It seems to me that most contemporary “great” guitarists can also sing reasonably well. I’m thinking of guys like Slash, the Edge, Brian May etc; their singing is nothing special, but they’re at least able to carry a tune, sing backing vocals, and maybe occasionally take a lead vocal on an album track.
There’s probably a number of reasons for this - most guitarists probably have pretty good ears to begin with, and a lot of them would have taken singing lessons during their formative years too.
But having said that, are there any great guitarists who absolutely STINK as singers? To the point where they don’t even have a working microphone to sing into when they’re on stage, and who would embarrass themselves if they so much as tried to sing karaoke at a dive bar somewhere?
I guess that anyone who fits this description is probably well aware of their limitations, and able to hide them from the public. But still, does anyone know of any well known guitarists who are on record as saying they’re terrible singers, or whose bandmates make fun of their lack of abilities, or who have even attempted to sing on stage with disastrous results?
I don’t know of any who are totally and utterly unable to sing but I wish that Eric Johnson and Larry Carlton had left the vocal tracks off their solo albums.
I wouldn’t say he stank but Chet Atkins was no singer, except for the tear-jerker thing about his dad. That was a song more for the content than the quality of its delivery.
If I ever heard Duane Allman try to sing, I don’t remember the song, but I seem to recall it was more like a howl. Letting Gregg do the singing was wise.
Steve Howe of Yes. Not bad when he’s singing third harmony behind Jon Anderson and Chris Squire, but as a lead singer, oh dear. I heard him sing a solo version of “Roundabout” once that was pretty horrendous. Having said that, I really do like his first solo album, Beginnings, a lot, off-key vocals and all. His voice is, shall we say, plaintive.
With the Allman Brothers, Duane occasionally sang a “Dimples,” a John Lee Hooker song. It requires no range of any kind, and he’s alright. If you have the first Anthology of his work, it includes him singing “Goin’ Down Slow,” where he also does okay. Really early in his career, there was other stuff that was less good.
It was “Dimples” I was remembering – painfully. It’s been a long time since I’ve listened to the Anthology records, too, so maybe it’s just an impression that I haven’t reinforced in recent years. Mainly just a reaction to the thread title that made me zoom in on Chet and Duane. There are much better examples in the other posts.
Kottke himself wouldn’t be that generous. I was introduced to his music by someone who handed me a copy of 6 & 12 String Guitar and saying that Kottke has described his singing voice as “geese farting into the wind.”