Ya lost me at Paul McCartney having a great rock voice..... He could never rock or sing rock even if petrified. He could only sing the purile dribble he wrote for 10 yo girls.......3rd rate POP.
If Paul McCartney couldn't sing rock, then only about 10-20 people in the world ever could. If your definition of rock is different than mine, then maybe he's never tried to sing some of the material you are thinking of. Finally, who are your favorite rock singers?
All of which makes that well-known Las Vegas "cabaret singer" Tom Jones...the more remarkable. Well into his 80s...and he can STILL belt it out like no-one else!
Up to a point, Lord Copper. The last time I heard him try Delilah he had shifted it from the original A minor down a fourth (5 notes!) to E minor. It was ridiculous and pointless.
@@sheldoncooper8199 There are some leaks of Britney's real voice on RU-vid. It's too bad for Milli Vanilli. If they came along now their producer would autotune them and everybody would be OK with it.
@@user-qb1sm3rk9r Robert Plant has NOT, NOT, NOT kept his voice. What bullshit. Only fanatical Zep and Plant fans hear the voice of old. The rest of us here whispering vocals, feeble attempts to sound as he once did. Plant sounded bad when he toured with Jimmy Page, the page/plant tour. I would collect those shows if Robert Plant sound the way he used to. By Fate of Nations, which is a solid but creepy album, plants voice was waning. Anyway, to each his own.
Robert Smith for the most part still sounds the same as he did in the 80s. Still sings in key, still projects. Which is all you ask for, for a man in his 60s.
Paul had some real problems with his voice about six months ago. His health crisis nearly silenced his voice and he couldn't speak- but he's alright now.
As an avid Genesis fan, the best decision I ever made was to not go and see them live on the last tour. I’d seen them live on every UK tour since 1976 and thought I’d said a final goodbye to them when they unexpectedly toured in 2007 when it looked like they’d retired. I knew this last tour was nothing but a cash grab, and I knew that Phil Collins was really unwell, so I didn’t go. I recently tried watching their final gig on RU-vid but turned it off after 10 minutes, Collins’ voice had completely gone. Very hard and sad to watch.
As bad as his voice was, the show was still brilliant. The band sounded great and the visuals were outstanding. Honestly, I was more disappointed that Phil couldn't drum more than his less than par singing. Genesis has always been more about the music for me.
@@sspbrazilYeah, Rutherford seems to have been the driving force behind the tour. I think he felt the nostalgic urge to reform again after playing with Phil on his final solo tour. I'm glad they did it despite Phil's limitations. The question is, what if Banks and Rutherford get the itch again and Gabriel or Phil's son Simon is willing to give it a go. Not likely to happen, but they certainly were trying to do a one off with Gabriel in the last decade.
@@tankmacnamara3734 How many other baritones can nail songs like There Was a Time and Better well into their 40s and 50s? The disrespect in this comment section is shameful. Overrated compared to who?
maybe they should just retire from singing and write for others. the talent doesn't usually fade. Some great young singers might appreciate their input. Name can go on the label.
@@MM1717mm I’m 59. I’m singing better now than I was in my 20s. I’m a vocal teacher and I can assure you, it’s all about technique. If you learn correct technique, your voice will last as long as the rest of you!
Old men who sound old. I don't hold anything against them except maybe not knowing when to retire. Many die hard fans are just happy to see their heroes on stage. If they're happy then I'm happy for them.
Nice one, and spot on! The greatest tragedy with Phil Collins is the more time he spent singing, the less time he spent drumming. IMHO he is the most underrated prog drummer of all time.
So Phil Collins is an underrated drummer, yes? When will people look up the definition of the word 'underrated'? It's following close on the heels of 'unique' as the most misused word in the English language.
@@davidf6326 Yes he is an underrated drummer. He's by no means unique, nor is he the absolute best, but he definitely doesn't get anywhere near the credit he deserves. Which is pretty much the very definition of the word underrated. Perhaps you should look it up.
@@mikenorman2525 Phil Collins certainly isn't underrated. As for 'best' there is no such thing; ranking musicians is a ridiculous concept. He is though, a very fine drummer and widely recognised as such. I never even mentioned him being unique. You need to read my comment more carefully.
I don't know how anyone, band members included, was able to attend the final Genesis tour. It was an embarrassing end to a sparkling career. In contrast, Peter Gabriel's voice is the vocal equivalent of the DeLorean in Back to the Future, with the dials set all the way back to good ol' 1973
Geddy Lee addresses his voice issues in his fantastic autobiography, "My Effing Life." He blames smoking & substance abuse; it's a cautionary tale for aspiring singers. Geddy is brutally honest about many things in his book.
and then.... you find videos on YT using AI to put Paul's 1965/66 voice into songs he never sang. That's bad enough, but there will probably be (or maybe already are) some of his newer songs with his younger voice put in by AI. I get why people would do that.. but I don't like it.
