groups who no longer should be without certain living members?!

art of noise are not without jj and gary or at least jj, dead kennedys are not without jello, genesis are not without phil, yes are not without jon but trevor was ok inbetween and pink floyd really was not without roger!

Hot take - Unkle are not without DJ Shadow

It’s kind of a fools errand to try to figure out what is and ain’t Yes, they rarely had the same lineup for more than one album

chris squire was the only member for every release till he died and i believe he was their manager too so it makes sense!

Can’t imagine queen without Brian May

True but I don’t think Squire has been super essential to anything they’ve done since like…Drama. Maybe some of the Keys to Ascension stuff but I can’t remember much about it

If anything I think Steve Howe is the guy keeping them sounding something like Yes

Anyway I’d say Can without Holger, even though I do like Saw Delight and Inner Space it’s just a totally different band at that point. Without Karolis guitar tone I wouldn’t even recognize them as Can.

I yield to no-one in my admiration for Peter Hammill and all his works, but I have to say that Van der Graaf Generator have been sorely lacking in dynamics since David Jackson left the band.

You’d think that but I’ve been really impressed with the three piece VdGG. I couldn’t imagine the band working at all without him.

10cc was bold to keep the name after godley and creme left!

i think the 3 piece VDGG are very good, focused, fairly powerful considering their age.

I hate the Eaagles but I really can't accept an Eagles without Glenn Frey

I never saw VDGG with Jackson, but I didn't feel there was anything missing when I saw the trio.

Alvin Lee is no longer living, but Ten Years After recorded a couple albums without him before he passed. Why anyone would want to hear them is a mystery to me.

I loved Alice in Chains but I have no desire to see them without Lane.

The current lineup of Dr. Feelgood has no original members. Three out of the four original members are still alive.

this is one of my favorite subjects but I kind of love bands that just keep trying to soldier forward with few or no original members -- Yes's timeline is hilarious, but so is Foghat's (only Roger Earl, the drummer, is left)

I suppose one could credit Eagles Inc. for not going cheap on the stand-in for Glenn Frey in getting a total ringer like Vince Gill to play along side Frey's son. Of course, there is enough lucre sloshing around in those road accounts to pay for a guy like Vince Gill.

Dead Inc. is kinda doing the same thing to be fair. I got a feeling even after Bobby goes, it will keep on Truckin'. Billy is already having to lay out some because of his health.

you know Spiral is touring the hell out of Pavement if SM goes first

Foghat is a funny one because Lonesome Dave’s replacement, Charlie Huhn, was in the band as long as Dave was, 20+ years.

yeah I am so fascinated by that. like, when MK I of a band is the one that makes the name, but MK II is actually more long-lived...but mainly the crowd's popping for that MK I material

I was just reading about the Dead Kennedys' legal disputes and post-80s career and it made me think, man, what a weird life, to play in any post-Jello version of that band... at least when the Misfits reformed without Danzig they released new music and got something of a following on that basis.

Though by far the weirdest thing I ever encountered in this vein was a version of Sham 69 that was touring the U.S. 7 or 8 years ago. IIRC their only connection to the original group was a guitarist who was in an early lineup of the band and left before they ever recorded anything.

like, when MK I of a band is the one that makes the name, but MK II is actually more long-lived...but mainly the crowd's popping for that MK I material

Yeah, "reunited" Blondie has been around about three times as long as original Blondie and has released almost as many albums, but the only song I can hum unprompted is Maria.

jethro tull's been dead for 280 years

"Sublime with Rome" is another super weird one, so much of the band's persona was in Nowell, for better or worse. like imagine them doing Soul Coughing without Doughty

10,000 Maniacs have released a number of albums post-Natalie; can’t imagine why anyone would listen to them.

Wall of Voodoo post-Stan Ridgway seems very weird to me, I'm sure the other members contributed a lot but his vocals seem like such a defining part of the band. Plus apparently their drummer left at the same time.

Yeah Alice In Chains is one of those bands, they’ve had William DuVall as their singer for over 15 years (and three albums) now, while Layne Staley was in the band less than 10 years.

I believe there was a T-Rex existing post Marc

Just want to point out that the OP was looking for bands soldiering on "without certain living members" so Sublime and Alice in Chains don't fit.

I haven't even listened to any Bad Plus post-Ethan Iverson since I can't get my head around that still being the Bad Plus. I'll listen to what they do with Monder and Speed now, though, since that's so far removed from the original piano trio that it's a different band altogether.

L0

I realize Yes's lineup kept changing but any version of the band without Anderson and Howe isn't a band I care about.

Tbf I don't care that much about the versions that do include Anderson and Howe post-1977 either.

Yeah, there are some bands that I made my break with the first time that they dropped certain members and never got back into when those members reappeared years later.

Motley Crue wasn't great after they dropped Vince Neil but they remained pretty bad once he joined up again.

