Pop/Rock Singer of the Day thread (I wanna hear you scream)

[Podaar]

Stevie was great. I enjoyed her solo career too. The duo with Tom Petty was fantastic.

That photo you chose, Kev... the way she's caressing the mic... while her lips lightly touch the tip... good thing it's not a Telefunkin U47!

[Stadler]

I know it's sort of a cliché (it's the LONG SONG!) but his vocals on Stargazer are so integral to that song.  "Look, look, look... on the horizon"; every time I hear that, I picture him pointing and I feel I have to turn around and look, as if the rainbow will actually be there.   I was lucky enough to see him perform that live - one of his solo tours, opening for Maiden on a summer shed tour, early to mid 2000's - and it was as classic as it sounds.

Not sure if you saw the Lock Up the Wolves tour but he broke into Stargazer and I literally lost my mind.

I'll check; it was one of those later solo tours.  It was a triple bill:  Motorhead, Dio and Maiden, and it was a great show.  Not the best show I ever saw, but it was probably the best value for money.    Legend opening, legend following, and legends headlining!

[Stadler]

I love Stevie Nicks, and I'm sorry, she's still good looking for her age (she's what, 70?)

Gold Dust Woman gets me every time:  "Rulers make bad lovers; better put your kingdom up for sale!"

[King Postwhore]

As a teen I've never wanted to see a woman's legs more than Stevie's.

[hefdaddy42]

Always really enjoyed her work in Fleetwood Mac, and I also really like the Buckingham Nicks album, but I never cared that much for the rest of her solo work.

[KevShmev]

That photo you chose, Kev... the way she's caressing the mic... while her lips lightly touch the tip... good thing it's not a Telefunkin U47!

 

Gold Dust Woman gets me every time:  "Rulers make bad lovers; better put your kingdom up for sale!"

Yep, great tune.

As a teen I've never wanted to see a woman's legs more than Stevie's.

 

[Cool Chris]

I recall someone here calling her voice "Goaty," presumably to mean "sounding like a goat." Somehow I can agree with that statement, and still appreciate her singing. Though aside from a few FM gems, I prefer her vocals when sung with Lindsay.

[TAC]

Stevie Nicks is all kinds of awesome!

[KevShmev]

Only fitting to feature this man after last night...

Jon Anderson



Anderson's angelic voice is one of the most beautiful things the rock and roll genre has ever seen.  It has this otherworldly, ethereal quality to it that made Yes' songs, which were already dynamite musically, that much better and powerful.  Plus, his lyrics always has this kind of mystical quality, which came across as fascinating as heck when coming from his voice, even if they occasionally looked like pure gibberish on paper.  To me, the Mount Rushmore of classic prog conversation begins and ends with Jon Anderson.

[Mladen]

Voice of an angel. One of my all time favorite singers.

[TAC]

He is the main reason why I cannot listen to Yes.

[Lowdz]

He is the main reason why I cannot listen to Yes.

Sort of this. I can listen to it but the complete bollox he's singing puts me off more. I'm a casual Yes fan at best though.

[bundy]

Voice of an angel. One of my all time favorite singers.

+1

While Anderson he rightly remember for his core role in Yes, lets not forget his work with Vangelis. The Jon and Vangelis albums Friends of Mr Cairo and Short Stories are essential IMHO if you're a Jon Anderson Fan and Private Collection is also very good. The Vangelis album Heaven and Hell features So Long Ago So Clear, my personal favourite of anything Anderson has done vocally, for me rivalled perhaps only by Soon and Wonderous Stories.

[KevShmev]

He is the main reason why I cannot listen to Yes.

[Cool Chris]

Not a fan either. In fact, I was perusing the Yes thread here, and while my knowledge of them is pretty limited, it seems like for a legendary and flagship band in the genre, they only have a couple stellar albums, and decades worth of material that is marginal at best and garbage at worst. True?

[KevShmev]

Not true.  Yes had four stellar albums in the early to mid 70s, all of which were integral in popularizing the subgenre now known as progressive rock (I do not believe it was called that at the time).  The fact that they have been a mess for much of the last 20 years doesn't erase what they did in their prime.

[Cool Chris]

How is that much different from what I said? I didn't say anything about their legacy, intentionally, as that cannot always be measured by volume. Hell, I love Floyd and The Who beyond words, and I think they only both put out 4 stellar albums. And they are as integral to the popularity of rock as anyone.

[Mosh]

Yes' output is way more consistent than they get credit for. Their 4 best albums are really high up there, but it's not like the rest is throwaway. Lots of less talked about gems like Drama, Talk, and The Ladder. Even Fly From Here from 2011 was really good.

[Podaar]

I love Yes, but the best I can say about Anderson's voice is, it fit some of the music. Mostly, I just found myself listening beyond Jon. I can't shake the feeling that he's got a big gob of mucus stuck in his throat. I always have to suppress an urge to clear mine when I listen to him sing.

His lyrics make an odd kind of sense if you just listen to them as words that are appropriate for the music. Tune out the message, is the best advise.

