One of Those Rare Moments I Agree Wtih Althouse.

Naturally  it is not politics.  Something more trivial than that.  American Idol.

She like me thinks  that guest  coach was giving some much needed  professional pointers on singing ballads.  Go  here for that.

Her quote:

"A painful moment last night on the dying show they call "American Idol." The contestants were singing old standards, and Connick obviously knows how to sing them well, but his efforts to help them sing those songs fell on — it's mean to use this cliché, which is why I'm violating my rule against clichés — deaf ears."
 

I gave up on AI years ago and started watching again this year because of a lady friend did.  And I am a musician of sorts.  I can deal with it  as long as I keep in mind, it is TV product.  And part of the fun of it, is complaining about it.  Now last night I was commenting  on my FB page.  And one of my friends  disagreed with me  siding with Harry Connick  telling the one singer to sing the purer  version, instead of some more stylized version.  I agreed with the ultimate  direction:

Sing the melody.

Earlier today I revisited that thread, and made the following  observation:

 "Follow up. First, I can not sing for real. Best I can do is "imitate." And not well for the record. But I that that was the point HC was making. (Don't imitate,) sing the melody."

 

I really think I got what  Connick was saying.  Don't immitate.  Sing damnit!