In my opinion, the accolade for the greatest rock vocalist of them all has to go to Robert Plant. He's still going strong (and not simply rehashing his earlier material) and still has a great voice.

Originally posted by LordChaverly
In my opinion, the accolade for the greatest rock vocalist of them all has to go to Robert Plant. He's still going strong (and not simply rehashing his earlier material) and still has a great voice.


lol you all know that I'd agree with chaverly! :D

I agree some of his later work has a great quality and is class stuff too.
eg. Big Log, 29 Palms

Kelly Osbourne

*sniggers and runs away*

voice, entertainer or best songs?

i think mike patton of faith no more has some of the best range of styles around.

robert plant for me is just `ok' singer who sang on some great songs. i mean...i much prefer zeppelin to someone like `the who' but roger daltrey has a much better voice i think.

entertainers: dave lee roth, freddie mercury, david coverdale

voices: mike patton, gary cherone, danny vaughn

Has to be Freddie Mercury, no question.

Originally posted by Sidla
Has to be Freddie Mercury, no question.
ok i wouldn't say that, i would say Robert Plant or even Axle rose....

I certainly like Robert Plant a great deal, but I think David Bowie is much more original, unusual, accomplished and wide-ranging in terms of style. Granted, much of Bowie's material is not 'rock' in the sense that Plant's is. Perhaps it may be termed 'art rock'? All I know is, the man who sung on 'Low', 'Heroes', 'Lodger', 'Scary Monsters' and 'Heathen' sounds better, in my view, than anyone else working in popular music. At times, his voice is an instrument in itself. At his very best, there is still no-one near as good.

Originally posted by timo
[At his very best, there is still no-one near as good. [/B]

....at darts.

Freddie Mercury - nuff said :)

Originally posted by timo
I certainly like Robert Plant a great deal, but I think David Bowie is much more original, unusual, accomplished and wide-ranging in terms of style. Granted, much of Bowie's material is not 'rock' in the sense that Plant's is. Perhaps it may be termed 'art rock'? All I know is, the man who sung on 'Low', 'Heroes', 'Lodger', 'Scary Monsters' and 'Heathen' sounds better, in my view, than anyone else working in popular music. At times, his voice is an instrument in itself. At his very best, there is still no-one near as good.

Timo, this is one of the rare occasions i disagree with you. Bowie was certainly very good in his heyday - the 1970s - but since then his work has been a triumph of style over substance (perhaps it always was). His voice has actually quite a limited range, which perhaps one of the reasons why he has experimented so much with different sub-genres of music and musical styles.

Janis Joplin - She's the daddy :)
OK Freaks out there - tell me she's a Blues singer :suspect: :hihi:

Originally posted by kathythebean
Kelly Osbourne

*sniggers and runs away*

Burn Her !!

Originally posted by Sidla
Has to be Freddie Mercury, no question.

Damn. Conceded :suspect:

Susie Quattro? :D She was my heroine when I was... er, um... 9? :blush:
nothing to do with all that leather at all :rolleyes:

Originally posted by Strix
Damn. Conceded :suspect:

Susie Quattro? :D She was my heroine when I was... er, um... 9? :blush:
nothing to do with all that leather at all :rolleyes:

Heh!
She was my fantasy when I was..er, um... ? :blush:

Younger ;)

Bruce Dickinson, love his range and power, he's the man for me.
Gotta second Mike Patton, Faith No More :thumbsup:

Male has to be The Killer Diller......Jerry Lee Lewis.

If you aint heard his version of 'Over the Rainbow' you aint lived. When I played in local groups around London in the early 60s I based myself on him, as did my mates Freddie'Fingers'Lee and The Jets.

For a female, who else but Linda Gail Lewis

Ian Curtis. Followed by Lydon and Bowie. All 3 are great writers too.

Just for vocal range I'd have to agree with Mike Patton...his voice is indredible, it's just a shame he seems to have gone down the 'experimental noise' avenue (his work with the Fantomas excepted).

Runner up I'd give to Geoff Tate of Queensrhyche.