[Stadler]

Not a fan either. In fact, I was perusing the Yes thread here, and while my knowledge of them is pretty limited, it seems like for a legendary and flagship band in the genre, they only have a couple stellar albums, and decades worth of material that is marginal at best and garbage at worst. True?

Not true, and even if it was (but it's not) they are SO big as to make it a moot point.  But few people realize that even in America, they were a STADIUM band (which for prog... neither Genesis, Crimson, or ELP were stadium level bands as headliners [ELP played stadia as openers a fair amount] during their heyday).   

I'm a huge fan.   I think his voice is unique and angelic, and it's one of the few cases where no one can really sing those songs like he can.   Starship Trooper, Your Is No Disgrace, And You and I...  magic.

Lyrics?  Well, I don't mind them, even like some of them (Dreamer easy in the chair that really fits you!) but it's not meant to be high philosophy.    I posted a thread at another site not long ago asking, "who was the greatest prophet of rock and roll?  Jon Anderson or Ronnie James Dio?"  Haha. 

[RoeDent]

Who cares about lyrics, really? If you wanna muse on what the words mean or whatever, poetry's probably more up your street than music. Lyrics are just words for a vocalist to add their melody to.

[hefdaddy42]

Who cares about lyrics, really? If you wanna muse on what the words mean or whatever, poetry's probably more up your street than music.

HEAVILY disagree.

[RoeDent]

I'd say it's 70-30 in favour of music over lyrics in terms of importance.

[Adami]

Lyrics are pretty damn important to me.

I mean, I can still listen to Rhapsody and Ayreon despite their awful lyrics, but I will always value a band like PoS much more because of their amazing lyrics.

It's like saying, who cares about notes and rhythm? It's just noise for the singer to put his poetry over.

[TAC]

.  But few people realize that even in America, they were a STADIUM band (which for prog... neither Genesis, Crimson, or ELP were stadium level bands as headliners [ELP played stadia as

When did they play stadiums? I don't remember that. Do you mean arenas?

[KevShmev]

Geoff Tate



Despite being a monster tool bag whose voice has deteriorated into something awful, we cannot forget how great a singer he was in his prime.  That kind of metal howling is rarely my thing, but he had a style and timbre that just made it sound great.  I always liked when he would go really low with the singing; he could hit it out of the park doing that kind of singing.  It is really is sad to see how far he has fallen, but we'll always have that decade plus (mid 80s to the mid 90s) when he was absolute money.

[TAC]

O:M is one of my three favorite vocal performances. Amazing.

[hefdaddy42]

None for me.  I know their "classic" run of albums is held in high regard, but QR mostly never did it for me. 

I liked the Empire album OK, I guess.

[TAC]

I think the cracks were even evident on Promised Land. A shame. Nobody could touch him. But his career as a totality ends up being quite disappointing, no?
I look at James Labrie, and at least on the studio albums, he is still quite excellent, even though he can be iffy live.

[bl5150]

Tate has been pretty decent live in recent months from what I have seen - quite a recovery in terms of his "ear".   He has certainly lost a fair bit in terms of range but him sounding poor is as much to do with the songs as his voice deteriorating IMO.   Some of the shite he has been singing since Promised Land would sound rubbish with anyone on vocals.

[TAC]

Does Australia have like an extra 12 hours per day than the rest of the world? Who has the extra time to sample current Geoff Tate??

[Stadler]

.  But few people realize that even in America, they were a STADIUM band (which for prog... neither Genesis, Crimson, or ELP were stadium level bands as headliners [ELP played stadia as

When did they play stadiums? I don't remember that. Do you mean arenas?

'76, they were playing stadia.  There is a legendary boot of them at JFK in Philly, for example.   Yale Bowl in New Haven.  RFK in Washington.  It wasn't a pure stadium tour, like Buffet does - some markets were arenas - but still. 

[TAC]

.  But few people realize that even in America, they were a STADIUM band (which for prog... neither Genesis, Crimson, or ELP were stadium level bands as headliners [ELP played stadia as

When did they play stadiums? I don't remember that. Do you mean arenas?

'76, they were playing stadia.  There is a legendary boot of them at JFK in Philly, for example.   Yale Bowl in New Haven.  RFK in Washington.  It wasn't a pure stadium tour, like Buffet does - some markets were arenas - but still.

OK. I would have had no idea. It is still hard to believe. Of course I wouldn't remember that anyway. A little before my time.

[KevShmev]

I think the cracks were even evident on Promised Land. A shame. Nobody could touch him. But his career as a totality ends up being quite disappointing, no?
I look at James Labrie, and at least on the studio albums, he is still quite excellent, even though he can be iffy live.

That can certainly be argued, when you take into account that his professional singing career is now over 30 years and he has sucked ass for a pretty good percentage of it now.  Still, his prime really was something else.

[KevShmev]

Mick Jagger



While I would never call Jagger a great singer, he sang with a swagger and an attitude that made his vocal style pretty unique and certainly innovative in rock and roll history. I simply cannot imagine The Rolling Stones having had anyone else singing all of those songs.