But, from what I can tell, they only had four albums, and like I said, as soon as the TV series ended, they split up. While they may have had the chops to make the music, they couldn’t do it together and they only did it for half or less than half of their total output of music.
It wasn’t that sudden by any means. As soon as the TV series was cancelled, they made their movie, Head, and its accompanying soundtrack album, toured, made the 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee special, then Tork quit and the remaining trio toured and made two more albums, then Nesmith quit, leaving Jones and Dolenz to squeeze out one more album under the Monkees name. (The post-Head albums all bombed.) And that’s not getting into the various reunions.
I see what you’re saying, but I’d disagree with the use of Bill Berry. He wrote the majority of classics such as “Perfect Circle,” “Can’t Get There From Here,” “Driver 8,” “Everybody Hurts,” “Man on the Moon” - some of R.E.M.'s signature songs. He also is a multi-instrumentalist, playing keys, accordion, and bass as well.
R.E.M.'s had some excellent session stickmen since Berry, but their popularity has waned (as you note) - Berry had an ear for what songs would work. There’s no way in hell “Airportman” would have ever ended up on an R.E.M. album if he was in the band.
The larger point you’re making, which is that bandmembers that are not necessarily the most technically proficient aren’t necessarily interchangeable with technically better musicians certainly stands. Especially if they have a role in the creative process - even if it’s just knowing what makes a band’s songs sound like a band’s songs.
Trivia: The 11th track on R.E.M.'s Green (“Untitled”) features drums played by Peter Buck, not Bill Berry. Berry deemed the drum part so terrible that he refused to play it.
Can’t get too angry at her for that: people with shitty taste have a right to be catered to, too! 
OK - how about boy bands like Boyzone where 1 or 2 of the guys do the lead singing. I know Irish band Westlife Kian never sings leads but I read somewhere that his deeper voice is an important part of their harmonies. I can’t remember if N’sync or Backstreet Boys just had one lead singer or if it was shared.
Re: the various riffing on bassists and drummers -
One of the most important things about playing in a rhythm section is this: knowing what not to play. You’d be amazed at how many bassists and drummers don’t grasp this concept. There are a ton of bassist and drummers out there who are extremely proficient technically, but a non-musician often won’t notice it based on what you hear on the recordings. The classic examples are AC/DC’s drummer and bassist, but I like to point to Judas Priest’s rhythm section with it’s parade of drummers. First, there’s a good reason Ian Hill has been Priest’s bass player from day one. When you listen to their more well-know material you never hear him do anything fancy. But go back and listen to their first couple albums, and you’ll discover he’s perfectly capable of reasonably complex, interesting bass lines, yet he abandoned that kind of playing on later albums. The key for Ian Hill is this: he knows that he is not the star of the show. Vocalist Rob Halford and guitarists Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing are who people come to see. And so, as the three “main” guys have changed their styles over the decades, Hill has changed his own style to do what he’s supposed to do in the context of his band: play in a way that supports what those three guys are doing. At the same time, he does some simple, subtle things that have helped define Priest’s signature sound.
As to the string of drummers that Priest has had, I’ve long thought it worth noting that their most successful era happened during the tenure of Dave Holland, who had the most rudimentary style of any drummer they ever had. His basic timekeeping perfectly fit Judas Priest’s style, and fit it so well that I’m convinced he, along with Ian Hill, was a key factor in the appeal of Priest during that era.
Resurrecting a zombie thread to mention someone else who might have LOOKED like a money hog to outsiders, but wasn’t. Not at all.
Brian Jones was a mere rhythm guitarist who didn’t sing and didn’t write songs. So, he was just a freeloader, collecting big paychecks as a member of the Rolling Stones and contributing nothing that ANY rhythm guitarist couldn’t have, right?
Well, not exactly. Brian Jones didn’t write “Paint It Black,” but it was his idea to add a sitar.
He didn’t write “Under My Thumb,” but it was his idea to add the marimba.
He didn’t write “2000 Light Years From Home,” but he created many of the Space Age sound effects on mellotron and theremin.
He didn’t write “Ruby Tuesday,” but it was his idea to add that the sad accompaniment on recorder.
Brian Jones didn’t do much that showed up in the copyright papers, but he had a significant effect on the Stones’ sound. And MAYBE some of the other “money hogs” did so too.
A guy who has the smarts to say “Why don’t we speed this up” or “Let’s slow this one down” or “I think horns would sound good here” or “This would sound great with a string section” is valuable to a band, even if he’s not a virtuoso or even much of a composer.
How about Paul Shaffer? He was with early SNL, and with Letterman for 33 years. Yeah he is a good musician, bandleader, and sidekick. But did he really do anything that a thousand other musicians couldn’t have done? Or am I over-simplifying his job?
