who's the biggest music whore?

Cafe Society
1

now i’m not sure whether this is a widely used term or not, (possibly i just invented it) so i’ll start off by explaining it.

a music whore. the type of musician who’ll perform with anyone. hell, they’ve done tracks with so many artists, it’s surprising they don’t have some form of musical std. they’re the ones that always come after the ‘feat.’ label.

as in

anyone feat. method man and redman.

admittedly, music slut (or music playa) is more accurate, but it doesn’t sound as good as music whore.

so who is it? who’s the premier tramp of the music biz?

the aforementioned method man and redman are contenders. they’ll do tracks with anyone, whether it’s de la soul or limp bizkit.

but then again, the whole hip hop world seems to be one mass orgy of musical guesting. for instance, the whole snoop-eminem-dr dre-kurupt-everyone party.

there doesn’t seem to be a serious artist around that hasn’t done a track with thom yorke (pj harvey, dj shadow, bjork, r.e.m., drugstore).

and former verve-man richard ashcroft doesn’t seem to be too picky about who he swaps (creative) juices with these days.

so who is it? who’s the biggest music whore? whos’ the recording industry’s kevin bacon?

2

The Sinead O’Connor Awards:

“And now, the award for the Emptiest Song of the Year…”

3

You’re not gonna believe this, but I’m pretty sure the winner is… (at least in the context of having played on more recordings by other artists than any other person alive)

one Mr Eric Clapton…

Apparently, at last count, Old Slow Hand has played on more than 320 separate recordings by other artists. These recordings exclude those which have been attributed to either the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith, or Derek and the Dominos, or “Eric Clapton” himself. They are purely ‘guest’ appearances where he’s just lent his expertise for a tune or two.

After the “Party at the Palace” last week, you can bump that up to 321, or 324 or whatever!

4

What about Puff Daddy? I mean, his entire carreer is based off of the fact he sticks himself in at least one song of everyone on his label. His carreer started by “singing backup” for the Notorious B.I.G. (meaning, saying “Uh huh,” and “Yeah,” at randome intervals in the song). for modern day whoring, I say it’s none other than P. Ditty himself.

5

Most people who appear on multiple albums for multiple people do it because they are talented and are wanted on those albums.

Consider Jimmy Page. Before he founded Led Zeppelin, he performed on an estimated 50% of all rock and roll singles released in Britain. That’s because he was a damn good guitarist.

There also was Jim Gordon, who played drums for just about everyone in LA in the late 60s.

6

Ry Cooder was a session musician before he started releasing his own albums. He has played most every string instrument on albums for almost everyone in the 60s. He founded Rising Sons with Taj Mahal, provided lots of guitar work for Captain Beefheart and Little Feat.

He worked with the Rolling Stones on “Let It Bleed”. The central guitar riff on “Honky Tonk Woman” is NOT Keith; it’s Ry.

He has also been incredibley prolific in Hollywood writing and recording guitar parts for many soundtracks (most notably “Crossroads” with Ralph Don’t-call-me-karate-kid Macchio.)

Is he a music whore? Nope. At best, he’s a music prostitute. People come to him for his talents and pay him handsomely. He don’t go lookin’ to score.

Spritle, who is listening to “Into the Purple Valley” right now.

7

Willie Nelson

8

yeah, i know. i’m a big fan of most of the artists i listed in my post. i guess it was just more interesting to ask ‘who’s the biggest music whore’, than ‘who guest stars an awful lot’.

boo boo foo: eric clapton? really?

heh heh… that old dog!

9

Gary Moore would have to be up there. He’s been in:

Skid Row, the original one from the late 60s
Gary Moore Band
Thin Lizzy
G-Force
Gary Moore
BBM

and a number of others. He’s also recorded with a number of other artists, though I don’t know how many.

10

There’s also the Tower of Power horn section, which everyone called in if they decided they needed horns.

11

My vote also goes to Clapton. (where do you think the slang term for VD, “clap” came from, anyway?)

12

Yeah I have to agree, and go with Puffy. I have admiration for artists who seek to collaborate with other artists for the sake of making something different. Puffy, however, seeks to ride the coat tails of whoever is popular at the moment, and doesn’t even do a good job at doing it.

13

Another for Clapton. He’s worked with everyone. Anyone remember Pros & Cons of Hitchhiking by Roger Waters? Runaway Train by Elton John. Just to name a couple.

I also think there should be a special movie category. My nominees would be soundtrack whores Bryan Adams and Rob Zombie.

14

And let’s not forget his slide work on the first Crazy Horse album. I just finally replaced my worn out vinyl with the cd. God, it’s good to hear it again. That album also featured Nils Lofgren, often a guest on other’s albums.

I agree Clapton has guested on quite a number of albums, but I don’t think “Music Whore” is warranted. I imagine Clapton just gets invited to sit in a lot. You’re looking at about a 40 year career. That’s a lot of friends, a lot of studios, a lot of favors.

Now, perhaps someone a bit closer to the mark can be found here.

15

Nile Rodgers of Chic (“Freak Out”) fame produced just about every record in the 80’s, and was inveriably a session musician on albums he produced- so he’s played with David Bowie, Duran Duran, the B-52s…

Oh, yeah- he is pretty damn good too.

16

I think even “music prostitute” is too harsh. Let’s call 'em “music escorts.”

17

What - no mention of Gwen Stefani, the Harry Dean Stanton of the music world?

18

Commercial music whore:

Moby.

  • s.e.
19

Ja Rule is the man of the moment on “music whoring”. All he does is release tracks with others – Ashanti, Charlie Baltimore, etc. etc.

20

Well, by the OP’s standards, all professional session musicians are whores. They get paid by the hour to play whatever style of music is called for, with whatever artist pays them.
They don’t have to like the artists they work with, they don’t have to like the songs they’re playing, they just have to show up at the studio and play what they’re told to play, in as few takes as possible.

I dislike the term “whore,” because music is a tough business, and people have to make a living. A waiter’s job is to take orders and serve food- whether he’s working at a ritzy French bistro or at Denny’s, his job is to find out what the customer wants, and bring it to him. In the same way, a session musician’s job is to play whatever his employer wants him to play.

A job is a job.

Be that as it may, past/present session players like Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Jimmy Page, Leon Russell, Jim Keltner, John Paul Jones, Ray Cooper, Tony Levin and Glen Campbell have played for hundreds of different artists in every imaginable style.

Jimmy Page laughs that in his session days, he might play with Van Morrison, Tom Jones, Peter Sellers, Herman’s Hermits, the Who and Julie Andrews in the space of a few weeks.

Hal Blaine played for Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, John Denver, the Beach Boys, John Lennon, Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, the Byrds, the Partridge Family… you name it. On classic albums (like “Pet Sounds”) and on dreck (the Brady Bunch Christmas album).