Wow! A great online music resource!

[Chest Rockwell]

Online music resource

[theblue1]

I WING

 

Roy Colbert

New Zealand Listener May 24 2003

 

 

 

When you're in the trade, people send you stuff. Hey try this, they say, we think it's top notch - how many you want? Pretty much unfailingly I want none, but two years ago when a CD from Auckland singer Wing landed on my counter, I had a cheque in the mail within thirty seconds of the first track. This was like no other voice I had ever heard. Wing sent her first CD PHANTOM OF THE OPERA to shops, rest homes and restaurants all over the country. I suspect, initially, I was one of the few who replied. A few months later this small Chinese woman bustled into my store with a bright smile and said "Mister Colbert?" to which I naturally replied "Yes?" She held out her hand. "I WING!!"

 

Wing had flown the length of the country to meet her key southern retailer. I was deeply touched. Shona Laing came in once thirty years ago, but she was brought by a record company person, she was frowning slightly. I have also been in torrid email correspondence with Jan Hellriegel, but she has never been in my shop. In that tight and highly talented circle of New Zealand singing sirens, Wing was breaking new ground. We chatted about her career and her plans. I bought a fistful of her second album, I COULD HAVE DANCED ALL NIGHT, nodding appreciatively at the riveting pull of YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE and SUMMERTIME.

 

We kept in touch. Money was being spent, I advised caution. This is a brutal business, I told her, the market could be smaller than you think. She was determined. We were all climbing the mountain together. It was exciting. I played Wing to many people. Often they bought Wing really quickly. One man who worked at Westpac hurt his wrist getting his wallet out so fast. I played her to Rima Te Wiata, who can sing a bit. Rima didn't speak for a while but she probably felt a cold coming on and was protecting her voice. Phil Gifford strolled in one day and I whipped Wing on. He gripped the sides of the CD bins tightly and I watched fascinated as the blood drained from his knuckles, leaving them whiter than snow. My wife adores Wing.

 

There is a long tradition of unusual or unique singers out there. Florence Foster Jenkins, who had a stellar career, filled Carnegie Hall in 1944 with a voice that could politely be called unusual. More pointedly you could say she sought out a melody like a blind person trying to lasso a small bird. Caruso loved her. Mrs Miller torched the pop charts in the 60s - Petula Clark's DOWNTOWN was the killer - with an excruciating vibrato that threw people under tables. And of course William Shatner, the guvnor, made an album called THE TRANSFORMED MAN which pretty much redefined music as we knew it then and know it now. Where lies the appeal of Wing? Some have told me they like it when she sings exceedingly high. Others enjoy her tendency to sing against the tempo. This is not a bad thing - check out Bob Dylan in LIKE A ROLLING STONE where he begins the final chorus before the band has arrived, like a huge wave surprising small children on a rock. Possibly my favourite moment in all of music.

 

Wing sings around Auckland in rest homes, hospitals and blind institutes. But her following is growing appreciably. Not surprisingly, student radio have been nibbling, and my people tell me she is played reverentially in the Dunedin gay community.

http://www.wingtunes.com/news/iwing.aspx

 

 

All I can add is:

 

The Del Rubio Triplets sang happy birthday to me on my 40th birthday.

 

[Well, for that matter, Jonathon Richman sang the second verse to Volare, acapela, about 6" from my nose at a beach party in some kind of odd, Boston rudeboy facedown. But that's a whole 'nother story. And, of course, Jonathon can actually sing -- at least as much as most rockers and folkies.]

[Chest Rockwell]

Wow. Its amazing how much bullshit people will sling. I guess someone loved sombody long time for that.

[TheSoundman]

Wing. Wing a wong- wing it woud, wing it stlong

[Chest Rockwell]

Wing. Wing a wong- wing it woud, wing it stlong

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

WiNg RuLeS.

 

- Jeff

[Jim Quinn]

Chest,

 

Please check your Private Messages.

[Lee Knight]

Wing absolutely ROCKS Abba's Fernando! It has a running time of over 9 minutes. I thought only the Boss could sustain that kind of energy for that long but... Wing!

 

"Some have told me they like it when she sings exceedingly high. Others enjoy her tendency to sing against the tempo."

[blackpig]

In Ireland we had an entity of a similar ilk - a band called "The Bogmen". They took the country by storm with an eclectic mix of covers - everything from Kenny Rogers to A.C./D.C. All of this was performed with a tiny Casio keyboard as backing. They had, erm, a "cult" following. Here's the only link I could find:

http://www.irishemigrant.com/article.asp?iCategoryID=84&iArticleID=33164

Long may their type continue to gnaw at the airs and graces of the industry.

[teh dri]

Is any of this worth a download purely for chuckles?

[theblue1]

Well, to be honest, Wing doesn't have anything on Mrs. Miller, the American 60's camp phenom, who had the nearly supernatural ability to get through a whole song without ever once coming within spitting distance of a single correct note -- even for an instant. Even in the middle of one of her seasick, quavering, planecrash glissandi... her voice seemed to veer instinctively around the notes.

 

From what I've heard -- and, as a fan of outsider and bizarro-lounge music I've heard some amazing stuff -- I think Mrs. Miller is the plus ne plus ultra of rip-my-ears-off-the-side-of-my-head truly terrible singers.

 

 

But Wing definitely has it -- even if she's not ready to be compared favorably to the greats.

[Flemtone]

Well, NOW you're talkin'!

 

Mrs. Miller - a classic. Her warbling rendition of "Downtown" (her 'hit', as it were) was simply atrocious...

 

But, 40-some-odd years later, I still remember it very clearly, much more so than many years of 'classic' rock songs. Isn't that the definition of a 'hit'?

 

When you come down to it, though, there will be a couple of these performers every generation. There's Wing for today's audience, there was The Shaggs, Tiny Tim, Mrs. Miller...

 

Where will it end? Dear god, where will it finally end???

 

ouch. I think I hurt myself.

Tim from Jersey

[theblue1]

How could I have forgotten the Shaggs!?!

 

Of course, they're pretty much retired now, but they have a website where you can catch up on what they've been doing since their heyday.