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Freddie Mercury is still the best rock vocalist

Lucumo

Member
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As someone who is pretty much exlusively a heavy metal fan I'd have to agree with OP.

Freddie was a legend, his improv sessions during during live shows we're incredible.
 

JABEE

Member
Mercury would be near the top of my list.

John Lennon would also be up there for me.

Roy Orbison is amazing as well.

Singing ability is about more than just technical ability and range though.

Bob Dylan is a talented singer who gets way too much flack for his style.

Ray Charles is one of my favorite singers as well if you count him as Rock.

Another great singer who sang multiple genres including rock was Harry Nilsson.
 

Zenner

Member
Freddie Mercury is still the best rock vocalist

I did not think it possible to butcher the spelling of Bruce Dickinson's name beyond recognition... yet here we are. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
He is, no contest. There isn't even a close 2nd. His range and control were amazing, but there was also a certain quality to Freddie's voice that a lot of other rock vocalists considered among the best don't share. Like Axl Rose can hit a lot of notes, but his voice is like fucking nails on a chalkboard.

I'd call Robert Plant a distant 2nd.
 

DOWN

Banned
Huh? Cornell definitely doesn’t have a better voice. Freddie can hit more notes than Cornell and just as loud.
 
Flawed and inaccurate chart, for Freddie Mercury it lists All Dead, All Dead as an example of his range when it's Brian May who sings that Queen track.

Not to mention their choices for Highest and Lowest notes are suspect. It seems like a lot of these "Axl Rose has a ridiculous range" claims stem from the fact that he has like once hit some of these notes, but barely ever used his full range, when Mercury did it nearly every song occasionally going much higher or much lower as needed. On top of that, half of Axl Roses claimed range is Falsetto, where as I almost always see Mercury's stated range accounting for just his normal singing voice--he didn't use Falsetto as much since he honestly didn't need to and it's really inconsistent for most singers liking.
 

Manzanas

Neo Member
Off the top of my head these guys are so much better:
John Lennon
Thom Yorke
Jim James
Eddie Vedder
David Gilmour
Roger Waters
Paul McCartney
Bob Dylan
 

Qasiel

Member
Agreed. Freddie's still the King.

I'm seeing a lot of other names thrown around in here, and that's not to say that they're not good at what they do, but Freddie owns all. Add the fact that he was terrific live and one hell of a showman and it's easy to see why so many people loved, and still love, him.
 

Hydrus

Member
Fun fact: Axl Rose has the highest vocal range of any rock singer in history, and maybe any singer in history

Ever heard of Rob Halford?

Freddie was a legendary front man with a great voice. Most charismatic front man of all time.

Off the top of my head these guys are so much better:
John Lennon
Thom Yorke
Jim James
Eddie Vedder
David Gilmour
Roger Waters
Paul McCartney
Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan!? Eddie Vedder better then Freddie Mercury!? Bahahahahahahahaha! Call me when one of those guys can do something like this!
 

Klocker

Member
It is known.

.

Scientifically proven in fact

https://consequenceofsound.net/2016...ie-mercury-had-an-unparalleled-singing-voice/


... That, coupled with anecdotal evidence that Mercury once turned down an opera duet because he was afraid fans wouldn't recognize his baritone voice, led the conclusion that the singer was talented enough to jump out of his base range.


It's true that without a living test subject, the researchers' conclusions are largely unconformable. To get closer to the truth, however, the team brought in professional rock singer Daniel Zangger-Borch to imitate Mercury's voice. They filmed his larynx at 4,000 frames per second in order to look at exactly how the Queen frontman created those iconic rough growls and jaw-dropping vibratos. What they discovered was that he likely employed subharmonics, a singing style where the ventricular folds vibrate along with the vocal folds. Most humans never speak or sing with their ventricular folds unless they're Tuvan throat singers, so the fact that this popular rock vocalist was probably dealing with subharmonics is pretty incredible.
What's more, Mercury's vocal cords just moved faster than other people's. While a typical vibrato will fluctuate between 5.4 Hz and 6.9 Hz, Mercury's was 7.04 Hz. To look at that in a more scientific way, a perfect sine wave for vibrato assumes the value of 1, which is pretty close to where famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti sat. Mercury, on the other hand, averaged a value of 0.57, meaning he was vibrating something in his throat even Pavarotti couldn't
move.
 

farmerboy

Member
All great singers in this thread, that all bring something to the table. Whether it be presence, vocal range, emotion or overall ability.

As for me, I've always had a soft spot for the one and only Steven Tyler. A really great rock voice.
 

Bitanator

Member
Brad Delp has my favorite classic rock voice, he was such a fantastic singer. Dio, Steve Perry, Roy Orbison are up there too next to Freddy, all legends.
 

Greddleok

Member
... Please be joking.

I wish I was, but his constant screeching and wailing makes LZ impossible to listen to. Just have to turn it off.
He even manages to ruin an instrumental by wailing for attention. Shut the fuck up! I'm trying to listen to music.
 
yeah props to mercury, cornell and I will give layne stalley a mention as he was siiick especially in his early years.

but cmon people, nobody... NOBODY in any rock band EVER can sing better than Mike Patton.

i'm not starting a joke, it's that easy... no evidence required.

cfbab664301912d1418c338be8b1a615--mike-patton-guns-n-roses.jpg
 
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