Ha ha, I've always thought this, and I'm one that loves Jim's vocal demos.
I guess when you know it's a Steinman vocal, your 'critique' becomes sub-consciously biased?
However, I think there is more to it, than the 'quality' of the vocal. With a Steinman vocal you know it's coming straight from the heart, with all the right nuances and phrasings.
Also Jim's voice has a lot of character/emotion, which stems from loving his spoken word pieces.
I say love the Steinman demos AND love the 'finished' productions.
In the case of 'children', I love elements from both versions, and although I think Margoshes' arrangement (you know the section) is clever, it just doesn't work. I think Rinkoff said the mySpace version is only ONE attempt, and not a final version.
> I have a pet theory about Jim's vocals and Jim's fans in
> general (not just you). I've had this theory for years. I
> believe Jim's fans drastically alter their perception
> because they know that's Jim Steinman singing. Imagine we
> were given all the recordings we have of Jim singing, and
> we were told that's not Jim Steinman, but some random guy
> who was hired just to sing. If fans were told that, and
> fully believed it, I really *really* doubt you'd hear as
> many of them claim that "that guy" beautifully captures
> the feeling of the song. I think they'd probably claim
> he's just not very good. Jim can't sing his way out of a
> wet paper bag. By professional standards.
>
> I'm definitely not a fan of Jim's singing. On Children I
> prefer the TDE version in every way possible. That
> definitely includes the emotive/interpretation sort of
> thing. That Children thing on myspace is one of my
> favorite recordings I've ever heard of Jim's work. But
> that's a very unfair comparison, because one was just the
> writer's demo and the other was meant for the public.
>
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