No Redemption After the Bridge for Whitney Houston
by Krishna Andavolu
FEBRUARY 12, 2012 TAGS:
That Whitney Houston died at the Beverly Hilton Hotel right before Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy party makes for an uncomfortable bookend. It was there in 1986 that the head of Arista Records introduced a teenaged, feather-thin and clear-eyed Houston to the industry she would dominate for the next two decades. Whitney Houston was the daughter of a gospel singer, cousin of Diane Warwick and God child of Aretha Franklin, but despite her stellar pedigree, she was a Clive Davis creation. Her voice, however, was very much her own. Now that she's dead at the age of 48 after slowly and publicly disintegrating over the last ten years, her voice is all that's left. It won't soon fade.
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With Michael Jackson, who also withered in the public eye before his too-soon death, Whitney Houston formed the twin pillars of American pop during the 80s and 90s. It was her voice, which was endlessly big, expressive and powerful, that pushed the heartrending ballads of her self-titled debut from schmaltzy to substantial. The singles from that record are majestic. "Saving All My Love For You" earned Houston a Grammy win for Best Pop vocal performance. But a list of awards, top-of-the-charts singles and record sales doesn't quite do justice to the effect of her performances.
It was the fragile/powerful Whitney Houston that defined her stage persona. In "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," she expresses a longing and insecurity made somehow powerful by her bouyant, athletic vocals. The clarity of her voice was particularly well suited to the conventions of the pop ballad. Those second halves, often after a key change, was when Houston went from sparkling to devastating. In "I Will Always Love You," a song that will live on forever, Houston saved the best for the end. She finished a song like no one else.
The brilliance of her performative spirit was shadowed by a fraught and often destructive personal life. Her chaotic marriage to former New Edition singer Bobby Brown and often visible drug use sent her tumbling. After she and Brown split in 2007, Houston scored a comeback record in 2009. But her performances were uneven at best. Performing in Central Park on NBC's Today Show, Houston crumbled. That voice, while achievable in the studio, was gone. [Listen to the vocals only of the 1985 single, "How Will I Know," those are pipes]
We still don't know how Houston died, though early reports indicate that Houston died from the combined effectsof prescription drugs like Xanax and alcohol. TMZ published photographs of the singer on Friday night, and she looked frazzled and dazed. She was found in the bathtub of her room Saturday afternoon collapsed and unresponsive. It will take four to six weeks before toxicology reports are released. But that mystery, while the fodder for tabloid speculation, is in some ways moot. The Whitney Houston of the 80s, the one now blaring from pop radio stations and soon to top charts once more, was gone for years.
Last night's Grammy Awards Ceremony was Houston's wake. It certainly won't be the last time she'll be honored, but producer of the show did the only thing they could. They made the show about Whitney. Host LL Cool J began his opening, “Tonight we ask ourselves how do we speak to this time, to this day? “There is no way around this: We have had a death in our family. The only thing that feels right is to begin with a prayer."
Calling it a "night to celebrate and remember," the rapper-turned-actor made explicit what even the first performance implied: loss. As Bruce Sprinsteen and his E Street Band rammed through his new patriotic anthem, "We Take Care of Our Own," missing from the joyous fray was the Big Man on Sax. Clarence Clemons died last year, leaving Bruce without the signature blaring saxophone.
As Alicia Keys remarked before performing alongside Bonnie Raitt to remember fallen chanteuse Etta James, "a truly great artist left us. We love Whitney Houston." Then they played James' "Sunday Kind of Love".
Jennifer Hudson's tribute rendition of "I Will Always Love You," came towards the end of the show after some of the emotional shock had waned from the ceremony. But it was a powerhouse. As amazing as that song can travel from voice-to-voice, it's so very much Whitney's. Just as it was 1992, the song promises to be THE song of 2012. Its broadly declarative chorus and insistence on "always" works so well as a vehicle for fans' grief and a showcase of Whitney's incomparable pipes. There's no other pop song of the last twenty years that ends so powerfully.
