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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 97
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 08:24 pm:   

1. Dave Graney (Moodists, Dave Graney Show)
2. Dave Thomas (Pere Ubu)
3. Tom verlaine (Television)
4. Robert Forster.
5. Ray Davies (The Kinks)
6. John Lennon
7. Howard Devoto (Magazine)
8. Michael Stipe
9. Iggy Pop
10. Kvin Rowland (Dexys)
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Jerry Clark
Member
Username: Jerry

Post Number: 152
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 08:32 pm:   

Not many women there so :

Bjork
Madonna
Janis Joplin
Billie Holiday
Debbie Harry
Patti Smith
Nico
Aretha Franklin
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Jeff Whiteaker
Member
Username: Jeff_whiteaker

Post Number: 167
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 08:40 pm:   

that's a great list, although as for dave graney/moodists, maybe i'm missing something here, but i always thought the moodists just copied the birthday party. i used to have a moodists record (the one with frankie's negative) and to me it always sounded like a carbon copy of any b-day party record, and graney seemed like he was doing a pretty good nick cave immitation. i haven't heard his post-moodists stuff, so maybe something changed, but what i've herad doesn't make for a very original frontman.

for my own list, i'd add:

ian curtis
mark e smith
morrissey
liz frazier (cocteau twins)
kate bush
bryan ferry
cathal coughlan

i'm sure i'll think of more...
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Wilson Davey
Member
Username: Wilson

Post Number: 2
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 08:41 pm:   

John Lydon
Morrissey
Stipe
Ian McCulloch
Syd Barratt
Natalie Merchant
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Wilson Davey
Member
Username: Wilson

Post Number: 3
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 08:42 pm:   

how did I miss Mark E Smith !
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 98
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 08:57 pm:   

Jeff you need to study the guy (Graney) beyond Moodists stuff, he's excellent, really, truly one of the greats, very original. I can't accept ur commenst about him trying to be Cave circa Birthday Party, what? Just coz he's from OZ? Bit like saying Julian Cope copied Ian MCulloch, which he didn't of course, they were just from the same place and time..
Nice to see the females, adding to mine, Rickie Lee Jones and Ari Up.
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Jeff Whiteaker
Member
Username: Jeff_whiteaker

Post Number: 168
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 09:51 pm:   

spence - yeah, i admit i've heard very little of graney's work so i've really no authority to comment. but, i do honestly feel that on the moodists stuff i've heard, graney's vocal style bears a close resemblence to nick cave. and i feel like the whole package sounds an awful lot like the birthday party too. i remember it being good, well-excecuted, and i liked a few of the songs, but i couldn't get past the b-day party factor.

you raise a good point about the two bands being contemporaries, and that perhaps they were both simply exploring the same stylistic mode. but to go back to your example, i would never in a million years think that julian cope sounded even remotely like mculloch, whereas i really think graney, at least on that early stuff, really had a lot of nick cave-isms going on with his singing. not just in the sound of his voice, but in the way he phrased things. hell, maybe it's a genetic trait and he just couldn't help it!
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 101
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 10:05 pm:   

Oh, ho could I forget old Shane MacGowan!
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Kurt Stephan
Member
Username: Slothbert

Post Number: 134
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - 10:26 pm:   

Interesting category...throwing out a few more that seem original in one way or another:

Hendrix
Captain Beefheart (and, I suppose, Zappa)
Lou Reed
Bowie (he combined other people's styles in an original way)
David Byrne
Richard Hell
Elvis Costello (I think he did "angry bespectacled geek" first)
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Matt Ellis
Member
Username: Matt_ellis

Post Number: 54
Registered: 11-2004
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 12:45 am:   

Ok Jeff,

I suspect I'm getting originality confused with musical ability. Dear me...Mark E Smith? Yes he has written the words (not necessarily the lyrics) to a couple of fantastic tunes...yes he tops the poll for rudeness, longevity, punk respect for mustering a career out of shouting. Erm I'm not sure what else....surely there are better contenders?
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Randy Adams
Member
Username: Randy_adams

Post Number: 166
Registered: 03-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 02:28 am:   

Delete Debbie Harry. She's only one of the most lucky frontpersons, definitely not one of the most original or distinctive.