Anthrax welcomed Joey Belladonna back to the fold 20 years after giving him the boot. Their new records with him are supposed to be pretty solid, but in the meantime, I just stopped caring enough to listen.

The most obvious one to me is The VU without Lou Reed.

Oh, here's a good (bad) one. SAHB without Alex.

https://i.discogs.com/f3_d5m4MtscP5osRtGEcYiR_0J8MCHAwrFOvDPMypxA/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:597/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEzODc0/MDMtMTYyNzI5NjIz/Ny02OTUzLmpwZWc.jpeg

Yeah, when a band's actually named after the main person and they're not in it any more it's getting kind of silly.

Foghat will be my town this summer paired with The Guess Who, another band with the drummer as the only surviving member. Burton Cummings' voice is so distinctive that I would immediately dismiss any lineup without him in it. Yet again, he was in the band for 10 years: 1966-1975 (plus a few reunion tours.) Some guy named Derek Sharp has been their singer since 2008, so 14 years plus.

The most obvious one to me is The VU without Lou Reed.

Bowie attended a post-Lou VU show and struck up a conversation with Doug Yule afterwards. After a few minutes Doug realized, “Hm, this guy thinks I’m Lou.”

Xpost to be fair, they recorded without Alex Harvey, I think he was poorly and took a break. Rejoined them a year later.

(He's on the back of the sleeve, literally)

Yeah, when a band's actually named after the main person and they're not in it any more it's getting kind of silly.

Continuing the Glasgow connection, what about TV series that carry on for 16 years after the death of character the series is named after?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taggart

supertramp without Roger Hodgson, journey without Steve Perry, styx without Dennis DeYoung, foreigner without Lou Gramm

styx without Dennis DeYoung

I support this bc Gowan fronting Styx is awesomely hilarious and fitting.

Kansas without Kerry Livgren, which has been the case since about 1984

BREAKING NEWS: Several longtime band members of Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly, including co-founder Roame, have formed their own group, "The Formerly Of Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly," and will go on tour this summer with @HamiltonAnthony. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/29jX9BB5ot

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) May 8, 2023

I don't know why the SAHB didn't go on as The Sensational Band

Because honestly they didn't sound very sensational on that record. And "The Band" was already taken.

The Formerly of Maze?

um could have possibly found a better name than that to convey the same thing

Should have called themselves the Escapees.

they came to my town!!!!

LOL - did you go?

A friend of mine once saw Herman's Hermits, without Herman.

Fake FGTH came to my town, too. Without any info on who was actually in the band, the tip-off that they were frauds was the t-shirts, which all said, “FRANKIE SAYS.” It was Frankie SAY, dammit! (And I still have my shirt from when I saw the realsville FGTH in 1984.)

I'd probably pay to see From the Jam if they ever toured the U.S.

Me too. I’d even go see Ex-TC.

A friend of mine once saw Herman's Hermits, without Herman.

That's still a thing, IIRC. One of the guys from the old band owns some rights to the name, and sticks to touring the UK under the name. Peter Noone plays every weekend in the States as 'Peter Noone's Herman's Hermits' or something like that.

yeah, my mom saw that act a few decades ago and got Peter's autograph and she was so excited that dad for a moment worried he was about to get dumped.

lmao so apparently Herman's Hermits now is the original drummer, some singer who joined them in the 80s, and two relatively recent hired guns. who the fuck would wanna see that

NARRATOR: Apparently, lots of people.

Currently, Iron Butterfly's earliest member first joined the group in 1995.

The only remaining original member of Foreigner is Mick Jones.

The Beach Boys are a veritable ship of Theseus.

Has any group managed to successfully become dynastic with children of original members assuming parent duties? I feel like logistically this is more likely with duos.

Neando, no I did not go to the fake FGTH, but the local paper did an article about them in the weekend section, where the band claimed to have been studio players on the original records. This was before the Spin (or Rolling Stone?) expose.

xxxxpost AND Mick doesn't perform at all of the shows anymore, so they're often a full Ship of Theseus

xpost lol that is the kind of amazing thing of the pre-internet era, fakery like this could go unexposed long enough to make people a quick buck.

if a fake Flock of Seagulls somehow managed to get to the tour booking undetected (which probably wouldn't happen given the twittersphere), they'd be shut down 30 minutes into their first show anyway.

Tangerine Dream is touring, but probably shouldn't be.

I wrote a big TD story in The Wire a couple of years ago, when the first post-Froese music was released, and interviewed his widow Bianca, who told me that "he left a complex testament to me...he prepared everything, he gave me the whole legacy and the power to continue with the band. And it was me who asked the band if they would like to continue. He left me the choice of what to do with TD, but said, ‘When you go on, make it right.’ So I asked the band spontaneously, ‘Do you want to go on, do you want to continue?’ I could not accept or could not believe that Tangerine Dream would never be heard in concerts [again], so I asked Ulrich and Thorsten if they would like to go on, and they continued.” So she's the legal owner of the name and everyone who's currently in the band works for her, basically.

to respond to the thread bump I think this new version of Tangerine Dream is probably better than they were during the last 30 years of Froese's life unfortunately

Mick Jones is probably the band member who should have hung it up first. I saw him in 99, his voice was completely shot back then.

