Why even american prog bands dont have good vocals

There are some really good vocalists in American prog like Neal Morse and the guys in Echolyn for example.

America has some great vocalists, but they tend to avoid prog for some reason :\

This has caused quite a stir among people on here which is good.A little bit too much of tenor and contralto and wanderings into other areas.It doesn't matter how much training a singer has, he or she either has a voice to listen to or not.Trained singers can acomplish so much but natural singers with a gift from God and the voice is the only natural gift.You can either sing or you can't.Musicians through practice can reach varying degrees of proficiency but the voice is the only thing that doesn't need endless practising.

cstack there is nothing in the water. Yes only had one vocalist the great Jon Anderson,Squire is a good harmony singer and amazing bass player.Anderson remains my favourite singer but Hamiill has the voice that can do almost anything.I think rogerthat sort of compared Bob halford to the great man but he is a shadow singer by comparison.I may be wrong there he may just have been eluding to effect.

Subjectivity at the end is all that matters,my Dad is bigger than your Dad,but it is good to debate on here an issue that is particularly close to my heart.


Ivan you little Peruvian Genesis mad man ' Como esta?'

Fragile wrote: cstack there is nothing in the water. Yes only had one vocalist the great Jon Anderson,Squire is a good harmony singer and amazing bass player.

Fragile wrote: I think rogerthat sort of compared Bob halford to the great man but he is a shadow singer by comparison.I may be wrong there he may just have been eluding to effect.

Edited by rogerthat - October 06 2011 at 22:14

Roger one question:

Ivan, I would have to check that to be completely certain, which would have to be later. I have heard that song and I am familiar with his (Francesco) singing.  We need to get into voice texture here - as in, there are dramatic as well as light/lyric sopranos and there are likewise lyric tenors too.  Mariah Carey is classified as a soprano but you could just as well call her a contralto who goes really high because her voice essentially has a husky quality, ditto Minnie Riperton (though the latter very noticeably does a lot of her singing in the prime range of the soprano, i.e, around F4 and upwards while Mariah only reaches for big, booming highs mostly). My guess is that Anderson is a countertenor with a very light voice and light voices tend to be more high pitched naturally.  His operating range though still seems to me to be that of a countertenor rather than a mezzo soprano.  I don't know that he has ever sung above E5 and that doesn't quite cover the upper range of a mezzo soprano.  Another comparison: Peabo Bryson is a tenor, I guess, and his voice is much lighter than Roger Daltrey who has a really big, powerful tone.  With that told, this is not a 100% factual assessment and I am relying on judgment and hunches here, especially considering a singer with as effeminate a voice as Jon Anderson. 

Who said Peter Hammill is not high on my likes?

Many of my favourite singers don't tick any of the boxes required to be deemed 'technically proficient'

e.g. John Cale, Robert Forster, Stan Ridgway, Robert Smith, John Lydon, Mark E. Smith (not a whole lot of Prog in there and just one american)

By way of contrast the following would probably tick those boxes:

Greg Lake, Francesco DiGiacomo, Ian Gillan, Demetrio Stratos, Arthur Brown (a lot of Prog in there and not a single american)

Perhaps 'Prog' is less forgiving of limited technique for vocals? (due to the relative complexity of the underlying musical accompaniment perhaps)

Either way, for me singing is about communicating emotion and neither a conservatory trained or 'naturally musical' voice is any guarantee the singer will be remotely equipped to move a listener.

Choose whatever keeps yer eyes moist pilgrims.


Edited by ExittheLemming - October 07 2011 at 17:05

Fragile wrote:   rogerthat how disappointed am I that the great Lord Hammill isn't high on your likes list.No matter whether you like or dislike his singing no one can question that he has one of the most diverse voices in Prog.The track 'Still life' from the eponymous album of the same is a vocal exercise that only a singer of his magnitude could do.

I have heard Still Life of course. I am sorry, but his emoting is just way too overwrought.  If it works for you, fine, but emotions are quite important to me in singing, the most important thing in fact, and Hammill consistently overshoots the mark as far as I am concerned. If it was only about technical ability, I should have to respect Mariah Carey too and I don't. Not saying of course that he is THAT bad, heavens no, but I am not exaggerating when I say his singing is sometimes like nails to a chalkboard for me. I'd much rather listen to the much more limited but sincere Peter Gabriel or Fish.