Top Ten Phonies

[Big Generator]

Yes - MW - Genesis are a good example...and Phil Collins has also been most unfairly derided over the years. Incredible drummer, great vocalist.

 

[Buff]

I don't generally heed the critics, I like what I wanna like. Hafta agree with you about David Byrne, tho. He's cool, but I don't think he's terribly talented. Perhaps as a song writer, but he can't sing worth a crap. Course, neither can Dylan.

 

[Music Wench]

I don't generally heed the critics, I like what I wanna like. Hafta agree with you about David Byrne, tho. He's cool, but I don't think he's terribly talented. Perhaps as a song writer, but he can't sing worth a crap. Course, neither can Dylan.

David Byrne tried out for choir as a child. The choir instructor said he couldn't sing and he didn't make it. I'm sure Byrne knows his voice sucks. It's his song writing ability I like. Talking Heads were one of my faves from the 70s and 80s.

Besides, like Dylan, it's the music, not the vocals that I like in their case. Don't care what anyone says, Byrne is pure genius. I even liked his Last Emperor soundtrack with Ryuichi Sakamoto - another fave of mine. Great talent.

 

[Martin Q. Blank]

Van Morrison, Lou Reed, David Byrne, Roger Waters, and Leonard Cohen "untalented"? Sorry, but we don't share the same aesthetic here...

So where's Kurt Cobain in this list? He makes a fool of himself with suicide attempts, then succeeds, and a whole generation decides he's a rock god because he didn't have the guts to keep living and creating--what a fake...that's about the kind of standard you're setting here. You're just listing artists you don't like anyway, and trying to establish that they're fakes. But really they're just the artists you don't enjoy...why don't you just say "I don't like these people's music" instead.

Amen, Reverend!!!

 

[Martin Q. Blank]

Okay...Top Five Phonies (Who Used To Be Authentic)

3) John Lennon

Cynical, witty lyricist...turns into inauthentic purveyor of peace and love..whilst shooting up smack and forgetting to call his son.

You know who else called Lennon a "phoney"? Mark David Chapman.

I'm not saying he wasn't flawed in many respects...I'm just saying, you're not in good company.

 

[Martin Q. Blank]

David Byrne tried out for choir as a child. The choir instructor said he couldn't sing and he didn't make it. I'm sure Byrne knows his voice sucks. It's his song writing ability I like. Talking Heads were one of my faves from the 70s and 80s.

For me, David Byrne's voice is one of the main reasons I like the band! He's one of my favorite vocalists ever. I'd take him over a billion "technically great" singers any day.

 

[newdawnfades]

So where's Kurt Cobain in this list? He makes a fool of himself with suicide attempts, then succeeds, and a whole generation decides he's a rock god because he didn't have the guts to keep living and creating--what a fake...that's about the kind of standard you're setting here.

I missed this comment the first time around. Highly judgmental there Rev. If you think living is simply a matter of guts then your goggles are even more blacked out than BG's. Maybe if we had more people in the world that could see mental disease for what it was we would have a system in place that could have helped people like Cobain.

Besides I don't see the logic in how making music about depression, frustration, and anger and THEN committing suicide makes you a phony.

He didn't even try to perpetuate this deification, it just happened, and was one of the things that contributed to his demise.

 

[Martin Q. Blank]

I missed this comment the first time around. Highly judgmental there Rev. If you think living is simply a matter of guts then your goggles are even more blacked out than BG's. Maybe if we had more people in the world that could see mental disease for what it was we would have a system in place that could have helped people like Cobain.

Besides I don't see the logic in how making music about depression, frustration, and anger and THEN committing suicide makes you a phony.

He didn't even try to perpetuate this deification, it just happened, and was one of the things that contributed to his demise.

I thought Rev was just making a joke, parodying BG's rubric for "phoniness." *shrug*

 

[RoxorFuxor]

Yes - MW - Genesis are a good example...and Phil Collins has also been most unfairly derided over the years. Incredible drummer, great vocalist.

I like Genesis a good amount, but I don't like Phil Collins. He vocals when he took over weren't bad, but they weren't too great. I also hate that he totally stole Peter Gabriel's style. Their songs are so, so similar. He should have went his own way. I mean, I don't like either of their solo stuff, but at least Gabriel did it first.

Also, I love Van Morrison, but I hate his religious stuff. After St. Dominic's Preview I think he went way down hill. Of course, just because he became religious doesn't mean he is a sellout. People change (in this case for the worse, I think), but that doesn't make them fake. Bob Dylan went super religious for awhile, he also went electric. He dealt with a lot of crap in his career, but I would never call him a sellout for going eletric or religious, just a new form of expression.

 

[Music Wench]

For me, David Byrne's voice is one of the main reasons I like the band! He's one of my favorite vocalists ever. I'd take him over a billion "technically great" singers any day.

Well, his voice fits the band. I wouldn't say he's a great singer, as you said "technically" but I think it fits him and his various musical styles. I love David Byrne. I think he's pure genius on many levels. I was either a senior in high school or a freshman in college when I first heard Psycho Killer when it first came out and was instantly taken with the band. Talk about shaking things up in the music world. Nerdy art students making music was one of the best thing to happen in that decade.