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Will Billie Joe Armstrong's Singing Voice Recover?


LostHighway

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Lets face it people. Billie Joe Armstrong's singing has been well below par for the last two years. In the 90's to very early 2000's his voice had a strong, unrefined sound to it and it sounded untrained. It then improved noticeably during the American Idiot Era where it sounded like he had been having some training and looking after himself. He sounded amazing on the 21CB tour which is the current pinnacle of the vocal heights he has reached. His voice has sounded abysmal during the trilogy era and I can only speculate as to why. My guess is that he hasn't fully recovered from the abuse he has inflicted on himself with his substance abuse and alcoholism problems. I personally think that it will recover as he has had a nice long rest from the 99R tour. I will watch their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performance with real interest. What do you guys think?

Will he recover? Or will his best singing be forever behind him?

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Billie's had alcohol problems for years (been openly saying so since at least Nimrod times), the trilogy era wasn't the only time he was drinking and taking drugs, it just happened to be the time he realized he was overdoing it and got some help with it.

And his voice sounded totally fine on the last tour (as well as on Foreverly - some of the best singing he's ever done!) to me. Really don't get what people are on about when they say his voice is bad now :lol:

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what about foreverly straight after rehab - that was a dam hard thing to sing & although not my kind of music - sounded amazing.

Billie's had alcohol problems for years (been openly saying so since at least Nimrod times), the trilogy era wasn't the only time he was drinking and taking drugs, it just happened to be the time he realized he was overdoing it and got some help with it.

And his voice sounded totally fine on the last tour (as well as on Foreverly - some of the best singing he's ever done!) to me. Really don't get what people are on about when they say his voice is bad now :lol:


You beat me this time.

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Billie's had alcohol problems for years (been openly saying so since at least Nimrod times), the trilogy era wasn't the only time he was drinking and taking drugs, it just happened to be the time he realized he was overdoing it and got some help with it.

And his voice sounded totally fine on the last tour (as well as on Foreverly - some of the best singing he's ever done!) to me. Really don't get what people are on about when they say his voice is bad now :lol:

This.

what about foreverly straight after rehab - that was a dam hard thing to sing & although not my kind of music - sounded amazing.

And this.

Is this really what passes as thread worthy these days?

:D

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Yes foreverly is the best singing he has ever done. I don't see the problem with his voice

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Yes foreverly is the best singing he has ever done. I don't see the problem with his voice

Let's not mention brutal love live

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I heard him live in 2012, and I can´t find his voice having been "abysmal". No way! Just clear, strong, powerful. And that was only a few days before he had a breakdown or something in Italy and shows were cancelled.

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I never noticed anything wrong with his voice either... I think it's as strong as ever!
Maybe the power of his voice goes missing in the trilogy, cause they may have edited it a bit too much...

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The only time i've noticed his voice being shitty is basically Iheart. It seems at least from my perspective that his voice gets higher when he is either too drunk (like reallllly drunk) or on something else (I can only speculate of course which doesn't help haha) cause at iheart which I think was the definition of overdoing it his voice sounded higher and he couldn't really control it but i've seen him do just fine in other videos where he's plastered. I think this break will give his chords a much needed rest and when they come back it'll be sunshine and rainbows!

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Lets face it people. Billie Joe Armstrong's singing has been well below par for the last two years. In the 90's to very early 2000's his voice had a strong, unrefined sound to it and it sounded untrained. It then improved noticeably during the American Idiot Era where it sounded like he had been having some training and looking after himself. He sounded amazing on the 21CB tour which is the current pinnacle of the vocal heights he has reached. His voice has sounded abysmal during the trilogy era and I can only speculate as to why. My guess is that he hasn't fully recovered from the abuse he has inflicted on himself with his substance abuse and alcoholism problems. I personally think that it will recover as he has had a nice long rest from the 99R tour. I will watch their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Performance with real interest. What do you guys think?

http://youtu.be/4pQcn2L65J0
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Just because the Trilogy was a major disappointment doesn't mean Billie can't sing anymore. The Trilogy has a different sound and Green Day didn't pull it off well, which is causing a lot of fans to freak out over what's wrong with the band. But I think the reality is that they just didn't release good albums and we're not used to that. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Billie's voice. I don't listen to a lot of live recordings but everything I've heard recently, especially from when they play older material, sounds just fine to me.

