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...
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 4 July 2019 08:53 (five years ago) link
Shirley Collins too
xxp
― van dyke parks generator (anagram), Thursday, 4 July 2019 09:06 (five years ago) link
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
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 4 July 2019 09:09 (five years ago) link
Milli Vanilli
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 4 July 2019 09:10 (five years ago) link
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.
― Valentijn, Thursday, 4 July 2019 09:33 (five years ago) link
Andy Bell from Erasure
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 4 July 2019 10:09 (five years ago) link
Boy George
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 4 July 2019 10:10 (five years ago) link
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
― 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.
― umsworth (emsworth), Thursday, 4 July 2019 10:18 (five years ago) link
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
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Thursday, 4 July 2019 10:23 (five years ago) link
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.
― umsworth (emsworth), Thursday, 4 July 2019 10:29 (five years ago) link
Re : Ferry, yeah I love his jazz/big band stuff. arguably one of the peaks of his career imo.
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 4 July 2019 10:34 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2hzLpZftLQ
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 4 July 2019 11:05 (five years ago) link
George Clinton!
― Carly Jae Vespen (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, 4 July 2019 12:04 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQVaRudcClc
Compare and contrast :(( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCpWh8Yi9Uc
― Carly Jae Vespen (Capitaine Jay Vee), Thursday, 4 July 2019 12:06 (five years ago) link
OMG
― Vini C. Riley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 4 July 2019 12:40 (five years ago) link
Ian Anderson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QeDpONKs0U
― Zeuhl Idol (Matt #2), Thursday, 4 July 2019 12:50 (five years ago) link
Walter White's flute skills have improved though
― bendy, Thursday, 4 July 2019 14:36 (five years ago) link
Johnny Cash might be considered in the same group as Waits and Cohen.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Thursday, 4 July 2019 15:41 (five years ago) link
Life has been not surprisingly pretty rough on many of the old 80s metal singers voices.
Stephen PearcyVince NeilDavid 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.
― earlnash, Thursday, 4 July 2019 15:49 (five years ago) link
as much as I hate to admit it, kate bush (although it does give some of the director's cut covers an eerie feel)
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Thursday, 4 July 2019 16:44 (five years ago) link
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.
― ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ, Thursday, 4 July 2019 17:28 (five years ago) link
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!
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 5 July 2019 16:52 (five years ago) link
Joni Mitchell makes a compelling case for losing your voice.
― Pauline Male (Eric H.), Friday, 5 July 2019 17:27 (five years ago) link
if only he lost his voice, maybe then he'd stop doing interviews
― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Friday, 5 July 2019 21:07 (five years ago) link
I thought the story with Joni was that she smoked like crazy specifically to *change* her voice on purpose.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 5 July 2019 23:05 (five years ago) link
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.
― Melomane, Friday, 5 July 2019 23:12 (five years ago) link
Hmmm. 2008:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0wsEzK-yJA
― timellison, Friday, 5 July 2019 23:37 (five years ago) link
Pitch-y at first but he seems to settle into it
― timellison, Friday, 5 July 2019 23:42 (five years ago) link
Those are pretty high notes. E5, F5?
― timellison, Friday, 5 July 2019 23:49 (five years ago) link
Stipe sounds pretty bad in that 2008 clip and the RRHOF induction from the previous year, IMO
― stan by me (morrisp), Saturday, 6 July 2019 00:18 (five years ago) link
Man this makes me sad. I heard only a little bit of the latest album but it was autotuned to oblivion and I figured it was probably the case that his voice is gone
― Vinnie, Saturday, 6 July 2019 15:05 (five years ago) link
Chris Conley from Saves the Day was one of these, I think.
― ☮ (peace, man), Saturday, 6 July 2019 15:22 (five years ago) link
Re: Andy Bell. It’s not just the autotuning, it’s the way that he actually sings now - seems like something changed in his technique when he did the Pop Star to Opera Star TV show. Does make me a little sad to listen back to the earlier Erasure records and hear how good a voice he had.
― michaellambert, Saturday, 6 July 2019 15:23 (five years ago) link
I think Stipe's hitting an e4/f4 on "air". He struggles on the scale around A-C before getting back to being comfortable. Which feels like he's not getting a chance to breathe. One could say he's trying not to breathe.
― KPH, Sunday, 7 July 2019 00:44 (five years ago) link
literally!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioQLg5Aodjw
― sorry for butt rockin (Neanderthal), Monday, 10 February 2020 03:00 (four years ago) link
I looked at the source video expecting it to be some negligible thing that stupid youtube channel blew up into a thing but nah, he legit was nowhere near the mic and his voice came in at same volume. also I know what he sounded like 4 years before that clip was recorded and it...wasn't that good.
― sorry for butt rockin (Neanderthal), Monday, 10 February 2020 03:04 (four years ago) link
linda ronstadt, to degenerative palsy.
― andrew m., Monday, 10 February 2020 16:40 (four years ago) link
Aw :(
― sorry for butt rockin (Neanderthal), Monday, 10 February 2020 16:45 (four years ago) link
I mean, dude was always pitchy and inconsistent even in his prime, but this is....o_O
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tobKbYRCJOo
― ain't nothin but a brie thing, baby (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 1 May 2024 05:10 (four months ago) link
Linda Thompson has a new album that's entirely guest vocalists due to her dysphonia.
― JoeStork, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 05:35 (four months ago) link
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."
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Wednesday, 1 May 2024 07:17 (four months ago) link
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).
― Siegbran, Wednesday, 1 May 2024 10:22 (four months ago) link
Wow.
― I've left the box of soup near your shoes (Tom D.), Wednesday, 1 May 2024 11:23 (four months ago) link
Hoo boy @ Sebastian Bach
― Cemetry Gaetz (DJP), Wednesday, 1 May 2024 11:24 (four months ago) link