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Will Billie Joe Armstrong's Singing Voice Recover?


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On 1/5/2018 at 1:52 PM, Billie Joe Armstrong said:

This is the single wrongest sentence in history of GDC. 

Boulevard of Broken Dreams, 21 Guns, Good Riddance, Wake Me Up When September Ends don't do it for ya? Those were 4 of their most popular songs and you can argue Brain Stew is down tempo (I mean, 76 bpm is slow). That's their most popular song ever on the charts, their second most popular, their 4th and their 6th. Brain Stew peaked at #35 on the charts. What more do we really need to see

On 1/5/2018 at 12:39 PM, disappearingfs said:

I tried, for years, to sing in a sort of much ''powerful'' way 'cause I couldn't stand and accept the ''weakness'' (turned into ''sweetness'' when I learned how to use it) of my voice. Then I realized I can sing SO MUCH BETTER without destroying it (screaming, shouting) pretending to hear something that wasn't me. Billie Joe has a way stronger voice than mine but I used to do the same mistake. He doesn't even need to turn the volume up (torturing his throath) to get a biggest ''sound''. He has quite good bass frequencies in his vocal range. And mid and high spots too. You can hear it in all of Green Day's discography. C'mon, soulmate, you're ma' star :)

Remember that TV performance for ''Good RIddance'' with ''alternate'' lyrics? He's so SWEET, IN TUNE and MARVELOUS! And he's not even trying to be good, he is. If you hear it live, he seems to force himself even for an easy song like that one. I don't know.

to my point, good riddance is acoustic. He sounds great over acoustic because it's not loud. That's what I'm saying. You're kind of saying two things here at the end I can't tell if you think he's not even trying to be good or if he's forcing it. I don't think either of those things necessarily, I'm not saying it's a terrible thing either, I mean after 30 years of this anyone's voice would be a bit worse for wear.  

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I won't claim to know anything about the technical side of singing, but he sounded great at the shows I attended in 2017. Better than ever, actually.

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i saw some footage in 2016 where his voice sounded strained, and had similar worries as other people in this thread, but then i saw them three times throughout the rev rad tour and he sounded incredible at each show. he literally didn't sing a single wrong note at any moment in any of the shows. so any and all worry was put to rest for me. obviously he's getting older and so of course his voice is naturally aging, but he'll be more than fine.

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18 hours ago, Z J said:

Boulevard of Broken Dreams, 21 Guns, Good Riddance, Wake Me Up When September Ends don't do it for ya? Those were 4 of their most popular songs and you can argue Brain Stew is down tempo (I mean, 76 bpm is slow). That's their most popular song ever on the charts, their second most popular, their 4th and their 6th. Brain Stew peaked at #35 on the charts. What more do we really need to see

to my point, good riddance is acoustic. He sounds great over acoustic because it's not loud. That's what I'm saying. You're kind of saying two things here at the end I can't tell if you think he's not even trying to be good or if he's forcing it. I don't think either of those things necessarily, I'm not saying it's a terrible thing either, I mean after 30 years of this anyone's voice would be a bit worse for wear.  

It's not that he's forcing himself or trying to be good, it's that, to me, he should stop screaming every letter and just sing, sing and sing. I don't want him to change his vocal ''style'', 'cause that kind of ''spitting'' way of singing is totally Green Day, iconic but... he's not 18 anymore, he's 40 years old and if you scream through ''Know Your Enemy'' you lose your voice for the rest of the show. Lord gave him a beautiful, melodic tone, you can hear it in his more powerful and fast paced songs, too. That's why I mentioned that acoustic performance where he sings naturally instead of acting like he's 20 years old screaming at the mirror. You can do it for one, two nights. Do it every tour and your voice will abandon you. He's good, a superstar. Let it go, Billie, you got it, don't waste it!

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What I mean? Check this recording and the 1st chorus, ''Some call it slums...''. Hear that ''SOME!''. He screams it. And not only. He screams it WITHOUT re-charging oxygen after the previous section, ''...and broken homes''. And so he sounds ''flat'' and forced. It's not that Billie Joe's voice is getting worse. It's actually him using it in the wrong way. And so damaging it. That's why, I think, he's getting ever more nasal (A.K.A noisy), recently. ''Pay attention to the cracked streets and broken homes!'', TAKE BREATH, ''Some call it slums...'' and so it goes. I'm not teaching anything here. And don't want to. He's been my teacher, to be honest. And if I know how to write a bad song it's up to him and Green Day. ''Bad'' 'cause I don't know what I'd to write songs as good as he does and they do. I share a lot of hate about my own singing, playing and writing music so, please, don't mislead.

