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Older singers still sounding great after all these years (1 Viewer)

I saw Cheap Trick on Austin City Limits in 2011, and he sounded pretty good. Over a decade gone by, though.
I remember that show, they were pretty good. Seemed like he retained about 90% of his voice and about 10% of his looks.
You know what's sad?

When Cheap Trick was brought up, I was thinking to myself "Oh yeah -- they were on Austin City Limits pretty recently. Let me check on when that was."

I was thinking it was "just a few" years ago. Try ELEVEN   :(   :kicksrock:

 
there's a difference between still sounding great and going for more than 80% of what you used to. Daltrey has always cheated a little, now its a lot, Bobby Planet just the last coupla years. most of these folks do now, not so much that they cant but, if they do, it hurts the next performance.
Yeah, in the Robert Plant videos gianmarco and Cap'n G posted, you can tell that he's going big at certain moments and then laying back and resting as the instrumentalists jam a bit. Not too different than the Zeppelin days in some ways -- Page and Bonham certainly did not mind the extended jams.

I wonder if that protected Plant's voice in the long term -- that his Zeppelin band mates consistently gave his voice long stretches to rebound during shows.

 
Yeah, in the Robert Plant videos gianmarco and Cap'n G posted, you can tell that he's going big at certain moments and then laying back and resting as the instrumentalists jam a bit. Not too different than the Zeppelin days in some ways -- Page and Bonham certainly did not mind the extended jams.

I wonder if that protected Plant's voice in the long term -- that his Zeppelin band mates consistently gave his voice long stretches to rebound during shows.
He’s kind of a special case in that he’s completely changed his singing style. Even by the latter Zeppelin years, his voice could no longer do what it did on those early records and tours. 

When he launched his solo career, he completely changed the way he sang, and has continued to evolve his approach over time. He sounds great doing what he does, but he’s not attempting anything close to what he did in the Zep years.

 
@wikkidpissah, have Waddy and Fleetwood Mac's Bob Welch ever been in the same room together?
i know of no colab. reportedly, Welch was as personally as physically disgreeable. the combo would have Hypnotized

Yeah, in the Robert Plant videos gianmarco and Cap'n G posted, you can tell that he's going big at certain moments and then laying back and resting as the instrumentalists jam a bit. Not too different than the Zeppelin days in some ways -- Page and Bonham certainly did not mind the extended jams.

I wonder if that protected Plant's voice in the long term -- that his Zeppelin band mates consistently gave his voice long stretches to rebound during shows.
tis to marvel to look back on Bobby Planet. because everybody was listening to Zep by the mid 70s, i kind of avoided them (saw them in Montreal in 1970 - not after) for a long time. listening to live youtube vids in the last few years......i mean, i tend to place McCartney as my favorite rock singer because of the great musicality and because his rockin is oddly underrated, but the archetypes of hard & horny expression that Plant established put him right up there with Satchmo & Sinatra as far as influences on popular singing.

 
I saw Plant at a festival 3-4 years ago and while some of his stuff was really weird he shredded the big stuff. Was impressed. 

 
This really should begin and end with Dennis DeYoung (75).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwEtVQMKPhY

Here he is with no effects or even a real mic. Let's see Axl do this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVzx-VO0RpI

Mickey Thomas (72) from Starship is also a solid pick, but he gets a little pitchy sometimes. https://youtu.be/KvVNa4DAOPw?t=25 - Jane from 2022.

Find Your Way Back - https://youtu.be/h7VOhoqeOPU?t=146 

And Rik Emmett (68) shows how an old 80's rocker can age gracefully and still kick ###

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcVqAHw23aE

 
Mickey Thomas (72) from Starship is also a solid pick, but he gets a little pitchy sometimes. https://youtu.be/KvVNa4DAOPw?t=25 - Jane from 2022.

Find Your Way Back - https://youtu.be/h7VOhoqeOPU?t=146 
Thomas still has power to spare. On the "Jane" performance you linked, he's kind of overdoing it ... less precise and controlled than DeYoung. Still has plenty of speed on that fastball, just a bit wild that night.

On "Find Your Way Back" he was in much better form. One of his A+ nights.

 
And Rik Emmett (68) shows how an old 80's rocker can age gracefully and still kick ###

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcVqAHw23aE
Two months before his 62nd birthday in that video. He was still bringing it for sure.

EDIT: Dam, I had to listen to that straight through a second time. Totally stripped down instrumentation -- just two guitars. Emmett's voice is doing A LOT of work in that performance. Sounds like he's got many good years to go.

...

You brought the goods to this thread -- thanks for these links   :hifive:

 
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From the M3 festival, I mentioned Zebra in the JBJ thread, I was duly impressed that this true codger (Randy Jackson, not that Randy Jackson) could still nail and sustain his falsetto shtick.

Also Michael Sweet of Stryper deserves a shout-out, I cannot bear false witness, they were a solid show.

I don't know if we've talked about Geoff Tate in these threads, unceremoniously dumped.  Not my Queensrÿche.

Kix guy, Steve Whiteman, sounds better than he looks.

