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I'm assuming that any famous musician must be fairly talented. (Well - maybe not). But do you have any examples whose talents you think are insufficiently recognised.
By this, I'm not asking people to say 'I really like Adele' etc. etc. Fine if you do - although...you're wrong. I'm meaning an artist who you can point to who you think does something particularly unique and special that nobody else does.
I'm on record a having a soft spot for Sinead O'Connor. I think he voice is just so technically accomplished. In quality it's very similar to Dolores O'Riordon of The Cranberries, but when you compare them you realise that one of them knows how to sing. Her cadence is brilliant. And...covers of classic reggae songs should have gone terribly wrong by rights, yet she managed to pull them off.
Dionne Warwick is another. She taught her niece Whitney how to sing. But whereas Whitney's voice goes all around the houses, Auntie Dionne just sings the damn notes.
Finally - a lot of people only know Louis Armstrong from his kitschy pop songs. Listen to the Hot Fives and Hot Sevens recordings. They were revolutionary! And there's so much going on in them. People will be listening to them in 100+ years. (Who else could we say that about? Supplementary thread?)
There's a story about when Armstrong was playing in Boston and the brass section visited him in his dressing room. Armstrong showed them a few licks. As they left the leader exclaimed 'Well - I've seen him do it close up now, but I still can't tell *how* he does it'. (apparently his embochure was all wrong. by rights it should have damaged his mouth.)
|   | Subject: Which famous musicians are seriously under-rated.
Posted Apr 12, 2012 by HonestIago
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Mel C - formerly Sporty Spice. Not the greatest range, she's limited to pop/soft-rock but she does them extremely well and she's superb live.
Pink - I think her songwriting skills are extremely under-rated because she's a very shrewd observer of society and dysfunctional families. Her Dear Mr President with the Indigo Girls is a great protest song. She's not the greatest singer but she doesn't need to be.
Snow Patrol and Keane - people take the p*ss out of both for fairly similar reasons but I'd take them both over pretentious twaddle merchants Coldplay.
I like Adele as well. I won't say she's under-rated, because she's not, but like it or not Someone Like You is a classic and her performance of it during the Brits last year was exceptional.
btw...having dissed Adele I'm done dissing. We have another thread for dissing other people's tastes. Let's resist temptation here.
Snow Patrol have that rarest of talents - their music isn't as bad as it sounds.
| | Subject: Which famous musicians are seriously under-rated.
Posted Apr 13, 2012 by Mr603
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Starsailor should've been bigger than Snow Patrol. They're underrated.
| | Subject: Which famous musicians are seriously under-rated.
Posted Apr 13, 2012 by quotes
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>>I'm assuming that any famous musician must be fairly talented. (Well - maybe not). But do you have any examples whose talents you think are insufficiently recognised.
It's a question which doesn't bear close scutiny, but in the spirit of things, I'll nominate Phil Colins, who doesn't just make awful pop pap, but has a sideline as an amazing drummer.
 ...When I said I wasn't going to diss, I didn't think people were going to make it *quite* so difficult for me. 
But moving on...
One musician who I, personally, under-rate is Bob Marley. Yes, yes - everyone loves Bob Marley (true?) so what can I be talking about?
Thing is - I'm a Reggae snob. Dub-er than thou. Marley ought to be too populist for me. I'd usually namecheck likes of Lee 'Scratch' Perry or the Sly'n'Robbie Riddim Seckshan.
But then I hear him...
I've heard the Wailers live, and they were great... for about 15-minutes. Then I got fed up of the repetition.
Hmm. I'd no more want to see The Wailers without Bob Marley than I'd want to see The Stooges without Iggy.
That said...a Zimbabwean friend swears blind that the only reason that Bob Marley played at the Zimbabwe independence ceremony is that Peter Tosh was unavailable.
I wonder if we could have a thread where people don't say "so and so is tosh" and do that music one-upmanship that always seems to happen here?
