Singers Who've Lost Their Voice

Roger Daltrey, he had a few bad years as well, but has sounded okay since surgery.

He was decidedly hit-or-miss in 2006-07, but yeah, post-surgery Daltrey sounds good, especially for 75.

title of this thread is irritating tbh. Every singer over the age of 70s is going to have their lungpower and range decrease, it's just a fact of aging.

Yeah, maybe I should have said "Singers Who've Lost Their Voices and Still Made Good Music" ... but the point wasn't "Hey, everybody gets old and loses their voice ... that sucks!" so much as "Some folks stop being interesting when they lose their voice (which also sucks), but some don't ... why?"

Some great points in here.

Gregory Isaacs was the poster boy for this

Robert Plant sounded shot as early as Physical Graffiti, but he's settled nicely into his new voice, especially circa Raising Sand where he sounds almost like Roy Orbison in places.

Mark Kozelek. Whether his conscious change in delivery was secretly because he can't quite sing the way he used to... either way when he tries now (from what I've heard) it sounds specifically like the new rantrapping-matthew mcconaughey Kozelek trying to sing, as apposed to him just sounding the way he did before he switched styles. Reaffirms that new asshole rapping Mark is an imposter. Real Mark is missing!

Listen to Siouxsie Sioux on The Seven Year Itch and prepare to cringe

Been thinking about Bjork, she doesn't seem to have attempted any of her old vocal acrobatics this last 10 years or so, is this because she can't any more?

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 3 July 2019 15:59 (fifty-six minutes ago) link

Yeah, she's had some serious issues with her vocal cords over the past decade (surgery, frequent forced vocal rests, cancelled shows etc.) and her upper range is weaker than it used to be but she still can belt a note out. She might even sound better in her mid-range now, but at the cost of losing the dolphin noises / acrobatics.

Joni Mitchell's loss of vocal range beginning in the 80s is very evident but she's a heavy smoker.

I remember hearing that a lot 10-15 years ago re: Bjork - "if she keeps singing like that, she's gonna lose her voice"

Pre:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbn6a0AFfnM

Post:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCnf46boC3I

i actually think Kylie has improved over the years.
someone could suggest studio based tweaks, however, Sundays performance (and last years Hyde Park show) would definitely contest that idea.
she has learnt how to use her range really well.

shit.
wrong thread !
ooops.
doi repost over in the other one ?

Thread title Should be “...Voices” no?

It’s actually kinda crazy to me how affecting I find ferry’s fucked old guy voice

Lucinda Williams. She's always had that drawl/slur thing going on to some extent, but over the past four or five albums it's increased to the point where I can hardly stand to listen to her any more. A couple of years ago she re-recorded Sweet Old World and the difference in her singing from the original album is excruciating.

Waits is the rare performer who "found" the voice they're most commonly associated with well into their recording career.

Post-2005 Tori Amos.

Being a huge Echo & the Bunnymen fan, I've seen loads of discussions around Ian McCulloch's voice, and obviously I have to admit that he doesn't sing like he did in the 80's - up to and including his first solo album Candleland.
But his voice is still unlike any others and he changed his style to match it, he still does amazing things with it and, while it's not what you hear on those classic records, he's a treat to hear live.

Paul Banks

A notorious one : Maria Callas

Waits is cool because he spent most of his career trying to sound like a wise, bitter old hobo and now his voice fits the persona he was working on all these decades, so the older he gets, the - i don’t know if better, but - more organic his older material sounds when he performs it.

Thom Yorke has sadly lost much of his higher tones and he sounds like he’s whining more often than not when he attempts it. Vocals break constantly live when he has to go there.

The more he losses his voice the more he likes to use it as a texture or loops inside songs and it makes for a frustrating listen to me. There’s way too much whining and mumbling that wasn’t there or at least not as noticeable in his younger years.

He’s still a pretty great vocalist but I wouldn’t mind if he toned down the high notes and the mumbling.

Two singers who literally lost their voices:

Linda Thompson (though she eventually got it back)
Sheila Chandra

Sheila Chandra's story is rather grim, apparently the burning mouth syndrome means she can't even speak, let alone sing?

A rapper example (which is rare !) : the D.O.C.
It doesn't really fit the thread premise though since he didn't sustain his success afterward...