Mike Patton is great, some of the noise stuff he's done with Kid 606 is absolutely incredible.

Originally posted by Agent Gypo
Mike Patton is great, some of the noise stuff he's done with Kid 606 is absolutely incredible.

ive got 2 of his solo albums.....and it makes mr bungle sound like take that hahahahaha....pure madness. wish he was a corporate whore :( hope he does a so called `proper' album soon

Someone told me Kid 606 played at the showroom bar last year.

I would've loved to have seen the look on all the preppy art and film student faces with that lunatic on decks.

Jon Anderson, Jimmy Page, Freddy Mercury....difficult for me to choose who's best!

Has nobody mentioned Jim Morrison yet??

He was brilliant

Chris Cornell
Freddie Mercury
Steven Tyler
Axl Rose
Kory Clarke (Warrior Soul)
Layne Staley (Alice In Chains)
Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam)

Paul Rodgers was simply amazing with Free & Bad Company.

I recently watched a Bad Co. DVD filmed only a couple of years ago and amazingly he sounds just as good today as he did in the late 60s.

How many great singers of yesteryear can you say that about?

Joe Cocker, Robert Plant and Rod Stewart were all wonderful singers in their day, but none of them can do it like they used to - except Paul Rodgers

Originally posted by mojoworking
Paul Rodgers was simply amazing with Free & Bad Company.

I recently watched a Bad Co. DVD filmed only a couple of years ago and amazingly he sounds just as good today as he did in the late 60s.

How many great singers of yesteryear can you say that about?

Joe Cocker, Robert Plant and Rod Stewart were all wonderful singers in their day, but none of them can do it like they used to - except Paul Rodgers

I was surprised no one had yet mentioned Paul Rodgers (not even me at the start - I think because I've not heard him lately). He was indeed great in Free and Bad Company. He also had a great stage presence.

Originally posted by mojoworking
Paul Rodgers was simply amazing with Free & Bad Company.

yeah ive seen him live solo and with bad company....brilliant showman and his voice is the best blues rock voice ever! and its not getting any worse!

Some great singers mentioned , but the daddy of them all has to be Mick J agger

Originally posted by patchalan
Some great singers mentioned , but the daddy of them all has to be Mick J agger

Great showman and huge stage presence, but not really a great singer.

I suppose it comes down to subjective choice. I don't suppose that Peter Gabriel, Captain Beefheart [Don Van Vliet] or Ian Curtis are great singers in terms of range, technique etc. I can't imagine any of them being able to tackle Schubert's lieder or character roles in Operas by Wagner and Puccini [although the results would be hilarious]. Nevertheless, I love the sound of their unusual, idiosyncratic voices. I love them for their 'human' qualities, for their imperfections.

What I cannot stand, personally speaking, is the American stadium rock type voice, associated with that talentless, self-important ball of offal, Meatloaf. I find that kind of thing unbearable. I like singers who draw you into their own, private world. Morrissey, New Order's [under-rated Bernard Sumner], and Kate Bush spring to mind here. I like the idea that there is an intelligence working behind the voice, someone worth listening to, not a big lummox with hamburgers on the brain, like Meatloaf.

I would like to mention a couple of my favourite bluesy rock singers which people often don't think of.

Ray Gillen,
blues vocalist/harmonica player who sang with Badlands. And one of the later incarnations of Sabbath He had a rich voice perfect for blues driven rock, and sounded at times like Planty himself. Unfortunately died of Aids in 1993. I love those 2 badlands albums, and I feel so sad at what a loss he was at just 32

Danny Bowes, from thunder, a great british blues rock band. This man's voice makes you proud to be English, he has a powerful rock voice in the tradition of a british pub band, but with a slight gravelly quality, and incredible power and excellent range. Put backstreet symphony on and the hairs on the back of your neck prickle as his vocal performance quickly crescendos - ok it's formulaic but it's magic..

