Mostly abysmal solo careers that get a pass based almost entirely on past successes with respective bands and / or good will

Yeah, I'll rep for both The Idiot and Lust For Life (though the latter is about three good songs and a shit ton of filler), the same way I'd rep for about 50% of All Things Must Pass. But, God, after these, woof.

post-70s Rundgren, maybe

Iggy Pop solo albums that are better than you think: New Values, Soldier, Party, Instinct, American Caesar, Beat 'Em Up.

New Values is, well, kind of my favorite Iggy solo album.

Foo Fighters

I don't get the appeal of John Cale.

Do you really think that's why people are buying Foo Fighters albums?
xpost

I believe they did for several years.

I bought the first one because of Sunny Day Real Estate

I don't get the appeal of John Cale.

― wk, Monday, February 4, 2013 9:45 AM (12 minutes ago)

John Cale solo >>>> Lou Reed solo

truth

Robert Fripp

Morrissey

I can believe that they did for several years but it seems unlikely that e.g. the Foo Fighters were topping charts in 2011 because of Dave Grohl's role as Nirvana's drummer 20 years earlier.

xpost re Foo Fighters

John Cale solo >>>> Lou Reed solo

^^^there's a funny ILM poll about this

Morrissey is a good answer, though I enjoy his first few solo albums.

Brian Wilson (discounting Smile, which is a reworking of a BB album anyway)

was thinking about saying Ian Brown but nobody seems to give him a pass for anything these days

Rod Stewart? No! Christgau gave some late Pete Townshend albums abysmal grades, but I haven't heard them--Who Came First is good.

Christgau's never struck me as much of a Who fan. And I suspect his middling Townshend reviews were done as much to get under Dave Marsh's skin (and/or as retaliation for Marsh's zero-star reviews of Christgau's beloved X).

Empty Glass is great, All the Best Cowboys less so (but not as bad as Christgau says), White City better than Cowboys, and Psychoderelict is pretty much worthless.

ilxors otm, fucking Lou embodies this thread. You couldn't make a worse string of records on a dare.

Henry Rollins

Yeah, Cale was a bad example because it's not like his fans give him a pass because of VU, they just have shitty taste in music.

Rod Stewart and John Lennon are wrong answers

Lou Reed

Robert Fripp

Really? I found the first few solo Fripps (Exposure, Under Heavy Manners, League of Gentlemen) to be outstanding. Far more interesting to me than the Crims' pre-Larks' Tongue lps.

Also Rollins' stand-up routine has merit.

The Fripp/Eno projects were obviously great too.

Lou Reed did not get a "pass" in this poll fwiw

Don't know if he truly gets a pass, but Frank Black.

John Cale solo >>>> Lou Reed solo

john cale solo >>> lou reed solo, the velvet underground

Paul Westerberg

There. I said it.

David Lee Roth

I love some Paul solo stuff, but yeah.

Roger Daltrey

I do too, but mostly abysmal.

I dunno, dude wasn't exactly a solo hit machine (or critical darling).

xp

As much as I love Lou Reed I guess he's a good answer, depending on your definition of "mostly." Out of everything he's recorded post-VU, maybe 20% of it is classic and I guess it's surprising that his career continued so consistently for so many decades even after seemingly doing everything he could to fuck it up.

otoh LULU

I'd argue that Morrissey, Fripp and, err, David Lee Roth are the opposite of this - to me, their solo work is at least as good as that of their previous bands.

Westerberg otm, unfortunately

Mike Watt (including fIREHOSE)

steve shasta

i haven't listened to enough of his solo stuff to make an informed slam here, but whatever:

bryan ferry

Yeah solo westerberg sucks. I don't even like late Replacements if I'm honest.

In the realm of unpopular opinions: Bob Mould (including Sugar)

otm. I love Husker Du, but actively dislike all Mould solo/Sugar I've heard.

John Cale solo >>>> Lou Reed solo

john cale solo >>> lou reed solo, the velvet underground

― iatee, Monday, February 4, 2013 1:34 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Does Bob Mould get a pass?

xp I guess not (but I do like Sugar)

In the realm of unpopular opinions: Bob Mould (including Sugar)

― EZ Snappin, Monday, February 4, 2013 1:52 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. I love Husker Du, but actively dislike all Mould solo/Sugar I've heard.

― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Monday, February 4, 2013 1:53 PM (19 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

+1

Tarfumes, you're now my pal. I get the dirtiest looks when I say Sugar is Mould watered down into pap. Heck, I think it's Bob's favorite stuff.

Jon, we're already bronies.

I liked some solo Bob, but it's got that same super dull three-note quality of his late Du songs and Black Sheets of rain is so depressing that it's kind of funny (although I like a couple of songs on it, even still)

Sugar is fine, but not thrilling. At least not to me.

