Biggest Band Drop-off After One Quits/Fired

[The_Peyote_Coyote]

@Marvin_the_Martian

Chicago after Terry Kath died. They were already drifting from rock to pop, but this shove them right over the edge.

I would say Terry Kath is vastly underrated as a guitarist, but I think they went over the edge with Chicago VIII. That was a big drop-off without any change of personnel as VI was a pretty good album, and VII was brilliant.

[Typo_Negative]

@MortSahlFan

I listen to a band because I like their music, not how much money they can make.

Becoming more and more popular doesn’t seem to fit the definition of ‘drop off’.

[Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank]

In this thread: A whole heaping pile of de gustibus. I particularly appreciate the posts that say the bands in question went downhill right before having multiple hits, or even multiple hit albums.

[JKellyMap]

@montag01

I think REM began a long downhill slide after Bill Berry left. I didn’t realize how involved he was in the band’s songwriting. They were still better than most bands around, but there’s just a lot lacking for me in REM’s post-Berry material.

This, though the drop-off is yet more drastic for me: I can’t stand anything after New Adventures in Hi-Fi, and I love almost everything up to and including that.

[Loach]

Two of my favorite albums of all time are *Misplaced Childhood *and Clutching at Straws by Marillion. After Fish left/was kicked out the band went straight to Hell. I know they’ve been chugging along for decades but I just can’t listen to Hogarth.

[dzeiger]

Wall of Voodoo without Stan Ridgway wasn’t anywhere near as good.

[Jophiel]

@Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank

I particularly appreciate the posts that say the bands in question went downhill right before having multiple hits, or even multiple hit albums.

In the case of my pick – 10,000 Maniacs – the band went from:
In My Tribe (Double Platinum)
Blind Man’s Zoo (Platinum)
Our Time in Eden (Double Platinum)
MTV Unplugged (Triple Platinum)

to

Love Among the Ruins (charted #104; group dropped by Geffen)
The Earth Pressed Flat (didn’t chart)
Music from the Motion Picture (didn’t chart)
Twice Told Tales (didn’t chart)
…and a handful of post-Merchant live albums which also didn’t chart. Most recently as 2017.

Personal taste aside, that seems like a good argument for “went downhill fast” without the group actually breaking up.

[Walken_After_Midnight]

@digs

Had tickets for the Doors, Jim Morrison died, and they toured without him. I thought, hey, I love Ray Manzarek’s organ work, Robby Kreiger can play guitar, I’ll still go. If they’d just done a jazzy instrumental set, I’d’ve been happy. But they had some bloated no-name trying to sound like Morrison. Painful.

There are a couple of not so widely-known post-Morrison Doors albums with other band members taking over the vocal parts. I don’t think their singing is that good, though, especially in comparison to Morrison’s voice.

Perhaps even less people are aware of a post-Lou Reed Velvet Underground album. Squeeze (1973) featured later Velvet Underground addition Doug Yule on lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, and bass guitar (and acting as producer). The line-up was completed with the drummer from Deep Purple, and someone identified only as “Malcolm” on saxophone.

From Wikipedia:

In 2012, Squeeze received both a CD release and a new LP release from Kismet, a label that specializes in reissuing obscure albums by relatively unknown acts. On the CD, a slight amount of white noise can be heard throughout, indicating that it was recorded directly from an LP copy of the album. The reissues do not appear to be officially licensed from Polydor. A disclaimer included with the release states:

Due to the obscurity of releases on this label, we are occasionally unable to locate the owner of the master recordings. As we have no desire to deprive owners of their royalties, we have created an escrow account in the hopes that the rightful owners will see these releases and contact us. This approach is far from desirable but this is the only way we can bring this music to a wider audience. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

An e-mail address is then provided for the owner(s) of the music to contact Kismet for payment of royalties.

[Lamoral]

@Loach

Two of my favorite albums of all time are *Misplaced Childhood *and Clutching at Straws by Marillion. After Fish left/was kicked out the band went straight to Hell. I know they’ve been chugging along for decades but I just can’t listen to Hogarth.

I love Clutching at Straws! But the first time I heard it, I thought it was so fuckin’ weird I didn’t know WHAT to think. The bizarre rant about anti-Semitism and alcoholism on White Russians with the slowed-down bridge where Fish croons about fresh bagels actually made me laugh out loud. But for some reason I couldn’t stop listening to the album, and now I’ve acquired the taste.

[TonySinclair]

Although they had half a dozen or so songs that could be called minor hits after Diana Ross left, you’d have to say the Supremes were a lot better with her.

[russian_heel]

If were including deaths, did anyone mention InXS? That reality show they did was so wrong.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[russian_heel]

In the “failed temporary replacement” category:

-Motley Crue with Jon Curabi instead of Vince Neil
-Van Halen with Gary Cherrone instead of Sammy or Dave
-Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington instead of Scott Weiland

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[california_jobcase]

@Typo_Negative

But they enjoyed great commercial success with McDonald. Minute by Minute was, by far, their most successful album and McDonald wrote some of their biggest selling songs.

Yeah, and “Sugar, Sugar” was the top hit of 1969. Success≠quality. Commercial success of a band is meaningless to me if I can’t stand to listen to them.

[Morgyn]

@Ethilrist

Evanescence kinda tanked after the guy that wrote all the songs left/got kicked out by Amy Lee. They went from world tour to tumbleweeds.

They both wrote songs, but without the other to play off of the quality suffered a lot.

[MortSahlFan]

Chuck Negron being fired from Three Dog Night due to his heroin use.

[Inigo_Montoya]

@california_jobcase

Commercial success of a band is meaningless to me if I can’t stand to listen to them.

Word. Every now and then someone stands up and points at the naked emperor, and a new punk rock band is born.

[bobot]

Hawkwind was never hugely successful, at least in America, so they didn’t have such a great height to drop off from, but I think most Hawkwind fans would agree that the bands best stuff was delivered before the band fired their bass player Lemmy Kilmister.

[Snake_Plissken_1]

…has to be Molly Hatchet after Danny Joe Brown left. Hence the derisive, “That’s like Molly Hatchet without Danny Joe Brown!”

[ThisSpaceForRent]

Though I really liked Kieth Godchaux’s (RIP) early time spent with The Grateful Dead playing with and taking over for PigPen (RIP) I feel the band got better after their termination Feb 17th 1979. Brent (RIP) added what Keith never could…Sadly Brent “fired” himself 10 years later…Bruce Hornsby did a good job in the interim getting Vince Welnick (RIP) up to speed.

Donna and Keith definitely needed replaced…the other keyboardists not so much.

[Gatopescado]

I’m shocked that Bruce Hornsby is still alive.