The Smiley Smile Message Board

So one of the main topics on any BB forum has been the change in Brian's voice and how his voice "declined" since his glory days . Well, I've seen him live several times and despite not having his high falsetto for several decades, his voice was still quite strong and actually had some good power to his voice. This post is not about him. Nor is it about decline due to age.

No, this thread is about those who simply lost their voice, those who all of a sudden either can't sing any more or their voice severely declined, those who may have pulled a 15 Big Ones era type thing like Brian did.

Thoughts?

My pics (I'll update with YouTube links if I see fit)

Mariah Carey- Now I've never been a fan. Not really my style of music. At one point, though, she had a whistle tone. Now when she sings her old songs the she can't hold the pitch worth sh*t.

Axl Rose- :lol Next

Nelly Furtado-  She hasn't even attempted the chorus of I'm Like a Bird since the mid-2000s (the background singers usually sing it). Not sure what happened here as to my knowledge she is not the partying type, but she has lost most of her vocal range.

More to come...

David Coverdale is merely a shell of his former self vocally.

Roger Waters - Too much smoking or too many performances of Careful With That Axe Eugene in the old days.  But, between 1984's Pros and Cons solo album and 1987's Radio KAOS, Waters voice was shot.  He's even taken to lip syncing in concert at times.

David Lee Roth's vox on Van Halen's 2015 live album are pretty bad.  But, then again, he was never a giftex singer.

Don Dokken was never a powerhouse singer of the 80s hard rock era, but his voice had a smoothness thats gone. 

Bob Dylan - He used to be a real great singer in 60's and 70's, but his voice has obviously declining since the middle of the 80's. Now he sometimes sounds very awful.  But he's managed to come up with stuff that make the most of his declining, somewhat old voice on his albums (Oh Mercy, Love & Theft, recent Sinatra albums etc.) so that's no problem to me.

Billy Corgan. Not sure if it’s a “decline” per se, but after Mellon Chollie he changed his style of singing and its pretty awful.

Also, Harry Nilsson had a bit of a decline to his voice which he never regained in 1974 (that year was a bad one for many rock singers).

As a long time dedicated Who fan, it hurts me to admit that Roger Daltrey has lost A LOT in the last decade or so. I went on youtube not to long to check out some videos of Who shows from the last year or two, and I was really surprised to hear how deeper his voice has gotten. It's like the whole tone of his voice is different.

John Sebastian comes to mind.

I remember seeing Lovin' Spoonful inducted into the Rcok N' Roll Hall of Fame on tv, and I was shocked by how terrible John Sebastian sounded when they performed.

Good call on roger  Waters. When I heard Radio Kaos for the first time I almost didn't believe it was him.

I've heard that Peter Cetera doesn't sound that good today.

Yep, and his vox on Amused to Death are even worse.  

He was wise to pass out some of Gilmour's leads to other bandmembers once he started touring again in 1999

Ian Gillan comes to mind. Paul Stanley too.

I was going to say Gillan.  He really struggles with the old Purple songs live.  And, he can't really hit those high notes anymore.  However, his lower end vocals still sound pretty good on the newer material.

Leonard Cohen.

Though admittedly, his modern, gravelly voice has its own appeal.

Did David's voice decline too if Roger passed his leads to the bandmates?

No, Gilmour's vocals still sound great today.   I'm referring to Roger as a touring solo artist.  He stopped touring with David Gilmour and Pink Floyd in 1981.  

But, for the first few tours as a solo artist - 1984 and 1987, Roger would sing lead on pretty much every song, including the David Gilmour sung Floyd songs.  But, when Waters ended his hiatus as a touring artist in 1999, he added more songs to the setlist that originally featured David Gilmour lead vocals, but he'd have other bandmembers ie. Doyle Bramhall II, Jon Carin, etc handle those lead vocals.  

If you ask me, even at his best, Roger Waters's vocals were never as good as Gilmour's. 

Nelly Furtado Still has it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DCpe_By1Ss

I don't think that video disproves what Billy said. She's not terrible. But her voice  in that video feels like she is out of practice. Not to mention she is throwing the hard parts to the audience most  of the  time.  :lol

Apparently others noticed this as well...this is from a few years ago

http://www.tennisforum.com/13-non-tennis/464469-what-happened-nelly-furtados-voice.html

Might be consistency issues. She's also pushing 40, which blew my mind...until I remembered I too will be 40 this year

Axl Rose

Maybe she should get Clay Matthews to sing it. 

