“Could Louis Armstrong sing?” Sure. His voice sounded rough, but it was a musical rough.
“None of those who “can sing” today compare to Mario Lanza or Carlos Gardel”
Most of the people who “can sing” only have sing well enough to let the rest of what they do sound good. The only thing that can make a Bob Dylan song sound good is for someone else to perform it.
I’m not a fan of George Strait or Tom Jones because I don’t care for the genre. With Dylan, that’s not the problem.
We disagree. Dylan’s singing fits his genre, just as Louis Armstrong’s, who sang no better, fit his. I don’t want to hear Barbra Streisand, or Tony Bennett, who both “can sing”, sing Dylan. Listen to Dylan’s “Watching the River Flow”, a fairly rare recording from the 1970s. Who would you like to sing it better? The Four Seasons (remember Frankie Vallie?) once recorded an album of Dylan songs. I don’t remember it, except the single they released under the name of Wonder Who, (as if one had to wonder hearing Frankie) if I recall correctly, but I don’t want to hear it.