What personel changes greatly changed a band's career trajectory

[Mike Daniels]

For better or worse....

A few off the top of my head:

Peter Gabriel quits Genesis/Phil Collins takes lead vocal duties

Roger Hodgeson leaves Supertramp dooming both band and his solo career to insignificance

Syd Barret leaves Pink Floyd putting Roger Waters in control

Neil Finn joins Split Enz

Brian Eno quits Roxy Music leaving Bryan Ferry in control

Sandy Denny joins Fairport Convention

Richard Thompson, Ashley Hutchings and Sandy Denny leave Fairport Convention.

Van Halen fires David Lee Roth and hires Sammy Hagar

Hagar quits or is fired from Van Halen and replaced by someone who effectively torpedos the band's career.




Any others out there you can think off....

[kick-ass-bob]

1. Def Leppard

when they started playing in Wal Mart parking lots.

:eyes:

Yes, they really did that - but it wasn't too long ago.

[AntiCoup2K4]

15. This year they're playing minor league ballparks

with Bryan "wuss" Adams as opener.

Def Leppard has gotten progressively worse with each album since "Pyromania". Once they lost Pete Willis and half a drummer, they should have called it quits. High and Dry will always be their best album.

[kick-ass-bob]

21. My friends made fun of the drummer (yeah, I know...)

banging head motion while yelling "rimshot!"

:eyes: We were young...

[elehhhhna]

2. Sting leaves the Police. Cobain suicided.

[Richardo]

3. Terry Kath kills himself

Chicago goes from relevant, political kick-ass rock :thumbsup: to lovey-dovey treacle. :thumbsdown:x(

[Bunny]

How right you are.

Chicago was just so good with Kath. When Peter Cetera took over, they turned to junk.

[Richardo]

24. Jimi Hendrix regarded Kath as the best guitar player around

High praise indeed!


Hendrix once told Chicago saxophonist Walter Parazaider "Your guitar player is better than me." The two guitarists knew each other, and when Hendrix took Chicago on tour, he reportedly jammed with Kath on stage.

A long-time Chicago fan has reported that at one Hendrix concert, Jimi made a reference to Kath out of the blue, saying something to the effect, "You gotta check out this guy Terry Kath. His band is CTA. He's the best guitar player in the universe."

[Bunny]

34. I did not know that!

Yessir, that is just about the highest praise you can get! Wow!

[AntiCoup2K4]

17. Terry Kath didn't just kill himself, he killed Chicago.

They never recovered from it, and after Cetera left, the least said the better.

[Richardo]

25. Well put, AntiCoup2K4

[Bertha Venation]

28. I think this is the biggest one. But, a question:

Forive my ignorance; I heard at the time he was cleaning his gun and it went off, killing him. Now: I was 15 years old at the time. What I heard and accepted at face value became fact in my mind nearly 30 years later.

Was it suicide?

BTW I would never have known about it if my best friend at the time hadn't been a total FREAK over Chicago. When Kath died, she had a nervous breakdown.

[Richardo]

32. The 'lore' is: he was messing around with the gun at a party...

...ejected the clip, but a round was chambered. Jokingly pulled the trigger. One site said his last words were "Don't worry it's not loaded."

Killed instantly, ruled as an accidental shooting.

A terrible tragedy.

[Magrittes Pipe]

4. Arthur Lee fires the rest of Love, replaces them with studio musicians.

[Mike Daniels]

9. Ooh, good one. Can't believe I forgot that one as a Love fan

[dbt]

5. Michael McDonald joins The Doobie Brothers

Biker band morphs into Blue-Eyed-Soul hitmaking machine.

[AntiCoup2K4]

18. True that McDonald "Van Hagared" the Doobies, but..

I will concede that "Takin it to the Streets" was the one exception.

[Guaranteed]

6. Bonham died. Bradley died.

Sucky-ass deaths, both of them.

Although Zep was losing it, anyway, at the time.

[HughBeaumont]

7. Brian Wilson has a nervous breakdown, quits touring

Made Beach Boy albums that lived forever and were respected, not ones that would sell future Penis Compensation Vehicles.

Kirk Hammett switched seats with Cliff Burton, effectively leading to the WRONG member's demise. After Justice, Metallica turns to mullet-prom rock and eventually, spandex and eyeliner.

Vince Neil gets fired from Motley Crue, replace him with no one important. Vince eats and drinks himself fat.

4/4 specialist John Rutsey leaves Rush, paving the way for the far superior Neil Peart and for the band to make stuff that doesn't sound like a bad Zeppelin/Captain Beyond mix.

Rick Wakeman leaves Yes, band makes shite for the next decade and a half (although 90125 isn't that bad)

Ian Fraser Kilmister bolts from Hawkwind after one of their best albums (Warrior on the Edge of Time, which I cannot BELIVE is out of print), calls himself Lemmy, forms one of the most influential bands of heavy rock. Hawkwind driven underground.

