She had the... perfect voice, and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise....Very sad.
But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances....
ADDED: The first video
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100 comments:
Bobbie Brown was poison.
I wonder what happened. LA County Coroner has said they have not gotten a report of her death.
Here's video comparing her voice -- singing the same song -- in 1994 and 2010. It's a very shocking difference.
Dear lady, Rest in Peace, I treasure the recording of the National Anthem from the Superbowl, years ago. It is probably one of the best ever. May she find comfort in the arms of Angels.
"She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen."
Really? "Made palatable to the masses"? What kind of person writes this insulting shit?
Couldn't agree more about Bobbie Brown.
She also had enough money to afford the "perfect" drug addiction.
She was Dione Warwick's niece, I think. Gorgeous to look at. Fabulous to hear sing. (Madonna didn't even come close to the 1991 or 1992 singing Whitney Houston did of the National Anthem.)
But she knew everybody in Hollywood.
Drugs, easy to get, can't just be put down. Until you're dead.
Drudge says Whitney Houston died at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Blame the "neighborhood."
Poster Child for drugs.
Nope. Not an "easy" life.
In 1991 or 1992, Whitney Houston sang the Anthem at that year's Super Bowl. What happens when you can no longer remember the teams that played each other?
Re: the video that Prof Althouse posted:
Is there someone amongst us who understands the physiology of vocal production that can explain what she might have done to so utterly destroy her voice like that?
Don't say alcohol & drugs --- Dino & Ole Blue Eyes went through quite a bit in their days, but never lost their pipes.
What could she have done to so thoroughly trash herself?
Possibly smoking crack?
>.Don't say alcohol & drugs --- Dino & Ole Blue Eyes went through quite a bit in their days, but never lost their pipes.<<
Did either smoke crack or meth?
And BTW, Bobbie Brown is not to blame....Whitney Houston was a drug user long before she married Bobbie Brown and she even admitted it.
Is he also to blame for her brother's drug use?
" Facebook
Tweet
Michael Houston, brother of singer Whitney Houston, was arrested Wednesday and charged for possessing cocaine, marijuana, drug paraphernalia and being under the influence of drugs after he was pulled over by Fort Lee, N.J., police officers, it has since been reported by the Bergen Record. Authorities reportedly stopped Houston, 39, for failing to yield to traffic while exiting a Holiday Inn parking lot. Upon noticing Houston's apparent condition (which included bloodshot eyes and dilated pupils), officers searched his car and found 14 partially smoked marijuana cigarettes, a bag of marijuana and some cocaine, according to the Record. Houston, a writer for Whitney's Nippy Inc., voluntarily turned in another bag of marijuana when he reached the police station. He was arraigned early Thursday morning, Aug. 9 -- which also happened to be Whitney's 38th birthday -- and released. His bail was set at $3,500. And to add to the family drama, Houston's arrest occurred on the same day that his brother-in-law (husband of Whitney) Bobby Brown, 34, was rushed to a New Jersey hospital after experiencing a seizure, which Whitney's publicist later blamed on heat and his busy recording schedule. "
The first time I saw her .......... Wow!
Last time, too.
Peace comes hard sometimes.
"Dino & Ole Blue Eyes went through quite a bit in their days, but never lost their pipes."
I'm not sure what drugs Dean & Frank did. But I'd guess crack-- as opposed to alcohol (or other drugs, including heroin)-- takes a particular toll on your body (and in particular your throat).
@Fedka,
I'm willing to entertain that smoking crack or meth could trash one vocal production, but I'm not just going to assume it.
Lots of the old crooners smoked tobacco (not to mention the younger guys and weed). Is crack and meth really worse on the vocal cords (not one's health in general) than tobacco or weed?
You know who WH reminds me of? Carmen Miranda. Great singer, awful husband, years of drug & alcohol abuse, and early demise.
Sad.
She used to sing better than all her contemporaries..
imho.
She was a beautiful woman with a spectacular voice. Too bad she threw all it all away to get high.
Not surprising. Obviously a great talent.
TMZ has a video of her leaving a sushi restaurant a week ago, and she doesn't look in any way sick or drugged.
Anybody who doesn't get chills down his back listening to her sing "I Will Always Love You" is either deaf or not human.
RIP. May God look after her soul.
Whitney Houston came from the tough streets of Newark and East Orange, NJ and she never really left the "hood" behind...
From the article:
"Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop's pure princess while he had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own. (The couple had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.
But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.
"When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place," she told Rolling Stone in 1993. "You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that's their image. It's part of them, it's not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody's angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy."
