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Bad Singers who made it

#161
Lou Reed
Alex Harvey
Katie Perry - can't sing in key at all live.
Bob Dylan
Les Claypool
Stan Ridgway
Captain Beefheart
Frank Zappa
Adrian Belew
Greg Lake
John Wetton
Jack Bruce
Rodger Daltrey
Johnny Winter
 
#166
plenty adequate singers.
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That is the key. Funny how many great bands (Beatles excluded) have medicore at best singers (Primus & Zappa himself) but make brilliant music to me.

There are clips on Youtube of Daltrey singing way off key and unable to hit certian notes. Greg Lake is notorious for having a flat voice. Ever see the Metallica movie?
Horrendously off key singing.

Dylan, Reed & Harvey are all "Talking Singers" - works for me.
 
#168
I have to agree with the majority of those singers mentioned already and want to add a few more that I did not see.

Johnny Rotten
Leonard Cohen
Kid Rock
Kanye West
Sheryl Crowe
Fergie and the rest of The Black Eyed Peas
Jack White
Gwen Stefani
Neil Diamond – he claims he is not a good singer (master of talk singing) – A Neil Diamond quote - "My voice is unadorned. I don't try for perfection. I try to be honest and truthful and soulful with the voice I have. If I make mistakes in notes, or there are cracks in notes, I don't fix them. That's the way it is."
 
#169
Did I miss it, or did no one mention Duran Duran's Simon LeBon????

At least with guys like Dylan, Waits, Randy Newman and Mark Knopler, they know their limits, but they can still sing with emotionality. Check out Knopler's "Brothers In Arms". Makes you shiver. Plus, they are great songwriters.

funny but the great rock bands of all time singers could never cut it in American Idol.
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That's a good thing. All the guys I mentioned above, even LeBon, I would MUCH rather listen to than the AI pretty-boys (and girls). Just because you have the ability to change notes thirty times in a second, doesn't mean you should. Vocal gymnastics is NOT the same as singing effectively. Vocal gymnastics is NOT the same as singing from the heart, with feeling. Google the Kris Allen / Mike Huckabee version of "Yesterday" for a perfect example. No feeling what-so-ever.

Whitney Houston and Mariah Carry have ruined singers for a generation and beyond.
 
#170
Ozzy - can't believe his name didn't come up way sooner than it did here.

Belinda Carlisle - Was nice to look at back in the day, but can't sing a friggen note.

Suzanna Hoffs - A little better than Belinda - and much much hotter - but still pretty weak singer.

Graham Bonnett - Gotta agree on the Alcatrazz stuff... I used to have a tape of one of their live concerts and the singing is just godawful. One of those guys you wonder why any band would ever hire him.
This is a track from that concert - also dig his stage attire. It gets really good at about 1:40.


Vince Neil - yuck

Stephen Pearcy (Ratt) - he wasn't even in tune on the records; can't imagine what a trainwreck he must have been live

Gene Simmons - can't believe no one mentioned him yet. And Paul Stanley isn't much better.
 
#171
And, a few more

Jennifer Lopez
Ashlee Simpson
Suzanne Vega
Liam Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
The Spice Girls
Biz Markie
Lady Gaga
Jessica Simpson
James Blunt
Fantasia
Fred Durst
Tori Amos
Bjork
Milli Vinilli (I know they faked it but the real singers were not good anyway)
 
#172
lawsonman said:
Willie Nelson sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard.
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LOFL!!! I spit out a mouthful of coffee reading that!

anyway, my candidates are..
Stevie Nicks- how could she have sang every song she ever sang in the exact same monotone and key is beyond me.

Aaron Neville- Lots of folks think he can actually sing.

Joe Cocker- NO.

Bob Dylan- I'm sorry but he sounds a little autistic.

T Pain- YOU figure it out.
 
#178
lawsonman said:
I was listening to some obscure song today by the Rolling Stones and thought that it was a miracle that they have been around forever considering how awful a singer Jagger really is.Now don't get me wrong,I'm 55 am grew up loving the Stones but Jagger has to be the poster child for a guy with a terrible voice that made it.Who's your example?
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Jagger had attitude and inflection, not aa great voce but attitude. The Guy that always amazed me was Rod Stewart. He's got one note, and its between notes! Some one is bound to bring up Dylan, but tho' Dylands voice is far from beautiful, he really can sing. Lay Lady Lay probably showed it off the best. I can't remember if it was Sting or Bono that nominated Dylan as one of the Top 10 rock singers for Rolling Stones list, which isn't necessarily very complete since it excludes David Clayton Thomas (BS&T) and Burton Cummings (Guess Who). But he said that Dylan has so many voices, whcih if you listen to his body of work is pretty true. I also read that in high school, he had the range of Little Richard before he affected the Wooody Guthrie roughness and hill-billy delivery.
 
#180
Barkless Dog said:
Lou Reed
Alex Harvey
Katie Perry - can't sing in key at all live.
Bob Dylan
Les Claypool
Stan Ridgway
Captain Beefheart
Frank Zappa
Adrian Belew
Greg Lake
John Wetton
Jack Bruce
Rodger Daltrey
Johnny Winter
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Lou Reeds voice was at least "pleaseant" even if he isn't rangy, See my comments on Dylan above. Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) actually had an amazing range, but he never tried to sing pretty. His biggest (perhaps subliminal" influence had to be Howlin' Wolf. Zappa wasn't pretty but he never really tried to be either. I like Jack Bruces voice just fine, same with Rodger Daltrey (although the Who are my least favorite band from the 60's) Johnny Winter is a blues shouter. All of these guys can deliever a song. But a bunch of guys from the "rock era" would flunk out of "vocal training". Its kind of the difference between a great singer (Dylan, Jagger, Joplin) and a great vocalist (Sinatra, Striesand). The difference between a trained voice and an emotional delivery.
 

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