A more recent great rock vocalist was Jeff Buckley, who had god given voice which was as clear as a cathedral choirboy soprano, and so adaptable that he was famous for doing superb versions of hundreds of covers of other people's songs with his band and solo with just guitar.
After accidentally drowning in 1997 at 30 years old, he has gone on to be an incredible influence to a new generation of singer guitarists who have powerful and often falsetto style vocalists.

Originally posted by timo
I suppose it comes down to subjective choice. I don't suppose that Peter Gabriel, Captain Beefheart [Don Van Vliet] or Ian Curtis are great singers in terms of range, technique etc.

I must disagree regarding Beefheart, timo. In his prime he had a powerful four and a half octave range AND he sounded like Howlin' Wolf on acid. That's some voice!

Mojo,
Yes, I love Beefheart and am very familiar with his music. Perhaps I am wrong re the range [and he does sound like Howlin' Wolf too at times, you are correct], but my point is that his voice is not conventionally, 'classically' beautiful. I love it for the idiosyncratic qualities, and acknowledge that it has its own, unconventional beauty.

Re the Howlin' Wolf similarity, off the top of my head, I think 'Glider' from Spotlight Kid, and 'Falling Ditch' from Troutmask Replica are good cases in point.

Originally posted by timo
Mojo,
Yes, I love Beefheart and am very familiar with his music. Perhaps I am wrong re the range [and he does sound like Howlin' Wolf too at times, you are correct], but my point is that his voice is not conventionally, 'classically' beautiful. I love it for the idiosyncratic qualities, and acknowledge that it has its own, unconventional beauty.

Re the Howlin' Wolf similarity, off the top of my head, I think 'Glider' from Spotlight Kid, and 'Falling Ditch' from Troutmask Replica are good cases in point.

I take your point timo. Perhaps one of the best examples of a non-singer would be Leonard Cohen, or Tom Waits. Both of them get the point across perfectly, though.

BTW, I hope no one includes Dylan in this unenviable list of non-singers. His vocal chords may be shot now, but in his mid-sixties prime his voice was a thing of beauty and deceptively powerful to boot.

We appear to have gone off-topic a little.

In no particular order:
Chris Cornell
Peter Gabriel
Dave Matthews
Geoff Mann (RIP)

Originally posted by timo
Mojo,
Yes, I love Beefheart and am very familiar with his music. Perhaps I am wrong re the range [and he does sound like Howlin' Wolf too at times, you are correct], but my point is that his voice is not conventionally, 'classically' beautiful. I love it for the idiosyncratic qualities, and acknowledge that it has its own, unconventional beauty.

Re the Howlin' Wolf similarity, off the top of my head, I think 'Glider' from Spotlight Kid, and 'Falling Ditch' from Troutmask Replica are good cases in point.

Coincidentally, one of Beefheart's lyrics, delivered in his typical roaring style (as exemplified on 'Willie the Pimp' on Zappa's Hot Rats album) has been going around in my head in the last week or so. Its

I'm a ball chain puller!
I'm a ball chain puller!

I have been wondering what a ball chain puller is (can't remember the album off hand either).

van Zant is an accomplished artist too - and in his heyday he looked the business.

Originally posted by LordChaverly
Coincidentally, one of Beefheart's lyrics, delivered in his typical roaring style (as exemplified on 'Willie the Pimp' on Zappa's Hot Rats album) has been going around in my head in the last week or so. Its

I'm a ball chain puller!
I'm a ball chain puller!

I have been wondering what a ball chain puller is (can't remember the album off hand either).

van Zant is an accomplished artist too - and in his heyday he looked the business.

Isn't that Bat Chain Puller from the title track of the album Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller).?

Could be. I remember him singing it live on BBC TV years ago and i thought he said 'ball chain puller'. Probably my memory playing tricks.

What on earth is a 'bat chain puller'?

Originally posted by LordChaverly
Could be. I remember him singing it live on BBC TV years ago and i thought he said 'ball chain puller'. Probably my memory playing tricks.

What on earth is a 'bat chain puller'?

No idea, but Don always did have a nice turn of phrase.

