Jewel

Someone stole the car she was living in??

She got her teeth fixed and ginormous breast implants. She showed off her implants by wearing tight clothing. But a little later you could see how badly her implants were done. They’re nasty.

Shes got fake tits prior to her 2003 album. All of a sudden she’s showing off huge tits in the Intuition video. Bitch tries to deny she had nothing done and was all against plastic surgery. Here’s a 2010 article with her denying it in a roundabout way, and saying that she had fatigue issues. Well maybe all that silicone placed on top of her chest has something to do with it.

There’s a video about how her 2003 album fucked up her career. She was seen as a sellout and trend chaser.

R1 Wasn’t that a PR fairytale?

I remember that album just kind of flew under the radar. Who cared that much about Jewel’s acoustic singer-songwriter shtick to begin with? It wasn’t exactly Dylan going electric, or — from the same year — Liz Phair going Avril Lavigne/adult contemporary pop. I remember the latter being the real career-ender, not Jewel’s razor blade commercial song.

Anyway, her songs were always insipid and syrupy and they played *constantly* on the radio. I don’t know if they get played anymore on radio stations that play 90s stuff (do such stations even exist?).

That “my hands are small I know, but they are not yours, they are my own” song was the worst of all her singles. And she seemed like a bitch, too.

I didn't realise that the 0304 album was seen as a bad career move - I really liked it.

Her lyrics are nonsensical but could be taken by shallow morons as deep.

R6 she does come off bitchy. Recently she’s in the news again because her friend, the personally troubled former Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh, had died suddenly under tragic circumstances. Bitch either tacitly or directly released a private letter she’d written to him warning him about his addiction and need for serious help. Only a bitch would make a private letter public only days after the death of a supposed friend.

R7 that album on its own merits was ho-hum. But coming from someone who’d previously marketed herself as a down to earth alternative-rock singer, it was a big WTF. Not only that but it was a complete physical image overhaul that seemed very manufactured.

I was in the audience at a festival-style show when she was promoting her dance record. She was gyrating and being sexy and the audience laughed and laughed. She later said that her dance record was a big joke that the audience didn't understand. So she tried country music for a while. Remember when she was a poet? And remember when she was an actress? Quite the multi-talented gal.

She straightened the fang just like Ricky Gervais. That minor change in appearance carries over into a lot of different areas.

It feels like a people-pleasing stunt performed by people who have already proven their worth. Neither succeeded based on looks. Why now?

I see she and her ex-husband had a "tender undoing" rather than a "conscious uncoupling." Neat.

She said she was being satirical with that "Intuition" song and video. I can't tell if she trying to save face or just another case of an artist/entertainer wanting to have their cake and eat it too. She apparently didn't mind it being used in a commercial for Schick razors.

Yeah, it was "Intuition". Embarrassing.

She couldn't stop playing her foolish games.

She emerged at a time when Grunge was fading and the Rap Metal boys (Limp Bizkit, etc.) were having their brief moment in the sun. She even went to the ill-fated Woodstock '99 concert, and got lots of boos from the mostly shirtless white brahs.

I watched her perform live and didn’t care much for her voice.

Ah, maybe because she was a talentless hick with bad teeth

I think her poetry book had something to do with it. Naturally, I owned a copy (Mary!)

This thread reminded me of this from 20 years ago...so good.

I saw her perform at the Hollywood Bowl. She was better than I thought and I enjoyed it all for what it was worth.

R8 I never really understand why sometimes when an artist wants to try a different direction or a new sound they get torn down for it. They can equally be criticised for just doing the same thing over and over and sounding the same all the time. I don't have any issue with someone who is known for a particular genre of music exploring outside the box a bit - especially if it's for a single album, almost a concept album in a way. Pretty sure her album after that was a return to her 'usual' music and I liked all of it.

She is tedious. Elevator music level talent. General dullard who of course thinks she is a true artist. Take your tiresome one hit with thanks, and go away.