 

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Well, I'd also be in favour of him taking vocal lessons, because you can always improve your singing skills further and I think there's no down-sides really. 

However, I think you're missing the fact that singing simply becomes a lot more difficult the older you get, so he may just feel the need to try and ''force'' his voice, which I agree isn't good. Think of it as a kind of permanent cold you get when aging. I know from singing frequently in a professional choir that on bad days (say you have a cold, or your voice just doesn't sound perfect) you feel tempted to just ''force'' your voice to sound as good as it does usually. But to tell the truth, it's a battle you can't win (entirely). Instead, you should adapt your singing technique to look after your voice and do the best job you can.

That's why I think it's a combination of a just naturally deteriotating voice and poor singing technique. He's already doing all he can do to live a reasonably healthy life (which will likely positively affect his voice), but he can of course still work on his singing technique and adapt a bit. 

And anyway, Billie's voice is far from bad, though (as I said) there is still some potential...

 

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On 11. 1. 2018 at 5:51 AM, Z J said:

Boulevard of Broken Dreams, 21 Guns, Good Riddance, Wake Me Up When September Ends don't do it for ya? 

No, they don't. Guns and September are in fact among gd songs I like the least 

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On 1/11/2018 at 6:20 PM, disappearingfs said:

It's not that he's forcing himself or trying to be good, it's that, to me, he should stop screaming every letter and just sing, sing and sing. 

Could just be a technique thing, but after 3 decades in, I personally think he knows how to control his breath, he just can't do it as well anymore. It's not that big of a deal, he still sounds solid and if he takes some of your advice in the next post, I do agree he could last better within a set. 

 

On 1/14/2018 at 12:59 PM, Billie Joe Armstrong said:

No, they don't. Guns and September are in fact among gd songs I like the least 

Doesn't mean much, I mentioned making hit songs, not songs you personally like!

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9 hours ago, Z J said:

Could just be a technique thing, but after 3 decades in, I personally think he knows how to control his breath, he just can't do it as well anymore. It's not that big of a deal, he still sounds solid and if he takes some of your advice in the next post, I do agree he could last better within a set. 

 

Doesn't mean much, I mentioned making hit songs, not songs you personally like!

Haha, you know, I heard him singing with the Coverups last night and I thought, ''WTF, does he read me on GDC?'!'' :wub:

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14 hours ago, Z J said:

Doesn't mean much, I mentioned making hit songs, not songs you personally like!

If you value airplay over quality, it's ok I guess. I prefer music that doesn't suck. 

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50 minutes ago, Billie Joe Armstrong said:

If you value airplay over quality, it's ok I guess. I prefer music that doesn't suck. 

Guns suck? You are not my favorite internet daughter anymore. :angry:

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1 hour ago, Billie Joe Armstrong said:

If you value airplay over quality, it's ok I guess. I prefer music that doesn't suck. 

He's not saying he values it more. He was just clarifying that he was making a point about which songs have been hits (rather than about which songs are the best). A lot of their biggest hits have indeed been down tempo so he's right.

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56 minutes ago, Grubby Poop said:

Guns suck? You are not my favorite internet daughter anymore. :angry:

It's not "bad" bad but I don't remember the last time I listened to it. Might be years ago. 

2 minutes ago, Hermione said:

He's not saying he values it more. He was just clarifying that he was making a point about which songs have been hits (rather than about which songs are the best). A lot of their biggest hits have indeed been down tempo so he's right.

A lot of their biggest hits are fast as well, so I'm just as right. 

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6 minutes ago, Billie Joe Armstrong said:

It's not "bad" bad but I don't remember the last time I listened to it. Might be years ago. 

A lot of their biggest hits are fast as well, so I'm just as right. 

Arguing that he's wrong to say down tempo makes them hit songs is wrong :P 

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6 hours ago, disappearingfs said:

Haha, you know, I heard him singing with the Coverups last night and I thought, ''WTF, does he read me on GDC?'!'' :wub:

I think that’s the difference between singing in a 25k seat arena (singing, yelling, leaping and running all around the stage) and a club for under 200 people where the most exertion you spend beyond guitar playing is drawing a raffle. 😉 

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3 hours ago, Hermione said:

Arguing that he's wrong to say down tempo makes them hit songs is wrong :P 

He literally couldn't be wronger. 

