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Confession: I don't know much about Ann Wilson's personal life. Nor do I care to -- it's called a personal life for a reason.
This thread isn't about her merits as a singer. As stated, I consider her to be at least as good now as she was in the seventies, and that's pretty remarkable in and of itself. It's merely about the image. I've framed the whole thing sophomorically, and part of that ties into the whole 'huge crush on young Ann' aspect of it, but really it could easily be regarded as an image versus sound thing.
Interestingly, I'm quite certain that my crush on Ann Wilson is like my crush on Tia Carrere. A big part of why I love Ann is because of her voice, whereas Tia (who also has a great voice) formed many an adolescent fantasy for me based off her bass-playing badass persona in Wayne's World.
Heart now sounds great. Ann sounds great. Nancy both sounds and looks great.
The years have not been kind to the older Wilson sister visually, is all.
Regarding Rush, they are also a band that I enjoy. I'm not going to get into a discussion of who's music dick is bigger, because I honestly don't care. There's no accounting for taste.
The corporatization is almost an interesting discussion to me, but not quite. It seems like an inevitability within that sphere. Start out as a 'scrappy stripped-down band,' gain recognition, get sponsors, sell out arenas. At some point the spectacle starts to take over and it's all one can do to try to hang onto that spark. I'd say that Heart has managed to do so, mostly. Last summer they came through my part of the world touring with Journey and (I think) Cheap Trick. I was unfortunately unable to secure tickets to this event, but reports were that Heart completely stole the show.
On a related note, I was recently reading an interview with the younger Ms. Wilson, and this issue was touched on. She mentioned some of the inanities of the eighties, how there was always some mandatory Stupid Shot in the video that the director/producer insisted on, how they were made to wear stupid footwear that was completely impractical, how it seemed like the label was always promoting the songs they didn't actually write the most. It was all framed within the context of Cameron Crowe's most excellent film Almost Famous. I'll try to find it again.
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I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept
I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept
I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head
I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said
- Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame
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