[quote] I never really understand why sometimes when an artist wants to try a different direction or a new sound they get torn down for it.

Musical exploration and reinvention is one thing, but another when a "singer-songwriter" fashioned in the mold of Fiona Apple start doing insipid radio pop that Xtina and Anastacia would have been too embarrassed to record.

And it definitely wasn't because she didn't "play ball", if her mentions on the Howard Stern Show were anything to go by.

Sell your sin, just cash in 🎶

I'm admittedly a huge Jewel fan, but--as stated above--many fans felt duped when she had her "glam makeover" and put out the dance album. I remember hearing people say all the stories about her living in the car were made up, etc. (I believe she lived in the car, but no one knows how long except her and her mother.) She had been so proud of her teeth, but capped them.

The fact is, she would've faded out of sight like Alanis and other 90s colleagues from that same era. I think the glam thing was an attempt at reinvention, just like her country album she put out later when she was married to the rodeo guy. She stayed at the hotel I work at last year, and couldn't have been nicer and more down-to-earth. I also applaud her for speaking out on Tony Hsieh...he was considered a sort of god here in Vegas and had way too many "yes men/women" surrounding him 24/7. The fact that he flew her to Park City last summer to perform a private concert--and that she left the next morning because she could tell what was going on with him was sketchy--is telling. Plenty of people would've taken his money, performed, and minded their own business. She cared enough to speak out; it's a shame he didn't have more people like her around him to call him out on the drugs, drinking, etc.

I'd much rather go to a Jewel concert than Taylor Swift, etc...

Love Standing Still and always sing along when I hear it on the radio.

[quote] Musical exploration and reinvention is one thing, but another when a "singer-songwriter" fashioned in the mold of Fiona Apple.

Oh please. I’m not a Fiona Apple fan, so I’m not pulling a “how dare you compare Jewel to my goddess!” move here, but Fiona Apple is widely respected by tastemakers, critics, and serious music fans. Again, I’m NOT a fan, but those are the facts. She’s kind of nuts and musically highly capable and driven/obsessed in that way that mentally ill artists usually are. Jewel has never, ever been in that league. Not before ‘Intuition’, not after.

I’m glad to hear she was a sweetie pie at your resort though, R26. And I, too, would rather go to a Jewel show (gun to my head) than a Taylor Swift one.

Of course Fiona Apple is more talented than Jewel - that's why we're talking about the latter's shitty career. I don't know why you're getting so indignant, surely you realize that music execs model acts on what's hot - and in the 90s, alternative singer-songwriters was the model for selling female acts.

[italic]My tits are small, I know / But they’re not fake, they are my own...

I remember her explaining her transformation as "sex sells." Well, Jewel, you sold millions of records as the weird folk singer in the 90s. What explains that?

This youtube comment under "Foolish Games" made me smile:

[quote]I used to pretend I was Jewel in my room when i was a teenager. Lmao, I am embarrassed for myself thinking about it. I used to sit in my beanbag chair and listen to my Jewel CD's on repeat while singing into a hairbrush or other 'microphone'. So many memories.

“Foolish Games” really does have a very pretty melody, BTW.

Spots of it have always reminded me of “Diamonds and Rust” by Joan Baez... but that’s probably just incidental.

Oh lord, I just googled the two song titles together and found this! I thought I was imagining it.

[quote] Jewel claims to have heard little pop music growing up in Alaska, so it must be divine intervention that helped her pinch the tunes of Kenny Loggins' "Danny's Song" and Joan Baez's "Diamonds and Rust," respectively, for her hits "You Were Meant for Me" and "Foolish Games." (Phoenix New Times)

Specifically, i think it’s the musical notes to “but that’s not unusual, it’s just that the moon is full”

That's lovely, R34. I do enjoy all the piano covers of songs you can watch now on YouTube.

