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I'm sure I am not the only one to have noticed this in the past little while, and it may be a bit of a touchy subject, but at risk of being attacked I will ask: Does anyone know what's up with Gord Downie's voice latley?
I have been a long time hip fan, and have only just recently noticed that his voice is a little... off. Shal we say. You can notice it just slightly in IBE but that is likely just the classic "on the edge" Gord singing, but ever since I saw them in Calgary, and then at Grey Cup and then at Live 8; I have noticed his voice is a little more... eccentric(is the optimistic word) sometimes even... out of key(dare I say) Something that obviously has not been part of Gord's spectacular portfolio.
Anyone else notice anything funny?
Can anyone provide some insight?
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I find that Gord's voice on newsest album songs sounds better on subsequent tours. But as for him singing off key on the album itself I have not noticed that at all.
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Your right, in the album it sounds great, it does sound different and not out of key, im finding it mostly in their TV spots after the IBE tour ie Grey Cup, Junos, Live 8,
But I'm not sure, I watched live 8 again and I may have convinced myself otherwise, I just wanted to see what everyone else thought.
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In the 2004 tour i noticed some pitch problems with gord's voice, but i mostly attribute that to the mixing. there are some definite differences between album and live, lately(but thats what makes the live shows great).
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Unfortunately, I did not catch the Grey Cup. However, I did make sure to catch the boys at Live 8. Honestly, I was less than impressed with Gord's voice. It may have been the mixing, but he was definitely off key at a number of points. To contrast, I watched the video of The Hip playing Grace, Too on SNL so many years ago. Gord sounded fantastic. They really rocked that night.
Jeff
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In recent years I've noticed that Gord's voice is always a bit rough during the one-off gigs like Live 8 and the Grey Cup, and I think it's because he probably doesn't have a lot of time to warm up his pipes before the show. Or perhaps he just doesn't sing much during the band's down time and his voice doesn't get the practice it needs. I've noticed he's much stronger when the boys are on the road and playing every night. Just listen to the Ottawa and London boots from the '04 tour for proof of that. When I saw them in Spokane, they were nearing the tail end of the U.S. tour and the band was a well oiled machine by that point. His singing that night was one of the best vocal performances I've ever heard him give.
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Perhaps it is just the possiblilty that he doesnt have as much practice/warm-up time for things like the junos or what haveyou.
Originally I thought it might be something like bad monitor, where he couldn't hear himself or something, because he has recently seemed to yell a little more than he has to, and thats usually when he ends up going over the edge and out of key.
And I certanley see your point about their SNL spot, After seeing the junos grey cup and live 8 I had to go back and listen to "Between Us" as well as their woodstock 99 show, just to make sure I wasnt going crazy. But I am intrigued now and I will look into it more.
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It also seemed to me that at Live 8 he was trying to "go for it" too much which resulted in him yelling more and his singing voice being not as clean musically. But I thought he sounded fine at the Grey Cup and at the Junos. And of course when I saw them at the ACC in Toronto he totally rocked. Plus direwolf is right... the London and Ottawa shows are also outstanding and well worth the price to download them from livedownloads.com.
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I agree that their live 8 performance wasnt the best ive seen, but it really seemed to be a sound issue, to me anyway, i have no musical/technical experience/expertise, but it sounds like the instruments are way too quiet and gord's voice is way too loud at parts...and also some times the harmonica in poets kind of makes me cringe if i have the speakers too loud. as for the junos, I thought they were awesome, I had no complaints there, that could be my favourite version of grace, with the weakerthans rant thing, i htought it was great, and "Gus" from the grey cup was amazing, I thought they really rocked it out.
So in short I dont think Gord's voice is getting bad, I think he can still sing.
~Will.
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I agree with the tackful way you presented the issue Opi. Gord's voice to me is suffering from something right now. I think its simply exhausted/strained from all the ranting and screaming. As a singer myself I know after a while my voice gets to a point where it actually hurts to hold longer notes where they should be. I do hope Mr. Downie gives his most unique and wonderful vocal chords the rest they need.
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An important topic.
I agree that Gord seems to want to blow the roof off during those short gigs, and probably does err on the side of being manic. Personally, I enjoy it---but then, I love people like Dylan and Tom Waits, with really whacked voices. You may have noticed, also, that something similar has been happening to Bono in recent years...lots of cigarettes and lots of hollering, presumably.
Secondly, the fact is that Gord's voice HAS changed and on IBE, there seems to be some evidence of damage. You can hear this on every track. This isn't surprising: he's always had a very stylized and demanding vocal style (more bad news here; any unnatural use of the vocal chords, such as Gord's many screams and howls and expectorations such as the 'highway romance milkin thiiiiEEEFFF' on RA, are very, very bad for the voice in the long run. The best thing he could probably do for his pipes is abandon his 'Hip' histrionics and stick to the much more natural and relaxed style of, say, 'Coke Machine Glow'). I hope he IS 'managing' his vocal chords and resting them as much as he can, as I hope to listen to him basically for the rest of my life :thumb:
Finally, I'm kinda disappointed at the numerous people I know who seem either turned off or distressed by Gord's 'weakening' voice. Ultimately, the Hip sound like a much more 'out there' band nowadays, and it's partly due do Gord's edgy vocals. People should listen to Dylan's 'Love and Theft'---now THERE'S a damged voice.
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Sure, but it's a damaged voice, that's all. I didn't say it wasn't awesome :lol:
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ever go to see a concert and have the lead singer not even come remotely close to sounding like they do in studio?(as in really awful live)....ya, i`ll stick with the gords of the world......its real
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