SOLO CAREERS AFTER BEING IN A HUGE BAND

[RJhog (Admin)]

Quite honestly, I'm not exactly sure where I want to go with this topic, so keep an open mind for me.  I was listening to the radio this morning and a Robert Plant solo song came on.  It made me start thinking about folks that moved on from a huge band into the world of solo albums, specifically the aforementioned Robert Plant and his former bandmate Jimmy Page. 

 

They have both had the same amount of time to produce solo material since the breakup of Led Zeppelin, but Plant's actual solo albums far outnumber Page's.  I wonder why?  It's not like Page has been a total hermit.  He's done quite a few collaborations and various other stuff, but only one true solo album.

 

Jimmy Page: Outrider

 

Robert Plant: Pictures At Eleven, The Principle Of Moments, Shaken 'n' Stirred, Now And Zen, Manic Nirvana, Fate Of Nations, Dreamland, Mighty ReArranger, Band Of Joy

 

Any thoughts on why this may be the case?  Is it because it's easier for a vocalist to make solo albums than a guitarist?  I'm just curious what you guys think regarding this.

[Jon]

That's a shame since the current lineup of Styx is what the lineup should always have been, especially with the lead singer(s). Shame too that certain people don't understand that, but I'm brilliant and they're not.

[Niels (Mod)]

Even Roger Daltrey had (at a time) a more succesfull solo-career than Pete Townshend, so yeah: I think it is much easier for a front-man/singer to make a solo-career than anyone else in a succesfull band.

Mind you: Townshend's solo-stuff was mostly crap after all.

Freddie Mercury had a rather succesfull solo-album (in Europe) but he was both the singer and the best (imo) song-writer in Queen.

Mick Jagger made a terrific solo-album in 1993 (Wandering Spirit) but his partner in crime, Keith Richards has made only crap-soloalbums, as far as I know (has he made one? two?). Usually when Richards sings lead on a Stones-song, it's also a crap-track, so there you go, but I do think, that he has indeed very much input on most of the best Stones-tracks.

The Beatles solo-stuff might be very succesfull, but they really didn't make as good music anymore, after the spilt, neither of them. That reminds me: Where's "Imagine" in QOTW? "Double Fantasy"!!! That's no contest to "Band On The Run" or "All Things Must Pass"!!!!

I do think, that in most of the cases (as in Page's case), the main thing for the guitarist/main song-writers are THE BAND, so they don't save the best stuff for a solo-album, or collaborate with other well-known songwriters like some of the singers/frontmen. Maybe, when the time came to solo-stuff, the main songwriters were burned out.

Even though Townshend might have saved some of his "best stuff" for his solo-stuff around 1980, all the good stuff was gone by then.

[Jon]

That Mercury album isn't bad at all, I actually bought it when it came out and I was in England. I have two different versions of it, the original plus the more rock-oriented version. Well, they're KIND OF the same. But the original album "Mr. Bad Guy" isn't bad at all, just don't expect a lot of rawk.

[Niels (Mod)]

LAOTW?

[Jon]

Huh, what?

[Niels (Mod)]

Do you mean that? You honestly don't know what I'm saying? What about L/FAOTW then?

[Jon]

Uhhhhh...no?

[Niels (Mod)]

Lost/Forgotten Album Of The Week!!! I'll spell it for you: A request from me to you: Can you at any given time post "Mr. Bad Guy" in your feature called "Lost/Forgotten Album Of The Week", Jon? It is Jon, isn't it?

[Jon]

Man, that is too damn funny. LAOTW and it completely escaped me. I'm an idiot. 

Yep, can do. It might have been up on the QUeen page awhile ago, but since that change to Podsnack or whatever, it's long gone. Give me a couple weeks and I can do "Mr Bad Guy"!

[RJhog (Admin)]

I started to go with Lennon's Imagine.  I am not particularly familiar with any of the ex-Beatle's solo work, so I picked based on limited knowledge of the catalogs.  

By the way, I voted for Ringo because his album has the best two songs out of all of 'em.

[Jon]

You're saying that two songs on Ringo's album beats EVERYTHING on Band On The Run? Are you insanely crazy?

[RJhog (Admin)]

Yes.  Sixteen and Photograph.  And the reissue is even better because it has the non-album single It Don't Come Easy.

Band On The Run has some good stuff, but, as with a lot of Beatles related music, it's a bit overrated.  The song Band On The Run is really the only thing that appeals to me on McCartney's album.  I'd much rather hear those Ringo songs.