Aug 212008
Simple question: What band leaders have been least equipped to face the world as solo artists? In other words, what once-mighty rock visionaries have most struggled with creating meaningful, distinctive music outside their original (or any) band setting? You are encouraged to discuss Why.
Artists like David Lee Roth, who were clearly co-visionaries of a distinctive band, may not be up to the level of discussion that I seek. (If the Stones were to dissolve, the same would go for, say, Mick Jagger or Keef as solo artists.)
For clarification, in case any of you are scratching your heads over this thought, my inclusion of Townshend’s “Face the Face” video was meant as a sign of the artist’s self-realization. Townshend’s first two solo albums as The Who’s initial run wound down had their merits, despite the limitations of Townshend’s voice, but I think “Face the Face” was the moment he realized he shouldn’t completely torch the bridge back to his remaining cranky, old bandmates. Although I wouldn’t say Townshend was the least equipped of ill-equipped band leaders to go solo, I hope his example gets at what I’ve got in mind.
Somebody that comes to my mind is John Sebastian, who apart from his Woodstock appearance & the “Welcome Back Kotter” single, never really hit the heights he had w/the Lovin’ Spoonful. He had a great run of songs from 1965-67 (although I’m miffed that he said that Sun Records were made in Nashville in “Nashville Cats”). I remember reading him quoted in Ritchie Unterberger’s Eight Miles High as saying that one of the benefits of going solo was that you could work w/the best studio musicians & I thought to myself, why would you say these things when you had people like Zally (R.I.P.).
Sebastian’s a good one!
What’s the story with Zal Yanofsky. Did he really “narc” on fellow musicians?
From what I can remember reading from various sources, Zal & another member of the Spoonful got busted for having pot. Zal, being from Canada, was threatened with deportation if he didn’t provide the authorities w/the name of the dealer, which he did. I believe the Spoonful paid for the dealer’s attorney. This put a big dent in the Spoonful’s “hip” credibility.
Chris Cornell has one of best rock voices of my generation yet nothing seems to be sticking after Soundgarden. He’s been a bit of a disappointment to me at least.
Scott Weiland has made some pretty decent solo stuff, but it has been extremely sporadic. Heroine will do that to a guy.
A sort of underground success rather then failure seems to be Mark Lanegan. He pops up in all sorts of interesting projects and has a couple decent solo projects as well.
He seems to at least enjoy what he’s doing and making enough to live on.
I won’t comment on the Townshend stuff, but I can’t see the forest for the trees when it comes to Pete. Iron Man is about the only thing he’s done that I can’t dig on. Everything else is fair game for me.
Huge band/lousy solo artist? Jimmy Page. Undoubtedly the leader of one the greatest bands in rock history as guitarist, writer, and producer. What happened, Jim?
TB