# Awful voices in rock (that you love) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 12, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246 "2005-03-12T21:51:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/1 "2005-03-12T21:51:18Z")
[Inspired by this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=304767&page=2&pp=50&highlight=singers) Bands with technically poor lead singers dominate my music collection. For many of them, if you replaced the strangled-cat vocalist with someone who could carry a tune you’d probably hear better songs. But for some, you emphatically would not. A good example is New Order. Bernard Sumner has \*the \*most atonal, flat voice but I find it to be really moving. There is something plaintive and vulnerable about his singing that gives the electronic music an emotional dimension. He doesn’t try to hide his weaknesses as a singer by shouting, which take balls. If the nascent New Order had replaced Ian Curtis with a tunesmith, the results would have been nowhere near as good IMO. Who else can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but is indispensable to the quality of the band’s music? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/2 "2005-03-12T21:52:56Z")
Shane MacGowan. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/3 "2005-03-12T22:01:00Z")
Three of my all-time favorite singers have pretty horrible voices by traditional standards. Too much drinking, smoking, and screaming made them unable to carry a pretty tune, but nobody is better than them at what they do: Tom Waits (my all-time favorite artist) Shane MacGowan (of the Pogues) Mike Ness (of Social Distortion) - I just saw them live last week, for the first time! SO AWESOME! ---
**Author:** ![ColonelDax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@ColonelDax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColonelDax)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/4 "2005-03-12T22:19:58Z")
I don’t know if I’d say that Darren Hayman of [Hefner](http://www.hefnet.com/) has an awful voice, but I think it is quite squawky and it took a bit of getting used to. Having said that, it came to strike me as part of their charm. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2005, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/5 "2005-03-12T22:23:22Z")
Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/6 "2005-03-13T00:06:00Z")
Jeff Magnum of Neutral Milk Hotel. His voice would be really grating if the lyrics and music didn’t make me feel kicked in the chest by beauty. ZJ ---
**Author:** ![bookbuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@bookbuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bookbuster)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/7 "2005-03-13T00:10:19Z")
David Byrne of Talking Heads ---
**Author:** ![Othersider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cab0a1/32.png) [@Othersider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Othersider)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/8 "2005-03-13T00:11:01Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits. Mark Knopfler might as well be Placido Domingo compared to, say, Axl Rose. Axl gets my vote. Guns N’ Roses wrote quite a few great songs. Axl has a terrible, horrible voice. Yet it’s hard for me to picture anyone with a good voice singing those songs. What a conundrum. ---
**Author:** ![RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RancidYakButterTeaParty)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/9 "2005-03-13T00:37:54Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > Three of my all-time favorite singers have pretty horrible voices by traditional standards. Too much drinking, smoking, and screaming made them unable to carry a pretty tune, but nobody is better than them at what they do: > > Tom Waits (my all-time favorite artist) > Shane MacGowan (of the Pogues) > Mike Ness (of Social Distortion) - I just saw them live last week, for the first time! SO AWESOME! You and I have a lot in common, my friend. Waits and Social D. are both in my top five. I will add some more: Les Claypool of Primus Neil Young ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/10 "2005-03-13T01:11:05Z")
I heard Neil Young say in an interview that he became a singer not because he was the best singer in the band, but, “we were all bad, but I was the least bad.” Joe Walsh’s voice, on a good day, sounds like a bad oboe, but I like him anyway. I’m a huge Grateful Dead fan, but it would be a stretch to call Jerry Garcia even a fair singer. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/11 "2005-03-13T01:16:44Z")
On the _American Routes_ radio show, I heard an interview with Tom Waits. His natural speaking voice is nothing like the whiskied croak you hear on stage. They played a clip of him singing in his natural singing voice, and that was quite a shock. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/12 "2005-03-13T02:48:37Z")
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned Mick Jagger yet. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/13 "2005-03-13T02:50:07Z")
I should clarify that I emphatically do **not** love Mick Jagger’s voice, but he’s got to be _the_ person in the biz to have made the most money with such an awful voice. I cringe every time I hear him sing, though. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/14 "2005-03-13T03:58:34Z")
Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) Robert Calvert (Hawkwind) Lemmy (Hawkwind, Motorhead) ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/15 "2005-03-13T05:25:31Z")
> [@Eva Luna](#): > > I should clarify that I emphatically do **not** love Mick Jagger’s voice, but he’s got to be _the_ person in the biz to have made the most money with such an awful voice. I cringe every time I hear him sing, though. I see your Mick Jagger and raise you a Bob Dylan. I don’t know who made more money (probably Mick) Bob Dylan got rich with a much worse voice. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/16 "2005-03-13T10:44:48Z")
Richard Thompson has a voice only a mother could love - but it suits his songs. Morrisey IS the Smiths - and he’s all over the place. Robert Smith - ditto. And John Lydon isn’t exactly one of the Three Tenors ---
**Author:** ![Pensandfeathers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Pensandfeathers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pensandfeathers)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/17 "2005-03-13T10:54:56Z")
Robert Smith Tom Petty There’s more, but I’m tired and can’t think of any right now… ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/18 "2005-03-13T14:47:46Z")
Wow, this far and nobody has mentioned Billy Corgan yet, I see. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/19 "2005-03-13T14:49:28Z")
Two words: Lou Reed ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246/20 "2005-03-13T14:57:06Z")
> [@betenoir](#): > > Two words: Lou Reed His voice seems smooth and refined compared to most of the nominees here. I second Mr. Smashing Pumpkin Man, by the way. Lov’em, but my voice-slut friend can’t even stand to listen through a whole song. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awful-voices-in-rock-that-you-love/294246.md?page=2)