The singers Eddie Vedder said were as powerful as Frank Sinatra: “They hit a reflex in me”
The entire point behind rock and roll was to be a retort to the days of big band music. The kids had heard enough from what their parents were used to listening to, and when Chuck Berry came to the forefront or Little Richard first screamed into the microphone, they were in for a much different ride than whatever Bing Crosby had in store for them on his albums. And while Eddie Vedder always needed something with a little more heart, he felt that some of the biggest names in rock could rival any member of the easy listening crowd.
Then again, anyone who’s exclusively listened to the likes of Nat King Cole was going to have a hard time listening to what Vedder had to offer at first. There are many fine examples of being a great crooner on tunes like ‘Nothing Man’ and ‘Oceans’, but listening through their first albums, it’s not like anyone interested in jazzy singers was going to get onboard with ‘Once’ or ‘Blood’ right off the bat.
It was easier for people to be eased into that manner of singing, which is probably why Kurt Cobain worked so well when bringing his music to the masses. His songs were ferocious in many respects, but they always had a perfect melody over the top of it, which probably explains why Paul Anka eventually did a cover of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
Right as the grunge wave faded, though, singing seemed to become less of a priority. The biggest names in nu-metal were content to scream into the microphone and only occasionally have a vocal that everyone could sing along with, but the minute that bands like The Strokes started coming to the forefront, Vedder was knocked out by what people like Julian Casablancas were doing behind the mic.
While he wasn’t exactly crooning, Is This It is the best example of making tuneful lyrics amongst garage-rock production. The guitars are roaring the same way they would be on a Velvet Underground record, but the minute that Casablancas opened his mouth, he was singing far sweeter than anyone would have expected when listening back to songs like ‘Hard to Explain’ and ‘Someday’.
And for Vedder, hearing him or even Caleb Followill from Kings of Leon was as powerful as hearing some of those old crooners, saying, “They hit a reflex in me. It was exciting. The new Strokes record is also a great piece of work. Caleb [Followill] and Julian’s [Casablancas] vocal deliveries are great, and unconscious — it’s like what they said about Sinatra or Joey Ramone or Lennon and McCartney.”
But that always comes from someone who has a great personality before anything else. Not every note had to be perfectly in tune whenever Followill or Casablancas sang a song, but if they could make someone feel something within the first few seconds of them playing, that was all they really needed to captivate someone.
There might be ways for people to be captivated by a singer that’s nothing but pure muscle, like Roger Daltrey or Freddie Mercury, but if you don’t have the charisma Vedder was talking about here, it’s going to be a nightmare trying to get anyone to keep listening. Because, as much as people like the idea of listening to a great singer, it’s always going to be better for someone to hear a real person through their speakers.
