Whitney Houston 1985

Did anyone watch the Letterman performance Bill Simmons linked to in his latest mailbag? It is genuinely ludicrous.

 

I'm not following. Ludicrous how? It's a great performance, and she has wasted a ton of talent if that is your point.

 

No. This is all-time ludicrous. Serge Gainsbourg vs. Whitney Houston around the same era on French TV right not too long before Gainsbourg died. NSFW due to language.

Gainsbourg, probably the closest approximation to the dude in the Dos Equis commercials, was clearly pickled by then on God-knows-what, but he had some great moments.

Z-Man turned me on to his Melodie Nelson album, which is really, really good.

 

But he said he wasn't drunk.
Good stuff. I'm pretty sure I've seen it before, but it's been a while.

 

Sorry. I meant ludicrous as in "really remarkably good." I can't remember a more powerful live-show vocal display by a popular singer.

 

Few vocalists ever could match Whitney in her prime.

 

Gotcha. She is one of the few singers I can say gave me chills just from the beauty of her voice. She really was amazing in her prime.

 

I actually wonder, though, if she actually "wasted" her talent. She had over a decade, maybe even 15 years, of major success, and for some of that time she was a top, top star. Obviously, she's had a bunch of bad years, and she could've been a star for life, but a decade-plus of big success is still pretty remarkable.

 

True. But she could have been great for a lifetime, like Aretha or ???. But it doesn't seem like she wanted that, and that's OK, I suppose.

 

I thought this was about the time she sang "Saving All My Love For You" on "Silver Spoons" - also from 1985.

 

Is the answer "The last time she was not strung out on crack?"

 

When she first became a star, I had such a crush. That probably would have disappeared quickly if I could have seen 20 years into the future.