I love the honesty here. Stevie Nicks pretty much became a baritone in the early 80's. Tears For Fears are a good example of guys that kept their amazing voice quality all these years.
As a Beatles expert people wonder why I don’t go to Paul McCartney’s concerts. You have nicely explained why. You can hear his voice weakening on his great 1997 album Flaming Pie already.
Just went tô McCartney 's last year and it was amazing. I dont expect him tô sing as in his Wings years But amaze me how good is his singing for his age. But he should not Sing high tones tunes anymore, like "helter skelter" or "she's a woman".
The effect of smoking (any sort of smoking) cannot be understated when it comes to the deterioration of vocal abilities. Vocal cords naturally harden as we age, so it helps if you don't help the deterioration by inhaling a whole lot of toxic smoke. But hey, when you're young, you're indestructible. I wonder how many of these artists gave any thought to the idea that they'd still be performing the music of their 20's into their 70's and 80's?
Meanwhile, Michael Kiske of Helloween can still sing stuff he sang in when 18 in the original key. Almost no alcohol, no smoking, no drugs. Yes, there's more difficulties, the voice is less powerful. But he can still do it.
This. Plus, he's now missing a lot of his front teeth and will be touring again soon with a denture plate! No voice left whatsoever, it's a hell of a grift.
As I see it, Fish had demolished his voice long ago, in early 1990s, due to devastating lifestyle and being untrained (not knowing he was damaging it the way he used it, which he readily admits). His voice was largely gone by the Suits album. Then, he bravely battled on, making the most of what was left and bypassing the deficits. He managed to find his suggestive, compelling manner of vocal delivery even doing without the voice he had lost. At the same time, his two last albums are great. In fact, he has arguably achieved what VERY few have: his very last album may also be his best. The Beatles achieved that (Abbey Road was their last recorded, despite Let It Be being the last released), but really, who else did? Not counting careers untimely cut by premature deaths? Rush were close; Priest are close unless the Shield occurs not their last word.
@@greg-warsaw4708 Agreed about Fish's last album. I like how his voice changed for that. My issue was him performing Marillion. There's several live albums/videos in a row of him doing Misplaced Childhood and every subsequent release has the tuning lower and lower. Lavender shouldn't sound scary.
I'm a singer and let me tell you...the key of "E" is the breaking point of the male tenor voice. If you try and live in this range it will eventually fry your voice...thanks pal...great stuff as usual.
NEVER! He still fills arenas and everyone knows his voice isn’t the same. No one cares. He’s in his 80’s and he’s an absolute joy to millions of people still. It’s more than his voice that people love.
Yèè but if he could sound like he did in the seventies, wouldn't you like it better ? I know I would. In fact, signals was the last straw for me. No more surprises, no more chills.
I saw Rush on their final tour and Lee sounded better than his few previous tours. He sounded great on the songs within his present vocal range like Subdivisions but he definitely did struggle at times. I would add Steven Tyler to this list.
Two honorable mentions that come to mind are David Coverdale of Whitesnake and Jeff Keith of Tesla. You can tell when a singer has lost their chops when they spend more time pointing the microphone out towards the audience and having them sing the song than they do singing it themselves.
I heard that Anderson’s problems stem partly from the way he used to play the flute, in such a way that he was straining his vocal chords even when not singing. In any event, and despite my love of Jethro Tull, I had to stop seeing them live a few years ago. It just depressed me.
You could add Robert Plant to that list. As early as 1973, he'd hammered his vocal cords into submission. Still sounded pretty good after that, but could never again hit those early trademark high registers.
He lost a lot of range but he retained a lot of power in the registers he was left post the vocal issues of 73 and botched surgery in 75. 1977 Los Angeles, 1979 Copenhagen, 90s tours with Page, tours and gigs in 2000s are a great showcase of that.
Well, I'm not sure how Brian Wilson didn't make this list, or even be at number 1. One of the most angelic voices in rock history, reduced to ashes by the late 70s because of drug use, and he never recovered.
I saw him with Ray Cooper at Grenoble in 2009. I wasn't expecting the same energy as the 1970s concerts. And the change in voice was already clear. What got to me was the fact that neither of them seemed to be trying very hard.
