National Treasure

If I walked into Yosemite National Park and dropped a match or if I went to Yellowstone plugged up old faithful then drove to Mount Rushmore and drew a Hitler mustache on George Washington’s face I’d be arrested right? What if I went to Graceland and blew it up? There would be lynch mobs out to get me right? So I ask you, why has an arrest warrant not been issued for Whitney Houston? By spending years in a drug induced haze smoking God knows how much crack or whatever the drug of her choice may be the woman has destroyed the golden voice considered a National Treasure by many. If you haven’t heard or seen the You Tube videos of her shows in Europe or Australia save yourself the heartache. Not only can she no longer hit the notes she doesn’t even sound like the same person.

Now you may say it’s her voice and she has the right to do with it as she pleases but I say she gave up any such rights long ago when she accepted the role of America’s sweetheart. For years Whitney cultivated this wholesome all American girl next door image. Whether true or not this was the image she sold to America and we all bought into it. An image all but destroyed from the moment she met one Bobby Brown. Speaking of Mr. Brown I’m not saying he’s completely at fault as Whitney has a mind of her own but he at least should be charged as an accessory. We should have realized something was wrong when she attempted to rewrite history with her claim of Bobby being the original king of R&B (she should have been incarcerated for that statement alone) or when Diane Sawyer showed up at her house and she made the infamous crack is whack statement. And don’t get me started on her role on that mess of a reality TV show Being Bobby Brown. For whatever reason Whitney cold-heartedly calculated to destroy her image and become the Bonnie to Bobby’s Clyde which was fine and good for gossip and tabloid fodder but then she messed with the voice and folks America, no the world is not having it.

Now she’s decided to clean herself up and she’s out there touring the world with this “new” voice which sounds suspiciously like Louis Armstrong to me. The problem is that although you can change or even clean up your image once you’ve ruined the tool which made you famous there’s nothing left for us to treasure. This newly liberated and recovering Diva, free of Bobby Brown and according to her free of drugs has arrived and people have been treated to a train wreck tour of delays, disappearances and to that voice…no thanks, I prefer my Divas demanding, selfish and outrageous but always possessing the qualities that made them Divas in the first place which in this case would be her voice. And I don’t want excuses, respiratory infections or lengthy wardrobe changes I just want the voice. If I can’t have it live in concert or with newly recorded material I’ll just listen to her classics. But consider this fair warning, if she’s not going to be charged and arrested, the next time you hear what you think is Satchmo wheezing his way through a version of I Will Always Love You, listen closely it’s probably Whitney.