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Just because the Trilogy was a major disappointment doesn't mean Billie can't sing anymore. The Trilogy has a different sound and Green Day didn't pull it off well, which is causing a lot of fans to freak out over what's wrong with the band. But I think the reality is that they just didn't release good albums and we're not used to that. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Billie's voice. I don't listen to a lot of live recordings but everything I've heard recently, especially from when they play older material, sounds just fine to me.

this ^

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Here are two performances from the last tour in Australia:

Does that seriously sound abysmal? Not to my ears, for sure.
Of course, there'll always be examples of worse performances, but that happens on every tour, nobody's voice is always on top form.

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The Foreverly argument is basically bullshit, considering all of the tweaks and edits that go into every vocal track, and god only knows how many takes.

It's difficult to deny that BJ's voice was complete shit on the first leg of the Trilogy tour, just before and after rehab. It probably had something to do with him readjusting to performing after doing it whilst completely fucked up for so long. I wouldn't say his voice is completely fucked, but he needs to work on not wearing his vocal chords out so much during shows because he can't handle it anymore. The dude is in his 40s. He can't do 3 hour shows where he only stops screaming HEY OH to actually fucking sing a song.

Also Brutal Love shouldn't blow anyone's mind. It's a decent bit of singing if you're an average singer. BJ was doing better stuff live on the 21stCB tour.

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The dude is in his 40s. He can't do 3 hour shows where he only stops screaming HEY OH to actually fucking sing a song.

Also Brutal Love shouldn't blow anyone's mind. It's a decent bit of singing if you're an average singer. BJ was doing better stuff live on the 21stCB tour.

Are you seriously pissed because he screams "hey oh" every now and then? that's his thing, he's been doing it forever... also i don't think that a little "Hey ho" once in a while harms his vocal cords this much. He is a trained musician and he knows his limits

Does that seriously sound abysmal? Not to my ears, for sure.

Of course, there'll always be examples of worse performances, but that happens on every tour, nobody's voice is always on top form.

not it doesn't :wub: i've never heard him singing "Put my little shoes away" before :o it's so beautiful.. Loved how the entire arena was just completely silent while he sang... so beautiful

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Are you seriously pissed because he screams "hey oh" every now and then? that's his thing, he's been doing it forever... also i don't think that a little "Hey ho" once in a while harms his vocal cords this much. He is a trained musician and he knows his limits

I'd rather he sang another 10 songs than did the hey oh's tbh. It's fine on your first GD show, but after that it starts to grate. Fuck his 5 minute speech about Instagram and JOY JOY JOY in the middle of Letterbomb too.

He just needs to shut up on stage to rest his voice, rather than burning out his vocal chords.

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not it doesn't :wub: i've never heard him singing "Put my little shoes away" before :o it's so beautiful.. Loved how the entire arena was just completely silent while he sang... so beautiful

I agree :) And it proves he's able to sing it live as well and not just in studio atmosphere!

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I'd rather he sang another 10 songs than did the hey oh's tbh. It's fine on your first GD show, but after that it starts to grate. Fuck his 5 minute speech about Instagram and JOY JOY JOY in the middle of Letterbomb too.

He just needs to shut up on stage to rest his voice, rather than burning out his vocal chords.

Are you kidding? He didn't talk that long (at least he didn't in London), maybe one minute. I don't know what he said about instagram but I thought the "This is joy" speech was awesome. :ermm:

It made my night, tbh... Because it was so true. In London he said "out in the world is fucking chaos, but not here, this is joy" and I just think it's true because you can forget about everything when you are at a Green Day concert and just... feel joy? And the world is frustrating, too, so he kinda hit the nail on the head.

I'd rather be at a concert where the band is personal and has a bit of fun with the crowd, instead of just playing songs for an hour. When I saw 30 Seconds to Mars a few months later they literally only sang their songs, there were long breaks and it was very impersonal. You only ever noticed Jared and never Shannon or Tomo. I think that's what makes Green Day so spectacular and they're on a whole different level, tbh.

But I guess that's your opinion.

He just needs to shut up on stage to rest his voice, rather than burning out his vocal chords.

