Heart -- Ann, why?!
 

Compare and contrast:



With

Ohmigodwhatthehellisthat?!



I don't hold it against Ann Wilson that she's no longer Young And Beautiful, but it makes me sad. At least she can still sing. A woman doesn't have to be beautiful to be talented, but oldandfat Ann doesn't give me that tingly feeling.

Nancy, on the other hand. She definitely gets bonus points for Rocking Out in both videos.

Any other thoughts, or examples of this sad phenomenon?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

:( My god, where's the Wild Turkey?

I think it's important to note before this thread gets too far into it's inevitable downward spiral that I consider Ann to be as good or better than she was in the 70's, as a vocalist. She's a bloody powerhouse on the mic and deserves recognition for that.

At the same time, I'm completely in love with Ms. Wilson ca. 30 years ago, and so this hits me hard.

More sexyAnn goodness:



It's downright tragic.

This song always makes me tingly. And the hair is rawr-some.


But now it's like... oh, god... slowed by triglycerides... just watch:

Luke Skywalker in the first vid at 1:17?

on that second video, she has a kind of south park's version of ozzy osbourne kind of thing going on. even old and fat, i'd still let her go crazy on me. it might hurt, but it would hurt so goooooood.

Her sister is the hottest pentagenarian I know. Nancy is a sexy goddess. Ann was a sexy goddess, and she's still bloody incredible.

I respect her as an artist.

I offer this:


I don't care what she looks like as long as she never loses that voice.

IMHO, her version of "The Battle of Evermore" could make Robert Plant break down and cry for mercy at her feet.



edit: Crap, it looks like the video won't embed. Click on the link at the top of the video to open it in Youtube.

I <3 Heart, no matter which form they take.

regarding the OP, i kind of feel similar feelings when it comes to young Yngwie J. Malmsteen and old and fat Yngwie J. Malmsteen. (the J is so you know which Yngwie Malmsteen i'm talking about)

It's also interesting to note the "scrappy, stripped-down band, tearing it the fuck right up on a little rock TV show" in the first video versus the "corporate mega-tour" that the second video is. That's the other arc that this group has traversed. And they haven't walked that path alone.

I'm not sure what this thread is about. Is it about how great Heart is or how fat their singer got?

Heart being great is certainly debatable.

Her getting fatter certainly isn't.

Ann Wilson and my music teacher from kindergarten thru 3rd grade = the reasons I started singing. The reasons I became interested in music, period. Although adorable and yes, talented, Carrie Underwood can eat my poopie.

Ann was much bigger than what's posted here. She's lost a good 50-75lbs I'd say. I remember the first time I saw her big - my jaw hit the floor. My jaw still hits the floor. But only when she sings. Even her mistakes are flawless.

I have nothing to add other than I've always hated Heart, they're music has just always been more annoying to me than anything else, they're like a female version of Rush to me, fuck I hate Rush, sometimes I think I'm the only Canadian who hates them.

/rant

Hey, we all get old if we're lucky. At least, unlike Grace Slick, some can still rock it.

Greatness in music is relative.

Ann Wilson's relative sexiness and subsequent loss thereof is not.

Mid-twenties Ann Wilson was hawt. Partly because of her voice, and also partly because she was a pretty pretty lady.

She's still got the pipes, but is no longer pretty. Given that there are so few female vocalists I enjoy it makes me sad. It interferes with my crush/fantasies.

I suppose I could always have a time machine in my fantasies. That's the cool thing about them; they're not real.

Neither. Its actually a mighty clever excuse for me to say, "Oooo, barracuda!" and annoy my exgirlfriend.

...

Wow, that's a really deep inside joke that like two people on the planet would find funny.

Oh well.

(somebody on the other side of the planet is getting an email right now that contains "Ooo, barracuda!")

Ann Wilson has long struggled with her weight. It's worth noting that the second video in the OP is from 2000 and she had gastric bypass surgery in 2002.

Either way, Heart kicks ass, and I'm going to enjoy the music whether or not I find the lead singer attractive.

What's tragic is that Ms. Wilson ca. 30 years ago was literally starving herself in order to look like that.

Absolutely.

Not a bad comparison actually. Interestingly enough, I'm not a big fan of Rush, but I really enjoy Heart. I tend to prefer female singers though, especially when they're rocking out.

Ah, Fleetwood Mac... love them too :)

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.

They should team up with Wynonna Judd.