Listening to the radio this morning whilst sending the boy to school and they played Starship “Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now”, which is a million miles away from the original Jefferson Airplane and ‘White Rabbit”.
I know that it’s essentially a different group (albeit with some lineage), but it did get me thinking …..which group(s) have undergone the biggest transformation during their career ? I.e, which is/was the most different musically from when they started ?
I guess the obvious one to start would be Fleetwood Mac (although I would suggest they maintained some of their original DNA0.
Over to you……
Great idea for a post. The first song I heard by Steve Winwood was Higher Love, in 1986. Apparently he had done some decent stuff in the past.
Roxy Music (1st 4 albums => after reformation in 1978)
Genesis (who, it can be argued, changed significantly twice: From Genesis to … => Foxtrot era => Invisible Touch, etc.)
Depeche Mode, although I would defer to Black Celebration on this
I was going to say that (unsurprisingly.)
The Yes…the distance traveled between the sound world of Yes Album/Fragile/CTTE and that of 90125 is huge, although elements of the personnel stay the same…
Floyd through their various incarnations, of course. And Japan, from New York Dolls lite to arty orientals.
And some bands change totally from album to album. JAMC are an example, but the most impressive have to be Thievery Corporation. A dub album, a hip hop album, a bossa nova album, a reggae album – and all of them excellent.
Indeed all of them are excellent. Possibly my most played artist in Lockdown.
There was that band called The Beatles or something. They changed a bit over the years.
Yeah but most bands changed a lot in the 60s. The Beach Boys and The Kinks sounded pretty different at the end of the decade as well. This also happened in the 70s (compare Atom Heart Mother with The Wall, for example).
I wonder when bands stopped changing? Maybe the 90s? I like Suede, but their albums all sound the same. Oasis didn’t change much either. Or is it just that indie bands don’t evolve?
Good question.
In the 90s, Blur were seen as the exemplar of a band that constantly evolved and did something new with each album… but in hindsight it’s not really true, is it? Apart from some superficial bells and whistles, their early songs sound the same as their late songs.
No, I can’t think offhand of a band that formed since the late eighties that changed significantly during their career.
If you take Mr Allbran on his own, he’s been about a bit. In fact, the only reason to make another Blur record is if he wants to make something that sounds like Blur..
I thought of that as soon as I wrote that. Yes, he seems to start a new band when he wants a new sound, doesn’t he?
That is frankly, bollocks. Have you heard 13? It’s basically (informed by) prog, or Stereolab, and nowhere near the sound of Modern Life Is Rubbish. Think Tank again, is nothing like the aforementioned two LP’s.
Talking of Stereolab, there’s a band whose later stuff could be by another outfit altogether. I loved the early, rough Krautrocky tracks and couldn’t stand anything after Dots And Loops.
Also Ride, took an interesting right turn on Carnival of Light.
It’s interesting how history views Blur. At the time, they were derided for changing musical styles so often (I seem to recall a lot of the music press denouncing Tender as a Spiritualized rip-off).
I think time has been kind to them, but, Parklife aside, you really only need the singles.
No no no! 13 is ace.
Coming Up was very different from the two Bernard-era albums – to be fair, they were a different band. But yes, Suede’s three C21st comeback albums have a distinct “If it ain’t broke” vibe about them.
Compare the variety on Brett Anderson’s solo albums.
Little Feat were originally a four-piece offshoot from The Mothers circa 1970, playing country blues songs written mainly by Lowell George. By 1976, now a six piece band covering a lot more musical ground, they were straying too close to jazz rock for George’s liking. On hearing a new composition, a fusion jam in 7/8 called ‘A Day At The Dog Races’ the bandleader said “What is this, fucking Weather Report?” It is credited on the resultant album, Time Loves A Hero, to everyone but George.
Whenever you see live footage of Little Feat playing “Day At The Dog Races” Lowell is offstage, presumably getting “refreshed”.
David Bowie?