Also... what? He needs to shut up on stage? :'D You're not giving concerts to rest your voice, you give concerts to put on a show for your fans. The stage really isn't the right place to rest your voice :'D

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Compared to all the other bands that emerged around the same time, his singing is the best. I think he can still sing everything great.

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Are you kidding? He didn't talk that long (at least he didn't in London), maybe one minute. I don't know what he said about instagram but I thought the "This is joy" speech was awesome. :ermm:

It made my night, tbh... Because it was so true. In London he said "out in the world is fucking chaos, but not here, this is joy" and I just think it's true because you can forget about everything when you are at a Green Day concert and just... feel joy? And the world is frustrating, too, so he kinda hit the nail on the head.

I'd rather be at a concert where the band is personal and has a bit of fun with the crowd, instead of just playing songs for an hour. When I saw 30 Seconds to Mars a few months later they literally only sang their songs, there were long breaks and it was very impersonal. You only ever noticed Jared and never Shannon or Tomo. I think that's what makes Green Day so spectacular and they're on a whole different level, tbh.

But I guess that's your opinion.

Also... what? He needs to shut up on stage? :'D You're not giving concerts to rest your voice, you give concerts to put on a show for your fans. The stage really isn't the right place to rest your voice :'D

He uses exactly the same speeches at every show on every tour. He has a routine, and it's very obvious a lot of the time. He did the JOY JOY JOY thing over a dozen times last tour, and it was funny the first time I saw it at the VMA's, and just irritating by the time I saw it live at Brixton. And it doesn't surprise me that a band as shit as 30STM are also shit live.

I genuinely think you're misunderstanding me on purpose with the voice resting thing. Billie is old now. That is a fact. Your vocal chords can't take as much of a battering when you're his age. Hence why instead of doing hey ohs he could just talk to the crowd. Or play something less vocally challenging that the crowd would like to hear. Not rocket science.

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What's the deal with the excessive negativity on here lately? Every thread lately seems to just be shitting on this band that we all supposedly like.

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What's the deal with the excessive negativity on here lately? Every thread lately seems to just be shitting on this band that we also supposedly like.

Lately?

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He uses exactly the same speeches at every show on every tour. He has a routine, and it's very obvious a lot of the time. He did the JOY JOY JOY thing over a dozen times last tour, and it was funny the first time I saw it at the VMA's, and just irritating by the time I saw it live at Brixton. And it doesn't surprise me that a band as shit as 30STM are also shit live.

I genuinely think you're misunderstanding me on purpose with the voice resting thing. Billie is old now. That is a fact. Your vocal chords can't take as much of a battering when you're his age. Hence why instead of doing hey ohs he could just talk to the crowd. Or play something less vocally challenging that the crowd would like to hear. Not rocket science.

30STM isn't shit :really:

Yo he's 43 not 63, a lot of older musicians scream around a lot more than he does and their voices are fine too

Also Billie's voice hasn't changed very much from American Idiot in my opinion. His voice is fine.

If you don't like the way Billie acts on stage then maybe don't go to their concerts anymore?

I'm sure they do it at every show they go to because they don't expect every single fan to follow them wherever they go and visit every single concert. Of course a lot of things will be similar, you can't expect them to completely change everything for every single show.

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The hey-ohs are actually a pretty good example of his voice not being quite right on the last tour... he couldn't seem to hold the notes for them on the trilogy tour without his voice cracking or sounding really off-key. I was listening to a bunch of live recordings from the 21CB tour yesterday and there is a really noticeable difference in the power of his voice compared to the more recent stuff. Watched the show they played after the last Broadway show and he fucking nailed it. There was definitely a quality I can't really describe to his voice which has been missing more lately.

I've also noticed that both on proshot professional recordings & from phone videos etc, his mic seems to have been turned down throughout the last tour. At 21CB shows his voice was extremely prominent on every recording I've heard, more recently it seems to be buried in the mix. Not sure if that's an intentional move to mask a less-impressive voice.

His voice still sounded good throughout the early days of the trilogy, all the snippets of recordings from the early secret shows (and the good quality bits from Cuatro) sound pretty good, he could even hold notes better at the Red 7 show (where he was pretty trashed) than he could at trilogy shows

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