[Kat45]

37. I think Lemmy got fired from Hawkwind

Something to do with drugs, IIRC.

[NashVegas]

8. James Honeyman-Scott Dies

The Pretenders will continue to have hits, but they'll never again be "great."

[ProfessorGAC]

16. I Dunno 'Bout That

I thought his and Farndon's death led Chrissy to write some of her truly outstanding work.
The Professor

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. When the Beatles replaced that guy with Ringo

Man, talk about a move that drove a band into obscurity and the musical pits. BAM!

[underpants]

13. He was THE only singer on "Best of the Beatles"

http://www.petebestdiscography.com/

[Rabrrrrrr]

36. What's the importance of that?

While I am a Beatle's fan, I am not very informed about them, so I have no clue what it means that Pete was the only singer on Best of the Beatles.

If Best of the Beatles came out in '65, which Pete Best's website says, how can that be? Or was that the first Beatles' album? Had they actually done a number of albums with Pete? I was under the impression (and like I said, I know very little, actually, about the Beatles), that they hadn't recorded anything until Ringo was with them.

Does this mean that in the original iteration of The Beatles, neither Paul nor John or George sang?

Do you think that if Pete had been kept in the group, that Paul, John, and George would never have sung?


This is all very fascinating!

[Bertha Venation]

11. The Captain & Tennille leave The Beach Boys....

Beach Boys' popularity plummets...

[Mike Daniels]

12. Ian Anderson fires classic Tull lineup and releases "A"

Subsequent change in sound pretty much spelled an end to band's success as a recording unit

[kmla]

14. Natalie Merchant leaves 10,000 Maniacs.

Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham join Fleetwood Mac.

[underpants]

20. I'd add Edie Brickell leaves the New Bohemians

They kept going but it wasn't the same.

[johnnie]

19. Let's see

Glen Matlock is fired from the Sex Pistols leaving some shit for brains Vicious to ruin a great rock band.

Brian Jones is fired from the Stones. I can look at that both ways. The albums right before and right after his departure are all great records.

Jeff Lynn fires the interesting part of ELO, and puts out "Don't bring me dowwwwn..."

Keith Moon takes too many pills and drinks a bit too much booze and dies of heart stoppage. The Who would never be the same.


John Entwistle kicks ass on the concert for 9-11 then decides to snort a load of coke right after taking his heart medicine (duh). What little The Who salvaged after Moon's death is completely gone. They are going to tour again anyhow.

Ian Hunter suffers a nervous breakdown and leaves Mott The Hoople. A new singer tries to save the day, but Mott is gone forever.

That's a few I can think of..I'll try to come up with more.

[immoderate]

22. Moody Blues

First they were a tough R&B band, recording "Go Now," then In 1966, Denny Laine and Clint Warwick left the group and were replaced by Justin Hayward and John Lodge. And they became Muzak.

Their songs are strings of cliches.

--IMM

[borlis]

23. What about Jim Morrison?

His death was death for the Doors.

[AllegroRondo]

26. Rush drops original drummer for Neil Peart

[peekaloo]

27. Bill Berry leaves r.e.m.

Now,I actually buy, listen , like their post-BB output but they aren't the same. Their live shows rock harder with the current guy (sorry name escapes me but he looks like Steve Buscemi's partner in 'Fargo') but there's a void, all the same.

[flvegan]

29. Jam Master Jay is killed.

Sending Run-DMC into retirement.

[flvegan]

30. Axl Rose pulls an Axl Rose, fires everyone

Or did they just all quit?

[AntiCoup2K4]

33. Well, let's put it this way... the others kept working together

...in one configuration or another. Currently it's called "Velvet Revolver" and there was "Neurotic Outsiders" before that. And either of those two groups sounded more like "Guns N Roses" then the one song that was ever actually released from Ax-Hole's "new" album, that horrid single called "Oh My God" which appeared in a bad Ahhhnold movie a few years back.

Ax-hole managed to swindle the other guys out of the name. But he's the one without a band.

[flvegan]

31. Greg Brady leaves the Brady 6, becomes Johnny Bravo

entire show jumps the shark. But hey, the suit fit.

[RandomKoolzip]

35. Ian Hunter leaves Mott the Hoople, gets replaced by

anonymous eccentric no one can remember. Previously excellent band permanently destroyed. (Even that British Lions album sucked)

Sonic Youth fires Bob Bert, replaces him with Steve Shelley, and change from entertaining art band into burlesque pretentious comedy/noise band. Sales increase.

Robert Pollard fires previous incarnation of Guided by Voices, replaces them with entire line-up of EXISTING band (Cobra Verde) and get INFINITELY better in thousands of ways. Then he fires 90% of that band, and replaces THEM with a more stable, but not as rocking, quartet. Career momentum stalls, leading to breakup five years later.