Foreigner's Juke box hereo, a capella and sung slowly

[jonpall]

I feel that I'm getting closer to being able to sing this song without murdering it, but I don't think I'm quite there yet. I wanted to wait to show you guys my progress until I had the song nailed, but tonight I really got the urge to show you my present status. Some of you guys might think this is plain awful. That's ok, because I'm just happy to be getting better at singing songs like this, even though I don't feel 100% comfortable yet with doing a lot of these songs in a live setting.

So here I'm singing the song, without a backing track, without any editing and recorded on my mobile phone (sorry) - but I think the gist of what I'm doing comes across on the recording. I also sing some of the phrases slower than in the original version, because I want each word to sound as good as I can make them. Here you go:

http://www.box.com/s/sk407fl86or0tn34fao9

Let me know if you dig the general sound or not. Any comments are welcome, good or bad. Cheers!

[devaitis]

I think that was really great Jonpall.

Bad quality does not allow me to say a more.

[Felipe Carvalho]

\m/ Very nice man, not bad at all. The lower notes are very well focused, and on the first chorus it sounds really well to me. Still as the song progress you slowly lost the posture on the higher notes, and they kinda started to focus too much on EE and losing the more rounded posture you used before, specially when the tonality rises (didnt sound nearly as good).

Its all your choice of course, but I would opt to fall back a little bit on the verses from the focus to save energy to the chorus and create even more contrast. For a live situation I would also use less drive, maybe only on start/ends of phrases and lower overall volume when the tonality rise.

But I also believe this would work very well live with a band if you performed it this way.

[jonpall]

Cool. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

[forest_gimp]

Seriously it needs nuts to record such a difficult song a capella. I like it.

The recording device doesn't match your voice. Phones don't like twanged notes. I like the kind of light rasp you get both on your low and high notes. It doesn't have to be a heavy rasp, just a cool smokey effect. I have been trying that creacking sound lately but I get tired from putting too much hold on my voice.

[jonpall]

For comparison, here's a short non-raspy Lou Gramm fooling-around (the second bridge in "I wanna know what love is"):

http://www.box.com/s/8jgffembbxia2mujml8i

[devaitis]

For comparison, here's a short non-raspy Lou Gramm fooling-around (the second bridge in "I wanna know what love is"):

http://www.box.com/s/8jgffembbxia2mujml8i

Cool singing, my turn to this ----> http://www.box.com/s/xg3lu13jhiq3yaf8poq6

who next to sing ......"I want you to show me" ?

[ronws]

I think you definitely had a more metal edge to this, which is a neat flavor for the song. I, too, have wanted to record a few Foreigner songs, namely "Hot-blooded" and "Dirty White Boy." I don't because I know that Gramm is the holy writ for Bob and I don't want to butcher it because I do not sound like Lou.

Applause and bravo, jon, excellent tone and feel.

[VideoHere]

jon, per your request, i'd like to comment.

first off, i truly believe this is one of the most difficult songs to sing well in rock music history. i haven't worked on this one much, and would certainly have to drop it a half. kelly hansen drops it. and lou himself drops it 2 now.

and even lou himself struggled with live performances of this song.

i think you really need a strong voice and be able to sing strong d5's, e5's comfortably and strong before you even go near a song like this.

but like i said it's support that's a big component to the vocals. that and to have the internal confidence and know-how to scream without involving the throat.

i believe the strong support gave him the intensity. he really gave it all when he sang that song.

i thought that was good man.

i'd like to hear another take where it's sung more stacatto-ish and punchy like the song. i'd also like to make a suggestion to try to incorporate a little more graduation of vocal register and registration as you move from the line to line. something along these lines:

sing thick and chesty, low to mid volume, employ glottal compression

standing in the rain

with his head hung low

couldn't get a ticket

it was sold out show

up the volume, but keep it chest as long as you can before releasing into head (support like hell)

heard the roar of the crown

to distant scream

then when get to "that one guitar" etc., you rise into head and literally scream without using the throat (easier said than done)

i just feel it needs to gradually get louder and more intense, rather than steadily intense.

great job! i'm no where near this range wise. ever try head games?

[jonpall]

Thanks Bob! I appreciate it. Yeah, I know that I probably sung the verses with more volume than Loud did it. I think that he used less volume for the verses and was slightly airy. But when he got to the higher parts, I think he increased the volume.

Btw. I was using lots of support for this, just like you've said. And what was very important was to relax as much as I could during the inhales and between the lines.

[jonpall]

devaitis, I really liked your clip man! :)