From her wikipedia entry:
“In 1994, Donna Jean was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead”
Yeah, this is probably the Thread Winner.
I’m not sure that analogy works for music. It’s plainly true that the worst hockey player in the NHL will humiliate the players in, say, a high school squad. However, there are professional musicians who ARE mediocre and would be bested by tens of thousands of amateurs - especially musicians who are in bands solely because of their looks, like The Fifth Guy In Backstreet Boys or someone like that, or someone who’s a star for being pretty but really isn’t much of a singer, like Jennifer Lopez. There are 50,000 bassists right now better than Sid Vicious was.
She sang lead vocal on two tracks on Shakedown Street. Yes, Jerry is also singing on France but they’re both singing the same lyrics (I think Donna’s vocal might be slightly louder in the mix.) Shakedown Street might not be the best Dead studio effort but it’s still an iconic album.
Now that I’m done stanning Donna, OK, yes, she probably IS the thread winner.
Well, she screams really loud at one point in most performances of Playing in the Band. Doesn’t that count for something? No, never mind, it doesn’t.
About 5 years ago I attended a talk by Donna Jean. She was pretty entertaining and told some interesting and amusing stories about her time with the Dead. Doesn’t change the fact that she contributed very little while she was with them though.
I’d have to say the same is true for Frank Zappa. Great guitarist, but he couldn’t sing.
Right, on an album of rock standard covers they did, he sounds like a normal capable singer. Why he adopted his peculiar screech for most of the Rush songs I will never understand?
The Dead insisted that everyone who had been part of the band be inducted with them, including their main lyricist Robert Hunter. Jann Wenner went along with it. They’ve tightened this down since, and now they really only let bands induct their most core members.
Whatnow?
Its probably time to whip the sheet off the demolition job that Australian national living treasure Jon Safran did on Joey Fatone of NSYNC. Its cruel but apt. APT!
I’ve read some sources that claim Ringo Starr was a mediocre drummer who was lucky enough to land in a genius band and become famous forever, but I’ve read other sources that vehemently deny that. I don’t know who to believe.
Believe your ears and eyes.
Not for nothing, but every time a thread like this pops up, Ringo is mentioned, usually first by someone threatening to go on a kill spree if his talent is denigrated. That says something.
Personally I’m on the side of … Good Drummer/Lucky Boy.
Yeah, that’s it. Of course he was lucky to got hired by a band of three genius songwriters and exceptional singers (which of course wasn’t already really obvious in 1962), but the boys wanted him badly because he was the freaking best drummer in Liverpool.
It’s long ago: but who else could have been a better drummer for the Beatles?
Imagine: Keith Moon? John Bonham? Bruford? Just wouldn’t have worked.
Of course there’s also Brian Downey (Thin Lizzie) and Ian Paice (Purple)… they were (still are, I hope?) amazingly good rock drummers. But they don’t seem have the versatility to work in different styles that Ringo has?
Chris Curtis of the Searchers. Then the Beatles would have eventually had four consistent lead vocalists and songwriters. Being one of the few Liverpool musicians with a lifetime ban from the Cavern would have been a problem, though.
If that “Anagram for Mondo” song is representative of his normal singing voice, then he chose wisely going with his well-known Rush singing voice. To me, it just sounds so boring and indistinct. The voice he’s known for – love it or hate it – is much more interesting and powerful to my ears. I’m not much of a Rush fan, though, so I don’t know what Rush fans think.
Read upthread for a good bit of discussion about it. I’ll save you the trouble, though: whoever thinks he was mediocre and lucky has cotton in their ears, and I would not trust their musical opinion on anything. (And I’m not exaggerating the second part. If you [general you] don’t think Ringo has talent, I do not trust your opinion of music. We’re probably looking for very different things in our music.)
Any member of Dire Straits not named Mark Knopfler? (Especially Guitar George. He knows all the chords, but it’s strictly rhythm, he doesn’t want to make it cry or sing…)
Actually, the other members might be perfectly good musicians; but Knopfler is such a frickin’ virtuoso on guitar and vocals, that he sets the bar impossibly high.
Most of Megadeth that isn’t Dave Mustaine or Dave Ellefson??
Megadeth has had such a cycle of people in it, only Dave Mustaine has been in it for more than the past few years now.
Just about everyone else that was in Megadeth just passed through to play their instruments adequately.