“These ads are dumb, dumb dumb, these ads are dumb …”
(sung to the tune of “Come Softly to Me” by The Fleetwoods.)
I appreciated Paul’s intro to that particular installment of “Dumb Ads”. The Fleetwoods started out just up the road from my parents, and my uncle dated one of the girls in The Fleetwoods for a while. My uncle was actually invited to join The Fleetwoods, as their drummer. He declined, because he had his own band, called “The Andantes”, an instrumental band in the genre of The Ventures. My uncle actually sat in on drums with The Ventures, who also originated nearby.
The Great gig in the sky? Rick Wright. and Clare Torrey.
Wish you were here is unthinkable without Rick Wright.
Who was picking on Bill Bruford and why? Did he make a lot of money? With who? Was he in Asia?
Well Brian Jones hired each one of those rolling stones. It was his band. his vision to have a blues band in England. He was a visionary in that respect. Mick and Keith were pimply amateurs when he hired them. Brian had already gigged hundreds of times many times solo without being in a gang. They were in awe of his abiilities. That’s why he was kept on so long after he became a victim of his immaturity and ego and impulses.
Wyman recently made them change a plaque that identified the stones as Mick and Keiths band. Wasn’t so.
The reference to Bill Bruford in the OP is baffling. As a musician, he always challenged himself and the bands he was in; he had a unique and widely admired sound and massive chops. Hardly the sort of band member who was just “along for the ride.” And far from being a “money hog,” he actually quit his first and most money-spinning band, Yes, at the peak of their success in order to join the much less commercially promising King Crimson. Eventually he went on to a solo career in jazz–say no more.
I’ve seen Bruford interviewed. He’s probably tied with another drummer, Neil Peart, for “rock star with highest IQ”.
This thread is ill conceived IMO. The real leeches are the ones whose producers write the material, which is based on synth and samples, and who auto tune their voices. Rock bands have chemistry that you can’t see as an outsider. I suppose you could have an algorithm with variables for money made, songs written etc.
That being said Bob Weir is not a good singer at all, one of the worst in a major classic era band.
Still isn’t he more important than one of those singers who sang “waterfalls”?
Ok most people are nominating individual musicians/vocalists, but the OP didn’t say whether we can nominate bands. So my contributions are:
AC/DC - Look, I was the biggest fan of theirs back in the day. They do some catchy tunes and put on a great stage show. But, especially since Bon Scott died, every album sounds almost exactly the same to me. Even to my non-musician ears all their songs sound very simple, and I could argue they haven’t really contributed anything much to the world musically. Their lyrics were cool and funny but they didn’t write anything especially deep or meaningful. Plus if I hear Back in Black or Hells Bells ever again I will rip my own ears off. And you know what? 30+ albums and 40+ years later they’re still around.
Kiss - Same as above. They’ve at least had the guts to try and do something different once in a while. But that’s not much help to their case. I think most people in the band have admitted that they’re in the band to have a good time and get laid. Which is fine, but they have to have the most inversely proportioned band regarding talent vs income. Most of their lyrics are appalingly cringeworthy, and only the most diehard fans would bring any Kiss member up in a “best (instrument) player ever” discussion - and that would bring up torrents of ridicule and “be serious” comments from everyone else. Kiss is living proof that you don’t have to be talented to be popular, you just have to be entertaining. And loud.
Haven’t read the whole thread, so that’s why I’m asking if Milli Vanilli was mentioned anywhere.
I realize this is a zombie post, but yes, she did put out an album. Maybe more than one. It’s been as commercially successful as Sean Lennon’s output. :o
Add Madonna to this list.
And Paul Cook was a solid drummer from the outset: a lot of successful bands have started with a lot less than the Pistols had; the idea that they were a bunch of no-talents assembled by a manipulative genius Svengali was one that was pretty much invented by Malcolm McLaren himself. Certainly they had a lot of writing talent - go listen to Never Mind The Bollocks again; it’s a genius pop album stuffed with catchy tunes - and it would have been fascinating to see what a second Pistols album would have been like. Sid Vicious, on the other hand, was a ham-handed halfwit.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Rotten and co, reading his book.
I tried to like Pil. I actually saw their first North American show.
They are boring and self indulgent. Rotten made his fame on calling people out for being just this same thing. It seems ironic and completely human for this to be the case. I think he has a great mind and love the pistols. But he belongs on this thread, disputably.
He was a poor kid in London when the Beatles were omnipresent and he never forgave them. He likes the Bee Gees, the Who and Zeppelin. He thinks he’s John Lennon though, but isn’t and to me it’s a real tough listen.
They are the reason why Abba was so succesful, it’s like saying The Supremes would have been just as big without Motown
And Bill Bruford? Rick Wright? Music isn’t the forte of this place i guess