So Pigpen wasn't the greatest singer even in that band of well, adaquate singers. So Pigpen wasn't even the Dead’s best singer in a band of uh, adequate singers. One thing these peeks inside the Vaults have done is to expose some of the vocalists to blisteringly close inspection. Maybe they couldn’t hear themselves; maybe they were just bad singers. The Everly Brothers have had a few particularly rough performances ooze out of the Vault and there can be little debate that they had about the sweetest voices in three generations. We all have our favorites whose occasional shortcomings we are willing to overlook. (Hi Grace, hello Marty.) Also, we all have our biases. (Mine is that Robert Plant ruined rock and roll vocalizing and it’s taken 20 years to recover.)

Just now the Muddy Waters, Robert Plant, John Mayall, Rod Stewart sequence played and of the three palefaces Rod comes the closest to the master. And he’s not even close. Mayall uses his limited range as best he can and Plant just spews out cliché after cliché. Apparently he was unable to strut and sing at the same time.