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Artists better in a band than solo

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It seems to me that a lot of artists are better as quality side-men and song-writers than solo performers. They may not like being on stage, may respond well to the structure of other musicians their equal, or the creativity bank over-drawn. When I hear Bob Dylan’s songs performed by others, his talent shines through. I prefer Eric Clapton as a star soloist with others, and Phil Collins’s drum contributions to other bands were better than his work in post-Gabriel Genesis. Is this a minority view?

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    • He had 8 top 10 singles in the US until 1975. Other scores:

      John 4
      Paul 10
      George 3

      Bit better than what one might expect from their (excellent) drummer.

        • No John didn’t write any. The ones with George were officially co-writes or actually credited to Ringo alone . Still, he did pretty good. Lennon and McCartney (and Harrison) wrote plenty of songs for other artists that didn’t make the top 10.

          It Don’t Come Easy – Starkey
          Back off Boogaloo – Starkey
          Photograph – Harrison/Starkey
          You’re Sixteen – Sherman/Sherman
          Oh My My – Starkey/Poncia
          Only You – Buck Ram
          Snookeroo – John/Taupin
          No No Song -Axton/Jackson

          • Co-writes count, surely? Especially when one considers that George might reasonably be assumed to have taken the lead compositionally, given their respective track records.
            Point taken re John; I was counting ‘I’m The Greatest’, which wasn’t a single of course.
            Ringo did great, until the booze swamped him. Everyone loves Ringo, don’t they?

      • You can make a very good greatest hits album from Ringo’s career, covering both original songs and some of his cover versions. Of course, he’s done plenty of horrific cover versions…no, songs…no, albums, but there is some good stuff there amongst it. 2 of the Lennon songs, I’m the Greatest and Goodnight Vienna are great, his Harry Nilsson assisted covers of Only You and You’re Sixteen are brill and then there are new songs like It Don’t Come Easy and Photograph, which are as good as any song he sung with the Beatles. In fact, there are very few solo Beatles songs as good as Photograph.

        And his most recent album is the best he’s done for donkeys years. It helps, of course, that he must have the best phone book in music, as he has had plenty of friends lining up to help him over the years, not least his brother in law, Joe Walsh.

        But on the other side you get such horrors as his cover version of Hey Baby, the chorus of which sounds like it was recorded in the Grafton at chucking out time.

      • I should have said television was more popular than Ringo, I might have gotten away with it.

        Also, Kevin Costner has an Oscar for best directing, Stanley Kubrick hasn´t.

        Though, to be fair, I don´t think John, Paul or George had solo careers better than The Beatles either.

        So, to summarise. Today´s AW lesson: Don´t point out the fact you prefer The Beatles to Ringo´s solo career. People will take notice of stuff like that.

        You will find it cute and then write something slightly sarcastic.

  2. I would have thought that MOST musicians are better in a group than solo? Or are you specifically talking about artists who have a definite solo career of their own?

    The obvious examples I can think of are every member of Yes, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

    • Yes, I was thinking about people with a solo career, but perhaps not the temperament or critical perspective in the ir own work/ need for strong peers the really make it work. Nobody ever got excited by solo Rolling Stones member albums, even if they have t gt e occasional good track.

  3. I can’t think of one cover of Dylan’s that I’d put above his own version.
    Even “All Along The Watchtower,” brilliant as Jimi does it, is fantastic on John Wesley Harding.
    As for whole compilations of Dylan (or Beatles) covers, they’re to be avoided at all costs.
    Most unrewarding.

  4. Bruce Foxton struggled outside The Jam.
    His solo career was 1 album and 4 singles in 1983/84.
    Not bad, but not The Jam (which the public, and probably Arista Records wanted).
    He joined Stiff Little Fingers in 1991 and stayed for 15 years.
    He then joined/formed his own tribute band – From The Jam – where he remains.
    He had had a couple of solo albums in recent years that were pretty good – but solo in name only, the band backing him was basically From The Jam (plus sundry otheres including Paul Weller, Paul Jones and Wilko Johnson)

    • So if From the Jam has Paul Weller too, then surely it is The Jam? He was never going to have a stellar solo career after being in Weller’s shadow for so long. I thought he was a key member of The Jam though with backing vocals, occasional leads (and co-leads) and excellent bass playing.

      Not a solo career (completely), but Jeff Tweedy went from second string in Uncle Tupelo to leader, singer, songwriter of all conquering Wilco who are a much better band than UT.

      Also, the sadly late, Stuart Adamson did the same thing going from The Skids to Big Country,.

  5. To answer the OP’s question, I wandered over to my CD cabinets to find a good example, but it didn’t take very long, because the Rolling Stones are only on the third shelf down.

    To turn the question around, I find Terry Hall’s solo albums far more enjoyable than his albums with the Specials. I want to like the first two Specials albums, but apart from the singles, which are great, the rest of the albums just don’t do it for me. There are also at least half a dozen solo Wu Tang Clan albums that I prefer to any of the group’s albums, including their debut, although, to be fair, they had a lot of members, so there are a stack of solo albums to choose from.

  6. As the Civil Wars, Joy Williams and John Paul White were poised to become the Next Big Thing when they broke up a few years ago. By all rumours and hints the breakup was pretty acrimonious and – so far – there has been no indication that the wounds have healed. JPW’s first solo album was good, his most recent one less so. JW’s solo debut was very disappointing. All of the solo albums – needless to say – missed the undeniable chemistry that JW and JPW together possessed. The two Civil Wars’ albums remain stunning, even if listening to them is a bittersweet experience, considering that there could have been so much more.

  8. The four core members of New Order.

    Barney managed a half-decent solo career in Electronic, propped up by a certain J. Marr on guitar, and a mostly atrocious Bad Lieutenant who managed one half-decent NO-soundalike.

    Hooky went from Revenge to Monaco, who similarly managed one NO-soundalike.

    Gilbert & Morris became The Other Two. Hmmm.

    I know others will disagree, but I’d also add the current arrangement of NO to the ‘must try harder’ pile. I regard the Hook/Sumner relationship similar to Lennon/McCartney. Sometimes you need someone to say “that’s not good enough”, however much you might hate them for it.

  10. Don’t agree on Clapton, who has a long, varied and excellent solo career from Derek and the Dominos through the solo albums which are always listenable and sometimes superb (461 Ocean Boulevard anyone)? Then his championing his heroes – the BB King, Steve Winwood and JJ Cale albums are great. Plus many great live albums and charitable events such as Crossroads and flogging off his famous guitars. A true great bloke and musician, yes with his demons but also a shitload of sales, Grammys and awards. Plus did the best guitar solo on a Beatles album.

    And let’s remember he’d already reinvented the blues and done Cream before he was 30. Phew.

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