It would take several years, however, for the public to see that side of Houston"
I treasure the recording of the National Anthem from the Superbowl, years ago. It is probably one of the best ever.
Me too.. it moved me to tears.. it gave me goosepumps, I had ever teared up for the anthem before.. the first gulf war was going on too.
A celebrity death.
Very very sad.
Be grateful that in her voices most productive years, she left a rich body of work. Singers past 45-50 rarely retain the range, power, and timbre of their younger better selves. The successful survivors in older years are the ones that never had exceptional voices to begin with (Madonna), or adapted to their new limits and sang with compelling phrasing, punctuation, or had good hook songs with no real vocal challenges they could own (Sinatra, Streisand).
Or become revered dinosaurs that fans still want to see because of the "good old days" - Rolling Stones, McCartney, old country acts, old gospel roots/blues black women.
Sort of a predictable arc of youthful top performance then a lessening as age comes into play, even without "drug use, injury" intervening. Happens to singers, golfers, female porn stars, NFL running backs, tennis players, etc.
But yes, though her death did not stop a "greater musical legacy" from being achieved had she lived, still a human being with many fine qualities and she died too young.
I should also point out that her aunt Dionne Warwick has had her own struggles with drugs.
Holy cow. I have been only vaguely aware of some of her problems, but she did have talent for singing. I, like Roman at 7:45 recall her doing the National Anthem.
This is genuinely sad. I hope she is at rest.
Cedarford's comment brings to mind the late Etta James, who died only weeks ago. She maintained her chops well past 50, although it is notable that she, in her later years eschewed some of the louder, up tempo numbers of her early years. Her album "Mystery Lady," covers of Billie Holiday songs was a wonderful example. It was released, I think in 1992, when she would have been in her mid 60's, and her voice was immaculate, just husky enough for the somky atmosphere those songs require.
I'm not sure.. but if she is not the top recording seller of all time.. it might be Mariah.. Whitney is up there a close second or third.
Comparisons on the sound of the singing:
Pavarotti voice did not improve with age. Nor did it stay the same over time. And, the same is true about Maria Callas. Who also turned to drugs.
Maybe, the connection is females with money who have access to drugs, use them?
Pavarotti got fat on food.
But his voice was always lush. He could even play the role of a 19-year-old consumptive. Where a music teacher I had said "no." I said "it worked for me."
To each his own.
Billie Holiday, heroin addict, was a great singer (albeit different singer-- her voice got smokier and sadder and darker) to the end of her days.
But then Billie Holiday was never a technical vocal virtuoso like Whitney. Her genius lay in vocal expressiveness, lyric interpretation-- so even as her voice broke down, ever more fragile and weary, her singing was all the more (emotionally) powerful.
Whereas Whitney's Houston's brilliance was always that preternatural pyrotechnical voice. (A much more beautiful voice than her unfortunate, insufferable epigones-- like Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera.) Once WH lost her voice, she couldn't age like Billie Holiday-- she would've had to entirely reinvent and reconceive her (vocally virtuosic) songs.
Which maybe might have been possible (I'm a fan of surprising song remakes/ reinventions, even by the same singer: e.g. Dylan is a master at this). But Whitney Houston didn't go down this path. So of course any comparison with her earlier singing would tell a tale of sad decline.
Remember when MTV began and many enthusiasts got all excited before the release of a new music video. :D Like the fools who waited outside a store overnight for the release of Windows95/98.
Whitney Rest in Peace!
the same is true about Maria Callas. Who also turned to drugs.
She also deliberately gave herself a tape worm in order to lose weight.
FedkaTheConvict said...
And BTW, Bobbie Brown is not to blame....Whitney Houston was a drug user long before she married Bobbie Brown and she even admitted it.
So, was Bobby Brown her JFK? She was an adult and made her own choices, yet she was the one with the true star power.
"Bobby Brown dared me to do it. I'm gonna get you Bobby B!"
Found a decent recording of a live performance.. decent for 1991
All The Man That I Need
Crack is whack.
Does anyone have a theory to explain the self-destructiveness of musicians?
She put that bottle to her head
and pulled the trigger.
And finally drank away her memory.
Life is short and this time
so much bigger.
than the strength she had to get up off her knees
They found her with her face down in her pillow
Clinging to a picture for dear life
When they buried her beneath the willow
The Angels sang a whiskey lullaby
Ann Althouse said...
Here's video comparing her voice -- singing the same song -- in 1994 and 2010.
It's a very shocking difference.
