¿Cómo se realizó la lista?
Se invitó a artistas como Bruce Springsteen, Jim James, Bono, Iggy Pop, Page y muchos más, junto con periodistas y gente de la industria musical a que dieran sus cantantes favoritos de la era del rock & roll. Después de que la firma contratada Ernst & Young dio el órden final, cada uno de los artístas les toco hablar de cada uno de ellos.
Solo listaré del 10° al 1°, pero si ustedes quieren verlos todos, la liga es esta.
10.- James Brown (por Iggy Pop)
Nacido el 3 de Mayo 1933Canciones elementales:
I feel good, the payback, give it up or Turnit a Loose
Influenció a : Michael Jackson, Sly Stone, Prince, George Clinton
For me, James Brown was never just the voice. It was the whole package. But the impact of that voice gave me hope, because it was a simple presentation and didn't trade on range. And there was that scream. It was like an inner voice. It sounded like an assertion of rights of primitive man: "I am alive, and I can do things." He used to describe his dancing as "African nerve control." He had a point.
9.- Stevie Wonder (por Cee-Lo)
Nacido el 13 de Mayo 1950
Canciones elementales:
Superstition, Sir Duke, Singed, Sealed, I´m Yours
Influenció a: Donny Hathaway, Maxwell, Adam Levine
To me, Stevie Wonder's voice always sounds like tears of joy — like he's right on the verge of crying, but it's out of glee and peace, as opposed to the pain of someone like a Sly Stone
8.- Ottis Redding (por Booker T. Jones)
Nacido el 9 de Septiembre de 1941
Canciones elementales:
The Dock of the Bay, These arms of Mine
Influenció a: Al Green, Toots Hibbert, Chris Robionson
The first time i saw Otis, i had no idea who he was. It was on the sidewalk at 926 East McLemore Avenue in Memphis, which was Stax Rec-ords. This guy was unloading equipment and suitcases from a station wagon, taking it into the studio. He was a driver for the singer Johnny Jenkins. I didn't see him much the rest of the day until later, when he asked for his audition. He sang "These Arms of Mine." It was in B-flat.
7.- Bob Dylan ( por Bono)
Nacido el 24 de Mayo de 1941
Canciones elementales:
Like a Rolling Stone, Lay Lady Lay, Visions of Johanna
Influenció a: John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smich, Conor Oberst
Bob Dylan did what very, very few singers ever do. He changed popular singing. And we have been living in a world shaped by Dylan's singing ever since. Almost no one sings like Elvis Presley anymore. Hundreds try to sing like Dylan. When Sam Cooke played Dylan for the young Bobby Womack, Womack said he didn't understand it. Cooke explained that from now on, it's not going to be about how pretty the voice is. It's going to be about believing that the voice is telling the truth.
To understand Bob Dylan's impact as a singer, you have to imagine a world without Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Kurt Cobain, Lucinda Williams or any other vocalist with a cracked voice, dirt-bowl yelp or bluesy street howl. It is a vast list, but so were the influences on Dylan, from the Talmudic chanting of Allen Ginsberg in "Howl" to the deadpan Woody Guthrie and Lefty Frizzell's murmur. There is certainly iron ore in there, and the bitter cold of Hibbing, Minnesota, blowing through that voice. It's like a knotted fist, and it allows Dylan to sing the most melancholy tunes and not succumb to sentimentality. What's interesting is that later, as he gets older, the fist opens up, to a vulnerability. I have heard him sing versions of "Idiot Wind" where he was definitely the idiot.
6.- Marvin Gaye (por Alicia Keys)
Nacido el 2 de Abril de 1939
Canciones elementales:
Whats going on, lets get it on
Influenció a :
D´Angelo, R. Kelly, Usher
There's no sound like Marvin Gaye: the way he sang so softly, almost gently — but also with so much power. That came straight from the heart. Everything in his life — everything that he thought and felt — affected his singing.
These days we have Pro Tools and a thousand tracks, and you can do different vocals on every track. But back then you really had to innovate, like the way Marvin answered himself in songs, or all that really distant backing work, where his voice is all the way in the back and echoing. It's haunting; he delivered every single song with such clarity that it gave me chills.