Steven Pearcy wasn't too bad?   @scorchy 

My favorite hair band frontman in my old age is L.A. Guns' Phil Lewis, still sounds the same but he was never really a range guy.

 
Saw Willie live about ten years ago.   One of the most boring concerts I have seen.  
Yeah, have seen him twice in the last ten years, and he is a shell of himself. Maybe in the studio they can clean things up and make it sound like the Willy of old but he just kind of talks on stage only emphasizing a word or two in a chorus every now and again. The vast majority of the audience was in an altered state so they didn’t care (I live in Colorado.) Essentially it was:

”mumble, mumble, mumble… MAMAS! Don’t let your mumble, mumble, mumble….”

 
I don't know if we've talked about Geoff Tate in these threads, unceremoniously dumped.  Not my Queensrÿche.
Here's a video of then 61-year-old Geoff Tate performing in a tiny venue in Sydney, Australia in January 2020. He leans on the audience a bit during the back half of the show, but all in all he sounds great. The fidelity of the recording isn't great, but it's not hard to pick up on the vocals.

I hadn't listened through this one yet, but I thought folks here may be interested: Geoff Tate doing an acoustic show in 2017, age 58. Should be a better, cleaner rendition of Tate's vocals than the Sydney video.

 
I know some folks may say he has never sounded good but I love Jimmy Buffet. Nothing better than a Buffet concert.

 
I know some folks may say he has never sounded good but I love Jimmy Buffet. Nothing better than a Buffet concert.
His voice improved as he aged. He never took vocals too seriously, or anything for that matter (hah). Then sometime in the 90s he hired a world reknowned vocal coach and all of a sudden he started sounding studio+ quality live. 

 
This really should begin and end with Dennis DeYoung (75).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwEtVQMKPhY

Here he is with no effects or even a real mic. Let's see Axl do this....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVzx-VO0RpI


Yep, DeYoung still sounds great.  We saw him in (I think) 2019 when he and his band did all of The Grand Illusion, and he still sounded great.  You can hear the aging in his voice, but he can still belt it out.  

Seeing REO, Styx, and Loverboy next month.

Will report back. 
Seeing the next week, hehe. Should be fun. 

 
Rand al Thor said:
Great link, love how he's note for note on his guitar solo still. 
If you haven’t had a chance to see the Triumph documentary, you should check it out. Nice piece of nostalgia for even the casual fan.

 
I'm digging up an old thread, but I just came across this video of the Zombies from 2016. The singer, Colin Blunstone, is still killing it here at the age of 70 or so. He's 77 now. It ain't necessarily easy to watch, but it sounds great!

Time of the Season

Edit - Here's a clip from last year, he was 76 at this point. She's Not There
 
Colin Hay at 68 is terrific.
Missed this thread for a bit...came in here hoping someone would bring him up before I got to posting. Fantastic stuff and he is quite funny too from what I hear. Missed his show here last year, but have a couple friends who went and said it was like party comedy show party music. His stories between songs are what is funny and quite entertaining. Hoping he gets back this way some time.

One that I will say not sure "great" is the right word, but still was entertaining.
Barry Manilow. Wife has always liked him (something her mother listened to when she was growing up). So part of her Christmas this year was tickets to see him again. I knew much of his music just as a kid growing up in the 80s and my father listened to some of it.
Show was good and entertaining...he still has the lung capacity to belt out and hold some notes. But some of the lower register wasn't there as well. Also, the amount of plastic surgery seems to have affected the tone and voice too (plus his already strange face looked even stranger).
Still moved around a bit on stage...wasn't expecting that much as he is 79. But still worked the crowd well.
 
I agree with McCartney but I'm not sure that Willie Nelson could ever sing beyond a monotone.
Saw Willie live about ten years ago. One of the most boring concerts I have seen.
His next big show shouldn't be boring.
90th birthday bash at the Hollywood Bowl.
Neil Young, Christ Stapleton, Miranda Lambert, Lyle Lovett, Rosanne Cash, Snoop Dog, The Chicks, Kacey Musgraves, Sheryl Crow, Norah Jones, Tom Jones, Ziggy Marley, Beck
And quite a few others.
 
Colin Hay at 68 is terrific.
Missed this thread for a bit...came in here hoping someone would bring him up before I got to posting. Fantastic stuff and he is quite funny too from what I hear. Missed his show here last year, but have a couple friends who went and said it was like party comedy show party music. His stories between songs are what is funny and quite entertaining. Hoping he gets back this way some time.

One that I will say not sure "great" is the right word, but still was entertaining.
Barry Manilow. Wife has always liked him (something her mother listened to when she was growing up). So part of her Christmas this year was tickets to see him again. I knew much of his music just as a kid growing up in the 80s and my father listened to some of it.
Show was good and entertaining...he still has the lung capacity to belt out and hold some notes. But some of the lower register wasn't there as well. Also, the amount of plastic surgery seems to have affected the tone and voice too (plus his already strange face looked even stranger).
Still moved around a bit on stage...wasn't expecting that much as he is 79. But still worked the crowd well.
Colin has a documentary out that he pulls a lot of his stage material from. It’s pretty good if you’re a fan like me.
 

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