And Then There Were 4

By
Neil S. Velleman
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  1. On a night when the Final Four (I just can’t bring myself to call them “The Fab Four”) could have picked any song out of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, several of the song choices selected were somewhat dubious, at best.  With literally hundreds of songs to choose from, every one the eight songs chosen were ill-fitted for the person singing them, with only one exception, and he had other problems.  At the very least, at this point in the competition, each of the contestants could have, and probably should have, picked far better songs to show what they could do.  All in all, it was a very disappointing night that had the potential to be one of Idol’s best.

     

    What follows is how I think they did, best to worst:

     1)       Sayesha

    – After several weeks of ho-hum same old performances where she failed to make a connection with the audience, Sayesha has now had 3 very good weeks in a row.  Her first song, Tina Turner’s Proud Mary, was most definitely overdone by any standard.  But her second song, Sam Cooke’s Change is Gonna Come, was emotional and full of feeling.  Something that she has seriously lacked in the first several weeks of this show.  Whether you believed her story about her change coming now or not, it sure looked like she believed it.
     

     

    2)       Rocker David

    – Without a doubt, not one of his better weeks.  Although he did a pretty good job with Baba O’Reilly by The Who, it was effected by the time compression.  You gotta wonder how it would have sounded if he got to sing the whole thing.  His first song, Duran Duran’s Hungry Like the Wolf, was not up to his standard that he has set for himself, but for anyone else it would have been pretty good.  The edge that he puts in all of his songs made it a little harder than Simon Lebon’s version, but it kinda worked.
     

     

    3)       Young David

    – Did a very nice job with his first song, Ben E. King’s Stand By Me, at least the first half of it.  I don’t know if it was YD who got lost in the middle of it or if it was me who just got bored.   That tends to happen when I listen to him.  His second song, Elvis’s Love Me Tender, was actually pretty good, once you get past the “typical David” stuff.  I would love to hear this guy sing something besides a slow ballad.  How about an actual ROCK SONG?  Or something that say, has more than a one-two beat?  That might be a nice change.
     

     

    4)       Dreadlocks Jason – Oh, I’ve saved the best for last.  I think it’s possible that the dreadlocked one could have had the single worst performance in Top Ten history last night.  His first song, Bob Marley’s I Shot the Sheriff, was so bad that it actually pissed off both Randy and Simon.  On the bright side, he was more lively than he’s been in weeks.  His second song, Mr. Tambourine Man by Bob Dylan, was actually very good.  He sounded good and it was very Dylanesque.  Then he forgot the words.  No, not a couple of words like Brooke did.  Lots of words.

     GOING HOME:  DREADLOCKS JASON – Stick a fork in him, he’s done.  Even the 12-year old girls that make up his fan base can’t save him this time.  I HOPE.