Paul Simon could still write good music, but without Art there was no one to sing it.
Paul Simon is one of my favorite singers.
For example: “Bridge Over Troubled Water”
I heard Paul sing it live once. Sad, really.
Art owns that song.
John Lennon.
Dear God man, that is an example of the opposite phenomenon. With Garfunkel the music was pretty to listen to, but limp and lyrically sometimes banal. Simon’s first solo album is one of the greatest ever recorded. On that album alone he had Me and Julio, Duncan, and Mother and Child Reunion.
Every album since then has been at worst interesting and at best brilliant.
Peter Cetera!
Phil Collins!
Beyonce. Shoulda stuck to Destiny’s Child…
I have to question this.
Not on the basis of it sucking (it does), but, rather, the fact that I can’t tell the difference between a Peter Cetera solo song and a song sung by Peter Cetera during the last 5 or 6 years he was with Chicago.
My pick: Paul McCartney, hands down.
No one’s mentioned Michael McDonald, yet?
I’ll second Paul McCartney. Heck, while I’m at it I’ll third and fourth him as well!
How about Henry Rollins, or as I like to call him, “that guy that followed Dez”?
Didn’t Keith Moon of The Who release a solo Album…which went no-where? :dubious:
Y’know, I heard that vsn. the first time while learning how to do the Foxtrot for my wedding dance. You’re exactly right, of course. Even the “bozie-bozie-BOP diddy-bop”. However, that was one funny video, you gotta admit; probably the only video I ever saw that made me like a song more.
But yeah, when DLR couldn’t ape somebody else, boy did he ever suck. I dunno what happened to him post Van-Halen. He was a pompous, preening, oversexed ass, but he didn’t just plain suck. Then it’s like, he leaves VH, and all his solo stuff is complete, utter shite. He puts together a kick-ass band (Billy Sheehan and Steve Vai? I mean, holy crap!), and they…SUCK! Hard! Guess Diamond Dave finally blew a fuse too many. Maybe he thought with the little head a little too often and the big one atrophied beyond recovery.
Without a doubt, the 2 biggest wussies in rock and roll. Both began their decent into wussyhood while still in the bands that made them famous enough to suck on an international level.
Uhh, you ever hear of Chris De Burgh? Or Kenny Loggins?
I suppose I could nominate Loggins, but he sucked just as hard in Loggins & Messina as out, so I guess I won’t.
Richard Ashcroft, singer/songwriter of Verve before they split for good.
I love Verve, but his solo stuff is dreck.
That might have been true up through “Suicaine Gratifaction,” but his migration over the last few years into a raw, recorded-on-the-cheap-in-the-basement sound has un-Stingified him quite a bit. Sting would hardly stand for it if the tape ran out before he was finished playing the song, while Westerberg just shrugs and slaps the track on the album as-is.
Agnetha & Frida, the women from ABBA. How many people even know they recorded anything after the group broke up?
Bjorn & Benny’s musicals, Chess & Kristina, though brillant, haven’t received the recognition they deserve.
Shenanigans! I went to see Westerberg live last Tuesday, and he rocked. I like his solo stuff. It’s not quite the Replacements i’ll grant you, but it certainly nowhere like the full atmosphere to beneath the Earths crust dive into suckiness that Sting’s done.
I’m surprised at a lot of the suggestions here. Rollins? Ozzy?
Frusciante off the Chilli Peppers solo stuff bites, if he counts.
I’m going to nominate Johnette Napolitano - the lead singer from the band Concrete Blonde. I used to listen to them in college, but they broke up sometime in the late 90’s so she could pursue a solo singing career. I don’t think it went anywhere.
I would also like to add I really like Belinda Carlisle, both solo and the GoGos stuff. Now thats a confession.
Dave Gahan off Depeche Modes solo stuff isn’t much cop too. Depending on if you thought Depeche Mode were any good in the first place (I did).