| Author | Message | ||
     spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 97 Registered: 05-2005 |
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) | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 152 Registered: 08-2004 |
Not many women there so : Bjork Madonna Janis Joplin Billie Holiday Debbie Harry Patti Smith Nico Aretha Franklin | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 167 Registered: 10-2004 |
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... | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 2 Registered: 05-2005 |
John Lydon Morrissey Stipe Ian McCulloch Syd Barratt Natalie Merchant | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 3 Registered: 05-2005 |
how did I miss Mark E Smith ! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 98 Registered: 05-2005 |
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. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 168 Registered: 10-2004 |
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! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 101 Registered: 05-2005 |
Oh, ho could I forget old Shane MacGowan! | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 134 Registered: 04-2005 |
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) | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 54 Registered: 11-2004 |
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? | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 166 Registered: 03-2005 |
Delete Debbie Harry. She's only one of the most lucky frontpersons, definitely not one of the most original or distinctive. Add Victoria Williams. | ||
| Robert Vickers Member Username: Robert_vickers Post Number: 27 Registered: 05-2005 |
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. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 154 Registered: 08-2004 |
Randy, how dare you. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 155 Registered: 08-2004 |
Hang on, Billy MacKenzie. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 102 Registered: 05-2005 |
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. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 105 Registered: 05-2005 |
What about the singer from Freddie and The Dreamers who used to prance around like a tit!? | ||
| Matthias Treml Member Username: Matthias Post Number: 62 Registered: 05-2005 |
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. | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 4 Registered: 05-2005 |
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 ?" | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 167 Registered: 03-2005 |
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) | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 171 Registered: 10-2004 |
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. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 168 Registered: 03-2005 |
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. | ||
| Guy Ewald Member Username: Guy_ewald Post Number: 94 Registered: 02-2005 |
IGGY! There is no greater visceral thrill in rock and roll than a Stooges concert. | ||
| Robert Vickers Member Username: Robert_vickers Post Number: 29 Registered: 05-2005 |
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. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 172 Registered: 10-2004 |
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. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 109 Registered: 05-2005 |
jeff lee-pierce | ||
| Eke Member Username: Ekewebb Post Number: 34 Registered: 05-2005 |
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 | ||
| Paul Wright Member Username: Wallaby Post Number: 18 Registered: 05-2005 |
Frank Sidebottam. Well, you said original - not good. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 12 Registered: 01-2006 |
Daniel Johnston | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 119 Registered: 05-2005 |
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!" | ||
| Pat Garrett Member Username: Pat_garrett Post Number: 6 Registered: 04-2005 |
Peter Garrett, surely. | ||
| David Matheson Member Username: David_matheson Post Number: 44 Registered: 12-2004 |
David Bowie Lou Reed Robert Smith David Byrne Peter Garrett Bon Scott | ||
| M. Mark Burgess Member Username: Fortysomething Post Number: 67 Registered: 05-2005 |
If we're going by stage charisma, from people I have actually seen- Johnny Cash Sandy Denny Lou Reed Iggy Pop Bjork | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 106 Registered: 05-2005 |
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!! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 126 Registered: 05-2005 |
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. |