Adele - the girl can sing, and she makes money at it *and* she gets airtime so people can hear her. Nowt wrong with that at all. But she's not underrated since she's all over media all the time at the mo
Underrated (or overlooked, more likely) Jimmy Cliff. Motorhead (listen to the lyrics - or read them).
Bonnie Rait - totally fab but I almost never see or hear about her unless I raid my CDs or go looking online.
Kiki Dee. Never mind the Mariah Careys and Witney Houstons with their never ending warbling pretend singing. Kiki Dee is the one to listen to. Along with Julie Covington who can convey emotion (I'd probably say that Sinead O'Connor is of a similar vein) and Barbara Dickson.
Judith Durham - one of the best female singers of the 60s.
er - I'll probably push off now.
I like bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Rush etc. And I don't think I can put up with the pointing and laughing 
Robin Blaze should be better known. Most countertenors have a hooty sound that can be unattractive at the top and/or bottom of the vocal range. Blaze doesn't *sound* like a typical countertenor. He sounds as though he was born to sing the way he does.
Gerard Lesne is a countertenor who started out singing rock music. There are opera divas who go the other direction, moving over to pop songs or show tunes. Kiri Te Kanawa has sung Gershwin. Roberta Peters has sung Rodgers and Hart.
There are some young tenors who are fantastic but not as well known as Pavarotti or Domingo. Roberto Alagna is one of them. There's also a young Russian tenor who is fabulous, but I can't track down his name at the moment. 
sorry. Forgot my very favouritist Rock guy. Really very very good but he almost never pops up when people are talking about good songwriters and/or performers: John Mellencamp.
I did say Adele would be my last. 
But, yes, better to enthuse about one's passions.
*Although*...I've nothing against Kiri Te Kanawa...except when she sings Gershwin. She can't do it.  I used to say that 'Summertime' was an un-ruinable song until I herd her version.
Fortunately you weren't actually praising her.
On with the unbridled adulation 
Billy Bragg.
Not just a shouty politico, but a damn fine songwriter.
I saw two shooting stars last night
I wished on them but they were only satellites
It's wrong to wish on space hardware
I wish, I wish, I wish you cared.
Stevie Wonder.
Yes, Yes. Very popular. All that 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' pish. But it's worthwhile taking a step back from time to time time and remembering how *good* he is.
'Living for the City' is the most searingly political song I know. Also - Funkeh!
And I defy anyone to hear the opening 'Wokka wokka' of 'Superstition' and not get up and dance. Well, OK - I defy *me* not to get up and dance. <blush.
oh Stevie Wonder - totally totally brilliant. I saw him live once and didn't know what to expect but it wasn't that total brilliance.
"I've nothing against Kiri Te Kanawa...except when she sings Gershwin. She can't do it. I used to say that 'Summertime' was an un-ruinable song until I herd her version" [Edward the Bonobo]
I get a bit uneasy when I hear her sing Gershwin. I thought it was just me. Now I learn that you have misgivings, too. Okay, I guess I can put that recording aside and not play it again. Thanks for the tip. 
I have a sudden urge to play the Miles Davis version of 'Porgy and Bess'.
(He's not underrated. He's a widely acknowledged genius. How flattered must Cyndi Lauper have felt when he covered 'Time After Time'?)
Right now I'm listening to a song called "Ship of Dreams." It's the second song in "Titanic: the new musical," with book by Peter Stone, songs by Maury Yeston. At the moment, it's 6:10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. In a few hours, the hundredth anniversary of the ship's collision with an iceberg will occur.
Never heard of the show? It was on Broadway ii 1997, not long before Cameron's film "Titanic" hit the movie theaters. Cameron's "Titanic" is back in theaters right now, in its 3D version. I've already seen it, so I thought I would hear the Broadway version instead.
Okay, you probably wonder why I mention this in an "underrrated musician" thread. Well, it's an underrated show. Here's why: it didn't run very long, due to the high cost of mounting it. There had to be a state-of-the-art replica of the ship. State-of-the-art it might well have been, but it had an unfortunate glitch: it refued to sink!  <kaugh>
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