I always loved Queen growing up and their Greatest Hits CD (you know the one) was a staple for me. I watched the movie a couple of weeks ago and saw someone mention the depravity of Freddie in the Bohemian Rhapsody thread. That piqued my curiosity and I had to find out more.
So I finally decided to go on a Freddie Mercury tear. Among other things, I ended up watching a video on Youtube by Polyphonic, attempting to explain the things that made his voice so legendary.
That got me thinking about which voice would be the GOAT for me. I kept thinking about the times my mind was blown or voices that made me want to cry or gave me goosebumps. I remembered being dumbfounded the first time I heard the crazy Mongolian Khoomei stuff. You know, shit like that.
I still don't know my personal "greatest voice of all time," but GODDAMN, does this Lizzie Higgins lady singing this song come close:
If you feel like it, share your GOATs. What voice/song stirs that something "ancient" up in you and makes you all kinds of weird emotional? :-) [Reply]
Speaking of spinoff.... I thought this was pretty fucking cool. Heard on 96.5/98.9(can't remember which) today, decided to look it up. Green Day was playing in London, and left a camera going on the crowd while they took a break. But the crowd didn't need a break, and busted out their own badass rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody...
Originally Posted by vailpass:
I was gonna' say Rob Halford but you already did. I've never seen anyone wail like he did in a live concert back in the day.
Unlike Patton, who prolly gets a good percentage of his range from his low-end ability, Halford almost struggles to sing low in this track, only to rip it with total freedom when he hits his higher registers.
Originally Posted by Fish:
Speaking of spinoff.... I thought this was pretty ****ing cool. Heard on 96.5/98.9(can't remember which) today, decided to look it up. Green Day was playing in London, and left a camera going on the crowd while they took a break. But the crowd didn't need a break, and busted out their own badass rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody...
That was ****ing awesome and to think record executives said it would never be a hit. [Reply]
Unlike Patton, who prolly gets a good percentage of his range from his low-end ability, Halford almost struggles to sing low in this track, only to rip it with total freedom when he hits his higher registers.
Halford just needed his voice to mature. Unfortunately, he became so well known for the high stuff that he abandoned his versatility at times.
Mercury and David Lee Roth are probably the ultimate showmen/frontmen in rock. They both had an unbelievable presence and could command an audience. DLR isn't that great of a singer though, while Mercury is the complete package.
In terms of versatility and having a great voice, Robin Zander of Cheap Trick is my favorite rock singer. The guy can do it all. [Reply]
Alice Cooper. Has a way of singing that works so well with the words he writes...I honestly don't think anyone does it like him. This is just an example, I have a ton of his songs that hit me in the feels. Is he Freddy? Um, no. He's the Coop:
Originally Posted by Rivaldo:
I learned a year back or so, that Mike Patton of Faith No More apparently has the broadest vocal range.
FNM was too far ahead of their time. When their 'hits' came out, they were too weird for the consuming public. And by the time everyone on earth was copying them, the public had forgotten it had already been done. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Baby Lee:
FNM was too far ahead of their time. When their 'hits' came out, they were too weird for the consuming public. And by the time everyone on earth was copying them, the public had forgotten it had already been done.
Originally Posted by InChiefsHell:
Alice Cooper. Has a way of singing that works so well with the words he writes...I honestly don't think anyone does it like him.
As far as vocal performance, KC tattoo mentioned Ian Gillan, and I don't see anything beating Deep Purple 'Child in Time'. I did get to see them in their prime July 1972 in Savannah, Georgia. They did that song.
What I'll never forget was I spent all of '71 in Korea up on the DMZ at a little airfield called Stanton AAF. We pretty much operated the way Mash is portrayed, we did what we wanted to do. A little camp with a runway and about 75 helicopters and about 200 troops. A 3 story masonry barracks sat in the middle of the camp and one day I was walking around and from a window on the third floor I could hear Child in Time as if the band was playing live. I entered the stairs and walked up to the third floor and of course, the higher I got the louder it got. When I got to the third floor I walked through the bay area and about 20 KATUSA'S (Koreans assigned to the US Army) were sitting on their bunks holding their ears. I entered the Sgts 10 x 10 masonry room and here was three guys just standing there stoned listening to Child in Time being played on volume 10 through 6 Sansui SP 3000 speakers that look like this.
Two of my other favorite singers I see mentioned. Steve Perry and Journey I got to see in 1980 on the Departure tour, they still had Greg Rolie and Ansley Dunbar in the band. It was at Gulfport Colosseum in Biloxi, MS with The Babys opening. Fantastic show, I guess that's how Jonathan Cain got hooked up with Journey, he had been with The Babys.
Just before leaving for Korea in November '71, I got to see the Guess Who with vocalist Burt Cummings at Loyola College in Baltimore. Fantastic show, this is when Burt still had the long hair but Randy Bachman had already left and was replaced by Kurt Winter. What's odd is on the album Wheatfield Soul they do a really good pschedelic Doors type song called Friends of Mine. They mention a person named Kurt in the song, but they did not know Kurt Winter at that time.
For the poster that likes Otis Redding, check out 3 Dog Night and the late Cory Wells from their first album doing 'Try a Little Tenderness', you would think he was black. [Reply]