Reminds me of the difference between Frank Sinatra back in his day and at his final public performance in 1995 (albeit at age 77). I have heard recordings of Sinatra in concert as late as age 65 in which he was still remarkably good. That last one - you don't want to hear. He was reading a teleprompter of lyrics to songs he had sung thousands of times in his career, his timing was off, and at the end of the performance he walks the wrong way off stage and has to be called back by emcee Tom Driesen. Still, as bad as that was it was in his 6th decade of performing, and while he was high mileage because of his lifestyle
and booze, he went out 3 years later from natural causes.
Whitney? I lived in Atlanta while she and Bobby Brown were in the most public phase of their circus like marriage. You'd see them in a restaurant and it was like war zone. Food everywhere, lots of shouting. Later, my wife's law firm had the honor of foreclosing on her home in Country Club of the South, in northeast Suburban Atlanta.
Just a shame. But not news.
This is your brain on drugz.
Crack is whack.
Crack hasn't even said anything yet..
(gotcha)
Very sad. When life lifts a voice to the angels, why does a person sink to her own demons?
That video I linked to has 0, zero dislikes.. something tells me thats going to change.
By far, the entertainment business is the most dangerous industry in the county.
If it were any other industry, OSHA would have come in and shut it down permanently years ago.
How many more people must be killed or injured or scarred?
Her Star Spangled Banner, I will always remember-
Nothing compares.
These low-life, drug peddling fucks that see a vibrant, happy person--and make it their personal challenge to bring them down to their level-
She chose her path, but--damn.
Whitney Houston 1985
An all talent but yet unpolished Whitney.
Tina Turner was lucky; she saw what was happening and got out.
Sad part is, Whitney Houston was one of those rare performers with almost universal appeal.
She tried a couple of times for a comeback.
Hope she at least has peace now.
PS Her mother, Cissy, was a member of the gospel group, the Sweet Inspirations. They did backup on the old Elvis song, "Suspicious Minds", so the voice, if not the weakness, was in the blood.
Is it weird to think heaven might have some mighty fine singing tonight?
Singers past 45-50 rarely retain the range, power, and timbre of their younger better selves
I went to go see Cab Calloway at the Nectarine Ballroom on Liberty (Ann Arbor) when he was about 80 years old. And his voice was booming.
Singing Minnie the Moocher, his voice was as strong as a recording from 50 years earlier.
An interesting find.
Go ahead click, I dare you.. the yuts.. the 19 year olds.
Anybody who doesn't get chills down his back listening to her sing "I Will Always Love You" is either deaf or not human
Sorry to speak ill of the dead, but yeah, I got some kind of chill or shudder or some kind of retching feeling listening to Houston completely torture Dolly Parton's song. Houston had a fair number of excellent songs, but her screeching "I Will Always Love You" was, by far, her worst.
Love Will Save The Day
Sometimes life can make you crazy
It can really put a body to the test
You try so hard to make sure everything is right
And you find you've only wound up with a mess
It's a common situation
Even though you feel abandoned and alone
Child, you ain't the first to experience a hurt so
Don't panic when you bit the danger zone
What you need's a little change of heart
Forget this fear and frustration
Love will always play the greater part
When you battles wear you down ...
Here's my advice
Chorus:
When you're feeling down and out
And you're got troubles on your mind
Love will save the day
When you're feeling full of doubt
And fear has got you in a bind
Love will save the day
When your world's falling apart
All you got to do is say a prayer
And love will save the day
There's answer in your heart
So let your light shines, my dear
And love will save the day
Love will save the day
Love will save the day
Love will save the day
Love will save the day
Love will save the day
Many things in this world bring you down
It's a wonder you can make it thru the day
Well you can't sleep cause your problems are too deep
And there's always something getting the way
And when you turn on the evening news
Mass confusion is the only thing you'll see
Well there's no question
That we need a new direction cause
We all could use dome peace and harmony
What you need's a little change of heart
Forget this fear and frustration
Love will always play the greater part
When you battles wear you down ...
Here's my advice
You can always count on the British press:
Houston we have a problem... again!
One music scholar, talking about 1920/30s Mississippi blues, said that was the start of popular black recordings, that led to Jazz and electric blues, to R&B and whatever else, and eventually Whitney Houston was the direct successor to what we heard coming out of Mississippi in 1930 (this was written a few years ago).
We all have demons.
You blog.
She injected, or snorted.
Me?...I drink too much.
No surprise.
A Song For You live 1991
She signs her hart out here.
Bender said...
Singers past 45-50 rarely retain the range, power, and timbre of their younger better selves
I went to go see Cab Calloway at the Nectarine Ballroom on Liberty (Ann Arbor) when he was about 80 years old. And his voice was booming
Depends on the singer. I heard Calloway do "Minnie" in the 60s and, yes, he sounded great.
