Vocalists who sometimes double on an instrument they aren't so good at

I'm not a Karen Carpenter fan in any meaningful sense, but she obviously had real skill as a drummer/percussionist -- five seconds of listening makes that obvious, and the video in post #52 removes any doubt.

You don't have to think she's one of the greats or even like her playing, but she deserves respect, and she certainly had better technical chops (stick control, etc.) than tons upon tons of musicians only known as drummers.

 

Bruce Hampton on trumpet.

 

Dylan has come into his own on piano and Ian Anderson is an excellent acoustic guitarist.

 

....and the most difficult one to master.

 

Surprised no one has mentioned Madonna on guitar:

Human Nature (Live) - Madonna​

 

He used the guitar as a prop for sure, and joked that he only knew "three chords" with his audiences, but he knew how to play. Give 'That's Alright', 'Baby Let's Play House', or 'Mystery Train' a spin. There's no drummer, just Elvis' acoustic guitar driving the rhythm section. Just for fun -->

 

Andy Partridge dabbled with sax for a while. Glad he stopped. He’s a decent drummer though.

 

I haven't bothered with the rest of this but there have already been two videos posted of Karen's excellent drumming and the word of Hal Blaine, someone who had nothing to lose given the number of gigs he had (he was triple-scale; he didn't need to curry anyone's favor). You've decided that no matter what is posted, you don't like Karen's drumming. Enjoy.

P.S.: I went ahead and read further. You're just trolling. Have a nice day.

Ed

 

Did you actually watch that 'All I can do' clip?
Give us your thoughts.

 

I think you are overreacting. Mike Love would not be offended.

 

Meat Loaf! He occasionally picks up a guitar and it's plain to see to everyone, not just musicians, that he cant play for toffee.

 

It is more impressive than the play-along clip with the bigger band from later years that I have seen so often. My citing her in my first list was based on that one which turns up so often on social media. I guess this clip leaves the question open for me how good she was early on; the electric bass is really holding the rhythm down though she's doing some cool stuff on the snare. So it's possible I was wrong to a point; it looks like she was a serious drummer early on, though I'd still say the later clip from their pop-star era just shows someone fooling around more than playing. And I'd still say it's all just bantering and non-important opinions.

So has anyone mentioned when Iggy picks up a guitar once in while?

 

You really should try and familiarize yourself with a musicians' work before you list them as incompetent on a particular instrument. Ian Anderson is no classical flautist, but after years of playing using a self-taught fingering technique he described as "wrong" (his own daughter made him aware that his techniques was off) he adopted the classical flute fingering and has used it ever since. He has made many guest appearances as a flautist and his early work with the flute is considered by many as idiosyncratic and very effective for the songs that feature his playing. His acoustic guitar playing is highly rated and of a style all his own. His sax playing can only be found on two albums (1973's A Passion Play and 1974's Warchild). I wont defend the quality of his sax work as even Ian himself derides it at times (he even gave Steven Wilson permission to remove his sax playing from the remix of A Passion Play).

 

Springsteen at the piano (his key instrument when composing his most elaborated music).
Occasionally taking lead in the studio ("Drive All Night")

 

In Bob's defense, his guitar playing isn't the only thing awesomely mediocre here.

 

I saw Bad Brains some years back, and H.R. strummed a hollow-body Ibanez guitar with his thumb while inaudibly crooning hardcore punk tunes. The guitar was definitely not in the mix and likely not even plugged into anything.

 

No opinions on Karen. I just find Henley’s drum parts very simple. Simple for a professional drummer in a major band, that is. Doing that and singing, sure. Credit where due. I just don’t think he’d have cut in most bands if he were the drummer only and not one of the main singers/songwriters.

 

As it happens, "Sway" and "Stop Breaking Down" are two of my favorite Stones tracks. I agree that Mick's technique is pretty basic, but hey, it works.

 

But he did cut it as the drummer for the Eagles when on their first album he co-wrote only one song and sang lead on 2 (out 10). He was also drummer for Linda Ronstadt before that.

 

Hold on a second there. If DLR was on guitar on "Could This Be Magic?" then he ain't half bad at guitar. Certainly sounded competent on "Ice Cream Man".

 

Bowie on Saxophone?

Reminded me of this.

 

You leave Phil Collins out of this!

 

Haha, well Phil is a percussionist so I'd say tambourine falls in his area of expertise.

 

Yeah, maybe he's better than I gave him credit for. There's not a huge sample size out there for analysis though.

 

I was in attendance of a private backyard party many years ago where Todd was the hired entertainment. It was just him in a "Storyteller" type of scenario, with 80% of what he did was on piano.
He actually held his own and was quite entertaining.