Vocalists

It's always strange that Chris Thompson never features on anyone's lists. He get's the best out of Springsteen , Marley , even Paul Weller songs. I put him right up there.

After that Greg Lake, Justin Hayward and John Wetton easily (all classic English vocalists who could have non prog stuff quite easily if they wanted.. I suppose they did!)

Steve Walsh deserves a mention. Of the higher pitched vocalists he is definitely one of the best.

Although more noted as a guitarist , John Mitchell is a great vocalist. Just check out The Wind That Shakes The Barley (It Bites).

Also love Dave Longdon of BBT (probably my favourite modern vocalist).

Females:

Annie Haslam

Christina (Magenta)

Sonja Kristina

Kate Bush

Courtney Swain ( Bent Knee)

Alanis Morissette

Tori Amos

Lee Douglas (Anathema)

Susie Bogdanowicz (Glass Hammer)

Hi,

I've always enjoyed Greg Lake, however in his first 2 solo albums, you kinda found out ... he's not a regular singer!

He fits way better in the line of ACTOR/SINGER, for the way the words are used, and specially in ELP when even some expressions were used as ACCENTS on the music ... (don't tell me lies .... thump thump thump on the drum), which made it spectacular ... and the only other one that does things like that really well, and acts his way through anything is Christian Decamps in ANGE ... and his first couple of solo albums are even more explosive and strong because of it!

Another actor/singer ... is Meatloaf ... and even in his biography he states ... he is an actor that just happens to sing!

Many vocalists can sing ... no questions there ... but they can't act and bring out the lines as strongly as many of these other folks ... sometimes, I think that is the problem ... and I would like to say ... stop singing ... just do the lines! (I learned this in a play rehearsal, when I had everyone sit down in the dark and just go through their lines (one act play!) without "characterization" ... an exercise meant to see how well they "know" their lines, which should not be an issue for a rock band doing the same song 154 times already! But the result is that you find other ways of saying things that you had not thought about!

Singers could use that experience to learn how to use the material they sing ... too many of them have no idea what they are doing, like that guy singing in the last version of Chris' days ... who had stock expressions and hand movements, that meant absolutely nothing to the material at hand ... it's called nowadays a "mailed in" performance!

1. Steve Hogarth

2. Hasse Fröberg

3. Daniel Gildenlöw

4. Stuart Nicholson

5. Ray Weston