If it’s not clear what list of particular rock oddities I’m hoping we can exhaust, think about the Spencer Davis Group. When you and your rock nerd friends sit around and talk about Spencer Davis Group, do you ever talk about poor Spencer himself? Do you ever give him props for whatever instrument he played? Could you pick him out from a police lineup or Spencer Davis Group album cover? Probably not. Spencer Davis is nowhere near the best-known member of the group that bears his name.
Four bands immediately come to mind for this thread, along with a fifth band that is named after two band members who are not the best-known members of the band they founded. I’m banking on the fact that there are more than the five examples I have in mind. Let’s get it on! But first, remember the one rule in Last Man Standing competitions: Only one entry per post! You may not post a list that hogs multiple entries. Now, let’s get it on!
So like, Fleetwood Mac? At least the most popular and arguably better incarnation?
An obvious one: the J. Geils Band.
I hadn’t thought of J. Geils Band. Perfect. I’ll put an easy one out there: Booker T & the MGs (music fans are most likely to talk about the other three musicians and their importance).
Montrose.
Brinsley Schwartz
Dave Clark 5
Pual Revere and the Raiders
Jethro Tull (just kidding)
The finest recorded example of this Spencer Davis situation is the video of the Spencer Davis Group performing in Pop Gear, where Davis and Muff are bopping around doing their skiffle thing, and then partway through, Muff’s little brother casually wanders into frame and completely annihilates them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpOzLez9IyQ
If anything, not changing the band’s name after that was just mocking poor Spencer.
I’ll take a shot at what I assume that mysterious fifth band is meant to be, and just to get it off the board: Rod Torkelson’s Armada Featuring Herman Menderchuck.
Oh, hang on, you meant…guess I gotta wait.
Is there a better-known member of Dave Clark 5 than Dave Clark, at least as much as he is known in his own faceless group?
Paul Revere and the Raiders is a good one! Brinsley Schwarz was one I had in mind. Rod Torkelson’s Armada featuring Herman Menderchuck is a winner I hadn’t considered!
Mmmmm… Where does that leave us? There’s got to be more out there. I think I’ve already forgotten one of the bands I had in mind last night. Sad.
AlexR, that’s a great clip — the moments of Muff’s entrance and exit are downright jarring!
alex, skiffle’s a lot less bluesy sounding than that, much more rooted in american folk. but that’s a great vid! it almost looks like stevie isn’t even in the band, but piped in from another planet!
mod, i don’t think booker t’s as overshadowed by the other guys in that band as your thread start standard requires.
but what about john mayall’s bluesbreakers, in just about every incarnation?
Thanks, Sat: John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers is the band I’d thought of last night that had since slipped my mind. Along the same lines…
whatever the name of Alexis Korner’s was. Didn’t he have some self-named band through which a lot of future British rock legends would pass?
Would the “fifth band that is named after two band members who are not the best-known members of the band they founded” in fact be Van Halen?
The Band were once known as Levon & The Hawks.
jimmy page played with alexis korner for sure. i can’t remember what the name of that band was, however.
along these same lines, could we also note Rory Storm and the Hurricanes?
Why not, Saturnismine?
Van Halen is open to debate, but it’s worth throwing out there.
Here’s one: Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes.
Delaney and Bonnie, during the period when George Harrison and Eric Clapton were practicing humility with them.
Kool & the Gang
John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers
I was holding back on Kool & The Gang hoping they’d slip by everybody for a while.
Phish is named after the drummer, right?
Manfred Mann
Good one, dbuskirk! Can we keep it coming without having to get into jazz combos?
Echo and the Bunnymen. Named after the drummer and all, eh? It does too count!
Mike & The Mechanics?
I’m going to nominate Argent, because most people who know their hit song don’t know that the name of the band is the also the name of the keyboard player, and because two members later became Kinks, who are better known than Rod Argent in every way.
Whose better known than Mike Rutherford in Mike + The Mechanics (let’s get that name just right, Sammy – he demands use of the plus symbol), Paul Carrack? Not quite.
Alexmagic, I will not allow Echo, because “he” was the drum machine, not a real band member. Granted, there have been cases in which the drum machine is a full-fledged band member. Oh hell, this is getting tough. I’ll allow Echo and the Bunnymen, all right? Hope you’re digging that Bee Gees song I loaded for you!
Mike + The Mechanics we never talk about Rutherford. We talk Carrack.
Nah, BigSteve, don’t you think no one but rock nerds who hung with The Kinks through the ’70s knows who you have in mind? Argent was bigger than life, perhaps so big that the common rock fan had no idea who Rod Argent was, but I don’t think Common Fan knew any more about the future Kinks members. Do you think, or am I slated to be a nice guy all day? I’ll leave it to the Hall to decide.
I was ready to play the Robot Card if you’d thrown Echo out. Now I gotta call Gloria Allred back and tell her not to file the papers.
I would have supported BigSteve’s submission of Argent – even at my own expense – had he been arguing for Russ Ballard over Rod Argent. Even if he’s not better known, he’s definitely the most awesome member of the band. I await the official decision before saying anything else in this topic, as my team of lawyers have given me the go ahead for something that might bring the belt home for me, building on the landmark 2007 legal decision of The (Towns)People vs. Echo.
Based on the submission of Russ Ballard, we shall accept Argent.
alexmagic asked:
Phish is named after the drummer, right?
Was it a west Philly band who’s name was Ghoti, pronounced “fish?” GH as in Enough, O as in Nation, and TI as in Propitious. Always cracked me up.
Zumpano. Named after their drummer Jason Zumpano . Carl Newman went onto form the New Pornographers.
I didn’t know we were talking about the Common Fan. I don’t associate with such people, and thus I have no insight into their thought processes.
In many of the examples we’re giving, the famousness on the non-eponymous members post-dates their membership in the band.
I think what this thread basically points up is that it’s generally ill-advised to name your band after one of the members.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer, who were all better known than each other.
Indeed. I thought the premise was
Not sure where I got that idea?
An interesting footnote to the Spencer Davis tangent (to me, anyway) was the band’s attempt to get heavy after the departure of Wynwood. Heavy in a proto-Deep Purple way. Plus the ill-advised perms in response to Clapton in response to Hendrix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr0wpV69GP0&feature=related
Butterfield Blues Band
Billy Ward and the Dominoes, with Billy Ward being more of the manager/producer and lead vocalists Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson being just billed as mere “Dominoes”.
Rod Argent is less famous than his Argent bandmates because they went on to become post-Lola, 70s era replacement Kinks?
That’s kind of like saying Billy Joe Tolliver was clearly a better Saints QB than Billy Joe Hobert.
or like saying….that the extra in the background holding a glass of tomato juice in seinfeld season three episode five is more famous than the extra in line in the the soup nazi episode.
we’re WAY up the anus of thread if we’re arguing such things.
Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
Paul McCartney and Wings (give it up for the amazing Denny Lane!)
Andy Warhol’s Velvet Underground featuring Nico (almost as funny as Rod Torkelson’s Armada)
The Silver Beatles featuring Tony Sheridan (was the single actually released that way?)
Oh yeah, The Jeff Beck Group (Rod the mod)
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers
rory storm and john mayall are taken, thankyouverymuch.
but the jeff beck group is a great one! although jeff had some fame, he was definitely eclipsed by rod and woody!
Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. He’s maybe the third best-known one in the band, at best.
A-NI-MAL!!!