Here are the lyrics. I am none the wiser now though. A textual exegesis of the lines below I suspect wouldn't be very rewarding or enlightening. Perhaps the guy was high on dope when he wrote it, or perhaps it was one of the first experiments in random poetry written by an early computer. The point is though he delivered the lines with great elan, so it didn't really matter if they were largely gibberish.



Bat chain
Puller
Bat chain puller
Puller, puller

A chain with yellow lights
That glistens like oil beads
On its slick smooth trunk
That trails behind on tracks, and thumps
A wing hangs limp and retreats

Bat chain puller
Puller puller

Bulbs shoot from its snoot
And vanish into darkness
It whistles like a root snatched from dry earth
Sodbustin’ rakes with grey dust claws
Announces its coming in the morning
This train with grey tubes
That houses people’s very thoughts and belongings.

Bat chain puller
Puller puller

This train with grey tubes that houses people’s thoughts,
Their very remains and belongings.
A grey cloth patch
Caught with four threads
In the hollow wind of its stacks
Ripples felt fades and grey sparks clacks,
Lunging the cushioned thickets.
Pumpkins span the hills
With orange crayola patches.
Green inflated trees
Balloon up into marshmallow soot
That walks away in forty circles,
Caught in grey blisters
With twinkling lights and green sashes
Uuh
Pulled by rubber dolphins with gold yawning mouths
That blister and break in agony
In souls of rust
They kill gold sawdust into dust.

Bat chain puller

This should be quite easy to answer, but it isn't. No one has yet mentioned Lennon (unless you prove otherwise) and his omission is strange. From the torn larynx of Twist and Shout, to Yer Blues and the craaaa---zzzz---y primal screams of Well, Well Well to the softer, innocent and frankly, painful John of Jealous Guy and #9 Dream. A voice which sounds both delicate and yet in a sense, damaged at the same time.

Freddie Mercury is up there somewhere, probably near the summit. His passion, delivery and style; I don't know, he brought something so unique, so Him to Queen's songs. An incredible vocal range (contrast George Michael's rendition of Somebody To Love) but the winner for me, is the fact that he was capable of singing with the best in classical - as on Barcelona, an element he took into his own songwriting. Plus, add to all this, arguably rock's finest front-man. What a guy!

Us Brits can also boast early Rod, early Elton and definitely early Bowie - each had their own sound and style. I like Bono's earlier stuff too (Pride is indeed passionate).

Emotion, power, but something more - the Front Man attitude. I think pound for pound I'm still looking at Freddie. But then, there's our Noddy Holder. What a gob!

Mind if I pass on this one!!!!!

David Lee Roth.

The best rock frontman in the world ever.

Best *Rock* vocals easy - Matt Bellamy. Massize range, depths of emotion etc, at the same time as adlibbing amazing guitar or piano.

Lord Chaverley,
Some of Beefheart's lines really stick in one's mind, and the desire to say them at inappropriate moments is hard to resist. I like 'I'm just, uh, sort of, thread, with, uh, drooped body' from When Big Joan Sets Up [from Troutmask], and 'Sleepin' on the Bayou in an old rotten cot' from the title track of Clear Spot.

I hear he lives in a trailer in the Mojave Desert these days, spending his time painting. Would that he would return to the sonic world. Will we ever hear again the voice that sang, 'I'm gonna Boogalarise ya Baby!'? One rather hopes so.

Phew erm...
Freddie Mercury
Bon Scott
Steve Tyler

I agree with the original post definately Robert Plant no ones gets close, his voice is just brilliant.:love:

No 2 on my list is Jon Anderson love his voice as well.

No 3. Steve Perry

Ian Gillan. Awesome.

Not sure if this is just meant to be male vocalists, but Grace Slick had an amazing voice.

Ian Gillan. Awesome.

I did wonder if anybody would ever mention Gillan.

Bit Of An Obscure One But...

Tom Araya-Perfection On Reign In Blood.

My top 5 (well, tonight at least.....)

Russell Allen (Symphony X)
Gary Hughes (Ten)
John Lawton (ex Uruah Heep)
John Sloman (ex Heep, Lone Star)
Karen Lawrence (1994)