Chris Cornell.
Not entirely what the OP is looking for, but it occured to me just the other day that the song “You Are So Beautiful” is pretty boring and insipid. If it was sung by someone with a smooth, easy voice, it would be positively awful. Joe Cocker sings it, though, and it sounds plaintive and romantic.
You’re welcome not to like him, but to say he has an awful voice is simply, factually wrong. He has an incredible voice - one of the best in the business, in terms of technical ability. (I am a semi-pro musician and have a lot of friends in the business…)
I am surprised no one has mentioned Robert Smith of the Cure. Who told this man he could sing? Yet I love their stuff.
I agree with many of the others listed. Neil Young - oy.
King Diamond all the way, baby. His falsetto screams are so over the top that they make his songs almost comical, sometimes barely tollerable. But I love his music, all the same.
PJ Harvey can sound perfectly awful sometimes. Damn fine music.
and I bet even she would give this title to Tom Waits.
Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse fame. Their music simply would not work with a clear, toneful voice.
If a wolverine could sing, it would sound like Bon Scott. And I don’t mean that as an insult.
Geddy Lee comes to mind…
I second the vote for Axl Rose. I’m a die-hard GnR fan and I tell ya, he may have a horrible voice but no one else can sing those songs. They just wouldn’t be the same.
I’ll never forget when I heard Sheryl Crow cover Sweet Child O Mine. I almost had a heart attack. Blasphemy.
You know…years ago I did a little experiment on Geddy Lee’s voice. Prior to the release of the Signals album his voice wandered quite a bit…a lot of yelling and screaming and not even trying to sing.
But between Moving Pictures and Signals he appears to have made the effort to learn to sing properly. I set up a keyboard to take the notes on the sheet music for Signals and Grace Under Pressure and matched it with the actual recorded performances. He bangs those notes except where it’s clear he’s moving off note on purpose.
So say what you want. Funny voice? Sure? Odd voice? Definitely. Poor singer? Not anymore.
Oh, I love Rush (as per OP), but Geddy Lee’s voice, like before the concert starts and he’s yelling out to the fans, it’s just really high.
But it works so well in their songs, I just couldn’t imagine any other voice singing them.
I can’t say I love Fred Schneider, but I like the B-52s. You can’t say he even sings exactly.
Nobody mentioned Elvis Costello yet? Man I love his bad voice!
I am also a huge Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, and Mark Knopfler fan.
Yet strangely, I can’t get into Neil Young (yet).
ahem
I’m another to add Robert Smith. And I’d even go as far as to Kurt Cobain in some instances sounded better when he sounded like crap (i.e. Unplugged).
Damn - read the post too fast. I hate that. :wally
And boy do I agree with Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse - oy.
If Janis Joplin had had a pretty voice, she would not have been able to rip your heart out the way she could.
Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger and Janis Joplin all came to mind. More recently/obscurely: Gord Downie.
This is embarrassing, but I still love the 2 good songs that Quiet Riot had in 1983. Kevin DuBrow’s voice sounded like a litter of kittens being boiled alive.
Having seen both of them live within the last two years, I do not agree that David Byrne or Elvis Costello have bad voices. Limited and idiosyncratic, certainly, but they can both carry a tune well. Byrne’s voice has improved if anything. And hearing Costello fill the concert hall with a haunting unamplified acapella rendition of The Favourite Hour remains one of my treasured muscial memories.
Most of my nomimees have already been mentioned - Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Tom Waits; plus Leonard Cohen, Steve Kilby, Marianne Faithful …
I second Kurt Cobain. Some of my favorite music, but the man wasn’t very skilled vocally IMO.