5.- John Lennon (por Jackson Browne)
Nacido el 9 de Octubre de 1940
Canciones elementales:
I feel fine, Strawberry Fields Forever, Imagine, Instant karma
Influenció a : Bono, Neil Young, Liam Gallagher
There was a tremendous intimacy in everything John Lennon did, combined with a formidable intellect. That is what makes him a great singer. In "Girl," on Rubber Soul, he starts in this steely, high voice: "Is there anybody going to listen to my story. . . ." It's so impassioned, like somebody stepping from the shadows in a room. But when he comes to the chorus, you suddenly realize: He's talking directly to her. When I heard this, as a young teenager, it hit the nail on the head. It embodied the feelings I was living with every day — completely burning with sexual desire, with almost a regret at being so overpowered.
4.- Sam Cooke ( por Van Morrison)
Nacido el 22 de Enero de 1931
Canciones elementales:
A change is gonna come, Bring it on Home to me, You send me
Influenció a : Otis Reeding, Art Garfunkel, Rod Stewart
Sam Cooke reached down deep with pure soul. He had the rare ability to do gospel the way it's supposed to be — he made it real, clean, direct. Gospel drove Sam Cooke through his greatest songs, the same way it did for Ray Charles, who came first, and Otis Redding.
He had an incomparable voice. Sam Cooke could sing anything and make it work. But when you're talking about his strength as a singer, range is not relevant. It was his power to deliver — it was about his phrasing, the totality of his singing.
3.- Elvis Presley (por Robert Plant)
Nacido el 8 de Enero de 1935
Canciones elementales:
Mystery Train, Hound Dog, Suspicios MInds
Influenció a: Bruce Springsteen, Morrissey, Larry Mullen Jr.
There is a difference between people who sing and those who take that voice to another, otherworldly place, who create a euphoria within themselves. It's transfiguration. I know about that. And having met Elvis, I know he was a transformer.
The first Elvis song I heard was "Hound Dog." I wasn't equipped with any of the knowledge I have now, about the Big Mama Thornton version or where all that swing was coming from. I just heard this voice, and it was absolutely, totally in its own place. The voice was confident, insinuating and taking no prisoners. He had those great whoops and diving moments, those sustains that swoop down to the note like a bird of prey. I took all that in. You can hear that all over Led Zeppelin.
When I met Elvis with Zeppelin, after one of his concerts in the early Seventies, I sized him up. He wasn't quite as tall as me. But he had a singer's build. He had a good chest — that resonator. And he was driven. "Anyway You Want Me" is one of the most moving vocal performances I've ever heard. There is no touching "Jailhouse Rock" and the stuff recorded at the King Creole sessions. I can study the Sun sessions as a middle-aged guy looking back at a bloke's career and go, "Wow, what a great way to start." But I liked the modernity of the RCA stuff. "I Need Your Love Tonight" and "A Big Hunk o' Love" were so powerful — those sessions sounded like the greatest place to be on the planet.
At that meeting, Jimmy Page joked with Elvis that we never soundchecked — but if we did, all I wanted to do was sing Elvis songs. Elvis thought that was funny and asked me, "Which songs do you sing?" I told him I liked the ones with all the moods, like that great country song "Love Me" — "Treat me like a fool/Treat me mean and cruel/But love me." So when we were leaving, after a most illuminating and funny 90 minutes with the guy, I was walking down the corridor. He swung 'round the door frame, looking quite pleased with himself, and started singing that song: "Treat me like a fool. . . ." I turned around and did Elvis right back at him. We stood there, singing to each other.
By then, because of the forces around him, it was difficult for him to stretch out with more contemporary songwriters. When he died, he was 42. I'm 18 years older than that now. But he didn't have many fresh liaisons to draw on — his old pals weren't going to bring him the new gospel. I know he wanted to express more. But what he did was he made it possible for me, as a singer, to become otherworldly.