Shirley Collins too

xxp

DMC also lost-lost his voice (the D.O.C. in a car crash, DMC damaging his through shouting and alcohol), with Run forbidding him from performing on their last record & him switching to croaky blues gasping as a solo artist

Milli Vanilli

A sad case of someone whose voice is only a shadow of what it used to be, without finding a new style to match it (like Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits): Stephen Stills.

Andy Bell from Erasure

Boy George

It’s actually kinda crazy to me how affecting I find ferry’s fucked old guy voice

― shhh / let peaceful like things (wins), Thursday, 4 July 2019 4:12 AM (fifteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah that cover of Johnny and Mary where he sounds frail and ancient is really special, def my favorite late-career Ferry thing.

I haven’t heard Boy George since Somebody To Love Me (nine years ago!), but he still sounded wonderful there, if deeper & not as liquid as his 1985 self

Xp In fact generally like rock voices cracked with age, my favourite parts of seeing Paul McCartney recently were the bits where he sounded like an old man. I like the honest sound of this pop cultural moment heading into its dotage.

Oh and Perry Farrell was the one that came to mind for me. Last time i saw Jane's he was doing a really good sleight of hand job but it was clearly not really there. He made up for it with showmanship and somehow suggesting his old voice and I think as an audience you sort of fill in the gaps. Occasionally he would really go for a crucial note. It must be super hard to no longer be able to do the thing that defines you, and i did feel for him a little having to put in such effort to even approximate his old performance.

Re : Ferry, yeah I love his jazz/big band stuff. arguably one of the peaks of his career imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2hzLpZftLQ

George Clinton!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQVaRudcClc

Compare and contrast :(( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCpWh8Yi9Uc

OMG

Ian Anderson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QeDpONKs0U

Walter White's flute skills have improved though

Johnny Cash might be considered in the same group as Waits and Cohen.

Life has been not surprisingly pretty rough on many of the old 80s metal singers voices.

Stephen Pearcy
Vince Neil
David Coverdale
Chris DeGarmo
David Lee Roth

Thing with some is that they get them healed or fixed and they do improve some times. Axl Rose voice was completely blown on some of those faux-GNR live stuff, worst I can remember was that clip of them playing one of those Bridge benefit concerts. Axl and Phil Lewis (of LA Guns) both seemed to have lost their voice and a few years later sound much better.

as much as I hate to admit it, kate bush (although it does give some of the director's cut covers an eerie feel)

I actually really like Kate's huskier vocal style from DC and 50 Words for Snow. Her voice has definitely changed, and she's adapted/developed her singing style, but I wouldn't say she's "lost" it. I also thought she sounded good (if a bit safe) on the live recording from Before the Dawn.

Morrissey. He made it work on Vauxhaul And I but when the songwriting went downhill there was not much to work with.

Comus is kind of interesting because Roger's voice changed completely, a different singer almost, not actually bad but most probably prefer his older voice. But Bobbie sounds exactly the same!
Please make more music!

Joni Mitchell makes a compelling case for losing your voice.

Morrissey. He made it work on Vauxhaul And I but when the songwriting went downhill there was not much to work with.

if only he lost his voice, maybe then he'd stop doing interviews

I thought the story with Joni was that she smoked like crazy specifically to *change* her voice on purpose.

Michael Stipe seems to have lost most of his once-wide vocal range by 2007 (when R.E.M.'s Accelerate album was recorded).

Geddy Lee’s voice has slowly deteriorated over the years and he became unable to reach the high notes of the earliest Rush albums. But then watch the concert video of the Clockwork Angels tour and he is visibly struggling to reach even the pitched-down versions of songs. It actually hurts to watch.

I mean, dude was always pitchy and inconsistent even in his prime, but this is....o_O

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tobKbYRCJOo

Linda Thompson has a new album that's entirely guest vocalists due to her dysphonia.

Phil Ochs!

"One night, Ochs was attacked and strangled by robbers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which damaged his vocal cords, causing a loss of the top three notes in his vocal range."

I ran across the final Demis Roussos album the other day, and by 2009 there was absolutely nothing left of his former semi-operatic voice, it's reduced to a sub-Joe Cocker rasp.

Also, it's quite something to bookend your 40-year career of sappy baroque balladry with a 9+ minute epic called "Who Gives A Fuck" (last track on his last album).

Wow.

Hoo boy @ Sebastian Bach