The best singer in The Beatles, according to Patti Smith
We’re coming up to 50 years since the release of Patti Smith’s iconic album, Horses. While Smith has continued to release excellent music, Horses truly defines Smith as an artist, as it’s a combination of great vocal performances, exciting instrumentation and some of the most outstanding poetry ever committed to music.
A lot of people call Smith a dynamic voice in punk, and while that’s not unfair, it also overlooks her outstanding contributions to the written word. Smith was always great at putting together song lyrics that resonated with people on various levels. It doesn’t matter the emotion, the theme, or the tone of a song; Smith was capable of elevating a track with the power of her songwriting.
She was always on the lookout for great lyricists, plucking through songs and picking out some of the greatest lines she could find. One artist she thinks was an excellent poet but was often overlooked is Jimi Hendrix as she states that while he was well-known for being an amazing guitar player, Hendrix was also a great writer.
“I got to talk to him once about 50 years ago. And for a young girl he was everything you would want in your rock and roll star,” she recalled, “[He] loved poetry. He often spoke not in the most favourable way about his poetry. He didn’t think he was the greatest writer. He really admired Bob Dylan, but he was a wonderful poet.”
She admired Hendrix’s writing so much that she confirmed that when she passed, she would like some of his iconic lyrics from ‘1983 (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)’ written on her tombstone. “If I had to take a lyric and put it on my tombstone, I would take Jimi Hendrix, ‘Hooray I awake from yesterday’,” she said, “Every day I think of that line. It gives me hope; it also reinforces how wonderful it is to be alive, no matter how rough things are.”
Hendrix wasn’t the only person that Patti Smith admired for something he wasn’t most famous for. While The Beatles were all exceptional singers, none of them were championed as being the greatest vocalists of their time. Instead, they are a band that is praised for their ability to harmonise and write songs. While this is fair, it often feels as though we gloss over some of The Beatles outstanding vocal ability in favour of their songwriting.
When asked to pick some of her favourite singers of all time, Patti Smith rectified that oversight by naming John Lennon as one of the greatest vocalists of all time. He is often praised for his lyrical ability but not how he sings them, which is unfair given how much emotion he was able to convey in his often deeply honest lyricism.
Smith only put seven singers above John Lennon in terms of vocal ability. These were Elvis Presley, James Brown, Eric Burden, Jimi Hendrix, Grace Slick, Tina Turner and Mick Jagger. It’s good for Smith to acknowledge the vocal power of Lennon as being not only the best singer in The Beatles but one of the greatest singers of all time.
