She said it on Merv Griffin or summin.
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Morrissey was a pretty dreadful singer at the start of his career with The Smiths:
His singing voice became more refined over the years, but thereās something very special about the raw and unpolished early songs.
On that note, Morrisseyās fellow Mancunian, Ian Curtis (from Joy Division), was also not a āgoodā singer by any conventional standards but, as with Morrissey, it was that rawness combined with the introspective soulful lyrics that made him special:
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This the cheapest. Some dudeās backyard before the kegs arrived.
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I think it depends on what you are talking about when you say āa good singerā.
Does the person hit the notes accurately and consistently? This to me is the hallmark of a good singer.
The rest is all personal taste in relation to the tonal quality of a personās voice, which also can vary a lot by culture, personal taste, etcā¦
For example, here is an interesting analysis of a professional singer/voice coachās analysis of a Sound of Silence cover by Disturbed:
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Leonard Cohen - brooding, poetic, evocative, but no singer (who cares? it about the effect, the emotion, not the technicality)
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Heās still a shit singer. Always has been.
Curtis is dreadfully flat. Actually, the first time I heard JD, I thought that someone was taking the piss. I was young then, and had just moved from Pink Floyd and reggae to more āalternativeā music.
Speaking of awful Mancunian singers, add Shaun Ryder to the list.
All three of the above transcend their ineptitude with charisma. Same with Shane McGowan, Howard Devoto and John The Chop Lydon/Rotten.
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Candy came from out on the Island
In the back room she was everybodyās darling
But she never lost her head
Even when she was giving head
She says, āHey, babe
Take a walk on the wild sideā
Said, āHey, babe
Take a walk on the wild sideā
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Shane MacGowan probably belongs on this list.
Mind you, for all I know he had a fantastic voice until the booze kicked in. Which was around, what, age 12?
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Younger.
MacGowan began drinking at age five, when his family gave him Guinness to help him sleep, and his father frequently took him to the local pub while he drank with his friends.
Although none of that was extremely unusual back in the day.
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Ha ā¦ I just went down a rabbit hole to figure out what MacGowan had been up to lately (and partly to confirm heās somehow still alive, but apparently has been stuck in a wheelchair for five years), and was about to post the same quote. I assumed you were joking when you had only written āYoungerā!
EDIT: I remain frigginā bitter at my high school self for refusing a friendās dumb suggestion that we go see some band Iād never heard of before. The Pogues or something like that. Why the hell would I want to go see a contemporary band?! Nothing worthwhile had been recorded since 1980 or so, after all!
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I have a biography of his, he did have an unusual childhood and upbringing moving between very rural and ultra urban . His mother was a singer aswell. Extremely talented musician/songwriter. Itās a bit of a tragedy he has ended up like he has but sure he has been pretty much constantly drunk and on and off drugs since the early 80s.
There was some quote of his from an interview, along the lines of āI have no interest in being soberā, that I had pinned up on my wall through a stretch of college. It seemed cool at the time. I feel differently now. Never have seen him live - saw the Pogues once with Joe Strummer singing, and another time with the regular line-up without MacGowan.
(Still bewildered, decades later, that MacGowan has long since outlived Strummer.)
Heās like Keith Richards. Everyone marvels at how heās still alive.
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Until you see him now and itās very far from marvelous.
Iāll post an Irish TV clip but it may make you feel sad.
I saw McGowan in Ireland in the 80s AT MY FIRST CONCERT EVER, he could barely stand during the set, came on late, and the crowd got so pissed off they started flinging objects including flagons full of piss at the stage and at each other .Different times!
(Those flagons sometimes didnāt have tops on them so as they sailed over your head you could see a fountain of urine gushing out 
, whole sections of the crowd started lobbing them back and forth at each other- incoming!)
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He is indeed decrepit. But he still made it to 63. And his teeth look WAY better than mine.
Only recently. Maybe they are false teeth.
100% false. Theyāre all implants.
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Yes, I was going to say Leonard Cohen.
When I was younger I didnāt get it. He just spoke over music. Iāve come to appreciate him now, mostly his older stuff.
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