Axl Rose is the greatest singer...EVER!!!

[N7YA]

...according to one smalltime blogger.


(yes, i know where the link leads to, but unlike other Fox stories, this one actually happened)

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/the-fi...ime-new-survey





Sooooo, someone got high and was listening to Appetite For Destruction on 10 and felt a welling up of high school memories gone by, it seems, and took to the laptop. Axl basically sucks ass, ill be honest. The guy never really was all that good. I was saying this back in 1988. His band was great, he was just snotty and skinny enough to be a frontman. His singing was barely passable.

But, since the internet said it, it must be true.

[N7YA]

(looking around, Adam notices he is ranting in a devout G-n-R tavern. He sits back down, quietly finishes his drink, then leaves)

[N2NH]

Nope. GnR fan but everything you've said is right. Saw an article yesterday comparing the recorded vocal range of many singers. The claim is that Axl has a lower range than Barry White and can go almost as high as Prince.

Interestingly, John Lennon and Elvis Presley are identical. So are Robert Plant, Mick Jagger and Nina Simone. Still light years apart on stye though...

HuffPo did the article here.

Very interesting nevertheless.

[NQ6U]

I always thought that G-n-R sucked and felt vindicated to hear the same coming from a professional musician.

[N8YX]

I think Mark Slaughter and David Bowie might disagree, but I'm a longtime GNR fan nonetheless.

[N7YA]

Thank you...i was getting nervous for a minute.

I appreciate GnR as a good, ballsy rock and roll band. Let me make that clear...Axl gets the job done as a snarky rock singer (or did, he needs to stop now). But here are some singers he beat as he was awarded the "greatest singer of all time"...

Geoff Tate, Paul Rogers, Robert Plant, Adam Lambert, Bruce Dickinson....yes....THAT Bruce Dickinson, Maynard James Keenan, Rob Halford, Steve Perry, Freddie Mercury....FREDDIE MERCURY! Are they fucking high?? Ronnie James Dio, Sammy Hagar, Udo Dirkschneider, Ann Wilson, Tim McGraw, Elyse Branch (bad ass!), Roger Daltrey, Steven Tyler, Bruno Mars, Big Mama Thornton, Frankie Valli, Celine Dion, Seal, Marvin Gaye....and basically every soul singer out there, Mariah Carey, Three Dog Night, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir...the list goes on.



Vince Neil....Axl Rose is WAY better than Vince Neil. If this award was only between the two of them, i would deliver it to Axl myself!

[N8OBM]

Ok I feel the need to chime in here as well. It is said that Captain Beefhart could sing the entire range of the piano. I believe he was listed in the Guinness Book as having the largest singing range.

GnR? The band was good for a brief period, maybe even great. They quickly made the worst mistake a musician can make. They started to believe the hype and bullsh*t the marketing team were spreading about them. Appetite for Destruction was a pretty good album and IMHO their only consistently good album. Everything quickly slid down hill from there. There are a few good moments but they become further and further apart. The business of Rock and Roll records is one that feeds on it's own and encourages self destructive excess and self indulgence. The Record Labels are largely staffed by vultures who make their living by picking the last little bits they can off the remains of the artists. You know that old story about give them enough rope and they will hang themselves. The record companies are largely in the business of profiting from providing the rope. There are exceptions but, they are few and far between. They are mostly small labels and If they succeed they are usually quickly purchased by the majors. As far as distributing physical product, the small labels usually do so through the big boys so, the big boys are keenly aware of who's selling how much of what.

The mark of a fine singer isn't always who has the better range or who can do the most tricks. In fact It's often the case the singers with the most skill are so consumed with perfecting technique that they often loose sight of what they are there for. This is not unlike guitar players who once they learn to play fast and do a bunch of fretboard tricks use those tricks all the time to the detriment of the song.The finest singer is the one who serves the song and who knows how to add musically to it. Take for example Billy Holiday. She almost didn't have a range. She could sing less than 2 octaves but, what she could do with those two octaves to further the song was heartfelt, moving, and amazing. Another great example is the performance Annie Lenox gives when she sings "Every Time We Say Goodbye" on the album Red Hot and Blue. It's understated, controlled, and perfect for the song. It's simple but, just right. Her change in tone as the narrative of the song shifts is the perfect choice for the song and so very effective. This simple thing shows more artistry to me than anything I've ever heard Mariah Carey sing.

