They are singers! Why can't they sing?

Over the weekend I flicked through a couple of you tube clips showing some of the performances from the Hurricane Sandy benefit gig. I think it was at Madison Square Garden. A few of these clips stood out for me as they reminded me of something that has irritated me since I could hear the dulcet tones of Boney M.

Why can't some professional, successful singers, actually sing?
I'm going to name names here because these people deserve to be shamed for rorting their fans, year after year, gig after gig. Let me start with who I consider to be the worst of all offenders.

MEAT LOAF

Like a lot of people my age, I was exposed to Bat out of Hell as a kid and absolutely loved the theatrical nature of it all. It was an escape and you could feel like you really were 'dying at the bottom of a pit in the blazing sun'. I've always loved singing so I was attracted to the power and precision of ML's voice. The melodies were memorable and he was in command of his voice and it gave me something to aspire to vocally. He was a big influence, albeit for a short time.
SO, I saw a documentary not long ago about a tour that he was doing at the time and the filming of a couple of shows along the way. He is a crook! We've all known that he struggles live and for some reason, we seem to excuse that for some people. Not here though. I assumed it was either age catching up, or declining health, but was surprised to see footage of his old gigs when he was a young whipper-snapper and he was JUST AS BAD as he is now. I was talking to a mate about this only on the weekend. We came to the conclusion that there are two parties at fault here. ML himself, for being a fraud and taking the piss out of his fans night after night and perhaps more so, Promoters, for realising that people still like this buffoon and will fork out their hard-earned for an over-priced ticket to witness the train-wreck of a voice. In my view, the buck stops with the man himself. He knows he's shit and should have more respect for the poor fuckers who bother to witness the filth. What do you think??


JON BON JOVI

Nowhere near the same level of shit that ML delivers, but JBJ has been on a rapid decline for a while now. I've never been a massive BJ fan as an adult, but as a kid I loved them, therefore kept one eye on what they were up to. Fantastic musicians who play their arses off, even in a live arena. This ends at the frontman. I started noticing his decline around the 'Keep the Faith' era. He changes melodies to suit. He sings half a line. He fails to hit notes of even the most rudimentary section of the songs. He gets the crowd to sing most of it anyway because sadly, he cannot sing anymore. Fair enough if you've struggled with some things with the throat or health in general etc and you have a bad gig, but EVERY performance I've seen in the last 15 years has been terrible. It is a shame, because unlike the aforementioned ML, JBJ COULD indeed sing back in the day, so we can at least say that he hasn't been ripping us off the WHOLE time.

CHRIS CORNELL

Soundgarden have been a great source of enjoyment for me since I was a teenager. I still listen to Badmotorfinger and Superunknown and love them. A MAJOR part of SG's appeal is the voice of singer, Chris Cornell. Massive range. Power. Soul. Subtlety too. To hear him sing on those old records is a true thing of beauty. To hear him sing now is a let-down for me. I'm yet to see a live performance from either SG or Audioslave where he can sing like he does on the record. Am I the only one who gets pissed off at this? When I've mentioned it in passing before, I get looked at like I'm being some weird, crazy crackpot who needs to chill-the-fuck-out! Seriously, CC is the hardest one for me to write about due to him playing a big part in my musical life, but I have to call a spade a spade. Have a flick through you tube. You'll hear things from him that would make the highlight (or low light) reel on any TV singing show. Simon Cowell would fuckin' LOVE him!

I say all these things from the point of view of a fan. I find it disappointing when we are let down by performers who just can't cut it live. I find it to be dishonest. I cannot say that I'm a huge fan of his music, but as a singer, I find him flawless. Have you ever heard John Farnham hit a bum note, let alone a bad gig? Didn't think so.

I just want a singer to do what they say they do on the tin.

Anyway, I'm off to listen to Soundgarden, those records are unreal!