The Top 200 Greatest Rock Singers - 10 to 1

Now we are in the top 10, where I really had to be honest with myself; in what we are doing here which is focusing not only on technical vocal ability, in terms of range and power, as well as their dynamics, phrasing and the overall character of their voice. Can they emote from different places? How well does their voice hold up live? . How they control a crowd or their entertainment value as performers is also not a factor; there are some great front men who are also sub-par singers. There are also not going to be any Bob Dylan like singers, who are better songwriters than vocalists.

Pop singers, are far and few between, with; a few country or jazz singers who crossover just enough to qualify for this list, while having a significant influence on rock music. Don't expect rappers on this list or metal vocalists who just scream or growl, but never actually sing. I am keen on singers who are derivative of other singers. The bulk of these do their own thing, the few paying tribute to other artists made enough of an impact with their music. Having a unique vocal quality is going to be one of the most important factors often trumping technical ability. If they sound too much like Steve Perry from Journey after listening to their vocal coach rather than developing their own style, it is also not going to fly. Some of these might have been ignored by mainstream music media, now at the top 10, I am sure it makes sense, so here are the Top 200 greatest rock singers.

 10-Sade

 When I saw Sade in 1993 for "Love Deluxe" I was blown away. She shed a great deal of the restraint she uses in the studio and showed the real power she has. I also came up with the theory she might also be a siren who uses her voice to drain people sexually like a succubus. 

 

9-Freddie Mercury

He is not the only operatic singer in the top 10. Sure he was powerful live, sometimes his health in the last tours of the 80s caused his voice to wane from what they did in the studio, but no one can say he is anything less than amazing. Brian May and Roger Taylor deserve a foot note in his entry as the held their own harmonizing with him and both took over the mic at times. 

 

8-Prince 

Hard to say if he was a better guitarist or singer, since he was always flawless at both every time I saw him live. He had a great scream and impressive notes in his lower register for a little guy. He made songs about masturbation and god sound equally sexual.

 

 7-Elvis

I used to be obsessed with watching VHS tapes of his Vegas residency. I collected them. Even at his most fucked up, forgetting the words and laughing at himself moments, he hit every fucking note .He did not have to write his own songs, because as soon as he sang a song it was his no matter if George Harrison or Frank Sinatra sang the original. 

 

 6-Elizabeth Fraser

I do not think the guardians of the realm she was from meant for her to sing live. The results were always bizarre, so going off the recorded work she created, she was not singing for our mortal ears were were just lucky enough to hear her.

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5 David Bowie

When Bowie left this Earth, some one in my mental health support circle told me, I did not need to fall into a deep depression , because Bowie was only meant to bring the music down from the cosmos to the people then get beamed back up. His voice was a reflection of that sentiment.

 

 4-Robert Plant 

When it comes to rock of the harder variety then it is clear Plant is the last man standing. Zep was not a metal band, but he delivered his vocals with the kind of bombast that would inspire generations of metal singers to come. That just happened to only be one aspect of who he was as a singer. 

 

 3-Roy Orbison 

How did Roy beat out Robert Plant? Well I am sure Plant would agree he should bow out in favor of Roy. In 1961, there was little in the way of effects and he did not have a Jimmy Page experimenting with mic placement and what hall way of the castle he should sing in. He just stepped up to the mic and poured himself into every note. One of the most powerful voices ever.

 

 2-Kate Bush

 Do yourself a favor and watch her show at the Hammersmith. She not only knocks out notes fit for a top tier soprano but she does it while dancing ballet, because it was no big deal .She would be number one if I had not witnessed the fury of the top singer in person, Kate I only have her legacy to pine after.

 

 1-Lisa Gerrard 

I have seen more than my fair share of actual opera. When I went to see Dead Can Dance, the first notes Lisa uttered were more powerful than ny singer of any opera I had ever witnessed. Not to mention the sublime breadth of range her work in the studio has touched upon. Dead Can Dance might not be a rock band in the sense that most of the songs they cover are 400 years old, but there are rock elements and rock bands have been inspired by them. She is a force of nature.

The Top 100 albums of the 90s :20 to 11

Here we are in the top twenty , so let the butt hurt begin as you start to see what you thought to be the best album of your drunken high school days is not on the list, because there are better albums, sure these might not have out sold Pearl Jam, but they have stood the test of time much better.

  20- Sade - "Love Deluxe"

 Half of you might have been conceived to this album. There were many trip hop albums that could have made the list, but Sade does what they do better, yes that includes Tricky and Massive Attack, who put out some good songs, but we are talking entire albums front to back and even "Mezzanine" has a little filler on it.

 



  19- Cranberries- "Everybody Else Is Doing It So Why Can't We?" 

This album carried more longing and passion than every thing they released after. The Cocteau Twins influence was very strong, but the vocals were layered in a different manner that makes this album.

 

  18- Sunny Day Real Estate - "Diary" 

If you were to own only one so called "emo" album, this would be the one. The band was disrupted in their prime by this guy named Dave Grohl who stole them for his cock rock band. Jeremy always claimed they started off as a hardcore band who was trying to play slow songs and on this album you can hear that more than the others.

