Jordan Dotson

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Cinderella in a party dress

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…”A Dustland Fairytale,” track number five (and my personal favorite) from The Killers‘ 2008 album, Day & Age, performed as a poetically arranged duet with The Boss.

Springsteen’s appearance with The Wallflowers at the 1997 MTV VMAs is still his most legendary on-stage collaboration. And part of me wishes deeply that he’d barreled up to share the same mic with Brandon Flowers. But the intergenerational overlaid image of the two frontmen at 2:49…yeah, that’s enough…and it makes this performance of this unique song even more of a wonder.

How to Inhabit a Song

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The main thing was I learned how to inhabit my song.

Which means what?

Well. Singers can have a wide range of…it can be John Lydon and the Sex Pistols or you can have Dylan’s voice or Neil Young’s voice, all very very unconventional voices. But they were people who simply inhabited their songs, deeply, deeply, and very very well…so that when your audience heard you, you were convincing. What you were singing about was believable and convincing. That’s the key to a great singer. A great singer has to learn how to inhabit a song. You may not be able to hit all the notes, that’s okay. You may not have the clearest tone, may not have the greatest range, but if you can inhabit your song…you can communicate. There’s plenty of people who do the other things well and will never be great singers. In rock music, you have to be able to personify what you’re singing about.