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Originally Posted by Storms123
Christine's voice is shot. Just shot. Like ears bleeding. I don't understand the notion "she's a great studio singer". Does that mean once all the technology in the studio manipulates her voice so it's palpable to the human ear, she's great? FM is a live concert nostalgia act. That's all they do, all they will ever do ever more. If she can't sing unless someone is manipulating her vocals to unrealistic like levels, she shouldn't be there.
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It’s really not as straightforward as that. Christine’s voice is weak and she’s old. Hearing her live IS disappointing, but entirely expected for someone her age. But I’ve watched a lot of clips and her tone is still there, as is her phrasing and timing. She can’t sing in arenas or even smaller theatres . She simply doesn’t have the power or the stamina. That’s sad.
But being a studio vocalist isn’t just about relying on studio machinery. All of the FM singers (and many more in the business) use the machinery. But none of that machinery would matter if the singer doesn’t still have their tone and phrasing. When people (like me) say Christine is a good studio singer, they mean she can do as many takes as she needs in a chamber like setting that allows her to annunciate without having to shout to be heard. Many great singers in rock were essentially studio singers and not as effective live. (Diana Ross and Olivia Newton John are examples.) When Christine sings on record she sounds like she always has. So, I still say she’s a great studio singer. Her voice has its same warmth and I get the same emotional response from a song like say, “Red Sun” that I get from “Over My Head.” The voice still sounds intact. If she needs some gadgetry to help her along, I’ll take it because no one else sounds like her and I still long for music from her.
For what it’s worth, her voice was really shot during the Mirage tour. And there’s a 1977 bootleg of her singing YMLF where she sounds like a dying whale. Other times, she was spot on. And some of the clips from the current tour show her occasionally rising to an acceptable standard, so her on-again/off-again difficulty with live shows has been around for a loooooooong time.