I don't know if it's just me though, but I always get disappointed 90% of the time because they are covers that force the vocal line into the right hand. I'd rather listen to a piano accompaniment instead, if you get what I mean? YANTA on YouTube is good for that (mostly does Tori Amos, but also other artists like Kate Bush, Fiona Apple, Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor etc).

[quote]r36 I don't know if it's just me though, but I always get disappointed 90% of the time because they are covers that force the vocal line into the right hand. I'd rather listen to a piano accompaniment instead, if you get what I mean?

I do. The difference is (as you know) for most people, if they just hear the accompaniment to a song, they’re not really hearing the song... because the accompaniment is just harmonizing notes and chords that compliment the vocal line/melody. The accompaniment is not the song, really, it’s more the background ambiance of a song.

But I can see how listening to them could be pleasurable. They’re relaxing. I looked at Yanta (thank you!) and am going to check out more... but if it were not titled I might not know this is “A Case of You”

I totally respect that, R37 and I think the reason it bothers me more is that I'm a pianist and I want to learn to play these as is. When I play stuff with the vocal line forced into the right hand it almost always sounds amateurish when I play it, if you get me? Really glad to have introduced you to Tim (YANTA), he's great. And that seems totally fair, perhaps I only know that that is A Case of You because I'm really familiar with that cover - I'd never thought of it like that before.

This is interesting. He’s almost a bit or a drama queen... but it’s kind of a drama queen song. May as well throw yourself into it!

Jewel became quite boring in the end.

Not as boring as Sam Smith no - but boring nonetheless.

My cousin used to do an hysterical imitation of Jewel singing "Adrian": "A-dri-an. Come. Out. And. Play."

I was so disappointed in Pieces of You when I bought it. I got it off the strength of "Who Will Save Your Soul" and the single versions of "You Were Meant for Me" and "Foolish Games" only to buy the album and those latter two were different versions and everything else was exactly the kind of acoustic guitar stuff that I really don't like. At a stretch I don't mind the title track and "Daddy", but yeah, this was not a favourite. And this was back in the days of saving up pocket money over months to have the $30 for a CD, so it was especially disappointing.

[quote] I think the reason it bothers me more is that I'm a pianist and I want to learn to play these as is. When I play stuff with the vocal line forced into the right hand it almost always sounds amateurish when I play it, if you get me?

Yes, I understand. But I'm sure you sound much less amateurish taking over the melody than most singers would if they had to just do the accompanyment, though!

Maybe a way to look at it is that there are different ways to accompany or orchestrate or arrange any specific song. There's the way it was done when an artist records it, and that might become the standard way, but the song itself is the melody, a certain set of notes. "Happy Birthday to You" will always be "Happy Birthday To You" regardless of the accompaniment...or no accompaniment at all. It is 25 specific notes.

I cannot read music but I have worked professionally as a singer so I guess I have always seen it from that side. I don't perform any more, but I had the strangest experience at a Christmas party a few years ago, where the host's husband played the piano and a bunch of us sang. He was very proficient and had a baby grand and all kinds of sheet music (everyone could find their favorite song) but he had clearly only played by himself for pleasure. He set a tempo and was OFF LIKE A SHOT, rolling through the song regardless of where the singer was... which is a reversal of the usual dynamic. It was very disorienting! Not to diminish accompanyists, but the vocalist is delivering the words, hopefully with some emotion, and emotion does not follow a strict metre. The individualized stresses and pauses are a part of what makes singers different from each other, what keeps it from sounding robotic. I don't know if you're familiar with the technique of "stolen time," but it is when the tempo can be slightly sped up or slowed down for a moment, as long as the measure ends where it ordinarily would have without any of those touches. It gives a sense of immediacy and freedom, as if it were impulsively happening for the first time, just then.

But it was so funny... the singers at that party could have stopped and walked away and this pianist would have kept on happily pounding away to his well-worn sheet music...but what would he have been accompanying?? Silence.