Add Victoria Williams.
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Robert Vickers
Member
Username: Robert_vickers

Post Number: 27
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 05:08 am:   

Randy, come on. If Debbie wasn't an original who was she copying? I can't think of anyone who had put together 60's girl groups, French New Wave Cinema and Iggy Pop prior to 1975.
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Jerry Clark
Member
Username: Jerry

Post Number: 154
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 09:50 am:   

Randy, how dare you.
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Jerry Clark
Member
Username: Jerry

Post Number: 155
Registered: 08-2004
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 09:51 am:   

Hang on, Billy MacKenzie.
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 102
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 09:59 am:   

I'd second Billy Mac. Probably along with Scott Walker and Matt Monroe (yes I know he was a milkman!), my favorite singers of all time.
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 105
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 10:50 am:   

What about the singer from Freddie and The Dreamers who used to prance around like a tit!?
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Matthias Treml
Member
Username: Matthias

Post Number: 62
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 03:21 pm:   

How about Dee Snider (I think is was) from Twisted Sister.

Was he the first one to file his teeth into points?

How many drag queen football pad wearing metalists are there?

"We're not gonna take it!" ha ha ha.
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Wilson Davey
Member
Username: Wilson

Post Number: 4
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 04:16 pm:   

I can trump all of the above in 2 words...TOM WAITS.

The £5 is mine methinks.

Your grandchildren will one day ask "How the hell did Twisted Sister get mentioned on a Go Betweens message board ?"
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Randy Adams
Member
Username: Randy_adams

Post Number: 167
Registered: 03-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 04:29 pm:   

Robert, I do not suggest that Debbie Harry copied anybody. I say that she is absolutely devoid of distinction. She is just any blond chick singing in the car. Every vocal that she did was the obvious minimum required by the particular song in question. Your composite characterization of her speaks well of you.

But while we're at it, another distinctive singer: Colin Blunstone (Zombies)
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Jeff Whiteaker
Member
Username: Jeff_whiteaker

Post Number: 171
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 04:48 pm:   

wilson - as great as tom waits is, just sings like louis armstrong. don't get me wrong, waits is an innovative and brilliant songwriter, musician, and lyricist, but i think he gets a few point deductions in the originality department for his singing style. (though more power to him for having sued the pants off of multiple companies who used singers that immitated his voice after he turned them down).

matt - since when did lack of musical ability preclude making brilliant music? i guess you're no fan of the velvet underground then. or the raincoats. or any number of punk and post-punk bands.

at any rate, i wholeheartedly disagree about mark e. smith. i guess he is someone you either get or you don't. i stand by my assertion that he is one of the most original frontmen in the history of rock-uh.
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Randy Adams
Member
Username: Randy_adams

Post Number: 168
Registered: 03-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 04:52 pm:   

Jeff, tell me about The Raincoats. I've not heard of them but anybody mentioned in the same sentence as VU is somebody I want to know about. I agree with you on MES, btw.
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Guy Ewald
Member
Username: Guy_ewald

Post Number: 94
Registered: 02-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 05:54 pm:   

IGGY!

There is no greater visceral thrill in rock and roll than a Stooges concert.
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Robert Vickers
Member
Username: Robert_vickers

Post Number: 29
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 06:03 pm:   

I see the problem. To some people 'frontman/women' means just singing while I see it as a package including all the things needed to create a image. If we are talking about great voices Debbie Harry doesn't get a mention but as a front woman she is literally the gold standard.

Being a so-so singer was actually part of what made her original. Before her guys could be lousy singers, Jagger, Dylan, Niel Young etc and get away with it but girls had to be extraordinary, Janis, Grace Slick, Tina Turner. there was Nico but she sold zero records. Debbie Harry may have been the first time a girl singing rock with just an average voice had big radio hits.

A singer can communicate a host of things in ways that don't require techinque. I hear humour, sex and intelligence in Debbie Harry's voice and I think it inspired an army of young girls to join bands just as Mick Jagger did for guys in the generation before that.