Westerberg really gets the stink eye for just giving people way too much of what he thought they wanted -- clever wordplay in particular.

Richard Thompson. Some of those early solo albums are pretty great, but outside of the Grizzly Man soundtrack the past 20 years seem pretty dire.

hmm but I would say most of his reputation rests on those solo albums (and the Linda stuff) rather than on Fairport which was always more of a collective group thing

With richard thompson we're falling into the "artists with long careers who got less good after a decade or so" which is nearly everyone who doesn't die/retire young.

@ fadanuf I'd say Rod Argent got more post-Zombies goodwill, but at the couple of recent Zombies concerts I've been to, the crowd has been clearly divided into Colin-lovers and Argent-lovers

Nobody mentioned Sting yet?

It's been a while but I seem to recall his very early solo stuff to not be horrific, but certainly not befitting the genius that was The Police. And then he became a New Age wanker and I haven't cared since.

Sting doesn't get a pass, or at least hasn't since around 1990.

even Sting's good solo stuff never seemed to get much of a pass. maybe his first solo album but people have torn this dude to shreds for nearly 3 decades now!

Yet he still is constantly one of the top grossing touring artists every year he hits the road. So some people sure give him a pass.

co-signing Jarvis Cocker.

the list of people who were in good/popular bands who went on to make shitty solo albums is kinda endless. lotsa people think they were the genius of the group and then they are stuck in a studio with don was and its 4 a.m. and the riffs just sound really shitty and kenny aronoff is begging to go home so that he can feed his dogs.

Karl Bartos

if you are dave mason you create good will for decades with one single song!

wanna be positive and ask: who was once a member of a popular/respected/etc band who made really great solo albums that are underheard/underrated?

Not really solo albums but the two of them are practically inseparable so it's close enough, but anyway those Flo & Eddie solo records are pretty underrated.

Yet he still is constantly one of the top grossing touring artists every year he hits the road. So some people sure give him a pass.

At this point though there are probably as many people who are there to hear Sting songs as ones who want to see the guy from the Police

So at least half of his top-grossing audience gives him a pass then!

yeah but the "based entirely upon past successes with respective bands" part doesn't fit

depends on what your definition of "get a pass" is. I mean Phil Collins sold a zillion albums too. as did Clapton.

"Richard Thompson. Some of those early solo albums are pretty great, but outside of the Grizzly Man soundtrack the past 20 years seem pretty dire."

don't understand this at all. the guy's live performance continue to be amazing and as a guitarist he's just not normal.

Karl Bartos

who gives this guy a pass

hes only done like two albums too, and one of them was alright (Communication??)

depends on what your definition of "get a pass" is. I mean Phil Collins sold a zillion albums too. as did Clapton.

― frogbs, Tuesday, February 5, 2013 10:09 AM

Whereas Sting was always billed as the Police guy and while still remaining commercially successful, he is still known for his work and accomplishments in The Police. I still see solo Sting dates touted as "from The Police." I don't think Collins solo gigs mention him as "the guy from Genesis" or Clapton as "former Yardbird" or whatever.

maybe worth mentioning that I could not really tell Phil's Genesis hits apart from his solo ones, while the Police/Sting were totally different entities

as I said upthread, Collins may be one of the few artists whose solo career changed the band's sound.

^great thread idea

surely anagram, you'd mention Pete Hammill there?

nick cave is a goofy answer, sorry scott, unless this thread is "artists whose solo work isnt as good as their work in bands." he was a critical phenom, not just a dude who got a pass because of the birthday party.

Same with Clapton to a lesser degree, I think.

This is what I was getting at: I doubt the people who made "Tears in Heaven" #1 on the AC charts were all Yardbirds or Cream fans or even aware of early Yardbirds. Did the Yardbirds even score any big hits before Beck replaced Clapton?

Unless "get a pass" refers to critical acclaim, not to popular appeal.

for your love was a big hit!

I kind of agree on Nick Cave, tho, not so much as "he gets a free pass" as his badass history let him get away with a lot of balladeering

it was their biggest u.s. hit by far. and its kinda why clapton left the group. he didn't want to be a "pop" star.

I love the idea that Nick Cave is just "former Birthday Party frontman Nick Cave". That's like saying Neil Young is best known as an ex-member of Buffalo Springfield.

surely anagram, you'd mention Pete Hammill there?

mos def. the three post-reunion albums all sound like PH-plus-organ to me (or PH-plus-organ-and-sax in the case of Present) in a way that the 70s albums certainly don't.

I thought Jeff Beck played on "For Your Love", probably because it sounds more pop and less blues than most Clapton-era Yardbirds. My mistake, sorry.

also I'd say the 3 Hammill albums after Pawn Hearts seemed to hint at what was to come with Godbluff

I know he has his fans, but ... Bob Mould.

we've already been down the mould route up top.