Take 3 Away, and Tally Your Fave Band's Legacy

Not actually my fave - but I'm listening to Combat Rock right now - so ... The Clash without:
*Cut the Crap - no big deal
*Combat Rock - wouldn't have nearly as big a following in the US - arguably, punk may not have "caught on" in the mainstream without it.
*Sandanista! - I wouldn't listen to them nearly as much, but I don't think it would have hurt them much if they hadn't done it...

But none of these records really are the essential legacy of the Clash...

If Pulp hadn't released We Love Life or This Is Hardcore or Different Class, my favourite of their records (Intro) would remain the same, and I feel the world's attention would shift in a mewards direction. If you see what I mean. Oh, and Separations would get a lot more (well-deserved) attention.

If Belle and Sebastian hadn't done The Boy With The Arab Strap, Fold Your Hands Child or Storytelling, they would be roundly regarded as being even more twee than they are already perceived.

If the Manics hadn't done This is My Truth..., Know Your Enemy, or a lame Greatest Hits album with added stadium rock dirges, they would be the greatest band ever. Mind you if they'd stopped after Generation Terrorists like they were meant to, they would have been a reasonably interesting footnote in rock'n'roll history rather than pie-eating dad-rockers.

..Queen to thread..

Fishbone, minus Live at the Temple Bar & More, Pyschotic Family Nuttworks or whatever that Dreamworks one was called, and Chim Chim's Badass Revenge...well then...

Give a Monkey a Brain... would've been their last album that way, and in this alternate-universe, their career would've ended with them possibly at their most well-known point, dropped from a major label, with their bass-player on live TV being questioned by the FBI because of his kidnapping their founding guitarist from a cult. Sounds like some VH1 career-retrospective-special material to me.

But I prefer them still, y'know, actually existing and rocking the fuck out and stuff.

If you delete the last three Stereolab full-lengths (Sound-Dust, Cobra and Phases Group..., and Dots and Loops), then they split up after Emperor Tomato Ketchup, their best-selling/most critically-acclaimed (by non-fans) record. They've just started to get loungey, but still have enough of the motorik groove to keep the old fans happy. People will be enticed by this slight change of direction and endlessly wonder what they'd have done next, instead of thinking (as they do now) that they've gotten boring and become a parody of themselves. (Unfortunately for me, Dots and Loops would never come along to convince me how utterly great they are.)

Nirvana wouldn't exist. (I'm counting "proper" albums here, so the live sets and "Incesticide" don't count.)

Super Furries minus Rings..., Mwng and Guerrilla - would it actually make that much of a difference to people's perceptions? They'd still be considered utter classic in any case, cos Radiator and Fuzzy Logic do have a lot of their best stuff on...

Talking Heads own this thread

Psh, whatevah, Naked is a fucking GREAT album dawg!

(Sorry, I actually totally agree with you, even though I also truly think Naked is a fucking great album. If they had stopped 3 albums prior, that would've left them at Speaking In Tongues, which would've been a fine career outro.)

Actually I meant 'Roxy Music'

my favorite band is Lifter Puller, who released three albums and an EP. minus two of the albums and the EP--their self-titled disc happened first, chronologically--they would be just another band on the indie-rock scrap heap.

MBV minus Loveless, Isn't Anything and Ecstasy and Strawberry Wine...uh, never mind.

Lightning Bolt minus s/t, Ride The Sky, Wonderful Rainbow:

Obscure noise band occasionally namedropped by hipsters.

Wire minus _Send_, _The Drill_ and _Manscape_ = a very different trajectory, and I think going out with _IBTABA_ would've made them seem even more pioneering in some way. Not that I would do without _Send_.

Since I just spent a few weeks writing about them, I bet the Beach Boys minus _Summer in Paradise_, _Still Cruisin'_ and _The Beach Boys_ would have a much higher rep among music geeks. If they'd called it a day after _Love You_, higher still.

On the other hand, if the Velvet Underground had only made one studio album, I suspect they'd be a real obscurity.

No Sea Change, no Midnite Vultures, no One Foot In The Grave: A marked improvement (albeit more due to the first two deletions).

Wasn't "One Foot...." pre-"Mellow Gold"?

dude must've meant Mutations.

Bob Marley minus Exodus, Kaya, and Uprising would still be a reggae god.

Not necessarily one of my faves, but if Autechre had stopped at Chiastic Slide they would be remembered as a great band and Tri Repetae would probably occupy the pinnacle of their legacy. Now they're considered a great band by some and hated by any number of people who, like me, appreciate at least a vague sense of headnodding rhythm in their music and frown on stupid VST tricks substituting for innovation ()

ATCQ, stopping after Low End Theory, would still have "Scenario" under their belt and be recalled as a one-hit wonder by most folks except for the diehard fans.

INXS calling it quits after X and rounding out at an even decade wouldn't lose anything, really. I don't think anybody finds those last three records precious.

The Police - HA HA, breaking up like four years early and missing all their big hits - if I ever found out who the hell they were, I'd still probably love "Reggatta de Blanc" because it's my fave album of theirs anyway, but instead of being only a little weird, my fixation on it would probably be right up there with my love for YMO and Comsat Angels stuff.

Kraftwerk - No Man-Machine? No Computer World?
No Electric Cafe? (yeah, OK). Who are these people? Like a few freaks would still rant and rave about Trans-Europe Express or Autobahn, but they'd be more of an oddity and probably namechecked only about 50% of the time that they are in this dimension.

WTF?

Yo La Tengo - Summer, Nothing & Beating = Painful & Electropura = still pretty damn good..