Robert Plant is another fairly obvious one that I'm surprised people haven't mentioned/forgotten(myself included  :lol). His voice has been declining since 1977.

Derp... he was the person I was initially thinking of when I made this thread!

Yeah, I'm not sure how I forgot him. 

Although, like Ian Gillan, he's learned to adapt to singing at a lower register.   But, I can see why he's reluctant to do a full scale Led Zeppelin reunion. 

Marianne Faithful

Not for nothing, but when he does Zeppelin songs solo they very rarely sound good because of this

That's true.   I saw Plant open for The Who back in 2002, and he chose to do some Zeppelin numbers that worked for his modern voice like Four Sticks, Going To CA, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, and they sounded decent.  However, his closer Whole Lotta Love was pretty rough. 

He sounds like someone who's had throat cancer, but John has chosen not to ever address this issue publicly. I saw him a couple times in the 90's, and his voice was pretty bad, but someone they got him to sound alright on his Tar Beach cd.

Sounded good again on Knnillssonn album though.

I read the other day that he had an operation on his throat in the 1980's. I saw a video of him on youtube from Woodstock '94, and he sounded just as bad.

His speaking voice sounded almost sub human when he had a guest stint on Married with Children

I'll have to look that up.  ;D The last footage i can find of him where he sounds anywhere "normal" is 1986.

It was I think in 1992... same episode where Al Bundy played a sub sandwich like a harmonica in a jumping the shark moment

Sebastian had nodules on his vocal chords decades ago, if I recall correctly.  I'm gonna try to see him in concert this year, though I know his voice is far from what it used to be.

Thanks, this is better fleshed out answer. 1st time you didn't phrase it clearly citing David's name & Roger's simultaneously. Without knowing PF history, as I don't, it's not easy to read. Thanks to clarify.

I didn't. :P But we shall agree to disagree.

No problem. 

Agreed. Sometimes I love his old voice, sometimes I can’t believe he chose to record some things (Christmas album).

His album Time Out Of Mind is a masterpiece though - sometimes he really can use that rough voice to benefit the material.

Aw man. Dylan's christmas album is one of my faves.  :'(

Scott Weiland .Last year of his life he sounded unrecognizable but really started declining years earlier due to drugs chain smoking and mental illness

If recent youtube vids are anything to go by, his voice is still pretty bad, but the stories he tells about the songs, his guitar playing, and his enthusiasm make up for it. I would go see him if I got the chance, but I am up in the NW, where few artists (other than the megastars) dare to venture.

The old voice was just right for the songs on TOOM. It's only gotten rougher since then, though, makes it hard to listen to some of the newer stuff. I liked Love and Theft a lot, Modern Times was also a good album, but the Christmas album was unlistenable. The Sinatra stuff hasn't knocked me out, either.

I would say Tom Waits, but he never really sounded that great to begin with.

I don't think Waits has had much of any decline.

If anything Waits is far more versatile now vocally than he has ever been.

Waits gets BETTER as he ages! :hat

Stephen Stills was sounding a bit rough for a while.
And Rev. Billy Gibbons seemed to be a little strained on some of ZZ's live material.

I'm kind of surprised that nobody has mentioned Eddie Kendricks of The Temptations. He had an incredible tenor voice throughout the 1960's and 1970's, but by the time he reunited with the group for an album and tour in 1982, his voice was shot.

Yeah I think Kendrick was a chain smoker and developed lung cancer

This is kind of off topic, but I will never understand how some people can be a heavy chain smoker all their lives and be fine, and others can be chain smokers and get cancer, or COPD(which my dad had) and die at a relatively young age.

Keeping it off topic, it's a bit like blindfolding yourself and crossing the street. Somebody is going to do it and get to the other side. Most people won't. Some people who aren't blindfolded still get hit by cars crossing the street. And more who aren't, don't. It's a game of chance at some level, but there are definitely ways to play that increase your chances.

Well, for a while. You die eventually either way.