I guess my view was shaped by the first conductor I worked with as a child, when I asked, "How long do I wait in this part, before it changes?" and he said simply, "I follow you."

Thank you for discussing accompaniment. I haven't thought of the technical aspects of vocalist/accompanyist for a long time. I don't mean to sound like accompanyists are unimportant, or interchangeable. I wish I could play piano and understood music more broadly and theoretically than just from a (n individual) singer's experience.

R41, that's one of the reasons I recorded songs off the radio (besides my allowance being low). Buying the album and the songs were hardly ever the "radio edits" sucked. The radio singles were always sweetened up a bit with a bit more oomph than on the album.

Speaking of songs on the radio, when I was little I always wondered if the tape of the chorus was just replayed for the second time it appeared.

I asked a friend who was a little older and they said, "God, that would be so cheap." But I wonder if a finished recording ever did that.

[quote] I don't know why you're getting so indignant, surely you realize that music execs model acts on what's hot - and in the 90s, alternative singer-songwriters was the model for selling female acts.

Jewel was not a creation of “music execs” and she was never considered “alternative” by anyone or marketed as such. Her first, massively successful album came out in 1995, one year before Fiona Apple’s debut album was released, and she achieved success on the strength of her folky, classic-country-x-pop singles, which were popular on mainstream, Hot 100 radio and MTV, and her good looks & boobs. She was never a critic’s favorite.

There was never any parallel between her and Fiona Apple. Jewel’s path was not charted out by record label executives. I’m not “indignant”, I just know the difference between these ladies’ songs, their history, and the way they were received/perceived, when and by whom. I’m just a nerd about this stuff.

I don’t like either one of them.

[quote] And this was back in the days of saving up pocket money over months to have the $30 for a CD, so it was especially disappointing.

I hear ya, but where did you live that a CD cost thirty dollars??

I would love to have had her career. Have two successful albums and release a book of bad poetry all by age 25. Retire from the public eye and live off that money for the rest of your life. Not a bad deal!

I remember seeing an interview clip of her after she filmed that movie with Ang Lee. The host asked her about music and she acted like a bitch and said something like, "Don't ask me about music. I'm over music. It's so BORING"

I guess she thought she was going to transition into a successful actress. She probably should have kept her mouth shut... I don't know if she was really over music but music certainly got over her, as her career after that indicated.

Her first album pissed a lot of people off because they bought it for the radio tracks... only to find out that the songs released as singles were all remixed and not the same versions on the album (ie the single edits were 100x better than the LP versions).

whenever i hear her sing it makes my own throat hurt, like it's strained. i don't get it.

[quote]Jewel was not a creation of “music execs”

She was the creation of sucking on Sean Penn's Dick!!!

]quote]She said she was being satirical with that "Intuition" song and video.

uh huh. She's a liar. She was selling out. Didn't she basically write that song for a disposable razor commercial?

Has anyone seen the Hallmark movies she 'stars' in titled "Fixer Upper Mysteries?" Oh my God, she is a terrible actress and the idea that she could lead a home renovation and investigate/solve a murder are each laughable.

I liked her song Standing Still but I think it's because it was well produced. She's one of those who has to control all the aspects of most of her songs and her work suffers for it. She needs other people in the room to tell her that a lyric like "your hopes in the sky but your heart like grape gum on the ground" is really bad, please come up with a better metaphor. Also she has a pretty voice but she isn't that versatile a singer and it's not strong enough to do outdoor venues like woodstock or genres like rock.

Link please to the "alot" of pissed off people, R49.

[quote] Her first album pissed a lot of people off because they bought it for the radio tracks... only to find out that the songs released as singles were all remixed and not the same versions on the album (ie the single edits were 100x better than the LP versions).

They weren’t remixes or single edits, they were completed re-recorded.

She actually wasn't too bad of an actress in that Western film directed by Ang Lee.