Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Great Bands With an Average Singer

I've been obsessed with America's obsession with mediocrity lately. There are so many people who settle for settling..from the off- white(read:safe) Home Depot paint they choose for a powder room, to touting a new pair of Crocs to fine dining at Olive Garden to downloading Daughtry.

It hurts to see this everywhere..it has given me a furrowed brow and a chip on my shoulder. However,the chip comes from years of research(read:magazines and wandering) I know I am not an almighty arbiter of taste or expert on excellence. I did not come from money and I didn't finish college(not to say that those who have are any better at knowing the difference between shit and diamonds). I am not a card carrying member of anything, I just think I know what sucks and what doesn't. There are plenty of subjects I wouldn't dare comment on because I simply do not know enough,it may not be on my radar or I think it may be irrelevant to the joie de vivre. Most choices that we make in life are a combination of our different upbringings, our value systems,and what we learned on The View.

Mine come from common sense. I love that I have a tight grip on common sense. I know that after a 10 beer/3 Jagr night...always find a way to make your last beverage a tall glass/gallon of water. I know that texting is for kids, I know that you should never have to pull your pants up repeatedly as you walk, etc.

These last few posts have reeked of negativity and I'm sorry. Tonight its something positive and not coming within several Dancing Stars of mediocrity. A List of

Great Bands With an Average Singer
1)Lynyrd Skynyrd-Ronnie, Johnny, Donnie...whatever. They all sound the same to me.
2)The Black Crowes-Great Fronting Chris, but your phrasing and delivery is hard to take.
3)Weezer-Rivers is just....There.
4)The Jimi Hendrix Experience-Who Cares,right? But his lyrics would have been so much better sung by someone else. Even Noel Redding had a better voice.
5)Pink Floyd-After Syd singing, Roger was a step up, but everything except Animals was hard to take if you weren't dosing in your basement with the lights off.
6)Grand Funk Railroad- Most people don't even know who the singer was...and thats the problem.
7)The Knack- a power pop masterpiece that sounds like its sung by a substitute teacher.
8)Peter Frampton- I know why he used that talk box so much on Frampton Comes Alive now.
9)The Kinks- Hard English accents overpowering a legacy of brilliant songs.
10)The Beach Boys(when Brian Sang)- made me want to crawl under my sandbox.
11) Smashing Pumpkins- Billy could do it all except when he sung through his nose, which was from 1990 to now.
12) Any band Eric Clapton was in after Blind Faith.

Could you add to this list?

8 comments:

  1. Sure, I could add to this list but it would be more fun to subtract from it. What's wrong with Jimi's voice? I love his voice! I like Roger Waters too. And Peter's voice is just fine. Ok, they are not top notch vocalists but they are good. Who's voice do you like? David Coverdale? Robert Plant? Prince? Elvis? Oh, and texting is not just for kids! I admit most of my texting is to my kid (when he's not in the big house) but its very convenient and can be fun. I'm sorry. Do I seem like I'm in a bad mood? I don't mean to be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. No Barb. I'M the one in a bad mood. I can give a little with Roger(like I said-Love ANIMALS), but Jimi had just an ok voice....the point is, it didn't matter because nobody had ever seen anything like him...and they never will.

    As for texting, I'll never understand it. People need to feed into "getting a message" received or through umpteen times a day.) And most of it is meaningless chatter.) I thought that is what telephones are for.???!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mr. Mulkey added Liz Phair, Spin Doctors, Husker Du,John Mellencamp, Metallica. I'll go with that except maybe Metallica....Hetfield has a great metal voice, its his drummer and guitarist that are average.

    Remember people...GREAT Bands with an average singer..its harder than you think.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Big Brother and the Holding Company. I know I will catch flack for this but I have never cared for Janis's voice. The band on the other hand was phenomenal!

    ReplyDelete
  5. A little flack thrown at you Danny Boy...Janis was one of a kind..People like Melissa Etheridge,Joan Osborne, and a host of others have a career by just trying to emulate her. But the band was indeed a great one.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for throwin it. I dont mind. I know I have always been in the minority on this one. Not that I dont appreciate her voice but at times for me it seemed to screech. I just saw a video of a Kathi McDonald. Ever heard of her? She was in a band back in the 60's San Francisco scene but never famous. The video was from the 90's and she has the best blues voice I have ever heard. Check her out.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Seano....but you can sneak a text to someone like it they are at work and not allowed phone calls :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well Seano, you have tried to give a nice list above, but what I wouldn't agree with is Pink floyd and jimi hendrix , they had nice exquisite vocals ... and even Axl Rose of Guns n Roses couldn't sing on the same pitch as was in his studio recordings, in live performances...

    ReplyDelete