Is of course the correct answer. I would offer the view that sixties artists evolved – often at breakneck speed – so that each album could be seen as building logically on its predecessor (Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks etc). Bowie was one of the first artists to be prepared to junk everything that had gone before (MWSTW junked the acoustic singer-songwriter/Ziggy/Young Americans/Low) in search of completely new sounds.
Chumbawamba? Scratchy anarchist rants, to shouty bit quiet bit shouty bit pop-punk, to sublime virtue signalling folk.
Isn’t “virtue signalling folk” tautologous?
Everything But The Girl ?
Good one. Indy jazz folk to electro pop.
Via The Smiths and orchestral pop.
Ultravox!/Ultravox, possibly?
They changed a fair bit after John Foxx left, didn’t they?
Nothing worth giving your ears to after John Foxx and the exclamation mark left.
Ultravox!
Ultravox
Changed a fair bit
Post John Foxx
You are John Cooper Clarke and I claim my 50p Luncheon Voucher.
John Foxx
Has had some knocks
But not quite as many
as Living in a Box.
…I think that’s more John Hegley stylee
The Fish led Marillion and the later Hogarth led version.
XTC. Compare the stuff from the first EP and album to ‘River Of Orchids’ on Apple Venus.
Hang on a mo’.
I need to listen to my fourteenth copy of Skylarking, just to make sure I agree with you.
Radiohead are perhaps the best examplar from the last 30 years: the grunge lite of Pablo Honey a world away from the hyper experimentalism of Kid A. The best example of a mid-career reboot.
Bands who go on about how much their sound has evolved without actually changing that much at all:
U2
Paul Weller
Angry Mod Punk
Not quite so angry Mod
Northern Soul dalliance
Euro Jazz pretensions
Attempted House music
Winwood/Traffic knock off
Pastoral Folk
Britpo
Dad Rock
Nicking ELO riffs
Krautrock
He’s done most things
Tom Waits vocally went from “drunk with a cold” to “alcoholic with pneumonia, raging at the moon”
He’s had a career in reverse, making all his cosy mainstream music earlier on and then gradually becoming more clattery and weird.
See also: Scott Walker.
At last. An excuse to post this…
You see if you play it next to this from twenty years earlier there’s hardly any difference. i don’t know what Scott’s doing on this thread.
I think that a big part of the Beatles constantly changing sound is that every member sang, whereas stones, who, oasis, U2 & others only had one singer So the “sound” of the band remained quite samey.
(To me anyway).
As ever, OOAA.
They were also, collectively, very eclectic in terms of their tastes. I like Macca’s comment – re someone like John cage – about being influenced by something even if you didn’t necessarily like it. This is why they were brilliant and Oasis, who only liked a very narrow range of white boy rock, were shit. Liam doesn’t even like any dance music – which for someone of his age is just fucking weird.
…and it was a natural progression. As opposed to Queen, for example, who, while diverse musically, always feel forced to me.
I always felt 90% of Oasis’ popularity (i.e. excluding amongst old ramalama codgers) was down to the fact that the generation behind mine, away from their weekends of rave on danceathons, needed something they could actually sing, and the DLBIAH provided remedial sing-a-longs while simultaneously pushing – Trump-like- an outrageous bluff to a credulous audience that only they were “rock n roll”.
Do you remember the band Sky – the classically trained musicians turning their hand to rock music? To be completely massive like Queen, they needed a one-off charismatic singer-songwriter but I think they thought being good at playing instruments was enough.
Todd Rundgren.
Pure psychedelic pop
Rawk
Trippy progressive
Keyboard extravaganzas
Trad rock blues
Piano ballads
Blue eyed soul
EDM
Beatles pastiches
Pomp rock
Show tunes
A wizard, a true star, indeed.
Big Todd fan but I think the main drivers behind his transformations are his work ethic and boredom!!
PS You missed out Prog…. and bossa nova
And Hawaian!
Prog was divided into Pomp and keyboard extravaganzas (viz., “A treatise on cosmic fire” all 32 minutes on it).
Todd is Godd.
Motorhead.