 


  17-Tori Amos- "Little Earthquakes"

 Three years ago I ruined Tori Amos for my fiance when I played her Kate Bush and we have never been able to listen to her in the car since. While this is her "Lion Heart" it carries much more anger than Kate Bush ever taps into with the exception of the last song on "the Dreaming". Front to back their are no filler songs anywhere to be found and Tori can tinkle the keys better than Kate.

 

  16- Nirvana - "In Utero"

if you don't understand why this beat out "Nevermind" I'm not sure why you are reading my blog, but the short blurb version is that "Nevermind" is restrained and slick, where this album is a drugged out rock star in full train wreck mode. I need my rock stars dead on drugs.

 

  15- Jeff Buckley - "Grace"

For the rest of this list I will answer the nagging question of "But how did that beat out Nirvana?" . Have you ever heard Jeff Buckley sing? He could improvise singing from the phone book and it would beat Nirvana.He killed himself with much more style as well.

 


14-Alice in Chains - "Dirt"

An ode to drugs and misery. This rocks, "Rooster" is the only song I do not like on this album but "Would" balances that out. Reason it beat Nirvana? Jerry's guitar playing and Layne is a better junkie, Cobain also smoked crack while Layne just shot hard and he died from an overdose , not his wife murdering him. Yes trolls I know I just implied Cobain killed himself in the blurb above, and he did by staying with Love.


 


13-Acid Bath - "Paegan Terrorism Tactics" 

Yes they made it on here twice. Dax Riggs' first alright trumps Nirvana's discography. He might be alive or is he for he claims " dying felt so god damn good today" They are from New Orleans so my theory is he did before this album was made then brought back to life with voo-doo by children playing in the catacombs. Drugs... I scream ,you scream, every body screams for morphine.' He even admits to being a zombie.

 

  12-Fugazi - " Steady Diet of Nothing"

Dave Grohl would tell you they could not hold a candle to Fugazi, in fact he did while making a tv show about his terrible album. Ian Mckaye means no drugs. But this album has groove and punk anger coiled together and ready to burst at any moment, glued together with chops worthy of the Police.


  11- Nine Inch Nails - " the Downwards Spiral" I am not sure how this album's dominance over Nirvana could be in question. They even did it and got massive radio air play. This album did for industrial what Van Halen's 1984 did for cock rock. Reznor made it out alive, but this album has tons of self loathing. 11- Sade

Report to the Dance Floor: Watkins Music

A brother and sister duo out of L.A. is more than slightly familiar with the house scene that came out of Chicago in mid to late 80's.. To call this pop music would not be fair to the very intricate arrangement of this song that milks the most groove possible out of itself. Once saw Sade described as sophistipop and that could very well apply here. At the same time this might not seem like dance to those of you too young to remember when dance was once an organic entity. They have captured that timeless place in the groove, so even when the song begins to sounds 70's it does so in a way that comes around full circle not unlike Daft Punk's more recent Grammy award winning work of recent years. there are strange little bursts of sound effects that bring it into 2014 for a few seconds and then back to Saturday Night Fever.


The rhythms are more complex than anything in the soul/ dance cross over market, almost like if Herbie Hancock had wanted to make a disco jazz-fusion album. This is not just a trademark of  their new single "One life One Love" but this thoughtful approach is also prevalent in some of Watkins Music other songs like "Black Widow, though the male vocal is more dominant in "Black Widow and the formula developed on "One Life One Love" seems to  work best with their voices playing off one another.That kind of vocal blend is rare to find.

"One Life One Love"  opens with an ultra- dexterous bass line  courtesy of Taiki Tsuyama . Tsuyama is a Japanese bassist, who cut his teeth playing bass in the Gospel Circuit. His playing is a mix of Bootsy and Pastorious. The bass propels the song. When it comes to serving the song and laying back to hold down the groove and reminds me more of bassists Paul S Denman from Sade's band..The  shades of Kool and the Gang are no coincidence as their guitar Noah Hernandez also plays with Rodney Ellis of Kool and the Gang, so Watkins Music searched in all the right places for their session guys.  The pedigree of talent doesn't stop there as the Horn Arrangements and brass section were handled by Winston Byrd who has played with a who's who of Jazz,, Soul and funk including the Chi-lites, the Dells the Stylistics Chaka Khan, Usher and Charles Mingus's Big Band. He knows where to throw the accents in the old school manner that makes this sound all the more authentic.

It is often said that common secret among CEO's is they surround themselves with people smarter than they are. I think left to their often devices this brother and sister team have enough musical smarts to compete, but the factor that pushes this track and others over the edge into greatness is the level of talent they have gathered to just to make what but first listen might be a retro tinged dance / pop song. It is layered with so many textures of groove that the tight vocal work Airreal has achieved with Adrian Battle here is just  the icing on this cake.  In a world of disposable pop, where so called r&b has nothing at all to to with the blues in the b, something like this is a glimmer of hope in a hungry money machine that has brought the music business to a Walking Dead like desolation.

I am interested in hearing what these two could lay out in terms of a full length. The other songs I have hunted down all are of similar caliber. If you are on more of an electronic bent rather than the more funk influenced side of dance then it might take some broadening of horizons to fully take this in.Would it go in a more overt dance direction or venture off into more progressive Parliament or Earth Wind and Fire direction. If you like to get stoned while listening to sound tracks from Quintin Tarintino movies then this will be on tap for your next burn session. Check out this track and their video for "Metronome" below