The Who replaced Keith Moon and continued to make new music (though its viability is open to debate). We'll see if they record any new music post-John Entwhistle.


Gabriel did better without Genesis than with them, too. After "Lamb Lies Down" Genesis was positioned for success in the US but they didn't do any better than they probably would have with Gabriel still aboard. They really took off when Collins had solo success and the balance of the band swung away from Banks' Fairport Convention-ELP compound to Collins' pop sensibility.

And there was a great book of rock band family trees a few years ago. I don't know if it's been updated. If I can find my copy, I'll scan a page for you -- I'm betting they have a Black Sabbath page.

Here's a link to a gigantic Deep Purple family tree.......

http://www.thehighwaystar.com/rosas/misc/dp-tree.htm

I don't see any problem with these four touring as Queen, especially given that, should Deacon participate, that's pretty much who they are, but I don't think they would be able to continue in the studio like that. (Of course, there aren't any real plans to do that, as far as I know.) The other members did some writing, but I think Freddie Mercury was primarily responsible for the material and the sound of Queen. Queen as a band is more like the Police as a band, or Crowded House as a band--groups primarily dependent on one musician.

Genesis has been mentioned in this thread. What makes Genesis different is they were all great songwriters and they were all tremendously talented. Peter Gabriel left, and Steve Hackett left, and the remaining three members were still extraordinarily gifted enough to produce material of equal quality (although of a different sort). Even when Phil Collins left, Mike Rutherford and Tony Banks could have continued beyond the one album they did. There was no one member who defined the group.

-Comp

Does anybody have a copy of the Pete Frame family tree of Monty Python's Flying Circus?

They already have recorded a few tracks released on a greatest hits type package. I keep hearing about a new album too. Not sure if that will happen?

Incidently Daltrey has just been awared a CBE in Britain. I guess Townsend's recent brush with the law might have contributed to him being overlooked.

I couldn't disagree more with that premise. While Neil Finn and Sting were the primary songwriters in those groups, the songs are only a small part of the overall sound. For proof of that, one need only compare their solo work with that of the band.

The Police began as Stewart Copeland's band. He wrote all the early songs and contributed at least a couple on each album (and wrote most of the better ones on Reggatta de Blanc). Without Copeland's distinctive drumming and Andy Summers's wildly experimental guitar, Sting's solo work reverted to his pre-Police style, jazzy pop. And in my opinion, suffered greatly.

Similarly, without Nick Seymour's funky pop sensibility and Paul Hester's romanticism, Neil Finn's solo stuff has been quiet acoustic bits more dependent on rhythm than melody, alot like what Split Enz sounded like before he joined, oddly enough.

Could Copeland and Summers have been the Police without Sting? Of course not. But I don't think that Sting could have kept the Police alive if either Stewart or Andy left, either.

And in the case of Crowded House, When Paul Hester quit (the subject of Sheryl Crow's "Every Day Is A Winding Road" - she was opening for them at the time), they finished the tour and called it a day.

Hank - I think you are looking at this from the point of view of someone who knows something about music rather than Joe Q. If you asked a member of the public about the police, most will tell you that they were sting's old band or backing group, most would have no idea who Copeland or Summers are.

It's like jamiroquai - most people seem to think that the guy in the head rather than the actual band!

The perceived importance of the front (wo)man seems to be the key thing.

Or Jethro Tull. Or Alice Cooper, for that matter.

Or Pink Floyd.

I wonder how a band decides it needs to separate the front man from the group?

Why Huey Lewis & The News and not just The News?
Same for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

In a lot of cases, I get the feeling it's the record company who decides that. It's easier and more flexible for them to promote one person rather than a band.

Back when they first came out, I remember reading how Edie Brickell was promoted as the lead for the New Bohemians. The studio saw her as a the real star and the band was easily replaceable.

Huh? Alice Cooper is not just that short guy in the make-up?

Pink Floyd?? Wasn't he a friend of that Lynyrd Skynyrd guy??

Is he really pink?

A number of Queen's bigger numbers were not written by Mercury (You're My Best Friend, We Will Rock You, Another One Bites the Dust, Fat-Bottomed Girls, Radio Ga-Ga, among others), more like The Beatles. Quite unlike The Police and Crowded House, where you had a real songwriter and a couple guys who got a song on the album to keep 'em happy. But Mercury was the face and voice of Queen, the guiding vision behind the whole androgynous look and attitude, the very name. Hard to think of it as Queen without him.

I was sad that May never got a solo thing going. He has a terrific voice (he and Mercury traded vocals effectively on Tie Your Mother Down), wrote some good songs, and is one of my favorite guitarists.

Yeah, the same guy who did that Jethro Tull tree has a whole book of them. I haven't seen it since the last time I moved. Now where would that be? (Perhaps my wife tossed it -- when I bought it, she couldn't believe I would spend money on something like that!)

He is now. But that's not how it started. I quote from the Alice Cooper bio at http://www.allmusic.com:



Eventually, the rest of the band left, he kept the name and they did an album as the Billion Dollar Babies, naming themselves after the great album they'd played on. Their own album, Battle Axe, bombed and is long out of print.

Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith also formed a group called "Deadringer" and another called "BDS" with Joe Bouchard of Blue Öyster Cult.

Y'see why we gave up on that all-encompassing "family tree?" It just never ends...

It's especially bad in Prog Rock. Look at the members of Yes, King Crimson, The Nice, then you see their progeny, like ELP and Asia, and it's all the same 12 guys or so.

Greg Lake was the lead singer & bassist for King Crimson, a position later held by John Wetton. Lake played with Carl Palmer in ELP, and Palmer later played with Wetton in Asia, with Steve Howe and Geoff Downes, who'd just left Yes, whose original drummer, Bill Bruford, played with both Greg Lake and John Wetton in...King Crimson.

It's more of a wreath than a tree, really.

The British Hard Rock scene in the 70's and 80's was pretty much all over the place. The same guys circulated through Rainbow, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, not to mention the backing bands for solo artists like Gary Moore, Ozzy and others it's crazy.

Not quite how it happened. Neil and Nick were originally set to move ahead with a new album--even recorded a few tracks, mostly unfinished--but Neil decided he did not want to continue Crowded House, something Nick holds a grudge about to this day. Neil's decision alone, one he could make because Crowded House was dependent upon him. You are absolutely right that the rest of the group in the case of both the Police and Crowded House had a lot to do with the sound--good musicians will have that impact--but still they are bands dependent on one person. They are bands that could have continued (albeit with a somewhat altered sound) as long as they had that one person, and bands that had to end when that one person left. Queen, as a studio band, was very much like that. Groups like the Beatles or Genesis were not.

-Comp

He did do some solo stuff (notably the "Back To The Light" disc) but it just never got much recognition beyond the UK as far as I could tell. "Back To The Light" and the "Starfleet" disc are both pretty good.