La Di Da

Rolling Stone gives its standard list of the "greatest" 100 rock, blues and country musicians a gentle shuffle and calls the result the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time".

Garfunkel but not Simon, on a list that includes Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Kurt Cobain? Bono above Joni Mitchell?

I think they make these lists just to piss me off.

7 thoughts on “La Di Da

  1. John D. Thullen

    Yeah, no Hynde or Ronstadt?

    Carl Wilson should be a subcategory of Brian Wilson’s ranking. His brother’s voice, but with a heartbreaking delicacy and quaver to it. He sang “Surf’s Up” on the original record and during live performances, though Brian re-recorded it on “Smile” with nothing lost in the lead.

    I wish I could view the on-screen herky-jerky list with just the names to get a feel for the overall thing at a glance.

    Colin Blunstone of the Zombies is out there, but where?

    Ok, McCartney at #11? With no offense to the top ten, including Lennon at a low #6, maybe we need a new numbering system, Egyptian or something, if McCartney sits at #11 in the one we use. What’s math got to do with it?

    Even setting aside Macca’s outrageous lead singing (it was so good, Maybe I’m Amazed, that Paul can’t even do it anymore) can you imagine the Beatles early on, with Lennon on lead vocal, WITHOUT those high harmonies from Paul, and HIGH in a ridiculously vast range before he even broke falsetto.

    Lennon/McCartney were one singer before, say, Revolver. They were Aretha together … but long live Aretha at #1.

    Personal thing: Laura Nyro.

    1. cleek Post author

      I was a bit puzzled by Lennon’s high placement. He was great, I agree. But he wasn’t better than Paul McCartney.

      IIRC, the A/V Club once had a thread going about ‘who had the best backup singers’. People were liking the Mike Anthony and Eddie Van Halen combo behind David Lee Roth (which really was much better than you’d expect); they liked The Eagles (OK, fine); they liked Def Leppard (which is really a product of Lang’s signature production style). My contribution was “Well, there was this guy named Ringo Starr and he had George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney for his vocal backups”.

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