MISS HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. [BITCHBACK]
- The FastTracker
- Feb 13, 2012
- 5 min read
“Saving All My Love For You” came out at a time when I was in advertising and it, somehow, managed to pull me outta some personal weirdness I was going through at the time and which, I guess means, that in some way, Whitney Houston “saved” me.
Watching the video for “I Just Wanna Dance With Somebody”, this young woman oozed wholesome, “stylish” sex. She was what Diana Ross was to me growing up and what Halle Berry and Alicia Keys are to me today. Whitney Houston looked fresh, the music was not “soul” and with Arista’s Clive Davis looking after the A&R part of her career, she managed to do what only Michael Jackson had managed to do at that time: Crossover to a white audience. If I weren’t already married, I could have “married” her- mentally. Probably did. She exuded some incredible “good vibes” in what is still such a great video. Remember “good vibes?” They’re in such short supply, baby.
Her role in “The Bodyguard” opposite Kevin Costner where she looked STUNNING and THAT theme song where she took Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” and made it her own anthem turned the Whitney Houston from “Saving All My Love For You” into a bona fide diva. And with being a diva comes great responsibility and greater pressures to stay on top.
I have no idea about her personal life other than what I might have read or watched, but I do remember attending a Whitney Houston concert and where she came across cold, short-termed and managed to humiliate a fan who took a photo of her. Her voice was brilliant, but that show soured me of Whitney Houston, the person. This was not the young woman’s whose song had “saved” me and brought me to my senses. This was the type of wannabe diva I would come into contact with later when getting into the music industry. And now, she’s gone and there really is a void and a time for some reflection about “celebritydom”, the pressures that come with it and how it ravages the soul- but mainly the mind- and the effect it has on all those left behind.
Going back and listening to the musical legacy Whitney Houston has left behind also made me think of many of the songs around today, the celebrities behind the songs, the gimmicks behind the songs and the whole hyped up ball of wax which is fobbed off as “entertainment” and how “reality stars’ with no talent become instant celebrities. I had to listen to her version of The Star Spangled Banner again- especially after listening to Steven Tyler murder it a few weeks ago- to remind myself of just how unique and perfect she was as a singer and an interpreter. As for Steven Tyler, I think he’s a pretty amusing bloke and might be “very Rock’n Roll”, but he cannot sing just as Mick Jagger cannot sing. They are performers. Big difference and Vive Le Difference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupsPg5H6aE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnXWv8pFkmI
A few hours before hearing about Miss Houston’s death, I was reading how she might be a judge on “X Factor” which I happened to think was an awful idea and one which probably came from Sony Music- and Clive Davis- than Simon Cowell. I would have hated to see this lady with that once-incredible voice make an ass of herself on ‘live’ television. Leave that to the likes of Paula Abdul and that LaGuardia person who had her 15 minutes of fame on “Idol.” Whitney Houston could have been bigger than “X Factor” and being bigger than the show, she didn’t need it though she needed something. And now, Simon Cowell has joined the rest of the “We Loved Whitney” circus. Funny- and surreal- is this thing called publicity- and the need for it.
A couple of hours after hearing of her passing and some truly cringeworthy tributes which the “news channels” kept repeating- and getting their facts all wrong- I happened to tune into one of those E! Specials. It was on Nicki Minaj and watching it, I started to think, Where the hell are the MELODIES- you know, the TUNES? Screw the iPad.
Clive Davis always managed to give his favourite protégé songs with incredible top lines. Sure, many have of these songs been killed time and time again by lounge singers in 5-star hotels and familiarity and similarity and Filipina cover singers belting out The Best Of Whitney Houston has caused me to run outta many of these venues. But, there is no getting away from The Original. And Whitney Houston was an original and Clive Davis always supported this originality. She was his favourite, she went to him for support, and he as always there and is also Godfather to her now-hospitalized Daughter. Where her ex-husband- Bobby Brown- is amongst everything that’s happening is anyone’s guess.
Whitney Houston’s death the night before the Grammy’s is, in many ways, sweet irony- and very weird and surreal. For the past few months, it’s all been pretty quiet out there. Hell, even Dave Stewart hasn’t launched a new project and all these television talent shows are looking decidedly wobbly. The worlds of Hip Hop and Rap have been unusually quiet and everywhere one looks, it’s nothing about the music- but everything to do with personalities, wannabe celebs and brands and with everyone flogging something or another and making some very average music.
Frankly, I cannot think of one good Hip-Hop/Rap/Pop/Soul track since “Empire State Of Mind” and which feels like an eternity ago. Or at least one bad love life ago. And was Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful”- an incredibly well-crafted and meaningful song really EIGHT YEARS AGO????
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8
Apart from all the non-stop news on Lady Madonna and what seems like a plan to make up for lost time, the only big news have been the first photos of Beyonce and Jay Z’s baby. Cute.
When Michael Jackson died, we lost the world’s greatest performer. No one can ever replace him. Perhaps Whitney Houston’s passing was and is some weird way of waking us all up about THE MUSIC- how it matters, how melodies matter, how beats are just that- beats- and the equivalent of elevator music for Clubs and all the young “dudes” who frequent these clubs and too outta their heads to care about music and only “use” it as “wing men” to help them in their pursuit of things and women who go bump in the night. And so, what about the Grannies, or the Grammys? What new ground did it break or was it as unexciting as many of the artists and music out there today? I’ll let you know.
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