While I agree with his characterization of Elton’s voice, this wasn’t the best example of it. I actually preferred Elton’s lower voice after that surgery. His albums in the 90’s weren’t my favorites by any stretch but even with a lower timbre, I thought he had very good mastery of his voice. It was a mature sound. But I have to say in the last 5-10 years or so, the way he sings certain songs sounds just flinty and scratchy, almost as if he’s trying to sing them that badly, which I hate to say because he’s been a favorite of mine almost my whole life. I used to really like his vibrato when singing a long “I” sound. Maybe due to age and deterioration he sings those same notes as long “E’s” and without the vibrato. But I don’t think it’s through any fault of his own, just a side-effect of being 77.
@@michaelpavlovich2241He was warned by doctors not to tour Australia back in the early Eighties, he refused and trouble started then, especially with the cocaine use. Oh, and also something called AGE!
You know who sounds great? John Oates. It was striking to me. I saw Billy Idol last year- he sounds pretty amazing. Pat Benatar, but she’s always taken really good care of her voice…
I think it’s unfair to include Elton in this list. He sounds different, but he’s still got a listenable voice. He’s worked around what he can’t do and if anything is older voice adds a different perspective on the songs.
The actors Jack Hawkins and Jack Wild (The Artful Dodger in "Oliver"), among others, were heavy smokers and lost the ability to speak. I've seen YT vids listing heavy smokers in Hollyweird, and I was struck by how many died in their 50s or 60s.
Roger Waters was not the dominant singer in Pink Floyd until Animals which ironically was the first Pink Floyd album he recorded after quitting smoking cigarettes but what did his voice in was the screaming he did on Animals, The Wall, The Final Cut and The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking. His voice in fact gave out on the first Wall concert so David Gilmour sang the last verse of Hey You on the second night of The Wall concerts in Los Angeles in 1980 and Roger had to record a vocal track for The Trial so he was lip syncing as early as The Wall concerts from New York forward.
I was blown away by how good Ged sounded in a recent live appearance, I think maybe it was the Taylor Hawkins tribute? And I realized that I almost always see them near the end of their tour (SoCal) and he'd been hammering his vocal cords for months.
Pound Shop/Dollar Store version of David Lee Roth. Motley Crue suck and always will. Good guitar player and drummer, Neil never could sing and Sixx is still not even a competent bassist.
@@michaelwills1926 So were The Beatles, and many more that we'll probably never know. People laugh at this theory not realizing we are being socially engineered all the time. First time for me hearing about the Crue. Interesting.
You could also include John Fogerty from CCR in there. He forced his throat a lot to get that raspy and howling voice when he was young. Now he has lost it completely. Although you gotta give the man some credit, he's constantly touring and hitting those high notes, not with the same voice but impressive for an almost 80 year old
I feel for singers who aren't consistent and have been unable to maintain the voice they started out with. This has never been a problem for me. My singing was shit 40 years ago and today, it's still shit.
This video is unfair. Ofc they declined, they're old men. And some of your examples still show pretty good control of their current voices, such as Elton John, Paul McCartney and Phil Collins
@@Suzi64grad im not saying I think its great, but Paul McCartney is a professional musicians with like 70 years of experience as a singer. He's voice is nothing like it once was, but he's doing the best he can at 81. Give the dude a break
I'd love to know why Ozzy always seems to be given a free pass. His voice has been dead for decades. He peaked in the 70s and was never the same sense. Studio doesn't count.
I saw Coverdale live back in 2004 and it was bad then, his vocals were buried back in the mix more than in his prime and were not good, recent times he's used a secondary singer to cover his vocals and even lip synced.
I’ve heard the raw vocals for born in the USA without the reverb, delay and modulation. They are almost unlistenable without the effects and you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t think that was his peak.
Brilliant for saying what we all wanted to say but were too afraid. May I suggest you do one on singers whose voices have not deteriorated that much over the years - I'm guessing Paul Rodgers may be on that list somewhere.
People age, and eventually they die. That’s life. If the artists still have a desire to perform and enjoy it, and there is an audience that wants to see them, I say more power to them. I saw Count Basie, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin Hopkins and many others in the 1970s. They were all past their prime, but I consider myself lucky to have seen them at all.
I wonder if it's because male rock singers have to force their voices into the high range while female rock singers are already there. So it's not as much of a strain on their vocal cords.
Did we EVER think we would see the day when Ringo Starr could out-sing Paul McCartney?? That day has arrived! Excellent presentation, especially with the clips for comparison.
McCartney didn’t attempt the top F in the chorus of Maybe I’m Amazed (‘Maybe you’re the only woman who could ever help me’) in the American tour in 1974, a mere 4 years after it was recorded. What made him think he could reach those notes nearly 50 years later is anyone’s guess. There should have been a court order preventing him from even thinking about it. And to hear him attempt Oh! Darling recently must be Number 1 in your forthcoming video of the ten most embarrassing incidents in rock.
