Currently Listening Mark II

@Freddy, there are a lot of us that like Chopin and other classical music

But I'm not listening to classical at the moment. What I'm listening to is probably too much of a niche market to appeal to you

I've just played a few recordings:-

Esther Ofarim singing Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire". Leonard has written lots of amazing poems/songs but his voice has a limited appeal



Another person with an unusual voice, but I like it, is Buffy St Marie. She's a Cree Indian (sorry, I think I'm supposed to say 'Native American' - a term I have a number of objections to!) and wrote some very interesting 'protest' songs. Her best songs were written in the early to middle 1960's. She's also a BA and PhD as well as having lots of honorary degrees.

This clip starts off explaining why she wrote the big hit "Universal Soldier" which Donovan made into a big hit in this country.


Her song that was covered by the most, famous, singers is "Until It's Time For You To Go". This version is by Elvis


One of her most acclaimed songs is "It's My Way" and you can hear her unusual way of singing in this original version.

 

Esther has a lovely voice and was an actress and singer. She came second in Eurovision singing for Switzerland (although she's an Israeli). She became quite famous singing with her husband Abi and they got their first big hit here with "Cinderella Rockefella". She did a lot of work with Scott Walker and they had the same manager.

Both Esther and Buffy are still performing.

Buffy's album cover, pictured in the last clip above was her first album. I've still got my copy and it's 50 years old!