My counter-argument, posted above:
Anyone with two ears listening to Radio KAOS will tell you that Waters and Pink Floyd are not at all the same thing.
Wayne Coyne and The Flaming Lips belong in this thread, I think. The other guys in the band are great but he’s the one steering that big crazy ship.
What about Boston and Tom Scholz?
Mentioned upthread. As someone else noted there, I think that’s a good example, save for the fact that Brad Delp’s voice was an integral part of the band’s sound.
How about Alex Chilton and Big Star or Paul Westerberg and The Replacements?
I was thinking of Ultra Vivid Scene, but I suppose that’s another case like NIN, where it’s obviously just one guy and there’s little pretence otherwise.
The Alan Parsons Live Project was/is essentially “Alan and the boys.” He did have some regular members (like Ian Bairnson) for a while, but eventually they left to do other things and he had a rotating group of singers and musicians performing with him in the live shows.
Tubeway Army: Gary Newman
Cockney Rebel: Steve Harley
Generation X: Billy Idol
ZZ Top (unfortunately) became (and maybe always was) Billy Gibbons and those two other guys. I guess it’s old history now, but it was a huge deal when the CD remasters of their early albums went back to the original masters, and not the first stab when Gibbons (IIRC) replaced all the drum sounds with a drum machine triggered by the original tracks.
I don’t agree. Although Arthur was certainly always the “main creative force”, and a brilliant musician and songwriter, Brian MacLean was a crucial influence on Love’s sound in their heyday (and John Echols’ role as lead guitar was not insignificant either). Before they met Brian, Arthur and John (both Black) were essentially playing regular R&B stuff (without conspicuous success). Brian, a former Byrds roadie, introduced a large dose of white folk-rock influence, and it was the combination that gave us the magnificence of Forever Changes, which is what Love is remembered for. Admittedly the arrangements and most of the songs are Arthur’s, but the best known track, “Alone Again Or” is Brian’s, and Brian’s influence on the sound is there throughout.
But even when it was a real band (such as the Belew era), it was still Fripp calling the shots. It’s not a Crim album until he says so.
Gotta disagree - It was Parsons and Eric Woolfson. Most of the songs are credited jointly to the two of them.
The Who = Pete Townshend and the High Numbers
Most people haven’t heard of their most collaborative album, from a songwriting standpoint, “A Quick One”, although “Boris the Spider” became a fan favorite. Their three core albums, Tommy, Quadrophenia and Who’s Next (Lifehouse), were written by Townshend. The bassist, John Entwistle, would usually have only one or two songs on any Who album although he released several solo albums of his own material. Roger Daltrey’s status within the group was dubious until he became identified by fans with the character of Tommy.
I worded my post carefully on purpose. Note that I said “The Alan Parsons Live Project,” which was the touring band. That’s essentially the reason why the original Project broke up–because Eric didn’t like touring, and wanted to move in a more musical-theater direction. Alan wanted to take it on the road.
So yes, while many of the songs are credited to both Alan and Eric, and Eric (RIP) was a prolific contributor to the original Project, he was not part of the Live Project.
I think Mr. Townshend would disagree with you. He is on record as saying he now plays in the world’s most expensive Who tribute band.
There’s no question that Townshend was always the guiding creative force in the Who, but if there was ever a group where every member was vital to the band’s identity, the Who was it. This was made abundantly clear when Keith Moon died and the heart seemed to go out of the band for good.
XTC was Andy Partridge and three other guys, then two other guys, then just one other guy, then nobody. Thankfully he called the band defunct rather than carry on solo under that name.
Most interesting is that this wasn’t a situation like Yes or the Who, where a new recruit would be called in whenever someone departed. Aside from one case early on (Dave Gregory replacing Barry Andrews in 1979) and a roster of session drummers who filled Terry Chambers’ vacant throne, the band never added any new members throughout its 25+ years.
Arguably the last guy to bail out (Colin Moulding) was just as creatively important to the band as Andy, but there was no question about who was running things from the beginning.
This could be said for a lot of the bands previously mentioned. I’m sure Bruce Springsteen would give Clarence Clemons some credit, for example. I’d say the Beatles, for one, were more of a band where every member was essential. Around the time of Lifehouse and Quadrophenia, John Entwistle was unhappy about being nothing more than a hired hand. He and Keith Moon had a discussion with Jimmy Page at one point about forming a band. This was later rectified somewhat on Who Are You where three Entwistle songs were included on the album. The post-Moon albums were dispensable, but many of their live shows from 1978-1981 were actually quite good. My own opinion is they were all essential, but for the purposes of this thread, I’d think Townshend would be worth a mention. He was indeed quite the driving force.
That’s not what the thread was originally about.
But fewer than half of all the ‘bands’ mentioned (within the scope of my knowledge) are really that. Most people are just mentioning bands with a “driving force” of one sort or another. Which is most groups, musical or otherwise.
And Prince fans readily recognize(d) this, IME–the Revolution refutes this model, not defines it.
Huh? The OP cites Dire Straits’ Knopfler because “DS was his band. He wrote or co-wrote all the songs, played lead guitat and lead vocal…”. When the Who played live, the other band members would wait for Townshend’s queue to begin the song, then follow his lead. He would typically say something like “assemble the musicians”. He described Moon’s smashing of his drum kits at the end of live shows as being a “great joiner-inner”. Although he usually didn’t sing lead vocal live or on the album, he did sing lead vocal while creating the studio demos for most Who songs and has released these demos in his Scoop albums.
For a visual reminder, consider the opening scene of the film The Kids Are Alright. The other three band members scoot away from him during an interview to express their discontent with his leadership role, all in good fun of course.