Embarrassing for whom.. the songwriting genius who wrote it all those years ago singing it in his dotage or for the chum on a sofa who has to berate him to feel relevant.
@@rudolphguarnacci197 Don't be one of those gullible idiots that actually believe one of the most famous celebrities in the world was replaced at the pinnacle of his career.
Geddy Lee was aware of the change and worked with it ... not much he could do about the older songs, they were just beyond his current range. His voiced changed, but it certainly wasn't 'shit'
Pat Benatar sounds amazing. She takes impeccable care of her voice. They did lower the key of Shadows of the Night, but she and Neil rearranged a few songs to make them work a bit better. Pat can still blow the roof off the place, but she mixes too.
How in the world did Diamond Dave not make the top 10 ? Lol Great channel friend, always look forward to new content. I loved the rant/troll video, your comebacks were Epic !
@@216trixie On the albums he was fantastic. There was no AutoTune back then, or any type of corrective software. Live, he was worse because of the energy he put into the acrobatics and physical entertainment rather than vocals (and being drunk on stage - lol).
No mention of Ozzy on The End concert. Absolutely amazing, despite his recent health problems and his years of substance abuse. "Wheeeere can you run to..." was always a challenge, but everything on this gig is superb.
I really like your t-shirt. I remember when my friends went to see Fuel, it'd been a while since they released anything and I passed figuring the lead singer's voice had to be going given how he sang. After the concert my friends talked about how great he sand, maybe a month later they had the lip sync scandal.
Honourable mentions: Robert Plant and Paul Young. Plant knew how to adapt to the loss of his shrieking voice, even recovered a bit for special occasions like Celebration Day, but now he doesn't even retained that unique crooner voice he had. Paul Young had a prodigious, soulful raspy voice. When I saw recent live videos, it was truly traumatizing experience witness. Sting's voice also has diminished, but he really doesn't put out much work to be really noticed and judged by.
Sting's original vocal style would be hard to sustain for anybody. He really pushed it to limit back in the early days, it's only natural that his voice would change as he got older and make it hard to get to those ridiculous notes. I mean, 'Roxanne'... Sad to hear about Paul Young. I really liked his voice a lot back in the day. You're right, it was soulful and raspy, but kind of warm too. A real shame if he's gone downhill.
Jeff Lynne can still sing. Roger Daltrey is past his peak but can still sing. Graham Nash sounded vocally tired after one hour of a two hour concert this year.
Good video and analysis! Really agree with most of these. I'm a huge Rush fan, and I really think R30 was the last 'GREAT' concert where Geddy still sounded good. Cracks in his range really came after that - and very noticeable at R40. Besides Neil's passing (RIP), and the vocal degradation, I'm okay with Rush being done! Elton has done surprisingly well IMHO - while he's nowhere near what he was in the 70's - he's adjusted his songs to still sound very pleasant - his tone is still good, albeit lower. Axl & Vince never had good voices to begin with, so any decrease from that, and you're really at the bottom, aren't you?! I'd love to see another video on longtime voices that have stood up well! Votes for David Gilmour, Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode - but not so with Martin Gore), Lawrence Gowan (solo & Styx), Justin Hayward (Moody Blues - his has maintained quite well! John Lodge - not so much) & finally Morten Harket (a-ha). Cheers!
I’d agree with them all except Elton and to a certain degree Geddy Lee. OK, Elton sang in a much lower key in the later years, but he was still in tune and it wasn’t painful to listen to. As for Geddy, he had to sing certain songs that he struggled with, but the Rush catalogue was so vast, there were plenty of songs that humans as well as dogs could hear. His voice actually got better on the last couple of tours due to diet. I read once Ian Anderson blamed heavy smoking for his vocal decline.
Anderson developed a terrible throat problem on the Under Wraps tour of 1984, on which he evidently pitched a lot of songs outside his natural range. He had to put Tull on hiatus for two years on the advice of doctors who evidently warned him he was on the verge of losing the power of speech altogether. This would have been an excuse to retire then; I salute him for soldiering on, diminished though the results may be. I saw him live in 2016 and recall noticing the strain, but hoping I was still that good at what I did when I was 69. He's since developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which may explain the decline documented here. Note however the lack of any accompanying discussion of lip- syncing or backing tracks. Whatever else may be said of him, he's a consummate professional in a field not noted for that quality.
Tull were miming the intro to Songs from the Wood live in 1977. Ian even makes a quip about it on one live recording. There's another video from the early '90s where they do the same. Ian switches on his radio mic to sing the vocals proper after the intro, and his voice sounds completely different.