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7 hours ago, pacejunkie punk said:

I think that’s the difference between singing in a 25k seat arena (singing, yelling, leaping and running all around the stage) and a club for under 200 people where the most exertion you spend beyond guitar playing is drawing a raffle. 😉 

Less crowd = Less screaming. Less screaming = More breathing. More breathing = Better singing :)

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I agree with the idea that the way he performs is what is changing the quality of his singing. I don't see this is a huge decline in his overall voice, because I am sure that if he sang right now after a lot of rest time, he could sing about as well as he could 10 years ago. Look at someone like Freddie Mercury, who had an incredible voice. There are so many cases of him losing his voice before the end of the show, so he couldn't hit high notes like in We are the Champions, and this was happening at a time when Freddie was younger than Billie is now. Billie has his moments when the notes don't come out the way he wants, but I think his vocals are far from being shot.

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I know what I'm about to say happened in 2010 but billie did a performance of "Drama Queen" before they put it on the trilogy and I think that was one of his best singing moments ever done. But he is still capable of having those same beautiful harmonies. I went to see Green Day live in April 2017 and his voice was still as stunning as it has ever been. he does have a natural crack to his voice here and there but otherwise his voice is pretty strong and he's gonna continue to show his beautiful voice to the world!

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On 13/01/2018 at 1:27 PM, MillenniumFan said:

That's why I think it's a combination of a just naturally deteriotating voice and poor singing technique.

I don't know enough about singing technique, but I like his "naturally deteriotating voice" during RevRad tour over any voice he has had before. :D

14 hours ago, disappearingfs said:

Less crowd = Less screaming. Less screaming = More breathing. More breathing = Better singing :)

To me he always manages not to breath as much as it seems necessary. :P In any size of show, he sings a line, screams something right after, jumps, sings the next line... I'm caricaturing of course. In the biggest shows it seems to boost him a lot to scream to the crowd all the time. Anyways, I like his more strained voice, starting from February 2017 (in January I find his voice to be very similar to late 2016, during small venues gigs at the beginning of the tour, his voice was clearer). On February 3th, the first time I saw a show of them, it was the day following a gig in Belgium, and perhaps first time when, after watching tons of videos, I notice his voice starting to get rougher. Between February and November, I like the most the voice he had around September, so I think he has done a great job adapting to using his voice that long, that often, all the tour long. Again, I don't know much about technique, but only this to me proves he uses his voice in a thoughtful way. In November where he sounded the roughest, he gave everything he had, didn't stop from screaming to the crowd as much, and still managed to hit high notes as good as previously.

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12 hours ago, Kuromignonne said:

I don't know enough about singing technique, but I like his "naturally deteriotating voice" during RevRad tour over any voice he has had before. :D

To me he always manages not to breath as much as it seems necessary. :P In any size of show, he sings a line, screams something right after, jumps, sings the next line... I'm caricaturing of course. In the biggest shows it seems to boost him a lot to scream to the crowd all the time. Anyways, I like his more strained voice, starting from February 2017 (in January I find his voice to be very similar to late 2016, during small venues gigs at the beginning of the tour, his voice was clearer). On February 3th, the first time I saw a show of them, it was the day following a gig in Belgium, and perhaps first time when, after watching tons of videos, I notice his voice starting to get rougher. Between February and November, I like the most the voice he had around September, so I think he has done a great job adapting to using his voice that long, that often, all the tour long. Again, I don't know much about technique, but only this to me proves he uses his voice in a thoughtful way. In November where he sounded the roughest, he gave everything he had, didn't stop from screaming to the crowd as much, and still managed to hit high notes as good as previously.

I don't have a calendar ( :wub: ) but, yes, I'm totally with you about his ''breath managing'' X0

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Here's what I just posted in the random GD thread, as it's about the matter of this one: :wub:

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I still don’t like how he sounds singing Still Breathing live but I was watching the iheart RevRad album launch party show last night and he did a great job with it there. It was the best live rendition I’ve seen. His voice sounded great last year before the tour started, it just may be harder to maintain endurance now through long shows, hot/humid temperatures, four shows or more a week, etc.  I see videos from the end of sets on the 21CB shows and he doesn’t sound nearly as winded or ragged. But he does bounce back quickly. He sounded great with the Coverups.

And someone somewhere mentioned him always having a hard time singing Stray Heart well. But I was watching MTV World Stage of the Rock am Ring 2013 and he sounded great doing it there.

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