Replacing the lead singer....is it always a bad move?

It seems replacing Stephen Duffy with Simon Le Bon did Duran Duran no harm.

If we're talking purely artistically, Buzzcocks replacing Devoto: A Bad Move

(not really.)

PANAMA!!!

i smell the next "defend the indefensible" thread here!

http://stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1469

I always liked the first couple of albums with Rod Evans..

http://stiltskin.free.fr/genesis.gif

"Mercury Rev....?" - OTM. As much as I love Yerself and Boces, dumping Baker allowed the band to ascend to the heights of what is arguably their finest hour(s) = See You on the Other Side & Deserter's Songs. These days, though, I think they would do well to spike their dad rock with a generous slab of Baker's madcap anarchy.

I have already! And so has Naive Teen Idol!
http://stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1469

-- Alfred Soto (sotoal...), April 19th, 2005. (later)

OMGWTF!

(i am also glad that i am not the only one who thought that "press" was a VERY dirty song.)

yeah, that's what i thought too.

Didn't Medicine originally have a different vocalist?

Blasphemy.

Helped Hot Hot Heat along.

I swear their singer is Justin Guarini. (sp)

This poor guy! Seems maybe a brick shy, but

John Tristao on His 21-Year Stint Subbing For John Fogerty in Creedence: ‘It Was Pure Torture’
He played 1,800 gigs with Creedence Clearwater Revisited between 1995 and 2016, but backstage squabbles and critical backlash took a major toll on his body and mind

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/john-tristao-creedence-clearwater-revisited-1234592101/

Surely he could have saved enough to leave long before the horrible end? Would still have been some horror, but better before then---

My favourite bit is him scolding the new guitarist:

"They’ve got enough trouble doing this without you coming out and trying to play Larry Carlton while we’re trying to play Creedence. It doesn’t work.”

CCRevisited hiring a singer who can't hit the notes of the previous singer (and then refusing to change the keys they play in) smacks of Trevor Horn in Yes, who had to start every set singing at the top of his range, and continue for 2 hours.

Scott Weiland was a fantastic frontman and a versatile singer. But he was a disaster. Someone already raised the question of what to do when the singer dies (or otherwise becomes . . . unavailable). I hear that STP's current lead man is pretty good, but I have zero desire to see them now. Kudos to them for soldiering on, but I doubt I'll ever buy another ticket.

Judging by the interview (and the clip of "Up Around The Bend"), it wasn't that he couldn't hit the notes, but more that they were far more difficult to hit at the end of a set than in the middle, or at the beginning.

xp

Rolling Stone also has an interview with the singer of Talk Show, who says their (pretty good) album never got a chance because the record company was waiting for the STP members of the band to reunite with Weiland.

i was sort of thinking about this just yesterday, but in the context of artists who are filling the role of a titular band leader after that leader is no longer involved.

the two instances that i was thinking of were dewey redman in old and new dreams (taking the role of ornette coleman) and freddia hubbard in VSOP (taking the role of miles davis)

I had a friend in college who saw Herman's Hermits, sans Herman.

I would think in the cases of Redman and especially Hubbard, they weren't replacing in the sense of "taking the role of," in the sense of imitating or approximating, if that's what you mean: they were both known for their own sounds and records, though of course Redman played with Coleman, was compatible with him and the rest of the players who then took the name of Old and New Dreams, when OC on to Prime Time etc. And Hubbard had *some* Quintet-era Miles feel and appeal, of course, so it wasn't like they brought in Herb Alpert (although that could have worked w some Quintet material).

Ethan Iverson has a phrase I like which he uses to describe mid 70s acts like VSOP — "stadium jazz." Even though it was the same guys who played with Davis from 65-68, they weren't doing the same thing musically at all.

Then Black Sabbath of course...

How dare you.

Eddie Van Halen to thread.