The “best” rock singer Ian Anderson chose over Robert Plant
The definition of a great singer meant something a lot different to Ian Anderson.
Although he had the makings of a great frontman in Jethro Tull, there were always going to be places where he couldn’t go from a simple technical perspective compared to the Freddie Mercurys of the world. But even if he didn’t have the most technically gifted voice in the world, he knew that some of his favourites were capable of doing far greater things than your typical rock and roll frontmen.
Granted, it’s not like the biggest names in the world aren’t popular for a reason. No one is going to look at footage of Mercury in his prime and say that he wasn’t born to be on that stage, and even when looking through the biggest names in rock and roll, there are more than a few artists like Little Richard that had the sheer power to carry them over the edge into legendary status without breaking a sweat.
But when judging a singer, what are we supposed to be going for? Because you have to remember being a great singer and a great frontman are two very different things, and while there is the rare occasion where someone can be both like David Bowie, it’s not like everyone was looking at what David Lee Roth did with Van Halen and considered him one of the greatest vocalists to walk the Earth.
For Anderson, it was about how one used their instrument, but no other artist had as much vocal precision as Lou Gramm did when Anderson heard Foreigner. There were all the trappings of the standard blues singers, but with Mick Jones’s attention to pop dynamics whenever he wrote melodies, Gramm could absolutely annihilate any song that he was working on, whether it was a ballad like ‘I Want To Know What Love Is’ or a rocker like ‘Hot Blooded’.
And when judging the other greats of the genre, Anderson felt that what Gramm did put him a notch above Robert Plant, saying, “His diction was good, his articulation and rhythm was great, he was a truly great singer. It doesn’t mean he’s rock’s best singer or best-known singer, because the usually out of tune Rod Stewart and gymnastic Robert Plant were probably more charismatic. He may not be the most exciting pop singer, but for me he is the best.”
That’s not even a knock on Plant’s vocal ability. Like Anderson alluded to, there’s a certain acrobatic approach to a lot of his best-known melodies, and while there are more than a few times where he doesn’t manage to hit everything right on the money, it’s far more about the theatrical element behind a lot of his performances rather than worrying about every solitary note that comes out of his mouth.
Hell, Anderson even managed to take a few cues from Plant with his own theatrics in Jethro Tull, but what Gramm did was beyond comparison. Even though many artists tried their hand at making great rock and roll by putting on a show, all Gramm needed was a microphone and the passion behind his lyrics to get his point across half the time.
That didn’t make him the most dynamic frontman in the world, but that doesn’t mean that he deserved to be forgotten compared to the other singers of his day. History might remember the more charismatic characters in rock and roll for a reason, but what Gramm did took the basis of standard rock and took it to its most logical conclusion. There might not be a ton of Foreigner imitators nowadays, but that’s only because not many people can come close to what Gramm could do.