Dinah Shore, OTOH, lost her voice totally when she was in her 40s and Beverly Sills quit at 50 because she wanted to go out when her voice was still strong.
paminwi said...
Is it weird to think heaven might have some mighty fine singing tonight?
No, it just shows you wish her well.
"Is it weird to think heaven might have some mighty fine singing tonight?"
Not at all, pam. Course some might prefer to catch her musical soul at next year's 80's Revival Tour in Mumbai.
Where Do Broken Hearts Go
She did have a good run, unlike Amy Whinehouse.. but that is too small a consolation.
I felt more stunned and saddened when I heard the news of her death than when I heard about the deaths of some of the other celebrities in recent years. Although she was starting to become a bad joke 9 or 10 years ago, I guess I always hoped that she'd somehow beat the odds and manage to turn things around.
Cedarford said,
"Sort of a predictable arc of youthful top performance then a lessening as age comes into play, even without "drug use, injury" intervening. Happens to singers, golfers, female porn stars, NFL running backs, tennis players, etc."
Do you suppose that "etc" includes Althouse commenters?
Naw, me either.
I'm sad. I saw her in concert at the old Boston Garden and she was amazing. It was like a big old fucking gay bar there though. Gays loved her.
The video is kind of hideous though...the saxophone queen did a big split leap.
Madonna's videos still hold up though through all these years. Even Borderline and Burning Up, a couple of her first videos still resonate in 2012.
A sad end. I hope she is finally home at last and at peace.
Wow...I never saw this coming!
She had sex appeal precisely because she was not overtly sexual. Most people have likely noticed that physically we are not exactly incongruent. Houston was more than the sum of her parts.
I enjoyed her playful demeanor. She was at her best when she acted young at heart, even when she was physically youthful. That was inextricably part of her charm and appeal.
Well, she consumed drugs, alcohol, and engaged in frivolous and damaging behavior in order to escape reality. Today, she succeeded.
RIP
I have a JFK Honors snark.. but it would be inappropriate..
The body prob still warm.
Back in the 90s I used to have these tween roommates pili and mili that loved Whitney.. they would buy all her cd's and sing along.
(there is something going on with blogger today, it always rejects my first word verification input.. its annoying.
She had a pretty voice, obviously. But growing up with Whitney Houston's songs all over the radio, I just remember hating it all and fleeing for cover from that sort of thing. It said nothing to me. She was a product of corporate record industry execs who have made sure that as few songs as possible on the radio actually say anything of any meaning to peoples' lives. Most of the female singers who call her their main influence are even more awful, like Christina Aguilera.
It's too bad she died at such a young age, though. She apparently made a lot of people happy with her songs, even if I couldn't relate.
I saw her in Harrod's in London six or seven years ago and she looked terrible--stick thin, chalky skin and brittle-looking hair. What a waste of talent and opportunity.
Lem noted: (there is something going on with blogger today, it always rejects my first word verification input.. its annoying.
No worries Lem. My guess is that Blogger is just beta testing some new keystroke logger software. Nothing to worry about.
I was not a fan, but you didn't have to be to appreciate her talent. Her voice was soaring and when she hit the high notes, you could feel God's grace in the music. It seems that her private life was just as degraded as her music was uplifting. There was a disconnect between her music and her life.....They say that if you blind the nightingale, their singing becomes more rapturous. Maybe the rapture and elevation of her voice was her attempt to enlighten the dark emptiness at the center of her soul.
Following up, SNL just announced that Maya Rudolf, former resident "Whitney" in sketch comedy (see above links) is next week's host.
Certainly, by unhappy coincidence.
Question is how Maya deals with her impression of Houston next weekend.
I do not understand the phrase rest in peace. Why would you wish that for a rabble rouser in life? I think it is better to wish the opposite. It would sound like this, "Raise some hell, Whitney Houston. Now that you're dead, there's not that holding you back." But that wish for someone takes an abiding faith in the hereafter whereas the rest in peace one doesn't.
Hoping that Maya is part Irish. She can pretend it's a wake.
Might give the rest of us a well-deserved laugh.
" Singers past 45-50 rarely retain the range, power, and timbre of their younger better selves. The successful survivors in older years are the ones that never had exceptional voices to begin with . . . "
But then there was Ella.
I don't understand the phrase "rest in peace" either, Chip, but hey, I like it.
What I like less is that we don't seem able to differentiate the rabble from the rabble rousers.
Imagine being able to sing like that. It must be like being on a .... drug. Having all that power at a given point in time. How can you re-enter the mundane world?
She was a passionate performer. When she first sang I Will Always Love You, we all believed her. And she did not even know us.
