What do you think of Derek Shulman's voice?

It seems there's a theme happening. I'm in quarantine, with not much better to do. So I might as well jump on this bandwagon. I had some friends who couldn't get into Gentle Giant, one of my favorite bands, because of Derek's voice, despite being initially intrigued by their music. Opinions away! (Personally, I don't have a problem with him. I can hear where they're coming from, and he isn't perfect, some songs are better than others.)

I guess a pertinent question is: how many have been warded off from the band specifically because of his vocals?

I like all the singers in GG---and I think they are an amazing band--but only a fan of a few select albums.

Love his voice.

Derek rocks. Guy's range is fantastic. His tone and note selection are great. I can understand if he's a tad sterile for some, but for prog rock? GG is perfection!

I've always liked it. He's not good in a conventional way, but I think that's what I like about his voice tbh.

His ability to "shift" into different levels of vocal intensity, on the same phrase, and even sometimes in the same note that he's holding, is incredible.

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: I've always felt that GG would have been a bit more popular if they had a different lead singer. The same thing with PG era Genesis.

I don't think Gabriel's voice was an impairment to the bands success at the time. They were still on the ascendancy when he decided to quit. They had released 7 albums, including FGTR and the live album, and in the UK, three had made the top 10 in the album charts, and Foxtrot just sat outside at number 12. SEBTP made it to number 3. On the Lamb Tour the band played what is now Wembley arena. By 1975 they were pretty successful, and much of that was down to Gabriel. They were also doing quite reasonable business across Europe. The US was the challenge, and they needed a change in direction to really break that market. That obviously came later.

As for GG, I'm not a huge fan of the vocals, but they weren't bad and I don't think they had much bearing on the bands success or otherwise. The reason they weren't more successful is because their music was too quirky and inaccessible.

Tom Ozric wrote: He fits the music perfectly.

Yeah; hard to imagine a great, billowing, leather-trousered voice a la Greg Lake or John Wetton fitting into those curiously-worked GG tunes...though the results would certainly be worth a laugh.

Awesoreno wrote: I guess a pertinent question is: how many have been warded off from the band specifically because of his vocals?