Portishead - "Roads"


You can try to play this on guitar, but it will not be the same at all without the full orchestra, I guarantee you... plus the missing keyboard section kind of takes away from the overall sense that you've got the real sound down.

What I love about Portishead is that they defend with their choices the notion that a vocalist doesn't need to be playing a second instrument while singing, in order to be either effective or taken seriously. I say second instrument because the voice is really an instrument in and of itself -- much as the word "vocalist" is not interchangable with the designation of "singer".

A vocalist is one who has spent a long time studying not just voice but also singing, breathing and postural techniques, and involved in this is also the study of inner-motion. This is why we don't call most rock band lead singers "vocalists". Their style of music generally only requires them to go part-way on that, with focus on effective use of air intake, tone, listening to all the incorporated sounds together, volume control (though this is less of a problem, given microphones), and knowing what to do if something messes up.

In Portishead we find a very good example of a vocalist. Beth Gibbons, if I have her name right... Watch her again, and note that she is actually reciting a dramatic poem with song, and unafraid to play a character while she does so. Most musicians in the international public eye do not do this. They are only themselves. She approaches this as art, and in so shows respect for the entire study of this genre... Hard not to be a fan of that, or her for it.