Singers whose voices are - not what they used to be...

Majorscale

Fish is another one who’s wrecked his voice sadly

mudslide73

vasselmeyer said:

How about going the other way? I saw Bryan Adams recently and they're playing in standard tuning and the songs in the original key. He sounded wonderful and his mic technique is outstanding.

Robert Smith at Glasto had it going on. Really looked after his pipes.

RandallFlagg

That Paul Young clip is tragic

guitars4you

Dionne Warwick and Bryan Ferry

Lebarque

Liam Gallagher

darius

David Lee Roth. Lost his vocals AND most of his frontman-ness. My favourite band in the whole world but i cant watch any footage of that last tour, because him.

darius

Christ! Paul Young is basically Vic Reeves The Club Singer...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MRwgNtv29ig

Philly_Q

vasselmeyer said:

How about going the other way? I saw Bryan Adams recently and they're playing in standard tuning and the songs in the original key. He sounded wonderful and his mic technique is outstanding.

A few old boys who still sound great:

Rik Emmett
Klaus Meine
Tommy Shaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASYITWvBV-4

prowla

Philly_Q said:

Coverdale is horrendous now, even on record.

His one-time bandmate, Glenn Hughes, can still sing - I think - but I can't bear to listen to him nowadays (although unlike some, I liked him in Deep Purple).  Maybe it's the material more than the voice.

Don Dokken.  Voice is very bad, and he doesn't look healthy either.

Going back to the opening post, I saw Paul Young live a few years ago, his voice really is totally shot.

I think Hughes was better on his solo work than in DP, where you could hear the character of his voice rather than just the squeaky high notes. I had tickets to see him a couple of years ago, but I caught flu and didn't go.

Kebabkid

Philly_Q said:

vasselmeyer said:

How about going the other way? I saw Bryan Adams recently and they're playing in standard tuning and the songs in the original key. He sounded wonderful and his mic technique is outstanding.

A few old boys who still sound great:

Rik Emmett
Klaus Meine
Tommy Shaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASYITWvBV-4

Yep. I saw Styx this year and Tommy Shaw is fabulous. I can also say the same of Jack Blades, who I saw with Nightranger about 2 years ago and Kelly Hansen from Foreigner.

EricTheWeary

prowla said:

Philly_Q said:

Coverdale is horrendous now, even on record.

His one-time bandmate, Glenn Hughes, can still sing - I think - but I can't bear to listen to him nowadays (although unlike some, I liked him in Deep Purple).  Maybe it's the material more than the voice.

Don Dokken.  Voice is very bad, and he doesn't look healthy either.

Going back to the opening post, I saw Paul Young live a few years ago, his voice really is totally shot.

I think Hughes was better on his solo work than in DP, where you could hear the character of his voice rather than just the squeaky high notes. I had tickets to see him a couple of years ago, but I caught flu and didn't go.

I saw Hughes with his own band a few years ago and was quite blown away by how good his voice was. Whenever I've dipped into his recorded output the heavy rock by numbers approach hasn't grabbed me much ( although I have fond memories of Hughes Thrall from decades ago). But worth seeing as a live act. 

JMP220478

would be interesting to see how many of those who have maintained their voices have had professional vocal coaching .. 

Having seen Glenn Hughes over last few years live  in various lineups = he is truly outstanding ... 

TheBigDipper

I saw Deep Purple at Excel a few years ago - the Car Show was on and they were running "Clarkson-friendly" gigs in the small arena next door after the show closed for the night. I hadn't seen them since they toured "Burn" with Coverdale and Hughes singing. 

Gillan sang the first three numbers really well. Then his voice completely disintegrated and he spent the rest of the gig trying to find places in the music where he could perform without it dragging everything down. Morse was a monster and played beautifully. 

So, I found myself chatting to my neighbour, who was singing with another well-known early '70s rock band (and still is), and was born in 1956. His voice is still excellent. "Fred", I said (not his real name). "How come Gillan can't sing any more and you can?". He smiled mischievously. "That's because he is a vocalist", he said, "whereas I am a singer". 

bloodandtears

I'd add that Joe Elliott of Def Leppard "manages" how he tackles a number of their back catalogue

Grumpyrocker

There seems to be plenty of the older singer who mysteriously always get the crowd to help out with the chorus, holding the mic out to them.

Grumpyrocker

jaymenon said:

PS. I really liked your 'Blackstar Unveils Revolutionary Marketing' blog 

Ta. The irony being my main amp now is a HT5 MK2 - I should probably write them an apology. 

Jalapeno

Tony Bennett is incredible for someone over 90 !  Shows the benefits of proper technique

Philly_Q

JMP220478 said:

would be interesting to see how many of those who have maintained their voices have had professional vocal coaching .. 

Tom Jones was mentioned at the top of the thread.  I don't really know very much about him other than, you know, famous singer, professional Welshman, long career, several big hits.... but when he sings on The Voice he is really, really good. 

Of course he was always famous for his voice but his singing style seemed quite mannered and OTT, in a James Brown sort of way.  Now he's a bit more restrained but really in control of his voice.  I've often wondered if he's quietly had some late-career vocal coaching.

EricTheWeary

Philly_Q said:

JMP220478 said:

would be interesting to see how many of those who have maintained their voices have had professional vocal coaching .. 

Tom Jones was mentioned at the top of the thread.  I don't really know very much about him other than, you know, famous singer, professional Welshman, long career, several big hits.... but when he sings on The Voice he is really, really good. 

Of course he was always famous for his voice but his singing style seemed quite mannered and OTT, in a James Brown sort of way.  Now he's a bit more restrained but really in control of his voice.  I've often wondered if he's quietly had some late-career vocal coaching.

I've heard him in recent years and he's been really good; different but good. Same with Planty.

I think Gillan always had problems and trashed his voice quite early on, Joe Elliott had a pretty poor voice to start with and has often said he can't reproduce the album vocals live, although as a band they pride themselves on decent harmonies.   

Grumpyrocker

Roger Waters was never a good singer. But he lip syncs live now, the cheating sod.