Rolling Stone does it again...

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Annie Lennox being anywhere apart from the top 10 is an utter outrage.

I'm angry.

ANGRIES~!

[DFF]

I can't believe Bruce Dickinson didn't even make the top 100. Sure, he won't be to everyone's taste, but if Axl Rose can make 64th...

[caucasianheat]

Bad list. Obviously big ones like Sinatra, Darin, Meat Loaf, Cummings, Holiday and Fitzgerald are glaring omissions. I was thinking of some names that are less surefire and more on the borderline, but still interesting for debate. A lot of these are notable for being distinct voices, which I assume is a large part of the criteria.

Tom Petty

Ray Davies

David Byrne

Gordon Downie

Jeff Lynne

Martha Reeves

Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Barry Gibb

Clyde McPhatter

Bill Pinkney

Larry Henley

Joe Tex

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

I thought I might have been a little jingoistic with Cummings, but the guy at least has a really good voice and achieved some fame beyond Canada. Gord Downie, on the other hand...

[JStarr]

David Byrne and Tom Petty both fall into the Dylan category for me, much more distinctive than pleasant to listen to...although I'll take Petty over the other two any day.

Barry Gibb, yes. He should have been Top 100. Any man who could flex that kind of falsetto has serious talent. Aaron Neville is another one.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Well if we're just throwing out people with distinctive voices, Fred Schneider.

[caucasianheat]

I'd put Downie against basically anyone in the bottom 50 of that list. I think the Hip's insular national popularity has a lot to do with subject matter, as songs about Bill Barilko and David Milgaard don't quite resonate outside the country. That, however, doesn't excuse the exclusion of a talented vocalist from a list put together by people who are supposed to listen to music for a living.

[GoGo Yubari]

So now I'm thinking what we need is an EWB's Favorite Singers list along the line of the all-time favorite artists one earlier this year that Benji started and I finished. Would people vote in that if I put it up?

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Okay, then I'll just argue against Downie on the basis of quality. He's a decent singer, but he's not great, certainly nothing special when you're not seeing the Hip live. Their albums are great music for drinking/partying/driving/sitting on your back deck overlooking the lake, but I'd have trouble putting any of the Hip in the top 100 at their instrument. Canadians deserving to be above Downie (taking only national popularity into account) would include everyone in the list, everyone already mentioned in this thread, Raine Maeda, Sarah MacLachlan, Alan Doyle (even though everything about him makes me want to punch him in the face), and probably quite a few I'm forgetting. Maybe even Kim Mitchell.

EDIT: I'd vote in that, GoGo.

Edited November 19, 2008 by Mr. Potato Head

[caucasianheat]

Okay, then I'll just argue against Downie on the basis of quality. He's a decent singer, but he's not great, certainly nothing special when you're not seeing the Hip live. Their albums are great music for drinking/partying/driving/sitting on your back deck overlooking the lake, but I'd have trouble putting any of the Hip in the top 100 at their instrument. Canadians deserving to be above Downie (taking only national popularity into account) would include everyone in the list, everyone already mentioned in this thread, Raine Maeda, Sarah MacLachlan, Alan Doyle (even though everything about him makes me want to punch him in the face), and probably quite a few I'm forgetting. Maybe even Kim Mitchell.

We are at a fundamental impasse, as I would put Downie well out of the league of everyone you've mentioned and the Hip on my shortlist of favourite bands all time. Maeda seems to suffer from a perpetual sinus infection and his shrill high notes are headache inducing. Sarah McLachlan has a lovely voice, but isn't someone I think of straight away. Great Big Sea is fine, but actually fits for me into the "now and then" bracket you've put the Hip into. Kim Mitchell is a pretty generic 80s rock act and is probably the foremost example of someone who continues to benefit from Canadian Content rules. I do not care for him.

Add Ryan Adams and Glenn Danzig to my earlier list, as I think they're interesting candidates as well.

[wolves]

My quick thoughts on it involve two things, A: Rolling Stone never gets anything right, and B: Top 100's are based heavily on things outside of what the topic of what the Top 100 in question is about.

P.S,

Roland Orzabal from Tears for Fears should have been somewhere in there between 100-50.