Who’s your nomination for the biggest coasting job done in a band? Now, no fair just naming the drummer for Whitesnake. While I’m sure he coasted, who the heck knows who he is? So his reward of fame and presumably money was low for his coasting. What we’re looking for is the biggest reward for the least amount of work in the music business.
For instance, Ringo Starr could be considered neck and neck with Adam Clayton, because although Ringo coasted more (listen to the drumming on “Revolution”) and he got more famous, Adam may have made more money, making it debatable. Maybe the fact that U2’s been together longer, and so Adam has been coasting longer than the Beatles were even together breaks the tie.
Other nominees: Charlie Watts. Bill Wyman. Tommy/Marky/other drummers in the Ramones.
I see what you’re getting at, but it’s easy to point to drummers as being coasters within a band. Most bands benefit from having one or two highly creative people within the band, with the other members relegated to performing a limited function which helps realize the creative vision of the band leaders. Drummers are more often than not used to keep time in a song and not much more. While there have been drummers who stand out in their own right, such as Keith Moon and Buddy Rich, most perform the more journeyman function of being a human metronome for the rest of the band to work around.
For band members who did regularly coast, I nominate the late Bob Stinson of The Replacements, and Shane MacGowan of The Pogues. Both talented, both amazing at times, the end result too often depended on how sober they were when they showed up to play.
An easier game is to state which bands are coasters. The Stones and The Who have little creative reason to ever record another song or do another tour, but they still put out the pap, though I haven’t seen any announcements for a Who tour in awhile.
IMHO, Aerosmith would have been better off hanging it up after their first three or four albums, but I guess it’s costly to keep little Stevie in fresh spandex and scarves.
It’s not exactly “coasting” but for the biggest mismatch between talent and contribution, I nominate George Harrison. It’s clear from his solo work that he’s enormously talented but during his time with the Beatles (at least up until about '67 or so) he was so overshadowed by Lennon and McCartney that he was virtually ignored.
Maurice Gibb. Barry could have gotten by alone, of course, but at least Robin sang a few of the Bee Gees’ hits. I can’t think of ANY serious contribution Maurice ever made.
Andrew Ridgeley. George Michael WAS Wham.
Michael Anthony- a LOUSY bassist who lucked out by meeting Eddie Van Halen when they were BOTH nobodies.
Mary Wilson. The Supremes were weaker without Florence Ballard, and they were NOTHING without Diana Ross. But would anyone have noticed the difference if Mary Wilson had vanished?
and the BIGGEST coaster of all time? By far…
JOHN OATES.
Darryl Hall wrote almost all of Hall & Oates’ hits, he sang lead on almost all of Hall & Oates’ hits. What, exactly, did John Oates do, and why did Darryl keep him around?
I must partially disagree with you, My Prince. It’s true that John Entwhistle never looks terribly enthusiastic (except maybe when he performs his single song on each album, q.v. Boris the Spider and My Wife). However, he’s considered one of the best bassists ever to grace the rock genre. He’s probably a better musician on bass than Pete Townshend is on guitar.
Another who must object to calling John Entwhistle a coaster; he was an extremely taleted musician (he also wrote a number of the Who’s ‘darker’ songs) who just happened to be surrounded by three guys who couldn’t play without bouncing off the walls. Heck, even Animal from The Muppet Show would look sedate next to Keith Moon.
Anyway, my vote goes to Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Keith Emerson is a very gifted, if sometimes over-arty, keyboard player, and Carl Palmer’s drum solos just blow me away. Lake, otoh, provided nothing but some mediocre guitar playing and some absolutely atrocious lyrics. Not only would the group not have lost anything without him, they would have improved.
One of my favorite actors, Bruce Willis coasted in a big way on his celebrity when he tried a rock & roll career. He’s even worse than the Blues Brothers.
Seriously, he is very respected as a player. I remember hearing that he had won a magazine’s “rock bass player of the century” award (sorry, no cite).
I saw The Who at the Hollywood Bowl in October '00, and was with my bass-player friend, who could be excellent if only he practiced a little more. When John got done with his solo, I turned and said, “I would have bet that couldn’t be done.”
Listen to “Can You See the Real Me” first before jumping to a conclusion about this.
Nick Mason, of Pink Floyd fame. A mediocre drummer at best, he met up with the right group of friends in the Sixties. The rest is, as they say, history. And he now owns a sports car collection with an estimated worth of, oh, Nigeria or something.
