These may not all exactly fit the OP’s “one great musician” criterion – some of these are more cases where a band’s instrumental virtuosity is heavily tilted towards one musician.
Drummers:
Stewart Copeland, The Police
Danny Carey, Tool
Gina Shock, The Go-Gos
Terry Bozzio, Missing Persons
Bassists:
Les Claypool, Primus
Flea, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Billy Sheehan, Mr. Big (by a mile)
Larry Graham, Sly and the Family Stone
Guitarists:
Slash, Guns N’ Roses
Terry Kath, Chicago
Craig Chaquico, Starship
Warren DeMartini, Ratt
Keyboardists:
Keith Emerson, Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Ron Argent, Argent
The aforementioned Ray Manzarek, also by a mile
…
If Prince and The Revolution counts as “a band” … well, that one would be obvious
I’m a keyboardist/pianist, and what Ray was doing is what any competant keyboardist would be able to do in terms of technical ability. Just because he’s playing two separate keyboards doesn’t make it harder, and organists/pianists are used to playing bass in the left hand. I mean, that’s what we do. The bass parts he played often (I would say always, but I’m hedging here in case there’s a song I’m forgetting) were very simple parts, as well.
That said, I would agree that he was probably the musician most responsible for the sound of the Doors. I think Krieger was the better instrumentalist, though. Certainly, overall as musicians, I’d put them on par with each other; actually, I may rank Krieger higher.
Of the prog rock bands (which, admittedly, I’m not the biggest fan of as a genre), Tony Banks is by far my favorite keyboardist. I think he was an excellent musician.
Being one of my favorites of all time, it pains me to say Blue Oyster Cult. Buck Dharma is a guitarist’s guitarist that any band would envy. Everyone else in the band are mere working professionals. Bouchard does pull out some tasty bass lines, but still isn’t on that transcendent level.
Boy, I don’t know about that. Andy Summers is a brilliant guitarist. In the Police, though, the music didn’t allow him to shine because it was more rock/ska than his native jazz. Finding success that way might make him seem less than Copeland - who was brilliant. His hi-hat work is astonishing - but it’s just a quirk of what brought them both to prominence.
I had thought of the Police initially as well, but Summers made me rethink it and then disqualify it (at least for myself.) I dare say, though, as much as I dislike Sting, I’m not sure the Police would have worked as well as they did with anyone else. So that was another point not in favor of nominating them for this thread.
For drummers, I also thought of Smashing Pumpkins, but Billy’s songwriting and general musicianship also disqualified them for me. Plus I do love his guitar parts. That said, I would put Chamberlin as one the greatest rock drummers of all time, but I’m not sure I’d put Billy on a greatest songwriter or guitarist list. Still, I’m hesitant, because while Jimmy has great chops and feel, Billy’s songwriting put him in a position where it fit very well and could be showcased.
Carl Palmer has an excellent reputation, to be sure. It’s not that the other players are lousy or even “less than great” IMHO … it’s that Claypool, Flea, and Emerson are just that good. Same for Copeland vs. Andy Summers and Sting … though I cop to unfamiliarity with Summers’ jazz work.
Especially in the Appetite for Destruction line-up. Matt Sorum was not on Slash’s level as an instrumentalist but Sorum was a major step up from Steven Adler, who was losing a battle against heroin addiction at the time.
Anybody mention Tom Morello yet? Rage Against The Machine was a great band with three decent musicians and Tom Morello, aka the Jimi Hendrix of the 90s.
Well, if “Bands playing behind X at a live show” is part of this category then just call it the Chuck Berry Award (except Keith Richards’ group of course).
The Stone Roses Reni is obv in a different street to the other three - don’t think you need to be a musician to hear that (also good backing vocalist). Hard to form a picture of just how good he is as he doesn’t exactly have a body of work behind him - keeps a low profile. Praised to the skies by contemporaries, other musicians though.
Ray has always been one of the most absurdly overrated musicians in rock. People always seemed to be astonished by the concept of a keyboardist playing with both hands at the same time. In addition to what pulykamell says, nearly all of Ray’s keyboard work (in either hand) was simplistic and easy to play. Take out basic chords and parallel thirds, and his contributions nearly vanish. His keyboard work (and The Doors “sound”) benefitted enormously from studio sweetening and overdubs, but a critical listen to any live Doors recording reveals how limited, simplistic, and unimaginative he really was. IMO his one strength was rhythmic comping in the background. Ray apparently believed his own hype and made the most instrumental noise, but Robby and John were by far the better musicians.
Speaking here as someone who saw the Doors five times (four with Jim, once on their Full Circle tour after his death), and still love them all these years later.
Interesting to hear coming from a Doors fan. I remained fairly restrained in my post of Ray Manazarek’s keyboard skills as I am decidedly not a Doors fan and didn’t want that to color my characterization of his work too much (actually, Ray may be a big reason I don’t like the Doors.) That said, I give him the benefit of a doubt and find it difficult to discount his contribution as to the overall sound of the band. Really, no other band sounds like them, and no other keyboardist really sounds like him, so I have to give him a lot of credit for that. His style and “voice” was unique.
