Eddie's performance - marginal at best.

I gave it a 2.5 stars.

Okay, I just watched and listened to this. You guys are being a bit ridiculous, Ed was pretty good, the band sucked.

that's a bit ridiculous

The sound of Ed's guitar is the worst part of this.

It did suck.

It was distractingly bad.

WTF are you guys talking about? His guitar always sounds like that. Jangly & weak, and slightly out of tune...it's a trademark. One way to get your instrument to stand out is to tune it very slightly off-pitch. That's what McCartney used to do with his bass on Beatles recordings so his bass lines would stick out more. I can't say that's what Eddie is doing here, but it has kind of the same effect.

It really stuck out there.

Wow, tough group here. It was a celebration of letterman and probably rehearsed once. Paul Schaefer and that band is generally garbage. They can play covers but watered down and weak. Ed was losing Paul's hamfisted keyboard part in the beginning. I was as well

Also, while I love me some Tom Waits it's funny how people can be so critical of Eds voice but praise Toms performance in the other thread

It wasn't a great performance but it was on everyone in that band. The lead guitarist was ever so slightly hanging in there. But yes, the tone of eds guitar has been questionable for years now

I think it was when Paul switched to the Hammond sound in the 2nd verse that Ed seemed to have a look of clarity... so there's probably some validity in what you're saying.


I've always dug Ed's 'trademark' guitar tone... Immortality and Corduroy are about as good as it gets, and that's HIS sound! He just doesn't get enough credit around here as a guitar player. Betterman is Ed's song, one of PJ's best, and as a request, he showed up and proudly played it like mad with the CBS Orchestra...

3-star performance, and quite refreshing to get a different take on a classic song

I had a hard time making it through this entire performance, but it was pretty much exactly what I expected to see and hear without having read anything about it beforehand. Weak vocal performance, timing fuck ups, and trying to compensate for the shortcomings with an energetic Townshend impersonation and a lamely timed jump at the end. Trademark modern day Ed.

You forgot the unnecessary spit.

that was trademark 1995 Ed...

I think Ed's voice would be much improved if it had more Tom Waits in it. I understand that this may not be a question of technique and more in terms of how one's voice evolved, but for whatever reasons (be it smokes, genetics, whatever) Ed's voice has matured in a weaker way than a lot of other singers. Usually, it seems like singers (at least the ones I like), may lose brute power but gain some grit or sandpaper to their voice. Ed's voice has become tinnier almost, screechy when he screams and weak when he's just singing.

This isn't really a criticism, cause I'm not sure how much of this is in his control, besides not smoking.

It's like it wasn't even plugged in, but the studio mics were picking up the electric-guitar-turned-acoustic sounds

You gotta get the vinyl. It sounds so waaaaaaaaaaarm.

it's like he's got no lungs or a faulty diaphragm or something.. maybe it's the smoking, maybe it's something some kind of coaching could help, i don't know.. there's just hardly any "ummph" any more.

It might not be the sole reason, but the smokes certainly aren't helping.

edit: I thought the performance was nice all things considered.
His guitar does sound awful. That tele especially. He really knows how to get the worst sound out of a P90.