream somewhat at MSG 2008, beginning the solo at 2:51


but not like the one he did in 2000-2003

I like being odd but that doesn't mean my opinion is less valid...

I preferred his voice in '03-'06. He didn't have this really flat, weak tone when trying to reach high notes. He just couldn't do it full stop. Yes, there were points when it was shocking ('Blaze Of Glory' - Wisconsin 2003, 'Wild In The Streets' - Newark 2007) but his voice still had a touch of rawness to it. Nowadays, he sounds silly at times.

Obviously you all like his newer voice and that's fine but it's just how I feel.

I agree to most of this.

His voice now on songs like 'Keep The Faith' and other kind of difficult songs sounds pretty poor when he tries to go for the high note. It's like he tries too hard and it ends up coming out wrong and sounding bad. Whereas, like David said, in 03-06, he just wouldn't try it and it didn't sound bad.

I still prefer his vocals now, though. His voice on a lot of high note songs is still good but it just sounds really bad at times.

On 99.9 percent of the songs, they're still played with the same chords, it's just tuned a half a step down.

There are examples you gave of them being the correct key, it's just that some of them are recorded half a step down as well so it kind of gives the impression that it's played live in standard when it's not.

Just keeping the record straight, but the voice blow-out and steroid injections were the Slippery tour. By the Jersey Syndicate Tour he had the voice coach.

How much of Jon sounding better this tour might be due to the fact that he has quit smoking? I'm nowhere near an expert but can that be a factor as well?

Thanks David. Well I thought it was the NJ tour because there are shows from that tour that he sounded bad to me.

Jons voice really bothers me today. Esp when I listen to older songs & remember what it used to be.

He hardly has any passion when he sings certain songs live. Its more like "oh shit, I hope I get through this" He sounds like a dying cat when he hits high notes. The eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee's drive me freakin nuts. His basic tone (if that means anything) sounds different. I don't notice it as much with Richie as I do with Jon. And I'm surprised Jon doesn't get more flack from critics for his voice

Thank goodness for studios and technology

I think his voice is bad but I don't think it's to the point where it's unlistenable. To his credit, 'I'll Be There For You' sounds really good this tour. So does the likes of 'Bed Of Roses' since it returned in its original form. 'Always', on the other hand, can range from very good to appaling.

Overall IBTFY is satisfactory and works well with the way Jon & Richie do it. However, the best part of IBTFY is Scream after "blow those candles out" which is now gone. It's almost like you waited for that part. I just feel it lacks that passion it once had. I'm not feeling the song like I once did.

it could be worse, i went to motley crue concert, i actually walked out of the concert because of vince neil sounding like a dying cat and he was all over the place with his words
i think jon's voice is getting better, i can see the confident that jon has now because he is doing the harder songs, and he is not doing them in accoustic which he did between 2002-mid 2008. i do not expect him to sing like he did in the 80's or the 90's, but this is the best form that i have seen since 2001 of jon's voice