They certainly are, but The Smiths are not, and the Smiths are famously Morrissey and Marr. So I don’t think we can include him here.
Incredible piano player, you got that right! I didn’t include him because I think about five or six times shooting pool in a bar topic of playing music came up and the drunk guy who was still beating me slurred something about “Nick” Hopkins. I figure if his name filtered down that far the ladder he must be pretty well-known. Who can say, though?
Here’s a brain teaser: who’s the only man that’s been on EVERY Judas Priest album from the beginning until this very day?
The one member of the band NOBODY ever remembers: Bassist (naturally!) Ian Hill.
Mick TaylorMember of the Stones for a while, played guitar on what I consider the Stone’s finest effort Exile On Main Street. Great guitarist, can play circles around Richards and Wood IMHO.
David Grissom. Not sure how well known the bands he played in are but a stellar guitarist. Has guested on many other artist’s albums as well.
Steve Morse. He is in Deep Purple. Played with Kansas. And guested on a crap load of other artist, from Pavoratti (sp) to Lynryd Skynryd. Tons of solo work plus his band The Dregs/Dixie Dregs.
The man is amazing. No one outside of guitarists/guitar geeks knows who he is.
Slee
See, this is so subjective. In my Weltanschauung, Steve Morse is pretty much a household name, whereas Richard Tee isn’t. Something about there being so many guitar freaks (said affectionately – besides Hammond and piano, it’s my favorite instrument, maybe neck and neck with a proper drum kit with quality Turkish on it).
And, earlier, Entwhistle??? Seriously? I’m not even a huge the Who fan, but he just was that sound for so many cuts. He’s the reason I play “Summertime Blues” the way I do in the dead of winter.
But in well-known bands, here’s somebody nobody except a Floydiac knows – Rick Wright RIP. His Hammond work is so subtle and brilliant that, if you listen to “Animals” without knowing it’s there, you might both miss it and not miss it, if you know what I mean.
I’ll give big ups for Johnson, but everyone knows who he is, to quote from intro to Dr. John from Last Waltz.
It’s my feeling he actually invented all those licks Berry put over to guitar – just so natural on piano.
One more obscure-ish session player who was a major figure in his own right, but probably not well-known for his contributions to the recordings of others: Huey “Piano” Smith. Played on a bunch of Little Richard cuts, for reasons of tracking bleed-through and some other stuff I only vaguely know about.
I got the ultimate one-hit wonder, though (kidding, Bob!) – “Bobby” Brookmeyer on valve trombone for the obligato on Ray Charles’s “Come Rain Or Come Shine” (c’mon, you all saw “King Of Comedy,” right?)
I’m a Morse fan too. Nice call.
I’ll throw Deep Purple’s Tommy Bolin out there. Come Taste the Band but Don’t let your mind Post Toastee.
Hey, Astorian!
Nick Mason has a Formula One Ferrari in his gameroom. And he’s a drummer. He is exactly the first person I think of when you mention The Pink Floyd.
I would say Marc Perlman (bass), but *The Jayhawks *aren’t that well-know.
Boom Gaspar, organ player for Pearl Jam. Has a writing credit on one of my all time favorite songs, Love Boat Captain.
He’s best known as the drummer for The Tubes, but ever since he met Todd RUndgren when he produced their album Remote Control he’s become Todd’s go-to drummer.
I once saw him play three different concert with three different groups in as many days: An all-star tribute to The Beatles performing Sgt. Pepper’s one night, performing Todd Rundgren’s album Arena the next and a show with The Tubes the next.
He’s the only founder member left, but Glenn Tipton and KK Downing played on all the albums.
Another bassist: Scott Schoenbeck. Recorded with The Promise Ring and Dashboard Confessional, both pretty famous within modern rock circles. He’s not that great in Dashboard, since the style he plays in – either semi-sloppy low-fi punk, or loud but smooth moody insistence, does not mesh very well with Dashboard’s requirements for just a straight-on rhythm backer. But I noticed something distinctive about his playing before I even knew it was him that Chris had chosen to play bass with him.
And he absolutely was the star of the second best rock song in the world, Best Looking Boys. (In first place are all of the songs off of the first three-fourths of The Wall.)
Dave Nachmanoff.
Incredibly talented guitarist. Apparently, he’s been around for a while, but I never heard of him until I saw him working with Al Stewart.