Vocal "control" and expressiveness

JrKASperov wrote: Peter Hammill does with his voice that Gabriel cannot: control. Gabriel often jumps with his voice, which is a clear sign of NO control. However, Hammill never does this, and he knows how to form his voice to more emotions and expressions.

Interesting, (I agree btw) but Hammill also does punk vocals well (Johnnie Rotten of the Sex Pistol, reportedly had Van Der Graaf down as one of his favourite bands.......), check out his live cover of the Strangler's Tank (backed by the Stranglers and Robert Fripp)

Voted Gabriel.

In rock or pop music of any kind I think its unrealistic to expect singers to be in tune all the time. Lets not get too prog snobby about this. Peter Gabriel and the like are rock singers, they are not opera singers. It doesn't matter if there's a few bum notes in there. I would much rather listern to PG than Jon Anderson, for example, who I would say is technically better than PG. Its not just that I prefer Genesis songs, its that I think Anderson sounds like a big girls blouse  Thats his style, I happen to prefer Gabriels.

Dick Heath wrote: Sorry, as ever I'm going to be different. Francis Dunnery is my man., both when in It Bites (when at times, he could be the best Peter Gabriel sounding vocalist around ), and then his solo career. Sure he has taken his references from Gabriel and to a far lesser extent  Fish, but he has then extended the expressiveness of those guys  into a much broader range. Take a listen to his cover of Cat Stevens's Father & Son (ex. Long Tall Helicopter - in fact listen to whole album) for an excellent example of his power - makes that recent hit (which had to bring in Yoshif Mohammed in to save it) sound desperately poor.

 Dick. I also think Francis is the most original Pete Gab sounding vocalist, he developed indeed a unique style that distinguishes him from other Gab-clones (Peter Nichols, Fish, the guy who sings in Citizen Cain). Moreover, he is also one of the best Holdsworth-influenced guitarist.

All:

Thanks for your responses.  All very well thought out and reasoned.  Good cases are being made for all the singers.

After a great deal of angst - to say nothing of repeated listenings to numerous albums - I found myself voting for Anderson, with Gabriel a very close second (Fish third, Hammill fourth, Lake fifth - for which threefates is gonna hand my head to me! ).

Anderson's vocal control is almost frightening.  Setting aside "expressiveness" for a moment, he can do things with his voice that are truly amazing - almost "operatic" - in the sense of breath control, trills, rolls, etc.  I have rarely heard the "bum note" from him, even when he is doing difficult "dips and turns" with his voice.  And even with his occasionally strange, and often nasal, voice, he enunciates better than anyone else in the field (with the possible exception of Lake): I never have trouble making out the lyrics, even if I am not following along with them.  This is not true of Gabriel, Fish or Hammill, who all mumble or elide occasionally (and not just for effect).

Re "expressiveness," here I was torn between Anderson and Gabriel.  In fact, I think Gabriel may have a slight edge, but that his edge is increased by the overall expressiveness of Genesis' music vis-a-vis Tull's; i.e., Anderson and Gabriel may be equally expressive, but since Genesis' music is, on the whole, more expressive than JT's, Gabriel comes out ahead by a hair.  Still, Anderson is equal to the task, if "expressiveness" includes not only vocal inflection and emotion, but the voice - timbre, range, etc. - being most appropriate for the music itself.  In this regard, I think Anderson's voice is just a tad more suited for Tull than Gabriel's is for Genesis.  (After all, Genesis went on to record with Collins on vocals, and did very well, even if Collins is no Gabriel.  Can you imagine anyone being able to handle JT's vocals properly with Anderson gone?...)

So, in the words of the "caller": It's Anderson in the lead, with Gabriel back by a nose.  Fish is coming up fast from behind, with Hammill and Lake neck and neck along the rail.  Photo finish?

Peace.

P.S.  Emperor: I only caught the error (Hamill) after I posted, and one cannot edit the poll itself.  I also realized I had forgotten to include the question!

maani wrote: So, in the words of the "caller": It's Anderson in the lead, with Gabriel back by a nose.  Fish is coming up fast from behind, with Hammill and Lake neck and neck along the rail.  Photo finish?

Missed opportunity there Maani for a few piscotorial puns - which one of the five is now hard of herring, but has come in in first plaice........................ etc. A sort of codded message but I won't carp (he said with a breaming smile).