The only thing that really developed was Lemmy’s wart
Lemmy’s Wart there. TMFTL
Scott Walker wins
Has to be Elvis Costello. He is the ultimate musical chameleon Punk, Motown/Stax of Get Happy, Country of Almost Blue, Vaudeville, Jazz, baroque, classical, Hip Hop – they only thing he has thankfully steered clear of heavy metal.
He nearly always sounds the same in the middle of it though. Like Miles Davis.
He sounds NOTHING like Miles Davis.
Oh. Oh.
When was the last time YOU heard Elvis Costello playing the trumpet, eh?
Eh?
Yeah – that isn’t Chet Baker playing trumpet on “Shipbuilding” – it’s the Beloved Entertainer himself!
John Martyn
As is often the case, the answer is Sparks. The ‘Halfnelson’ album is a world away from ‘No1 in Heaven’ which in turn is a long way from ‘Lil Beethoven’. Having said that, I was listening to ‘Whomp That Sucker’ the other day and it struck me how similar some of the tracks are to ‘A Steady Drip Drip Drip’.
Journey – told to give up the spacey jazz rock if they wanted to keep recording to become an AOR monster.
Keep on Recording was the original title for Keep on believing of course. Not that many people know that.
It was the B side to “Any Way You Want It (But Not That Way)”
Arf. Journey were awful, AWFUL, until they went shiny fm aor rawk.
OMD went from basic electro (first two albums) to sweeping soundscapes (A+M) to bonkers Musique concrète (Dazzle Ships) to bouncy pop (Junk Culture, Crush) and now a mixture of all the above.
But the answer is Scott Walker or David Bowie
At the height of their mid 80s popularity there’d always be a difficult-to-like instrumental lurking away as a b-side. The young boys who became Radiohead were certainly listening.
Primal Scream. From fey, jangle-pop to scuzzy bloke rock via the sublime Screamadelica.
PS are an example of a band who went very far in their first decade – from Velocity Girl to Vanishing Point – but have spent the 20+ years since revisiting various points of that first decade. That’s about the only thing they have in common with Kraftwerk.
To my mind, both are in the “their admirers are almost all blokes” category. See also: The Fall.
No woman under forty would turn up to a Fall gig – she might get conscripted onstage as the latest keyboard-stabber….
Arf Moose
Not true – I turned up. Although on one occasion Mark E Smith didn’t.
You were spared him fiddling with your attack-decay-sustain-release.
(sorry)
Think there were a few blokes there who would have been up for that!
That is, with MES not me!!
Blimey.
Psssst. Seen this?
https://dizignrz.com/products/2020_09_fall_studio_06-print?variant=36645605277864
I quite like that.
Reminds me of this….
…I couldn’t find the original post…..
Adam Ant?
Young Parisians (an attempt to do a Notting Hill version of Lou Reed) -> Dirk Wears White Sox (nasty but tuneful new-wave)-> Kings of the Wild Frontier (tribal drumming plus Duane Eddy and war whoops)-> Prince Charming (the single is actually based on Bo Diddley)… and that’s only the first four years. A pretty wild ride.
Hasn’t Soft Machine been mentioned? From psychedelic whimsy to pure instrumental jazz rock. Complete band member changes. The later Softs/Bundles era was a further development from keyboard/sax style to more guitar dominated pieces. If a band lasted long enough from mid 60s to later 70s, even 80s, so the drugs changed, the clothes changed. The biggest changes were through 60s to 70s. See also Spinal Tap.
The Waterboys.
The Big Music of the first three albums to Irish influenced traditional songs for the next two.
Then back to classic rock in 1993 and more afterwards.
The journey seems to have run its course now though.
Mike Scott must be getting a welcome income as How Long Will I Love You seems to be in every RomCom that Mrs D watches
He has led a full life with his music career and fatherhood with two kids from different mothers later in his life.
Over three albums The Sisters Of Mercy went from (gloomy) psychedelic jangle to (gloomy) epic synth pop to (not gloomy enough) hard rock.
Spinal Tap?
I guess this is a response to me. I was thinking jazz odyssey. Then there is the classic trajectory: mod/beat, psychedelic, prog, hard rock. OK Spinal Tap had different names earlier on in their story but it’s same principle. The drugs changed, the music changed.