Serve the song you play or perish! As the performer, you are there to serve the song. The song is not there to serve you. If you treat it as a vehicle to show off what you can do, you have missed the point. To me the highest artistry of performance is when a performer can find something in a song that others have missed. Why cover a song If all you do is imitate what someone else has already done. To paraphrase JFK, Ask not what the song can do you you, ask what you can do for the song.

Once again rambling on. I'll stop here and head back down to the studio. I have to figure out whats going on with the Concert Reverb and the demos aren't going to write and record themselves.......

Archie N8OBM

[N7YA]

"The Record Labels are largely staffed by vultures who make their living by picking the last little bits they can off the remains of the artists."


Archie, thats not just two cents there...thats the damn truth! Its true with most all media these days. Executives with NO artistic knowledge whatsoever, have completely taken over all marketable artistic endeavours and contorted them into unrecognizable, safe, packaged products with one intention...guaranteed sales mobility. Music, movies, TV, books, etc...driven by a fear of experimentation. A revolution is coming, but first, we have to kill one another and spit in eachothers face before we realized we've been duped and the bandits are running out the side door.

[WØTKX]

http://youtu.be/O8hwI-1xzo0

[N8OBM]

"The Record Labels are largely staffed by vultures who make their living by picking the last little bits they can off the remains of the artists."


Archie, thats not just two cents there...thats the damn truth! Its true with most all media these days. Executives with NO artistic knowledge whatsoever, have completely taken over all marketable artistic endeavours and contorted them into unrecognizable, safe, packaged products with one intention...guaranteed sales mobility. Music, movies, TV, books, etc...driven by a fear of experimentation. A revolution is coming, but first, we have to kill one another and spit in eachothers face before we realized we've been duped and the bandits are running out the side door.

Don't get me started about the music industry and the record labels,

Too late............... Here we go............

It's beyond the truth. I am currently working with a wonderful singer songwriter who left her last project as they were getting signed. They had hired a name producer to do their next album which they were going to self release. He brought in his label after restyling the project. The gal I'm working with didn't like the change and left. The rest of them signed a $250,000 deal without the benefit of legal or managerial representation. This is unlikely to end well. It is possible this producer will get to spend the money as he sees fit and they will be on the hook for it. I wish them well but, I smell rocky roads ahead. You never sign a contract without a GOOD MUSIC LAWYER. I have been told the producer offered the use of his lawyer which smells like a huge conflict of interest. I don't think it's ethical. Your lawyer needs to be working for you, not another interested party or another party to the contract.

Another band that I played with some years ago was approached by an agent who wanted to represent us. He claimed to have contacts in the industry that would want to sign us for the project we were doing. We were recording out of the Loft studio with Andy Patalan at the time. We took a look at the contract he offered and red flags went up. we also asked for a list of bands that he had worked with. He claimed to work with Solid Frog which was Andy's band. We called Andy and he said He never heard of him.

My father in law is a lawyer and I sent him a copy of the contract to see if it was a bad as I thought it was. It was worse. His comment after reading it was "I thought Lincoln freed the slaves?". I caught most of the stuff but he explained a few things I missed. This guy had a power of attorney built into the contract that would allow him to sign contracts for us, Including loans and the like. He could take out loans in our name and we would have no say in it but, we would be obligated to pay them off. It also gave him rights in anything we thought of during the period of representation even after it had expired. So if I had an idea for a song while he represented us, even unfinished, If I completed the song ten years later he would still be entitled to his cut. It also gave him the sole right to decide if the contract was to be extended past the original 4 year period. He could drop us but, we could not fire him.

He tried to play the contract off as industry standard boiler plate. Right.......... The only time you even entertain a contract like that is if the agent or record label has a well known track record of success AND your band is incorporated. An Incorporated band seriously limits your personal liability should things fail or get weird. You can walk away from the corporation. The corporation will lose it's assents which might include royalties or publishing rights and the like but, at least then they can't come after your house if things fail.

We RAN away from this guy. What he was doing was trying to sign as many folks as he could with promises he couldn't deliver on, in the hope that somebody would get lucky and make it and he would get a big fat payday from it. This is why agents are regulated and licensed in many states. I have no problem if an agent wants exclusive rights to offer a work for sale for a limited period of time but, It's commission work. Much like real estate. If they can't sell it, why on earth should they still get a cut? it's highly unethical and damn near criminal. In some states, It is criminal.

Under no circumstances should you hand over your babies to these bastards for a pocket full of promises.

Good people do exist in the industry. Sadly, they are few and far between. If you find someone in the industry that plays fair, hang on to them.

And that's my buck two ninety eight on the subject......

Archie N8OBM