Vocal "control" and expressiveness

Hangedman wrote: I think as a singer i have to say peter hammil is (this is my opinion) the best singer in almost all respects to ever be in rock and roll. My favourite is gabriel but hammil is better as far as im concerned. I dont know why people are voting for fish that much, i mean fish is great (really great) but ive always found him to be gabriel lite... hmm maybe i should check out moreo f his solo material.

I would think Hammill-lite rather than Gabriel-lite - Fish's style is so much more evocative of PH than PG. This is totally apparent on the "Fish-era" Marillion albums

There's nothing about Fish's voice that makes me think PG - or lite, come to think of it!

I don't know if this is correct in musical terms, but voice control IMO is about using the strong aspects of the voice and learning how to deal with the weak ones and has almost nothing to do with having a a great or an average voice.

That's the reason why I voted for Peter Gabriel, I really don't believe he has a great voice, he sounds raspy and has serious problems with the high ranges, but he learned how to deal with the problem, as I mentioned before the semi yodeling at the end of a word is a great way to cover his weak spot without avoiding high rages, but adding more dramatism and emotion instead.

Phil Collins is a good singer (Not vocalist), has a nice voice for the soft stuff  but has a lot of troubles when trying to do the harder parts or change the voice,  there are Gabriel songs that he never (Or at the most one time) dared to do on stage, like Battle for the Epping Forest (Because too many different modulations of voice are required) or Dancing with the Moonlit Knight, because that acapella section is too hard for a guy that sings in one and only range.

When Gabriel had to give emotion he changed the voice to adapt to the circumstances, Collins only shouted, listen the difference between the two endings of The Musical Box, Gabriel transmits desperation and or some form of lust and Collins only rises his voice, the best example is Mama, the noises he makes are frustrating for me.

In the cases when Collins tried to sing Gabriel tracks like Willows Farm on Supper's Ready (Seconds Out) it was really disappointing, he noticed he couldn't impersonate more than one character and tried to replace the different modulations with funny voices (Which are not funny), in his version of The Lamb in the same album he has to repeat words to avoid reaching parts where he can't get, like singing And the lamb lies down (down down down) instead of making the only "Down" last longer, what simply annoys me.

That’s why I voted for him as the vocalist with best voice control, even when there are guys like Lake or Wetton with much better natural voice.

Iván

Who here can actually sing or understand how the larynx stretches or at what point notes come from? As a poll it doesn't contain Jon Anderson whose voice for me contains everything a great singer has.Note I didn't say rock singer,and I will therefore have to choose one from it.As such it still has two of my other favourites, Peter Hammill and Peter Gabriel.This is extremely difficult and both have great merits.Hammill's voice so powerful,and yet so gentle.It rips emotions up from within and fires them out in all directions.As a vocal exercise simply listen to the man's vocal dexterity on 'Still Life'; I can sing it and know how having a range of 3 octaves he can soar with ease to reach stentorian galvanic vocal bliss.His voice has almost everything.It possibly does!As for Gabriel, another master vocalist who can sing in so many different ways.Neither are trained singers I think, and are naturally gifted as most great vocalist outwith the operatic sphere are.The voice can be nurtured and breathing techniques can be used but the voice is a gift from God and these two certainly have that gift.On an emotional choice it has to be Hammill.Fish also has great merits but not quite as good as these two.

Edited by Fragile

Peter Gabriel's attempts at working class accents on Genesis songs like 'The Battle of Epping Forest' or 'Get 'em out by Friday' sound extremely unconvincing to me

I partially agree about the accent in Get' em Out by Friday, not his best song for sure, but remember what a job he did in The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, hesounded very convincing as a Puerto Rican/New Yorker. I read he had to work very hard to get rid of his British accent to sing in that album. 

Iván

Edited by ivan_2068

Ivan makes a strong an convincing case for Gabriel, but I surprised myself and went for Fish.

Fish to me is not a great singer. His solo album "Songs from the mirror" shows just how poor he is when he covers other people's songs. When he's performing his own material (solo or Marillion) though, his control and expresiveness is unique. He disguises the shortcomings in his singing ability by relying entirely on those qualities.

He lacks the ability to impose those qualities on other people songs, as they are not personal to him. I suspect when Fish writes his lyrics, he is already considering how he will perform them, and searching for words which will complement the emotion he wishes to convey. Sometimes, this can lead to the lyrics becoming trite but more often than not, it works well.

There are many better singers than Fish, but that is not the question here, is it?

I've noticed that there's some sort of syncronicity to this poll

a Fish lives in a Lake and is farmed by Fish farmer Anderson! Sorry.

 I vote Greg Lake surely, cause his voice is wonderful. I like his voice is a grave voice. Is beautiful for balads and songs with the ELP stile.

Certif1ed wrote: Considering Maani's points, I'm very tempted to re-assess Ian Anderson's control, as his voice is not only sensitive to, but leads and colours the music overall. I'll have to re-listen to my Tull albums, as I'm not convinced by all of the technical points Manni raises...

I'm not certain that Ian's control was formally taught...he is so un-forced in his delivery that I suspect his vocal prowess is raw natural gift plus years of 'on the job training'. Although I wouldn't be surprised to find out he served time in a church choir...any Tull biography folks out there to confirm?

Man Erg wrote: I've noticed that there's some sort of syncronicity to this poll a Fish lives in a Lake and is farmed by Fish farmer Anderson! Sorry.

I thought Roger Daltrey was the fish farmer

Steve Hogarth