Gong are still touring with absolutely no-one whose name I recognize in the current line-up, though one of them is rather splendidly named Cheb Nettles. Two of the current members have apparently been playing with them since 2012 and Daevid Allen did give his blessing to Gong continuing without him just before he died.

Kavus Torabi is the main guy in Gong now it seems, they're in good hands

Are there any instances of this where the new very-non classic lineup keeps recording and then gravitates towards their new material rather the hits live?

Has any group managed to successfully become dynastic with children of original members assuming parent duties? I feel like logistically this is more likely with duos.

― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, July 18, 2023 11:55 AM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Feel like Cheap Trick is getting there with Daxx on drums and Robin Zander's son on guitar & backing (sometimes lead) vocals

Can't wait for Cheap Trick XI in 2143

Of course nobody will be able to go outside anymore

"Hello There...Virtually"

The Carter Family is one of these dynastic groups, three generations so far

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper_Family

All Coppers are Bastards

... singers since the 18th century.

that is seriously impressive!

I prefer their early stuff

"This is from our new album"

Has any group managed to successfully become dynastic with children of original members assuming parent duties? I feel like logistically this is more likely with duos.
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, July 18, 2023 11:55 AM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Simon Jeffes' son Arthur does stuff under the name "Penguin Cafe" which I think is quite good

my mum went to see these old blokes calling themselves fairport convention the other day, I have no idea who they are since all the members I'd heard of seemed to just pass through the band at some point and/or die

OK so one founding member and a couple more 60s members, fair play they can keep the name then

When I was a kid I saw something called "Buffalo Springfield Revisited." I was wondering if they were a tribute band, but I guess they had one original BS member, Bruce Palmer.

totally counts!

the thing about this phenomenon is that if the band is purely touring, and not recording new music, often times the new incarnation of the band can recreate the sound with stunning authenticity (not like I Am Morbid, where that band's lead guitarist plays the leads much differently than Trey Azagthoth). if you forget "hey this isn't really the guys who recorded that album I loved years ago", you can have a good time.

but once an incarnation with no original members (or an original member who didn't contribute to the songwriting in a meaningful way or wasn't the face of the band) starts recording new music, it usually falls flat because they're either trying to recreate something that doesn't flow naturally from them, so it sounds phony, or they make the music they want to make and you wonder what the fuck it has to do with the band name it is attached to.

like I'm sure there aren't many fans of the Foreigner album that came out 9 years ago and featured only Mick Jones.

Yes are a good example of that on both counts, there's something weird and unnatural about the current lineup, but the band Jon Anderson's been touring with to play the classics actually does sound pretty great

They could still theoretically put the Anderson-Bruford-Wakeman-Howe project back together, although it's unlikely since a) Bruford is retired, and b) the others all seem to hate each other. Maybe they should all go out with their own backing musicians playing the Yes classics? Saves them pretending it's still actually a band.

Has any group managed to successfully become dynastic with children of original members assuming parent duties? I feel like logistically this is more likely with duos.

― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, July 18, 2023 11:55 AM (twelve minutes ago)

Feel like Cheap Trick is getting there with Daxx on drums and Robin Zander's son on guitar & backing (sometimes lead) vocals

― chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, July 19, 2023 3:10 AM (six days ago)

Does DJ Yella and Li'l Eazy-E currently on "the Straight Outta Compton tour" count?

If it's just kids joining alongside the parents, there's a rich vein, with a recent highlight the current lineup of Crowded House including as many of Neil Finn's offspring as it does founding members.

(and special ILM asterisk for the pre-split lineup of Supergrass containing as many of Gaz Coombes' siblings as it did non-Coombes members in toto.)

Yella has done that N.W.A. Family cash-in touring nonsense for a while. Impressive that MC Ren has never been roped into it

Years of touring have seen The Weight Band revive “The Woodstock Sound,” keeping the spirit of Americana/Roots Rock alive for audiences of all ages. Performing their own music, as well as classic songs from The Band, The Weight Band is led by Jim Weider, a 15-year former member of both The Band and the Levon Helm Band, whose famed Woodstock barn group originated in.

Eh ...

take it to Tribute bands featuring original members

They paved the way for The Average Weight Band!

ha

Weight, Weight
I never had a chance to load you

serious tangent here ―and maybevi should take this elsrwhere― but besides like schoolboy crush, does anyone really awb seriously? i mean, in hindsight.

anyway.

sorry i got so flabbergasted i littered myself with typos. i think you get what i meant. mostly i hate awb. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

so yeah. the band is cool for a legacy act, but not if it's nobody from the actual band.