Joe was an original. His voice, in all its rasp, was the voice of an unlikely hero, but a shining example of what's missing today.
Now, I'm not one to get caught up in the whole "back in my day we had blah blah blah" trip. Joe was way before my time anyway, so in this case, it doesn't work.
Would Joe have won (or even made it past the audition stage on) the Voice? Hell no, but he is in great company of artists like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Marianne Faithful, Joey Ramone and 10,000 other artists that wouldn't care one bit, and changed the world regardless. To be honest, I doubt that Blake Shelton himself could make the cut if he was trying.
Idol, The Voice, AGT and all of the variety shows alive today, albeit entertaining, are about showcasing singers, not artists. People forget the difference.
Very seldom will a throw away singer change the world. It does happen, but the time when pop culture dabbled in art is long since dead. Now we have producers cramming radio friendly garbage down the throats of the sheep masses, and we take it like crushed apple baby food on a rubber tipped spoon (I'm as guilty as anyone).
There was a time when an artist like Joe could break through.
Joe made his name by interpreting popular artists songs of the day, grinding them up, making them his own, and creating beautiful statements all his own as well.
Maybe the most honest ballad of all time belonged to Joe:
You are so Beautiful.
What a song. The emotion and honesty packed into that short but sweet statement is nothing we'd see today, but stands as one of the best ballads ever put to wax.
In his long carreer, Joe adapted to trends, creeped out some with his stage antics, was parodied, but never duplicated, wrote amazing songs and recorded unforgettable moments.
Thank you Joe Cocker. The world may never see your like again.
Love lift you up where you belong, brother. Godspeed.
Nago
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