twosteves wrote: crimhead wrote: Geddy Lee. Just can't listen to more than 1 Rush song at a time.  well they all sorta sound the same anyway

Geddy Lee. Just can't listen to more than 1 Rush song at a time. 

Guldbamsen wrote: ^Nooooo say it ain't so Demetrio Stratos is my fave!  I'll admit he might be a bit hard to take, if one isn't too fond of Arabian yodeling.

I'll get out what Area stuff I have and give it another run-through.

He's not on the list, but it was (for periodic reasons) Peter Gabriel. Me lads and I would see television interviews of him pre-Lamb' and just chuckle. We all thought he was the odd oddball who was primping for the cameras, and his somewhat demure, monotone voice at the time came off as alien. Of course, none of us had heard a lick of his music, so our heads were firmly implanted in our nether regions. For our little click, it took one listen to A Trick of the Tail to look into the Genesis phenomonem (surely misspelled)a few years later, and lo and behold, we discovered there was actually something there on previous albums (to say the least). Sad to say I missed Mr. Gabriel on the Lamb' tour, but I was there when he visited the Roxy in L.A. for the second time in '78. Sorry, Pete. Thank you all for this indulgence.

The singer I really can't get into is that guy from Area.

GL for me,in fact i never have been able to get into Rush period.I don't feel i'm alone though.

Damo Suzuki

None ;-)! Two I loved at first listen (Geddy and Peter), for the others I never got into them at all. So no vote.

dr prog wrote: Wanorak wrote: I just can't get into Damo Suzuki. That's because he can't sing

He doesn't need to, because he's doing something different with his voice. It becomes a rhythm.

When I heard Hammill for the first time (it was of Fripp's solo debut 'Exposure'), he kinda shocked me, so I tried to avoid other projects with his participation. But when I finally heard VdGG, I shortly fell in love with his voice and his talent. Now I believe that Hammill's one of the finest and most original singers of all time.

Derek Shulman's a nice singer.

Damo Suzuki and Robert Wyattare both are quite strange, but I can't say that it's hard to get into their voice.

Geddy Lee is not a good singer neither an original one, but I never have had any problems with his voice.

So no vote. For me the hardest vocalist to get was probably Cedric Bixler-Zavala, but 'twas also aggravated with the overall chaos of The Mars Volta music. Anyway, after a few months I began to understand the music and after another few months I started to percieve his vocals as something usual (actually after At the Drive-In I agreed that his screams in The Mars Volta are quite human in comparison with the hardcore punk madness of his early stuff).

This is why I prefer instrumental music. Anyone ever hear Edgar Froese speak - that live thing T Dream did with Brian May guesting? Psycho sounding guy...

My vote to Hammill as ever in a negative poll. I have tried but...

Never had a problem with Derek Shulman. Saw Wyatt once with DG thought he did ok on their "unledded" version of Comfortably Numb. Now Van Morrison on Waters' Berlin Wall show of Comfortably Numb I thought was particularly foul. Like he had no idea what tune he was supposed to be singing.

I too, am surprised Surkamp wasn't listed. He makes Hammill sound as acceptable as the greatest specialist singers to m (Plant, Gillan spring to mind). Collins is a very good singer as well. Ian Anderson at his finest (a while back now) is top. I do like to find the positives.

As Feyacat said - "There are plenty of bad singers in prog rock.  Something about all of the focus on instrumental virtuosity makes second-string proggers harbor the very worst vocalists - flat, poorly phrased, bad tone, limited dynamics." Yep, many sing through their noses!

There are what I like to call "character" vocalists - Waters and Gabriel spring to mind. Very good on expressing the idea not so hot as a versatile singer though I think PG improved over the years. Waters did as well but it will always be DG who can best express Waters' lyrics.

For me, Damo Suzuki never really had much of an impact on Can as vocalist. The voice was there but never really intruded, was really an instrument.

I really good singer is Santana's Greg Walker. Summer Lady off Marathon is a great example of something hard to do (from my perception) that he makes sound so easy, and sound good.