Good songs and singers are meant to be heard

We watched a special half-hour advertisement a couple of weeks ago selling Time Life’s collection of 158 classic country songs from the 1950s and 1960s. We stayed tuned because they were songs we remembered, and it was fun to hear so many of them again, especially the ones which are rarely played on any of the radio stations or TV shows focusing on music of that era.

As the half-hour promo continued, one thing impressed us. No matter whom the recording artist, you could hear every word they were singing. Not once did the background music drown out the singer. Many of the entertainers had little in the way of band back-up, anyway; often it was the singer on stage alone playing the guitar. Those who did have other musical accompaniment usually had only two or three others. It seemed apparent these big-name stars from the 1950s and 1960s had been successful based on their own singing ability, not on the coattails of their back-up band.

It was also interesting to note that most of the male singers taped during an on-stage appearance were wearing sports coats and the ladies were wearing dresses. It’s too bad they missed out on the "dress-up’’ look of today, with Sunday-best, right-off-the-rack, expensive jeans with appropriate holes, tears and rips, and, yes, even faux paint spills (we saw these $100 jeans in a store recently). These old-time female singers also were born too soon to understand that revealing necklines, see-through tops, and very short skirts could divert attention from your singing ability (or lack thereof), and help you make it to the top.

Another thing many of today’s entertainers have that was nearly non-existent fifty years ago is elaborate stage settings. Some singers, in fact, are notorious for their special effects. "Back then,’’ most of the singers came onto an empty stage and simply sang.

At the end of the show, noting the many differences between then and now, the one thing that stuck with us was how easy it was to understand the words which were being sung. No loud bands smothered them out; the star of the show remained just that. The song they were singing was loud and clear, as it should be, and background music was just that: Background. We have some great songwriters now, just as we have in the past, and if a song is worth singing, we all ought to be able to hear it. So often when we hear today’s entertainers, be it on a CD, on a TV performance, or on a local stage, we want to say to the band, "Hold it down, will you? We’re trying to hear your lead singer.’’ Then again, maybe we’re missing the point, and today’s younger audiences are more interested in hearing the loud noise of the band rather than the words being sung by the featured performer. If that’s the case, all we can say is Too Bad.

Mary Brewer