Is Axl Rose the greatest singer of all time?

[jekylhyde]

Yeah, that's my top 3.

Sure, there are technically better singers and singers who have made more classic and more technically better songs than those three. Like they say, there's always someone better.

But the voices and the songs of Weiland, Rose and Tyler resonate with me in a special way, so that's why they are my top 3.

[tsinindy]

4 minutes ago, jekylhyde said:

Yeah, that's my top 3.

Sure, there are technically better singers and singers who have made more classic and more technically better songs than those three. Like they say, there's always someone better.

But the voices and the songs of Weiland, Rose and Tyler resonate with me in a special way, so that's why they are my top 3.

Hey man, you have a right to like who you like, that's cool

This whole thread to me is laughable tho bc it is all opinion based and posted in a guns n roses forum, so you're going to get a lot of different....opinions

Then when someone posts their obscure opinion and someone questions it and then everyone gets all butt hurt its really quite humorous.  Like anything anyone here says is gonna change anyone else's mind, yet you all do it with such vigilance.

ive done it too (not only here but in life, with friends.  In fact I got into a fight with a good friend arguing about Appetite versus High Voltage) so I'm not trying to be hypocritical, but it is quite entertaining at times.

[BorderlineCrazy]

12 minutes ago, jekylhyde said:

Yeah, that's my top 3.

Sure, there are technically better singers and singers who have made more classic and more technically better songs than those three. Like they say, there's always someone better.

But the voices and the songs of Weiland, Rose and Tyler resonate with me in a special way, so that's why they are my top 3.

I wouldn't include Scott if I had to put an objective top 3 together, but he's definitely one of MY favorite 3. I love his voice (or his many voices) and not a single day goes by that I don't listen to a song of his.

[The Holographic Universe]

8 hours ago, Len Cnut said:

Shut up Miser

And uh, in case i was unclear i wasnt comparing, i was outright stating that Iggy, of any era, on the worst night of his life is better than the best Axl ever, point blank, with no hesitation, nowhere near as original, as energetic, as intelligent, as feral and as influential a musician as Iggy Pop.  The absolute best GnR album does not hold a candy to either of the three Stooges albums (three Stooges album, aha, genius  ).

Lol. Is this a mygnr thing to call a poster miser? And what is the criteria to be a "miser"?

[Len Cnut]

7 minutes ago, The Holographic Universe said:

Lol. Is this a mygnr thing to call a poster miser? And what is the criteria to be a "miser"?

I seeeeeeeeee youuuu

[action]

if i'm really honest here, Axl raped bohemian rhapsody and WWRY on the FM tribute. the only singer even remotely in freddie's domain was george michael.

plant, daltrey, paul young... they all sang at the FM tribute and it was all cringeworthy.

it's wildly debated if freddie was only good at queen songs. rarely did he do covers. but look up "i can hear music" for example. freddie matches carl wilson with ease. he also gave credible performances of "jailhouse rock" so that's elvis covered too. and "crazy little thing called love" is a clear reference to elvis' style of singing.... he nailed it.

freddie wins any day of the week, honestly.

as for second place, I'll hand it to Axl. he's as versatile as freddie, but then freddie released over 15 albums of songs (solo and as frontman of Queen). Axl managed a third of that.

Edited February 24, 2017 by action

[The Holographic Universe]

42 minutes ago, Len Cnut said:

I seeeeeeeeee youuuu

I see you too. You and miser are just two sides of the same coin. 

[parisrocks]

Yes.

[Len Cnut]

56 minutes ago, The Holographic Universe said:

I see you too. You and miser are just two sides of the same coin. 

I'm only fuckin' about man, I actually missed you

[dcon]

5 hours ago, action said:

if i'm really honest here, Axl raped bohemian rhapsody and WWRY on the FM tribute. the only singer even remotely in freddie's domain was george michael.

plant, daltrey, paul young... they all sang at the FM tribute and it was all cringeworthy.

it's wildly debated if freddie was only good at queen songs. rarely did he do covers. but look up "i can hear music" for example. freddie matches carl wilson with ease. he also gave credible performances of "jailhouse rock" so that's elvis covered too. and "crazy little thing called love" is a clear reference to elvis' style of singing.... he nailed it.

freddie wins any day of the week, honestly.

as for second place, I'll hand it to Axl. he's as versatile as freddie, but then freddie released over 15 albums of songs (solo and as frontman of Queen). Axl managed a third of that.

I can agree about Freddie being at the top, but I think a young/prime Burton Cummings keeps him from being alone.

[AncientEvil80]

Uh, no. 

But to his credit, he was in the BEST rock band that ever existed, 1985-1988.

[Subtle Signs]

Axl is my favorite singer of all time. Who's to say who is the best?

[Epson]

3 hours ago, tremolo said:

Axl is a very mediocre singer.

A very mediocre singer can't do what he did on Appetite, IMHO.

[ChristmasFnatic]

Axl, Tyler, Mercury for me.

[magnumpi]

The only people who would consider Axl rose the greatest singer of all time is a fantatical Axl rose.

 

There were many things about the band that appealed to me when I first heard them in 1987 rose's vocal ability was not one of them.

I liked rose as a front man and song writer but I found his singing simply good for what the band was doing

[Blackstar]

5 hours ago, tremolo said:

Axl is a very mediocre singer.

He used to be a great frontman though, and I think it was his anger and volatility what made him reach that status. Without that stage presence he doesn't have much going on. His body of work is extremely limited for someone with a career spanning more than 30 years, and his voice ranges between good and fucking embarrassing.

You realize that this is as much subjective as saying that he is the greatest singer of all time, don't you?

Also the body of work doesn't have anything to do. The topic is about Axl as a singer, not as a musician overall.

