Jon's shot voice

BJFan99 · #41 09-05-2017, 09:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eveline

I've read quite a few stories about singers who lost their singing voices when dealt with stressful situations like a divorce. Found this article while browsing the Net:

http://www.britishvoiceassociation.o...tion-voice.htm

When we perceive something as threatening or upsetting the body reacts rapidly, preparing for action and producing physical changes that we are all familiar with. These may include:

Increased muscle tension
Increased heart and breathing rates
Perceived changes in temperature with shivering or sweating
Tremor
Dry mouth and throat

Common physical signs of distress include:

Gut problems: (e.g. acid reflux and irritable bowel syndrome)
Skin problems: (e.g. eczema /psoriasis)
Back, neck or other muscle pain (including laryngeal pain)
Breathing difficulties: (e.g. over-breathing panic attacks, a trigger for attacks in some asthmatics)
Hoarseness (dysphonia) or complete voice loss/whisper (aphonia)

Well, some of you observed that Jon has breathing problems and drinks a lot on stage. That would fit some of the signs at least...

Nowadays, Jon's singing voice is often hoarse (it even cracks way more often that it ever used to do pre-'13) and he whispers through at least 75% of the songs they perform live. He also seems to have a hard time breathing while singing at times.

Lak · #42 10-09-2022, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gregsynthbootlegs

It's definitely painful to hear Jon sing on the SWW Tour. Poor guy. The effort was there and the passion was there - but the voice was completely broken. He's lucky he didn't permanently damage his vocal cords on that tour.

Slightly different take on Jon's shot voice. If Jon didn't constantly smoke - his voice would be much closer to his prime years (early 90s) and his technique would not have slipped.

The reason his voice is completely awful today has nothing to do with the improper singing he did in his early career, or the SWW Tour vocal trauma. All those events happened in the early/mid 80s. Proof? Take a listen to his singing on the New Jersey album and the tour that supported it. His voice and singing were steps ahead of what he was doing on previous albums (and tours). His technique was a bit better as well. He worked with a coach during that time and his singing on a technical level got better throughout the late 80s into the early 90s. He relied less on a "throaty" chest-pulled tone (which strains the vocal cords) and started mixing more head voice into his belts. Take a listen to his singing on Keep The Faith and those amazing live performances he did throughout 1992 and 1993. There's a change in his singing style - it's a bit less raw and more refined.

While he wasn't the most technically accomplished singer, he did build up a solid enough technique in the early 90s to be able to sing pretty much anything in his catalog and sound great. The trouble is that he started constantly smoking in late 1994. That took its toll on his voice starting in a subtle way - vocal stamina issues:

While he was still singing great on the 1995 tour overall and sounded great - there are some subtle signs that the smoking was causing early permanent damage. One sign that some people have (correctly) pointed out was the thinner and lighter tone he started getting. His range was intact and the belts were still strong, but there's awkward moments throughout the tour where he forces his mid range notes (trying to pull chest higher up to hit notes with power) and either misses his mark or sounds really rough. The smoking also started reducing his vocal stamina live and making his register switching and blending less than stellar. These negative effects were further developed on the 1996 leg. When you combine a long tour with an unhealthy smoking habit (which then beats at your vocal cords) it's just a disaster waiting to happen.

One positive thing that the 1986-1987 vocal blow out did, was it forced Jon to get a vocal coach and some training to be able to keep his instrument intact. If Jon continued to sing in the same style as he did pre-1988, he would likely have no singing voice within a decade.

Sadly I think this post is spot. I'd like to be persuaded that smoking didn't have such a swift quick effect on Jon's voice but there's a big change in his voice in such a short period of time from Keep The Faith to These Days that I feel it has to be the smoking. His voice isn't anywhere near a clean and powerful sounding on These Days as it was on Keep the Faith IMO and I even feel you can tell the difference between the demos and final versions for Always and Someday I'll be Saturday Night. Did he start smoking in between the recordings of originals and demos for these?

It's so annoying if it is as simple a smoking being the main cause! I mean how stupid can you be!? Surely he was only on the set of Moonlight for like 3/4 weeks (when he started smoking) and could have given up again easily enough after what with being in a different environment there in? Perhaps Jon peffered the less clean mor scratchy type vocal he got These Days?

Thinny · #43 10-09-2022, 07:28 PM

The smoking has certainly beena factor, but the damage he did on the Slippery tour cannot be discounted. How good his voice sounded on the Jersey tour is irrelevant. Sometime damage can take years to really show, especially when you are young. Add to that the fact that he insisted on continuing to do 3 hour shows, pushing his vocals to the limit, even while his voice was declining, there are multiple reasons that we have the Jon we have today...

Lak · #44 10-09-2022, 07:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thinny

The smoking has certainly beena factor, but the damage he did on the Slippery tour cannot be discounted. How good his voice sounded on the Jersey tour is irrelevant. Sometime damage can take years to really show, especially when you are young. Add to that the fact that he insisted on continuing to do 3 hour shows, pushing his vocals to the limit, even while his voice was declining, there are multiple reasons that we have the Jon we have today...

Yeah i kind of discounted the impact of the Slippery tour just because he sounded so strong a few years later in the KTF period. Therefore interesting you should say about delayed effects.

Does anyone know if he was a big smoker after starting on set of Moonlight or if he was just an occasional social smoker, just nicking the odd ciggy off others like Tico periodically!?

bonjovi90 · #45 10-09-2022, 08:18 PM

Jon started heavily smoking on the set of the Leading Man in early 1996. Before that, it was much more occasional I think.

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Gregsynthbootlegs · #46 10-09-2022, 10:49 PM

I thought it was during the filming for Moonlight and Valentino when he increased his smoking?

https://web.archive.org/web/20100810...save-cash.html

It can certainly explain the thinner tone that started in 1995 and became even more noticeable in 1996. Or did he further increase the habit during the filming of the Leading Man which amplified the issues that were evident in the 1996 performances?