Greater Vision
Since there has been quite a bit of interest in how Jacob Kitson will sound with Greater Vision, and since the only two videos I’ve posted to date have been on the same song (and a song without a soundtrack, at that), I thought it was worth posting this video of Kitson singing the tenor part on Champion of Love:
Kitson seems to handle the highest notes without any strain, with the only instance of a facial expression evincing a sign of particular concentration being on the sustained final note.
My favorite SoGo singers of all time would be Tenor – David Phelps...
Unfortunately, the job I have...
Comment by Sarah (August 30, 2008, 11:03 pm)
WOW!!!! Great song, sung by a Great group, and Jacob has a Great voice. WOW!!!! I can’t wait until my next GV concert.
~#1 GVFan(after Dinana’s twin, Donna, of course.
)
Comment by nathan rogers (August 30, 2008, 11:06 pm)
Sounds good. Track sounds like it’s been revised in a lower key since the Cats days. But even so, great job to all.
Comment by Daniel J. Mount (August 31, 2008, 6:29 am)
Nathan—wow, good ear. It is indeed down, but by the slightest measure possible. The original track was Ab/Bb/B/C; this is a half-key lower, G/A/Bb/B.
Comment by Sarah (August 31, 2008, 11:09 pm)
Wow, I don’t know how anyone can pick out the keys like that, I can’t. I can just tell whether or not I can sing “that high” or “that low”.
BTW~Daniel, Dad went to Ohio this week and brought back a Record Player, 18 records(Old Cats included), an 8-track player and a whole big case of 8 tracks(with old Weatherfords, Blue Ridge Quartet, Kingsmen and more.).
Comment by Daniel J. Mount (September 1, 2008, 6:48 am)
Neat!
To answer one of the questions raised, I emailed Gerald Wolfe and he said that the new soundtrack was arranged and produced by Lari Goss for Wolfe’s upcoming project, which features a new version of the song.
Comment by Sarah (September 1, 2008, 11:19 am)
Cool.
Comment by Bev (September 1, 2008, 5:49 pm)
Wow, it doesn’t make a bit of difference what key you sing it in whether its abc or xyz but it is ONLY about the message. When we all get to Heaven it doesn’t matter what key we sing in.
Listen to the words next time and not what key it is sung in.
Comment by Daniel J. Mount (September 1, 2008, 7:38 pm)
Bev—please don’t misunderstand me. I love the words. I have them memorized, and have known them by heart for years.
But a song consists of two things: Lyric and Melody (with accompaniment for the melody). Without melodies, we would just have poetry.
Granted, not everyone needs to care about the little details, such as finding out which key is best for a particular singer. But if nobody cared about those details, we wouldn’t have music of this quality to listen to.
Comment by Kyle (September 1, 2008, 9:32 pm)
I was gonna say….sounds a little lower than before….
Comment by brady (September 3, 2008, 9:37 am)
When the Cathedrals did the original version of “Champion Of Love” with Gerald on lead vocal, it was keyed at the very high end of all the vocalists’ ranges. They sang it fine, but from what I gather having talked to some of them, it wasn’t that comfortable–especially night after night. As people and voices mature and age, it’s basically not practical to keep singing a song that is consistently out of one’s comfort zone. I would suspect that the slightly lower key, which is still high in my opinion, is as much as to save Gerald’s voice as it is to allow for Jacob to hit the note. To make sure Gerald is able to sing this classic for years to come is probably their top priority and reason for lowering the song. Regardless, it’s still a great song, a southern classic, and no one sings it like Gerald.
Comment by Daniel J. Mount (September 3, 2008, 10:04 am)
Good analysis.
Comment by Heidi (September 5, 2008, 10:36 pm)
Thanks for the video Daniel. They sang this song when I saw them in July (while Jason was still with them) and Gerald mentioned that he hadn’t been singing it for a long time – maybe even years – because it was no longer in his range. So he asked Lari to arrange a new one a bit lower for him. I love Champion of Love, and I’m so glad to be able to hear the man whom I consider the master of this song, singing it again.