2.- Ray Charles (por Billy Joel)
Nacido el 23 de Septiembre de 1930
Canciones elementales:
What´d I say, Pts. 1 & 2, I Got a Woman, Yo dont know me, Georgia on my Mind
Influenció a : Van Morrison, Otis Redding, Stevie Wonder
Ray Charles had the most unique voice in popular music. He would do these improvisational things, a little laugh or a "Huh-hey!" It was as if something struck him as he was singing and he just had to react to it. He was getting a kick out of what he was doing. And his joy was infectious.
But there was something else I didn't realize until we sang together in the Eighties, on my song "Baby Grand." When he sings, he's not just singing soulfully. He is imparting his soul. You are hearing something deep within the man. I thought it would just turn me into this little nerd from Levittown, New York. But it didn't. It emboldened me. It was like an evangelical event. He was the minister and I was the congregation. I got all fired up.
Ray started out wanting to be Nat "King" Cole. When Nat went down low in a song, like "Mona Lisa," there was a growl in there that was kind of sexy. Ray took that to a whole other level. He took the growl and turned it into singing. He took the yelp, the whoop, the grunt, the groan, and made them music.
Also, he was a piano player. The piano is a percussion instrument. You put your body into it. Ray had a lot of unique body movements I didn't know until I saw him. Before I saw him, I heard those movements as he sang. I heard his shoulder go up a little on the left side, the way he lifted himself off the stool. Then I realized the voice I was hearing was also playing that piano.
The first Ray Charles I heard was Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. He'd had hits before that, the R&B stuff, like "What'd I Say." But here is a black man giving you the whitest possible music in the blackest possible way, while all hell is breaking loose with the civil rights movement. When he sang "You Don't Know Me," I thought, "He isn't just singing the lyrics. He's saying, 'You don't know me. Get to know me.' "
He could be very sly with a song. His 1972 version of "America the Beautiful" is an iconic recording. There was so much feeling in his performance. It was his way of saying, "This is my country too. We gave you your popular music. This was ours before it was yours."
But Ray synthesized the blues into a language everybody could relate to. You can't listen to Ray Charles and not say, "This is a man who felt deeply, who has lived this music." He shows you his humanity. The spontaneity is evident. Another guy might say, "That was a mistake, we can't leave that in." No, Ray left it in. The mistake became the hook.
1.- Aretha Franklin (por Mary J. Blige)
Nacida el 25 de Marzo de 1942
Canciones elementales:
A Natural Woman, Respect, I Never loved a Man(the way I love you), Think, Chain of Fools
Influenció a:
Whitney Houston, Aaron Neville, Annie Lennox
You know a force from heaven. You know something that God made. And Aretha is a gift from God. When it comes to expressing yourself through song, there is no one who can touch her. She is the reason why women want to sing.
Aretha has everything — the power, the technique. She is honest with everything she says. Everything she's thinking or dealing with is all in the music, from "Chain of Fools" to "Respect" to her live performances. And she has total confidence; she does not waver at all. I think her gospel base brings that confidence, because in gospel they do not play around — they're all about chops, who has the vocal runs. This is no game to her.
As a child, I used to listen to Aretha's music because my mom played "Do Right Woman" and "Ain't No Way" every single day. I would see my mother cry when she listened to those songs, and I'd cry too. Then I discovered her on my own with the Sparkle soundtrack. I must have played "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" 30 times in a row; eventually, I connected the dots to that voice my mom was listening to.
Even the way she pronounces words is amazing: In "Giving Him Something He Can Feel," when she sings, "Many say that I'm too young" — the way she says "I'm," you can almost see her saying it, like she's all in your face, but you're still right with her. You can really visualize her hands when she sings, "You're tying both of my hands," on "Ain't No Way" — it's the powerful way she hits the word "both."
When you watch her work, you can see why Aretha is who she is. When we did the song "Don't Waste Your Time" on my album Mary, she just went in there and ate that record like Pac-Man. She could be doing a church vocal run, and it would turn into some jazz-space thing, something I never encountered before. You'd say, "Where did that come from? Where did she find that note?"
It's beautiful to see, because it helps people with a lack of confidence in their ability, like myself. I look at her and think, "I need a piece of that. Whatever that is."
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