By the way that's Ana from The Raincoats singing on Bachelor Kisses.
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Jeff Whiteaker
Member
Username: Jeff_whiteaker

Post Number: 172
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 06:39 pm:   

Randy - the Raincoats were one of the first all female bands to emerge from London's punk scene in the late 70s. Their original drummer, Palm Olive, had previously drummed for the Slits. Anyway, the thing with the Raincoats is that they were often very shambolic; scratchy guitars, disjointed drum beats, jerky rhythms, and screeching violin, not unlike John Cale's viola with the VU. Their first album is like a scratchy, noisy, but fun and catchy take on pop-punk. Critics sited them as being like a punkier, feminine VU. I liked it a lot when I was younger, but never feel like listening to it anymore.

But their 2nd and 3rd albums, Odyshape and Moving, are where they became a truly unique and inventive band. Odyshape is incredibly bizarre and unconventional for a pop record. Off-kilter rhythms, sometimes oblivious to western musical conventions, melodies plucked out (or beaten) on toys, etc.. but what ties it all together are some really dramatic, often strangely beautiful melodies. Sometimes rather dramatic. Very artsy and very strange.

On Moving, the band moved back to conventialism a bit. Here they embraced a lot of danceable African rhythms and and funk, at times like a more organic Talking Heads, with some high-life flourishes thrown in. By now the violin is much more tuneful, and the playing is tight and controlled, yet still adventurous and fun.

Not a band I listen to very often now, though I went through a big phase with them back in college. But, to me they've always seemed like a great example of a band with limited musical ability, yet who had the ideas and energy to make great music. They really used their lack of musical ability to their advantage. Despite my interest in them, they're not a band I'd recommend to many people. They're really not for everybody.
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 109
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Thursday, February 23, 2006 - 08:01 pm:   

jeff lee-pierce
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Eke
Member
Username: Ekewebb

Post Number: 34
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 12:25 pm:   

Nick Cave seems to have been mentioned a lot in this thread but not as a nomination. So - Nick Cave, ladies and gentlemen.

Also, top of the head...

David McComb
Sarah Cracknell
Diana Ross
Tina Turner
Dusty Springfield
Martin Fry
Scott Walker
Martha Reeves
Ronnie Spector
Gladys Knight
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Paul Wright
Member
Username: Wallaby

Post Number: 18
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 03:45 pm:   

Frank Sidebottam.

Well, you said original - not good.
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XY765
Member
Username: Judge

Post Number: 12
Registered: 01-2006
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 04:10 pm:   

Daniel Johnston
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 119
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 05:21 pm:   

I once saw Frank Sidebottom get on a bus in Birmingham outside The Jug of Ale in Moseley, and he was on his way to the station after performing a gig there, and it was the late bus, so he and everyone else was pissed, and he stepped onto the bus with his litle puppet mini Frank sitting on his forearm and said to the bus driver whilst inserting his change into the ticket machine, "one and a half to Birmingham please!"
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Pat Garrett
Member
Username: Pat_garrett

Post Number: 6
Registered: 04-2005
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006 - 10:46 pm:   

Peter Garrett, surely.
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David Matheson
Member
Username: David_matheson

Post Number: 44
Registered: 12-2004
Posted on Saturday, February 25, 2006 - 01:13 am:   

David Bowie
Lou Reed
Robert Smith
David Byrne
Peter Garrett
Bon Scott
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M. Mark Burgess
Member
Username: Fortysomething

Post Number: 67
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 03:07 am:   

If we're going by stage charisma, from people I have actually seen-
Johnny Cash
Sandy Denny
Lou Reed
Iggy Pop
Bjork
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kevin
Member
Username: Kevin

Post Number: 106
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 07:23 am:   

Chuck D
Burning Spear
Ian Curtis
Joe Strummer
Mark Eitzel (as much for the stories as the music)
PJ Harvey
Chris Martin
Iggy
Morrissey

One of the above is a red herring - its a toughy!!
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spence
Member
Username: Spence

Post Number: 126
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Sunday, February 26, 2006 - 09:56 am:   

There was a great final part of The story of New Wave on Radio 2 last night (Saturday) you can stll hear it on bbc site. But it was great, Ian Curtis was featured heavily. He was a great frontman. A friend of mine supported Joy Division, and I remember being a kid and him telling me about Ian Curtis and what a weird and nerve ending on legs he was. I love the frontmen who beg for your attention.

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