The Medusa Fora

Well, smoking clearly punishes many voices - look at Joni Mitchell. It's truly painful to see what smoking has done to her. Then again, Lou Reed's been smoking pretty much non-stop all his life, and whatever you think of his singing voice, it's as clear and as strong as it ever was.
(Bob Dylan's deterioration is something else again. While smoking has surely contributed (he's never stopped the cigs and added cigars in recent years), there seems to be something more to it.)

As for drinking, drugs, etc - all of it can have adverse effect. It matters what you drink and how much. Beer is extremely rough on the throat and singers should steer clear of it before/during a performance. Brandy and kosher (sweet) wine, on the other hand, help keep the throat warm and moist.

Oh - constant touring/performing shouldn't, in and of itself, take too harsh a toll on the voice, IF you know what you're doing. But that's a problem for many rock singers, it seems.

Judging by the live recordings from the last couple of years that I've heard, Shane's voice is still in pretty good shape. No, he doesn't have the incredible voice of his youth, but it still sounds good to these ears.

Leonard Cohen attributes his great singing voice to all the cigs he has smoked----he does sound great doesnt he?

I personally prefer Shane's voice on 'If I Should Fall...' and 'Peace and Love' to the earlier albums. It was rough but not too shot away at that point.

it just depends how pissed he is and if hes been to bed night before i reckon. im hoping he gets a good nights sleep the day before manchester show ha

His voice was a little a clear on 'Red Roses..' and 'Rum, Sodmy..', Shane's best vocal work was on 'If I Fall From Grace...' without doubt.

I agree, his vocals on IISFFGWG has a mature world weary tone lacking on the earlier two LPs.

For those of you who think his voice his shot, try listening to Faiytale on Live At Brixton or Lullaby of London. Perfect.

Well I guess Shane is what he is and we'd all be fools to think that with the whole drinking, smoking and loss of teeth thing that his singing voice would improve. I quit drinking, quit smoking and had my teeth fixed, but I'm sometimes still hard to understand - I just figure me and Shane are growing old together....

Although I have heard Shane's voice a million times. The first time I played the Brixton Live cd from the 'best of' it really struck me how much his voice has deteriorated. When you hear it live and get emersed in the atmopshere you dont notice it so much, but that show in the cold light of day really made me think. I had been listening to shows from around 85, where his clarity is really noticeable, and there is a vitality about his perfomances. Hes still 'the man', but I cant honestly say his voice is impoving in any way.

I've had an enjoyable night listening all the way thru to Live from Brixton 2001 from the Ultimate Collection, but I got to wondering whle listening to it if anyone from the band ever STRONGLY suggested to Shane that the words might sound clearer if he FINALLY got a full set of teeth? It's so noticeable compared to the studio versions. I'll be there either way! See you all in belfast!

mcguck wrote:I've had an enjoyable night listening all the way thru to Live from Brixton 2001 from the Ultimate Collection, but I got to wondering whle listening to it if anyone from the band ever STRONGLY suggested to Shane that the words might sound clearer if he FINALLY got a full set of teeth? It's so noticeable compared to the studio versions. I'll be there either way! See you all in belfast!

The "teeth" issue does get discussed a bit. Although my view is the problem has become less acute and less noticeable since 2001, my understanding is that the MacGowan constitution, robust though it self-evidently is, may be best advised not exposing itself to the intense surgery which may be required to "fix" the gnashers. Besides, even without a tooth in his head, he still out-sings 90% of what else is out there. In the end, the state of his health, in a holistic sense, was always going to determine what, if anything, was going to happen in this area. This subject is now closed. Thanks for your interest.

mcguck wrote:I've had an enjoyable night listening all the way thru to Live from Brixton 2001 from the Ultimate Collection, but I got to wondering whle listening to it if anyone from the band ever STRONGLY suggested to Shane that the words might sound clearer if he FINALLY got a full set of teeth? It's so noticeable compared to the studio versions. I'll be there either way! See you all in belfast!

Geez, that would by like reattaching the arms to the Venus de Milo. Maybe I"m being a little overly dramatic here. I couldn't imagine Shane with a big smiling set of teeth.

Isn't it funny that I can think of no other 'performer' that gets as much interest in the non-performing aspect that Shane gets, almost like the creative output is an after thought. Mark Radcliffe won the Celebrity Stars in Your Eyes with a Shane impression that was based on a 'stagger' and carrying a glass of something, then sang a trad tune (Irish Rover I think) but managed to get the point across who he was supposed to be

I love the way Tom Waits sounds and the way the Dylan's voice has matured over the years, they say that on Nashville Skyline you can here his 'proper' voice.

Ronnie Drew said of Shane:

"I find Shane to be a most sensitive person, a poet. I'm not caught up in all that's said about him and the drink. I mean, he drinks, but it's his own fucking business. People always say, pity this and pity that about other people, but that's rubbish. They say pity over people who die young, like Behan, but maybe that was it. There are people who live twice as long, live to 90, and they never say a quarter of the things he said."

I love Shane for who he is which includes the ragged voice and no teeth, and it pleases me no end to know that he exists.

great quoite & woisely spoiken me froiend jenny

Shane's voice and lack of teeth are part of him. He lives the life he sings about and he sings about the life he's lived. That's what makes him great in my eyes.
I personally don't want to some clean cut, fresh faced and dentured (I'm not sure that's a word...) guy sing "Live's a bitch and then you die... Hells Ditch". Not terribly believable. It's of course sad on a personal level that anybody should basically wreck themselves like Shane did. But that seems that many of the best artist did just that...

Change Shane and you change The Pogues.