Sorry @Diddley-Farquar I hadn’t seen you’d mentioned Spinal Tap.
This was just a tongue in cheek suggestion of mine, hence the question mark. Your response is the reason I suggested them too..
I am easily confused.
Nick Cave.
No nominative determinism for the Chameleons who ploughed a consistent furrow.
Status Quo?
They moved into ballads with Living On An Island in 1979 and never looked back.
I like this ⬆️ song.
Me too!
It was a regular on my tape player in the East Norfolk Sixth Form College!
That must have been where I heard it!
Many Golden Agers did a “Press to Play,” or “Knocked Out Loaded” or “Dirty Work.”
In fact, I think they all did (not that I listen to them), but I have never got into Jefferson Airplane precisely because of their none-more-dire, dire-1980s transformation.
Be shite, by all means, everything else was in the “dire,” and it was de rigueur to be just that, but don’t personify it.
This course went a long way in attaining them the fairly anonymous position in the 60s pantheon which they inhabit today. They shared the same bill as The Doors in 1968, now they’d be lucky to be allowed to sell the hot dogs outside.
I respect Lloyd Cole switching to electronica in place of a regular band on albums like Guesswork, although his voice is constant.
Stevie Wonder?
Stevie Wonder is a very good call. From this,
.
To this, in ten years.
…to this (sadly)
From this
To this
Stylistic differences aside, the change in tone is remarkable. The Bee Gees sixties stuff is bloody miserable – the idea that they would one day make good time party music would have seemed pretty ridiculous.
A lot happened here in just 4 years.
Or five years between Wings of a Dove and Gabriel’s Horn. Bit of a Bible nut is that Chas Smash.
Ahhh, so you were the other person that bought that album. There’s actually a lot on there to like. Carl’s influence very much at the forefront.
I love it! The 10-track vinyl album anyway. The “extras” on the Cd aren’t much kop.
I doubt Woody was offended by being replaced by, er, Simon Phillips. A touch of class that tubsman.
Chicago Transit Authority (as they were), knocking out horn laden slices of soulful rock in the late 60s, to the awful, insipid dreck of “If You Leave Me Now.”
Free Form Guitar to If You Leave Me Now… Eight years or eight light years?
Ah well… At least Terry Kath died like a true American.
Accidentally shot himself while off his bonce playing with guns.
Funny, you could listen to “FFG” and not have a clue that he was a total maniac. It’s always the quiet ones…
David Johansen:
From the Dolls . . .
. . . to Buster Poindexter . . .
. . . to The Harry Smiths . . .
. . . and playing with Hubert Sumlin!
Has anyone mentioned Talk Talk? Ok I will then. From fey 80s synth pop to the out there ambient jazz stylings of Spirit of Eden and then even further out with Laughing Stock.
There’s a corollary to all this ch-ch-ch-changing which must surely follow, which is the phenomenon of the artist who is flat-out embarrassed by their early material.
I mean something more than the perfectly observed Big Train “Streets Of London” sketch, where the artist is just sick of the hit that made their name, or even the practical problem of trying to fit the spittle-flecked anger of your earlier breakneck thrashnoise into the same show as your current smooth soul pretensions. I was thinking of something more akin to the way The Clash – as implied in an adjacent post – have Winston Smithed their last named release from history. Except, surely, it’s even more likely that an evolving band would have a guilty family secret chained up in the cellar of their career to be kept from the light.
Radiohead seemed to go off “Creep” pretty quickly, but there have to be better examples..
David Sylvian. He described early Japan as revolting or something… Not much later, I think.
Kraftwerk are the ultimate Winston Smiths. I can’t think of another artist who has actively suppressed their own previously released work.
Robert Palmer.
First three albums (which I really like) are funky and soulful. Being backed by the Meters and/or Little Feat doesn’t hurt, right?
Then he goes a bit pop, then he thinks he’s Gary Numan. Then it’s all slick suits and slicked back hair and girls with 4 pounds of make-up who look like mannequins pretending to be the band before he resorts to cod reggae Bob Dylan covers with UB40.