MetaChat - Who's your favourite out-of-tune-singer?

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24 March 2009

Who's your favourite out-of-tune-singer? →[More:]
I'm not talking about singers like Bob Dylan, who deliberately whines in a flat drone, or Steve Earle, who deliberately growls, but performers who genuinely sing off key, yet somehow it works.

You know, like this.

post by: essexjan at: 14:45 | 19 comments

Stevie Nicks is my favorite all-time off-key singer, followed quickly by Kitty Wells.

posted by Lipstick Thespian 24 March | 14:51

Bonnie Prince Billy.

posted by Specklet 24 March | 14:51

Daniel Smith (of Danielson Famile)

posted by Atom Eyes 24 March | 14:57

Which category does Ian Brown fall into?

posted by scody 24 March | 15:04

Captain Beefheart

posted by Joe Beese 24 March | 15:19

Might as well throw in Roger Waters who has always been quite tone deaf.

posted by Ardiril 24 March | 15:19

Florence Foster Jenkins.

posted by plinth 24 March | 15:36

Damn! plinth beat me to it. Florence Foster Jenkins FTW!

She used to throw roses into the audience - and if she got carried away she'd throw the basket out too.

And all those people laughing at her? they were planted by her jealous colleagues.

posted by jonathanstrange 24 March | 15:53

Robbie Fulks?
Countrier Than Thou
She Took a Lot of Pills (and Died)

I don't know if he is or not, but I sure dig him.

posted by geekyguy 24 March | 16:05

Robbie Fulks is the shit.

You went to Andover/
so what's the banjo fer?/
Countrier than thou!

posted by Lipstick Thespian 24 March | 17:09

I like Robbie Fulks a lot. I'd argue that he's not out of tune -- just kinda shouty.

And Neil Young is the ultimate in tone deaf singers. I won't add him to the list, though, because I don't like him, and therefore he's not my favorite.

posted by mudpuppie 24 March | 17:49

(Oh yeah, Fulks is great live. He's a pretty great guitar player.)

posted by mudpuppie 24 March | 17:50

Dylan?

posted by doctor_negative 24 March | 18:06

Not to be picky, folks, but I think you're confusing key with tone. All the people you've mentioned are dead-on key. They just have an unusual tone or quality to their voices. Think early round American Idol auditions and you'll see the difference.

posted by Pips 24 March | 20:56

Addendum: "key" as in pitch, that is.

posted by Pips 24 March | 21:00

Pips, I absolutely guarantee that Florence Foster Jenkins was definitely in no way on-key, or even on-planet, though it is certainly fair to say that the tone and, er, quality of her voice was unusual:

Evidence

I rest my case.

posted by Rembrandt Q. Einstein 25 March | 00:54

Here

posted by chillmost 25 March | 02:25

J. Mascis

posted by loiseau 25 March | 06:51

Dunno about key, pitch, tone, but John Prine is my new favorite. His songs are easy to play, and I can sing just about as well as he can.

posted by mrmoonpie 25 March | 07:35

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