S/D: Voice changes

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What singer has had a significant* change in voice for the better? For the worst?

*I'm talking Marianne Faithful-caliber changes.

― Leee Majors (Leee), Saturday, 10 January 2004 20:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Joni Mitchell's voice changed at least as much as Faithfull's. And she continues to smoke!

― Sean (Sean), Saturday, 10 January 2004 20:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom Waits !

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Saturday, 10 January 2004 20:37 (twenty-two years ago)

David Sylvian (compare Japan's "Adolescent Sex" with his solo work), Rod Stewart for the worse (compare his singing in the Jeff Beck Group with that horrible standards record he put out a little while ago).

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Saturday, 10 January 2004 20:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I like the "old" Tom Waits voice. Smoooooth!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Saturday, 10 January 2004 21:03 (twenty-two years ago)

'twas meant to read "for the better" in regards to Sylvian above.

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Saturday, 10 January 2004 21:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Young Elton is clearly superior to today's incarnation

― Leee Majors (Leee), Saturday, 10 January 2004 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Bowie's lower voice better than the early years.

― Jordan (Jordan), Saturday, 10 January 2004 23:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Steve Perry's voice changed significantly on the later Journey albums from emotive choirboy to emotive dustman, probably due to the ingestion of large amounts of cocaine at a guess.

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Sunday, 11 January 2004 00:30 (twenty-two years ago)

David Gedge went from sounding like a muppet to something a little better, I think.

― may pang (maypang), Sunday, 11 January 2004 00:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, Brian Wilson's voice change for the worst.

― may pang (maypang), Sunday, 11 January 2004 00:40 (twenty-two years ago)

edwyn collins

― the surface noise (electricsound), Sunday, 11 January 2004 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

bill callahan
alex chilton
captain beefheart
the d.o.c.
kurt heasley
lou reed

― gygax! (gygax!), Sunday, 11 January 2004 00:57 (twenty-two years ago)

John Lydon - First change(Pistols > Early PiL) = OK
Second change(PiL > Leftfield single and Pistols reunion) = awful

― anode, Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex Chilton's voice with the Box Tops >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Alex Chilton's voice with Big Star.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 11 January 2004 01:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Bob Dylan! Interesting things going on there...

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Sunday, 11 January 2004 02:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I love Dylan's Nashville Skyline crooning voice. He sounds really relaxed, like he's getting a blowjob while singing.

― sym (shmuel), Sunday, 11 January 2004 02:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I prefer Marianne Faithfull earlier voice.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Sunday, 11 January 2004 03:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Dylan was such a fraud.

― may pang (maypang), Sunday, 11 January 2004 07:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Hanson to thread!

― Jole, Sunday, 11 January 2004 08:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Kurt Kirkwood, Meat Puppets. I missed the "Meeww meew mewwe bLARRRRRRG" days.

Blake Schwarzenbach (on "Dear You"), Jawbreaker. Slight preference for the hoarse voice.

Antioch Arrow changed voice styles every album, I think. I prefer the "Gems of Masochism" style, just because i'm more into slinky hardcore these days, I guess. "In Love With Jetts" comes close.

Exene Cervenka, X. I really really preferred her voice when she didn't know she had a "real" singing voice.

XTC.. I miss the old days, so early quirky Andy Partridge (and Colin Moulding for that matter) gets the nod.

― donut bitch (donut), Sunday, 11 January 2004 12:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Paul McCartney

(Paul) > (Faul)

― christoff (christoff), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Rod Stewart is a tragic figure and has made me even more frightened of throat cancer than I was before.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Michael Jackson of course. "Dancing Machine" is a great midpoint recording between his Jackson 5 and 'Off the Wall' days.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't like the fact that all the arts reviews have to be short now . . . oh wait, not that Voice, nevermind.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Michael Stipe - from tenor-mumbly to falsetto-whiny.

― dave225 (Dave225), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Prince's "Camille" persona was far too brief.

― doug watson (solid air), Monday, 12 January 2004 19:18 (twenty-two years ago)

well based on seeing his taboo musical recently, i'd say boy george's voice has been crushed by years of bloat, abuse, age, and apparently everything else.

― seanp (seanp), Monday, 12 January 2004 20:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Rivers Cuomo's voice changed for the worst.

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Monday, 12 January 2004 20:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Leonard Cohen, the deeper the better.

― dlp9001, Monday, 12 January 2004 21:26 (twenty-two years ago)

hard living + time (+ apparently the tennessee police) have not been kind to steve earle's voice.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 00:58 (twenty-two years ago)

The DOC's post-car-accident voice was prob. the most tragic change for the worse.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 01:01 (twenty-two years ago)

steve earle has become such a f**king tool.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 01:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I second the vote for the Leonard Cohen post-heavy-smoking era.

I thought Euros Childs's voice was already pretty high until I heard some stuff recorded before his voice broke = holy crap. (I like his voice both ways though!)

― Poppy (poppy), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 01:10 (twenty-two years ago)

madonna's voice skyrocketed somewhere between her first several singles and "live to tell."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 01:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Bryan Ferry started notso good then got really good really quick and then got a little better and is still about that good.

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 05:37 (twenty-two years ago)

So many of my favourite histrionic male singers (Beefheart, Dylan, Robert Plant) totally ruined their voices after 5-6 LPs worth of employing said histrionics! LOL!

― Scott, Tuesday, 13 January 2004 18:26 (twenty-two years ago)

David Byrne! I love listening to '77 and Naked back-to-back, you get a really clear idea of exactly how much his voice improved over the Talking Heads' years.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 18:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Especially "Don't Worry About the Government" vs. "Nothing But Flowers".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Siouxsie Sioux was better before she had all those throat problems and was told she needed to start singing instead of shouting.

― gggggg, Tuesday, 13 January 2004 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Billie Holliday's voice was ruined by hard living; it didn't affect the quality of her music.

Mac from Superchunk has experimented with singing in a lower register on recent albums.

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 22:19 (twenty-two years ago)

AC/DC's Brian Johnson's voice has changed for the not-necessarilly best over the years. He sounded like a dog on "Blow Up Your Video" literally. It improved on the following studio releases, but it was painful for a while there... (I won't count "Fly On The Wall" because the mixing on that record was so fucking horrible, one couldn't tell if Brian was on track or not)

― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 00:15 (twenty-two years ago)

heh heh, one of the funnier things i heard was when that charlatans dude suddently shifted to falsetto for an album...

― paulhw (paulhw), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 16:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Liz Fraser, from the banshee-isms on Garlands (and Head Over Heels) to the Voice of God on Treasure!

― Leee Majors (Leee), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 21:45 (twenty-two years ago)

her from Rainer Maria went from tuneless emo wail to very competent mature voice over the space of a couple of albums

― the surface noise (electricsound), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 23:22 (twenty-two years ago)

James Hetfield was cooler when he had the youthful bark/shout on Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets rather than that faux-bluesy kinda growl that started showing up on the Black Album.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 15 January 2004 00:23 (twenty-two years ago)

eight months pass...

Re-appraising Maxinquaye and Blue Lines/Protection -- Tricky sounds waaay sexier solo.

― Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Wednesday, 15 September 2004 00:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Peter Brady of the Brady Bunch in "When It's Time to Change"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 15 September 2004 00:22 (twenty-one years ago)

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