Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Greatest Rock Frontmen

This list has been the toughest one for me to select and sort out the best amongst the best. Me being a vocalist too, feel that without a great frontman in a band a live performance cannot live up to the expectations of the crowd. Though how much good the music is but if the frontman is poor the crowd will hesitate to indulge themselves with the band. The list basically focuses on the stage performances done by these great vocalists and not on their vocal abilities.

I have also attached some of their live performances for all you rock fans to get some glimpses of some of these immortal artists who taught us How To Rock !


6. Roger Daltrey ( The Who) - Till date people want to rush to a concert of The Who not because of their music( no doubt about their music, Its legendary) but because of Daltrey's Stage performance which is still the same as it was during the 60's. He had been an icon for many modern rockstars and classic rockstars like Bono, Steven Tyler etc.













5. Bono (U2), Jimi Hendrix - I am compelled to put these rockers together because it was very difficult for me to exclude one frontman from these 6 sorted out vocalists. Coming to hendrix, he had been an on stage legendary rocker. People preferred to listen his live performances rather than his studio recordings because of his crazy and wild acts of guitaring on stage. When it comes to Bono, there is only one thing that is ignited in a concert of U2 among of all ages and that's: Emotions. Every concert of U2 has got an emotional touch. Bono is the man who can easily bring out tears in eyes of each of his fans.








4. Bruce Springsteen- Well, I earlier had completely forgot "The Boss", but my really kind friends notified me in the "Comments Section" below. Well, any such list without Bruce Springsteen would never be complete and creditable, and I honestly agree to that too. Bruce has been a great entertainer on stage, and he seems to have such ounces of energy , that its really difficult to get your eyes off him for even a moment. He bangs on his guitar so hard, and the audience is simply dancing to his tunes all the time ! The guy is simply a GOD on stage. What a pity I forgot to mention him !









3. Jim Morrison ( The Dorrs)- The poet, the legend, the icon and the greatest star. I think this man was the most weird performer and it was his weirdness only that became an acclaimed style. Girls were fond of his doped behavior and his hairstyle and his high IQ level. He was a versatile man and every kind of person adored him. Some liked him for his intelligence, some for his high doping attitude and some for his weird and censored acts on stage.











2. Freddie Mercury ( Queen) - What more a crowd would want if the vocalist himself is singing " we will rock you" for them. He had a unique quality of charging up the crowd and compelling them to sing with him. Definitely there had been a huge loss in the entire rock history by losing a man who had so much of versatility in music and frontmenship.










1. Elvis Presley / Mick Jagger (The Rolling Stones
)- No comparisons with any other frontmen for these two rockers! They deserve this position For sure.

About Mick Jagger, I know he is not a great vocalist like Freddie Mercury and Roger Daltrey but when it comes to performance, then he is a God. The toughest job in a concert of The rolling Stones to handle the crowd. The crowd in their concert has always been huge and each person in the crowd had only one desire : to jump onto the stage and hug Mick Jagger!!






And Finally, about Elvis Presley : The King of Rock n Roll ! The man who started it all ! He had a really versatile voice and left his mark on almost all genres known, notably Rock n Roll, Blues, Pop, Country and Ballads. Right from his start, He has created innumerable records in terms of Concert Audience, Album Sales and Ratings. Not only as a Rock n Roll frontman, He is also known for his enchanting personality and has been honored with various Lifetime Achievement Awards too. He Set The Trend That Others Now Follow !
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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

A nice list above... Mick Jagger's my favorite !

Kier said...

Great list, I'd have Anthony Keidis from the Chili's in there somewhere too.

bearockr said...

Anonymous: Thanks a lot buddy...

Kier: Hey Kier, its been a long time ... Thanks for your appreciation of the list, and you did make a nice point above , Anthony's quite fun to watch live with the chili's, and if it were a top 10 list, He may have been there... But hey ! Thanks for your views a lot !

bearockr said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
RockandRollGuru said...

Certainly a cool list, but where's The Boss?!?!?!

Bar L. said...

I think you missed one of the best....Bruce didn't show up on your list. You have to see him live to understand, so I'll assume you never have :)

bearockr said...

@RnRguru and Layla: Yes, I do admit that I have never seen Bruce live, but i have no qualms in admitting that I actually have missed him out from the list... He was certainly a true performer, and I'll mention him too... Thanks for your valuable reminder guys !Rock on!

drewzepmeister said...

Can I throw in Robert Plant, Eddie Vedder, and David Lee Roth on the list?

BeckEye said...

Nice list. Greatest voice in rock has to be Paul Rodgers, but I wouldn't necessarily call him the best front man. I agree with the above who said Robert Plant, David Lee Roth, and Eddie Vedder...they're all amazing. Freddie Mercury was incredible. I'd also add in Michael Hutchence, who often got compared to Jim Morrison but he definitely had his own thing and was very charismatic.

bearockr said...

@Drew: Nice choices buddy... I'll probably expand the list to mention them too... But, if it was a list of 5, then probably I wouldn't have put them on it ...

@BeckEye: Hey ! Thanks for stopping over my blog... And I really appreciate your Rock music knowledge, and its really great to meet like-minded people as you on this blog... Roger Waters, definitely has the most enchanting voice in Rock music, and about Michael Hutchence, well, I have loved INXS perform live more than their studio recordings a lot ! They pull of a great show indeed

Unknown said...

yeh quite an impressive list ..... no doubt But I guess you could've put Robert Plant some where in this list..:)

bearockr said...

Hello ayan... Thanks to you too for reading my blog! Hope you come often ! And actually, I was actually wondering why anyone ain't pointing out Robert plant... Well, actually, Robert plant is more of a great vocalist rather than a great performer, as per me... His vocals are really powerful, but when it comes to setting up the stage on fire, I think he's a bit weak in this aspect... Don't you think ?

E.T.'s Gravity said...

freddie should have been number 1! but then again i may be biased cause im an avid fan. but then again, mick jagger was actually amazed at Freddie he attended their performance at the wembley (that same video you posted for Freddie, showing off his control of the crowd)

bearockr said...

Hey ET's Gravity, and WOW! I didn't know about that ! Thanks !

And well, As I have also mentioned in my post that though Mick Jagger ain't a great vocalist as Freddie himself, but, certainly, he's a great performer, right? !:D

E.T.'s Gravity said...

my bad. i didnt mean to say mick isn't. i was just really biased when it comes to Freddie. lol and yeah, that performance of Queen at the Wembley in '86, i have the DVD that's why i know. mick jagger was there to witness an epic performance. even elton john, because according to them they've really heard much about Freddie controlling the crown.

E.T.'s Gravity said...

*crowd. and to clear it up, Mick Jagger IS a great performer. admired him for dancing on the video of start me up. lol that video just popped into my head thinking about Mick. :D

bearockr said...

OMG! Elton john and Mick jagger attended that concert! That's magnificent! I never knew that, thanks a ton E.T.!