Edited February 26, 2017 by Blackstar
grammar

[J Dog]

4 hours ago, Epson said:

A very mediocre singer can't do what he did on Appetite, IMHO.

Axl put in work on AFD. Front to back, song to song, he really laid it all out there. He hit a very high mark with AFD as far as being a rock singer goes.

[AxlsFavoriteRose]

On 2/24/2017 at 6:08 AM, tsinindy said:

This whole thread to me is laughable tho bc it is all opinion based and posted in a guns n roses forum, so you're going to get a lot of different....opinions

this is the perfect post, pointing out that everyone has their OWN opinion plus it is a GN'R forum says it all! kudos @tsinindy

[Silent Jay]

As a singer I'd rate Axl a 6 out of 10 and that's because I'm a fan.

[The Holographic Universe]

1 hour ago, Silent Jay said:

As a singer I'd rate Axl a 6 out of 10 and that's because I'm a fan.

Who would you rate higher as a singer?

[Blackstar]

7 hours ago, tremolo said:

It is not subjective, there is proof all over the internet of Axl not beng able to sing his own songs.

And it's not that he has always sucked, or that he never had any vocal skills. He had it, he lost it, and it's his own fault.

As a singer he sucks. He has his moments where he shines, but overall, he can't deliver. And that is not subjective, it's a matter of skills: he can't reach notes, he runs out of air, he just can't go through a fucking set without fucking up (and there have been many shows where his vocals have been just atrocious from the very beginning to the very end).

It doesn't matter how gifted you are, if you are not constant and don't work on it, you're going to get rusty.

I already talked about his skills in my previous post (right above this one), and I'll say it again: he is a mediocre singer who wasted his potential and I doubt he will ever be able to vocally perform the way he used to. And it should have been the other way around. We can say the same thing about Lars Ulrich's drumming and many other musicians who stopped caring.

Your first post gave the impression that you were saying Axl has always been a mediocre singer. It wasn't clear that you were only talking about Axl's present vocal state, as you referred to his body of work etc.

Either way, it's still subjective. For example, the general consensus is that he did great with AC/DC last year. On the other hand, there are people that never liked Axl as a singer even in his prime, either because they can't stand his signature voice (known and worshiped in this forum as "the rasp") or because they aren't fans of screechy vocals in general (I'm in this group, I don't like Brian Johnson for example, but I like Axl because imo his singing has a lot more than that) or because they prefer more technical singers (e.g. heavy metal singers like Bruce Dickinson).

There are a lot of different criteria for someone to rate a singer as good or like them: tone of voice, style, technique, emotion, in what degree the way of singing fits to the musical genre, the musical genre itself, live performances (there are singers who are great in the studio but not live), maintenance (which seems to be your basic criteria) etc.

I don't care much about perfection in hitting the notes or technical singing in rock (I'm not an expert anyway) but for the overall feeling I get, and Axl in his prime is (I think) my favorite singer/performer in the hard rock sub-genre and among my favorites in rock n' roll in general (I like many others).

Edited February 27, 2017 by Blackstar

[Tom2112]

No, he is not the best. I love his voice, but I'm not gonna say he's the best of all time. 

Also, you've set no limits - rock, pop, funk, disco, rnb, classical, country, blues, bluegrass, jazz, traditional; there are a ton of fantastic emotive and technically gifted singers to choose from.

He is a great singer and he's high on my list, but let's not get carried away

[Silent Jay]

4 minutes ago, The Holographic Universe said:

Who would you rate higher as a singer?

There are too many to count.

If we're speaking about rock n roll singers, with legendary careers we can name Bon Scott, Ronnie James Dio, Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, Freddie Mercury, David Lee Roth, Meat Loaf, Ian Gillan, Paul Rodgers, Gene Simmons (yes) etc. Without mentioning godlike rock singers like Presley, James Brown, The Beatles, Mike Jagger, Johnny Cash... But I can certainly rate Layne Staley, Mike Patton, Maynard J. Keenan... higher than Axl, as a singer.

Things are they're all pretty much dead or soon to be dead. Axl is one of the last true rnr singer that is relatively young, and we're speaking about a past fifty year old man. But yeah... as a singer, I'd rate Axl right above Danzig and below Steven Tyler. Not bad. He's still in my top ten in my heart, but that is...subjective.

[Silent Jay]

Last thing, Axl has/had the greatest rasp. I live for the rasp.

[Estranged Reality]

On 2/22/2017 at 5:33 PM, AlexC said:

Yes I know, greatness and talent is subjective blah, blah blah. But you can't deny his ferociousness. I Love Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant gives me chills. Steven Tyler will always be the Demon of Screamin' and Jeff Tate has that amazing vibrato but fuck! When Axl is on his "A" game he is the shit! He can belt notes several times in one song that Ronnie James Dio and Bruce Dickinson are famous for at will (and with brutal rasp). His stage presence is fucking insane and he has some of the best back catalogue of music today. Plus! He's also fronting AC/DC where he's an absolute animal. And let's not forget that he has Slash backing him iiii]; )' Is Axl not the greatest front man in the world? When you consider his bands status and popularity, his stage presence, his genuinity, his vocal ability and his historical significance, I think he is. By a fucking long shot, especially in today's musical climate. But what do you guys think?

The thing about Axl is that he's just so unique as a singer. I wouldn't say he's "the best." There are probably many better technical singers. But he's such an individual talent - that rasp, the way he sings certain things, the little idiosyncratic flourishes like the "ayee-ee-aye" or "whoaa-oh-ohhhh" type stuff....you know, you hear that and you immediately know it's Axl, and there really aren't many singers out there that sound the same as him.