Out of curiosity STE, what do you think would be a great song choice for Ramiele? For me, the only person I can see myself catching at a live concert would be Michael Johns. His anthemic rock songs are getting a bit tiresome.. but overall I prefer his voice over all the others.

Having said that, I didn’t connect Chris Cornell’s version of Billy Jean so David Cook’s performance caught my ear. But I kept thinking during the performance that it sound alot like someone I’ve seen before. (Now I remember)

Michael Johns is no Freddie Mercury and I still don’t understand the judges devotion week after week. He’s at the top of my list to be gone. The performance was over the top and he doesn’t have the chops to hit the big notes.

Ramielle, cute as she is and from my own backyard, we haven’t heard from her what she showed being capable of a long time ago. Sadly that little spinner will be gone soon.

Brooke just keeps carrying on that Carly Simon persona which ain’t a bad thing but it ain’t good enough to win it. She should last another round or two.

Jason “wow don’t I look really baked” Castro looked absolutely stoned to the bejeebus during the post performance cool off. He couldn’t seem to concentrate and was giving this look like hey buds this 420 was for you. Ain’t it cool I’m stoned on American Idol. Or maybe I was vibing off my personal 420. But I liked the performance nonetheless. It’s good to have somebody represent the jamband crowd.

Syesha’s pre-performance video gave me the heebie jeebies. While she had a big performance all I could hear in the background was Bobby Brown calling her name. (see previous comment)

Carly had a decent performance but I’m tired of the song. Poor choice for her.

David “I do what daddy says” Archuleta had a good performance but I kept wracking my brain trying to place the song so that I got too distracted. But he’ll smoothly go through for the next couple of weeks unless he has a meltdown.

Chikezie “the big easy” had a solid performance but it was a little too throwback after his prior interesting performances. It’ll be interesting to see what he does with next week’s choices.

Last and close to the least Kristie Lee. I’m with STE on this one. I hate that song but it will get her the vote from the “We voted for Bush” crowd. I think Simon’s comment was geared to that very subject, not that he liked the song. He’s too smart to put down a smarmy pseudo-patriotic-redneck number for fear of alienating his target market.

I won’t watch tonight I’ll just see the results on the web tomorrow.

That said, I wish Brooke kept it to just the piano instead of adding the band. The band ruined it. But I think she is the most talented musician of the bunch this year.

Please go back to the roundtable format.

Please go back to the roundtable format.

That is all.

Thanks for sharing your passion for the roundtable Idol format. We like the roundtables too, but they take longer — like, a LOT longer — to format than this style of post, which allows us to share our thoughts about the show and get the discussion going among readers faster. We’ll try to squeeze in some roundtables before the season ends. And of course, thanks for reading!

Now my take:

Yes, Kristie was “clever” as Simon said, I’ll give her that. (Not to mention I was very impressed with Simon’s thinly-veiled cynicism in his critique, as it was spot on!) Nonetheless, I felt completely nauseous during her performance, due to its pandering populism.

Chikeze (sp?) really disappointed me with his performance, but he still did not deserve the boot. Said boot should’ve been “awarded” to Ramiele (again, sp?) for her clueless “Alone” performance. However, I do not entirely blame Chikeze. I really loved his performances on the Beatles nights and his treatment of Ray Charles via Hathaway’s “I Believe To My Soul”. (Side note: isn’t it odd that they credit Chris Cornell’s arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” but only credit the COVER singer of “Soul”? Just an observation…) However, he was lambasted by a clueless Simon (”Bad harp playing?” This is probably from a man who’s never listened to any harmonica but Stevie Wonder’s, so that’s understandable. He didn’t even realize that ‘I Should’ve Known Better’’s harp was SUPPOSED to be played open-chord!!!) for being “brave” while David Cook was praised AS “brave” - for lifting a cover version!!

Bah! I still watch it, though. It’s the TV equivalent of crack!

Each of the composers is a legend in their own right. Andy Qunta and Chris Thompson worked with Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Maggie Ryder has worked with the likes of Eric Clapton, Annie Lennox and Freddie Mercury and keith Reid wrote all the lyrics for every Procul Harum song that wasn’t a cover. So your assessment of the song and its lyrics leaves something to be desired.

I’ve never heard of David Foster and can’t imagine comparing him to a great singer like John Farnham.

You can view the original song here, the way it should be sung.

http://www.nme.com/video/id/99P7TTvpO1g/search/voice

Richard Marx credits John Farnham with being one of the major influences on his career.

http://www.nme.com/video/id/cGYxwt1yZAI/search/John+Farnham/offset/80

They sang a duet together here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdtR2By_m_U

David A just chose a song that was too big for him.

Why have I come out swinging, it’s because of your diatribe over the song “Your the voice”. Now I think David A’s version of it was average, but for you come this crap as to say the song itself is one of the worst ever heard is just puerile. This is the same song that when sung good and may I add FULLY ( not this 110 second crap) by John Farnham for his 1986 album Whispering Jack was able to propel it to sales over 1 million copies in a country (Australia) that had a population of just 16 million. Within a year of it’s release in 1987, 1 in every 16 Australians had a copy.

You can’t give me one example that’s had anywhere near the per capita sales in America as that. Not even Michael Jackson’s Thriller could claim at any point to be owned by 1/16th of the population. evne today we know that half the copies sold are repeat customers going from vinyl to CD or CD to MP3.

As for your buzzwords to describe the lyrics “psychobabble”, “maddeningly vague”, you fail to actually give examples of the lyrics to prove your point. And where exactly is the standard in the validty of lyrics anyway? I just came from a site where over 1200 people for the last 5 years have waffled on about the meaning of the lyrics to Nirvana’s “Smells like teen spirit” with still no universal agreement amomg them. So what was your point again?

Brooke might not have been at her best this week, but she remains the only contestant that I think could conceivably put out a focused, mature album.

Is it any wonder why it’s unheard of in the US???? I did a quick search on the internet and this is what I found:

It would seem that the song was released in 1986 (expect the US) and did well worldwide… #1 in some countries.

Looking at US Billboard’s hot 100, they say it peaked at #82 in early 1990 and spent a total of 8 weeks on their charts. Why did they wait 4 years for the US release??????

You might wonder what was at the top of the US charts late 1989 and early 1990? Milli Vanelli (WTF were they thinking), Phil Collins, Billy Joel, Michael Bolton (again WTF) and get this, Paula Abdul!!! Kind of ironic…

IMO, the song suffered in the US because after listening to the video (thanks Anne) it does sound slightly dated comparing 1990 to 1986 standards … especially the instruments. The bagpipes probably didn’t help it either.

A killer song that deserved a better faith in the US but at least wasn’t totally ignored elsewhere.

My take of David’s version of it on AI? He did a pretty good job. He definitely gets high marks for not attempting yet another version of Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, or the like.