What shadowed every performer, presenter and winner last night was the knowledge of how well Whitney Houston could finish a song. The tragedy is that she couldn't catch redemption after the bridge of her own life.
Even so, Whitney Houston will be around forever. As last year's Best New Artist, Esperanza Spalding, noted to TV reporters on the red carpet before the awards ceremony, "That's the effect of talent. She permeated culture."
With Michael Jackson, who also withered in the public eye before his too-soon death, Whitney Houston formed the twin pillars of American pop during the 80s and 90s. It was her voice, which was endlessly big, expressive and powerful, that pushed the heartrending ballads of her self-titled debut from schmaltzy to substantial. The singles from that record are majestic. "Saving All My Love For You" earned Houston a Grammy win for Best Pop vocal performance. But a list of awards, top-of-the-charts singles and record sales doesn't quite do justice to the effect of her performances. It was the fragile/powerful Whitney Houston that defined her stage persona. In "I Wanna Dance with Somebody," she expresses a longing and insecurity made somehow powerful by her bouyant, athletic vocals. The clarity of her voice was particularly well suited to the conventions of the pop ballad. Those second halves, often after a key change, was when Houston went from sparkling to devastating. In "I Will Always Love You," a song that will live on forever, Houston saved the best for the end. She finished a song like no one else.
The brilliance of her performative spirit was shadowed by a fraught and often destructive personal life. Her chaotic marriage to former New Edition singer Bobby Brown and often visible drug use sent her tumbling. After she and Brown split in 2007, Houston scored a comeback record in 2009. But her performances were uneven at best. Performing in Central Park on NBC's Today Show, Houston crumbled. That voice, while achievable in the studio, was gone. [Listen to the vocals only of the 1985 single, "How Will I Know," those are pipes]
We still don't know how Houston died, though early reports indicate that Houston died from the combined effectsof prescription drugs like Xanax and alcohol. TMZ published photographs of the singer on Friday night, and she looked frazzled and dazed. She was found in the bathtub of her room Saturday afternoon collapsed and unresponsive. It will take four to six weeks before toxicology reports are released. But that mystery, while the fodder for tabloid speculation, is in some ways moot. The Whitney Houston of the 80s, the one now blaring from pop radio stations and soon to top charts once more, was gone for years.
Last night's Grammy Awards Ceremony was Houston's wake. It certainly won't be the last time she'll be honored, but producer of the show did the only thing they could. They made the show about Whitney. Host LL Cool J began his opening, “Tonight we ask ourselves how do we speak to this time, to this day? “There is no way around this: We have had a death in our family. The only thing that feels right is to begin with a prayer."Calling it a "night to celebrate and remember," the rapper-turned-actor made explicit what even the first performance implied: loss. As Bruce Sprinsteen and his E Street Band rammed through his new patriotic anthem, "We Take Care of Our Own," missing from the joyous fray was the Big Man on Sax. Clarence Clemons died last year, leaving Bruce without the signature blaring saxophone.
As Alicia Keys remarked before performing alongside Bonnie Raitt to remember fallen chanteuse Etta James, "a truly great artist left us. We love Whitney Houston." Then they played James' "Sunday Kind of Love".
Jennifer Hudson's tribute rendition of "I Will Always Love You," came towards the end of the show after some of the emotional shock had waned from the ceremony. But it was a powerhouse. As amazing as that song can travel from voice-to-voice, it's so very much Whitney's. Just as it was 1992, the song promises to be THE song of 2012. Its broadly declarative chorus and insistence on "always" works so well as a vehicle for fans' grief and a showcase of Whitney's incomparable pipes. There's no other pop song of the last twenty years that ends so powerfully.
What shadowed every performer, presenter and winner last night was the knowledge of how well Whitney Houston could finish a song. The tragedy is that she couldn't catch redemption after the bridge of her own life.
Even so, Whitney Houston will be around forever. As last year's Best New Artist, Esperanza Spalding, noted to TV reporters on the red carpet before the awards ceremony, "That's the effect of talent. She permeated culture."
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