Eddie Jobson, Ashley Holt, Gayle Moran.
Eddie Jobson, Ashley Holt, Gayle Moran.
Not being familiar with the entire Glass Hammer catalog, and believing the two main guys to be great players and truly nice individuals, let me just say that at NEARfest, the bit that I heard the bass player sing - I think its from Lex Rex - was, to my ears anyway, unfortunate.
The BEST, most interesting voices in Prog or otherwise, are ALWAYS the most annoying to someone.
Hamill by a mile here.
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
1. Peter Gabriel
2. Peter Hamill
3. James LaBrie
4. Roine Stolt
I must say James LaBrie.
Love Peter Hammill.
Back in the 70s I understood why people found Peter Hammill's voice unusual and even understood how people would not like it even though I disagreed with them. By the mid-80s, I could not hear what was so unusual about his voice. I honestly no longer hear that which could be irritating to others. I don't see how people can hate pH and like Matthew Parmenter because they sound sonically similar to me. Hammill is my favourite artist of all time and I feel sorry for those who don't get it.
The only prog vocalist that I have issue with are Fish and Russell Allen (to me he sounds like someone searching for a melody).
"The woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang were those who sang best..." - Henry David Thoreau
I think Peter Nicholl's voice is annoying(or at least can see how some might find it annoying)but I like it anyway. Same thing for the guy who sang with Iluvatar.
Also, I must mention David Pack(I think that's his name)from Ambrosia, David Surkamp from Pavlov's Dog and the singer from a rather obscure US prog band called Babylon.
Also, I'm not a big fan of Stan Whitaker's voice from Happy the Man. He's not horrible but he sounds flat to me and I wish he would just stick to the guitar. I was thinking this while listening to 3rd better late... the other night. Being that HTM are mostly instrumental I guess it's not THAT big a deal.
I never thought Derek Shulman was a very good singer either and if it wasn't for him GG might have been a bigger band.
Last edited by Digital_Man; 10-18-2013 at 04:30 PM.
I don't like vocals but i hate:
Aldo Tagliapietra,Jon Anderson and some Japanese singers.
For me, easily the guy on Glass Hammer's Chronometree. Good God, that guy is awful. Completely ruins the album for me.Originally Posted by arabicadabra
Sorry, trurl.
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
Without a doubt - He makes Rush unlistenable for me.
I always thought that guy was perfect for that album, but if his voice bothers people that much I guess they have a right to their opinions.
+1 (and +1 again).....
Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes
The most annoying voice in Prog? Many. Including Frank Bornemann.
HuGo"Very, very nice," said a man in the crowd,
When the golden voice appeared.
She was gold alright, but then so is rust.
"Such a shame about the beard."
I guess I'd rather talk about singers I do like, but... many will say Steve Howe, but I rather like him in two songs, 'Pleasure Stole The Night' and 'Beautiful Ideas'. But, yes, it would be amazing if someone who played that well could sing well too. I'm surprised that people have chosen Peter Gabriel, Jon Anderson, and 'agents of mercy' (Nad or Roine?) All really good singers to me. I DO think Twin Age could have been better with a different singer. Musically, they were pretty fantastic for what they did, and amazing lyrically, but the vocals brought the whole thing down a couple notches.
I suppose the singer of 'Babylon' is one I had a tough time appreciating. Again, since he probably sings better than I, I should probably just keep my mouth shut.
Stretching the definition of 'prog', I suppose, but people have no idea what kind of willpower it took for me to not snap the RTF Live CDs in half.
Andy Tillison comes to mind first for me, if only because the Tangent is the best example of the band where I love pretty much everything except the vocals. I find Geddy Lee annoying as well, but I'm not sure I'd listen to Rush even if they had a better singer.
Lots of the mentioned names I absolutely love, however.
Peter Hamill
Geddy Lee
Ian Anderson
Yoko Ono ;o)
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
How come no ones mentioned Zappa ?
Aside from the Flo & Eddie period, when has FZ had annoying vocals?
Ditto. I find those vocals hard to get past.
I actually think that quirky or unique vocals is one of the things that makes prog a cult thing and also kind of special. Not the vocals by themselves but I can't imagine many people outside of prog liking IQ, Gentle Giant, VDGG, early Marillion, Camel or any other band with quirky or unusual vocals. To a lesser extent I would add YES and PG era Genesis to that list. I think just judging by the vocals alone those outside alone would be turned off. Fortunately for many of us there's much more to listen to besides just the singing. That is something that non prog fans don't quite get.
Last edited by Digital_Man; 10-18-2013 at 06:12 PM.
Oh i dunno , my elder sisters who were Motown fans use to tolerate me playing Yes albums cos they loved Jon Anderson"s voice . In fact they use to ask me to play We Have Heaven . I had a freind who use to detest prog but every time we were out in my car he use to insist i play Song of Seven because he loved Anderson's voice !
Hey, I expected Brad on the first page.I think he has a very cool style, but the fact of the matter is he never actually quite got what we were up to really- he was great singing his own stuff but trying to sing ours was a bit of a miscalculation.
Lovely person as he seems to be, it's Adrian Belew IMO.
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
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