She was special in her voice and in her personal emotions she could project through her facial expressions and her voice in perfect synch.
It is very sad.
Emotionally hurt people will often self medicate with emotional-pain killers we call drugs whether Rx or free market.
Chip...The RIP phrase arises from scripture that speaks of unbelievers being taken away by Death and Hades, while it always speaks of believers never tasting death but only "falling asleep" until the final resurrection day.
That is like a catch 22, because you must believe it to test it. But Death needs some answers, because it is a horrible enemy.
RIP everyone when your time comes.
But this one is more poignant: A Quiet Place. (Watch Cissy looking at Whitney.)
: (
Bobbie Brown has a lot to answer for. I lay a lot of this on his doorstep. He's still a punk ass bitch scumbag.
I haven't been this shocked since Amy Winehouse died.
Eric wins the thread on the sharply ironic, sweetly sarcastic front. The question is, is he happy about that?
I can't say I cared for her as a performer, but it is a shame to see her die so young. RIP.
whitney won the genetic lottery by inheriting the pipes from her mother, the inimitable cissy houston. whitney got all the popular acclaim that eluded her more talented mother...and then she threw it all away for cheap thrills.
No doubt Cissy would find your words of wisdom comforting, el polacko, except that I'd bet she knows more about the *whole* story--of her own life as well as of Whitney's--than you do. (Jerk.)
Also, are you under the impression that Cissy, along with a number of her siblings, *weren't* also blessed with "music genes"? Because that's unlikely, given the evidence.
Lem,
Crack is whack.
Crack hasn't even said anything yet..
I defiantly stuck with this moniker, because I know what it represents to society, but - as with most things nowadays - few seem to grasp it's significance. Just as when I label someone/something NewAge, I've always been very careful and specific in my own work.
The death of Whitney Houston isn't "sad" - it was preordained, obvious, inevitable. Either she or Britney Spears were going to bite it because - in the "ethics-free" zone - they're/we're encouraged to publicly destroy themselves. Even the "help" they're/we're offered are silly nonsensical "higher power" cults - AA, Kabbalah, and the like - so, no matter what, there's never been an effort to get to the bottom of it. Even now, the hate Bobby Brown lobby AKA the Blame "A Man" Group, is already gearing up when the truth is this culture will jail any man - but especially a black one - for trying to stop a woman from doing anything. Bobby Brown was in no better position to stop Whitney Houston than any other man. If you want to blame anybody, I say - if you're a feminist - look in the mirror:
Society's acceptance of another contradictory, man-destroying, and completely oblivious tenets of NewAge (feminism) caused this death and many others - not Bobby Brown and especially not crack - which is just a means to that end.
The real problem is/was/and always will be you don't listen,...
Her voice was a blow torch of power and tone.
She also understood that she didn't need to use the endless runs that X-tina and Mariah overuse, that her vocal power could stand on it's own and not have to be tarted up every 10 seconds with going up and down an arpaggio scale.
I've edited - and expanded on - my previous answer at TMR:
Hit the links - some go here - I think they're quite revealing,...
I want to hear now about drug liberalization
traditionalguy, I didn't know that. I have always taken RIP to be a kind of blessing to those who have now suscummed after a period of physical, emotional or spiritual pain.
Yeah, you know Crack, I read your link. I'm not sure what is so hard and coming out and being a wee bit clearer? Why the angry implications that we are all just not cool enough to get it? Just say what you mean!
Aaargh! It really bugs me when I am meant to infer certain things and I am inferior if I can't.
Say what you mean. Stop being so mysterioso.
(Ann, are you ever going to comment on the many many comments about the messed up word verification mechanism?)
Drugs lead to premature deaths. No one made her do drugs, it was her choice.
She definitely had it all over Celine Dion, voice-wise. I don't know much technically about music but her voice was the best I've ever heard.
I don't like 'I Will Always Love You' only because I associate it with The Bodyguard, two hours of my life I'll never get back. I've never seen a more improbable movie pairing than her and Costner. Zero chemistry.
But I'm not a hater. Her music was great. Her movies, meh. Too bad she died, but one of my friends lost his dad this week, so I'll save my emotional responses for him. I usually don't get moved one way or the other when celebrities die. I agree with Crack; it almost seems inevitable. It's more surprising when one of them lives a long, well-adjusted life.
So sad. I remember her first appearances and then the slow decline.
And Bodyguard is one of the best chick flicks ever!
I want to hear now about drug liberalization
Right, right. It's a damn good thing our drug laws saved Whitney.
I want to hear now about drug liberalization
What would you like to hear about it?
Very very sad. In her own words, it's not right, but it's o.k.
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