Solo artists who are better or worse compared to when they were in bands

[Mike Daniels]

Artists who came into their own after leaving their respective bands

Peter Gabriel (Genesis)
Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny and Ashley Hutchings (Fairport)
Neil Young (Buffalo Springfield)
Neil Finn (post Split Enz)

Artists who sucked in a solo environment after leaving a good band

Phil Collins (actually his solo stuff sucked even when he was with Genesis but post Genesis is even worse)

Rod Stewart (downhill ever since the early 70's)

Anyone from CSN

Anyone from KISS (although one could make the argument that KISS sucks anyway)

Eric Carmen (post-Raspberries)

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. Add Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth to the "sucked" list

And yes, I would definitely make the argument that KISS sucks anyway. Why this band has ANY appeal is far beyond me. Oh, and while we're at it -- Van Halen=one good guitarist surrounding himself with an unbelievably shitty supporting band.

[vi5]

4. Whoa....

For what they did, David Lee Roth era Van Halen was pretty fn'g boss if you ask me. Nothing about the Sammy years is anything other than offensive to me. But Van Halen defined 80's rock excess, showmanship and bachnalia.

And Alex VH is a pretty great drummer.

Can't say I've listened to any VH in years, but still In their day they were pretty great at what they did.

[phillybri]

5. I don't know about your VH take....

Alex Van Halen is an awesome drummer. Michael Anthony, while being an average bass player, has an amazing backing vocal sound...

[vi5]

2. Off the top of my head....

Better after leaving a group:
George Michael (although that's not saying much)
Bjork (Although the Sugarcubes still rule)

Worse:
Robert Plant (Post-Zeppelin)
Bruce Dickinson (Post-Iron Maiden)
Rob Halford (Post Judas Priest)

[daveskilt]

8. to be fair to bruce dickinson

his solo stuff did suck, but any maiden stuff after him blew as well (of course I didnt like the paul di'anno stuff prior to bruce either)

on edit: and how could dis andrew rigley! he was the man in wham.

[vi5]

10. Agreed....but I would say...

The same could be said of most of the bands after the main person leaves, as listed in this poll.

The newer maiden stuff with him back in the fold is fairly decent from what I've heard.

[Mike Daniels]

12. An argument could be made for Genesis remaining relatively consistent

if not as adventurous after Gabriel left.

[THUNDER HANDS]

3. Bruce Springsteen is much better with the E-Street band

than he is without them.

Go check out Tunnel of Love, Human Touch, Lucky Town, ect.

[phillybri]

7. I'll second that...

n/t

[daveskilt]

6. David Byrne - could go either way on this one

I loved talking heads and while his solo stuff is a bit strange some of it has been reasonable. not as good as talking heads though

[SCDem]

9. Paul McCartney worse without Beatles (without John)

[daveskilt]

11. thats its own category

I mean "are you as good as the beatles" is just a hard standard. BUT the beatles are the only bend to have a US number one hit where all of its band members also had number ones in their solo careers - that puts the solo careers in thier own category of successful but clearly not as good as the band. What was funny to me was in all the post beatle songs each one had songs that sounded like one aspect of a beatles song. ie mull of kyntre has that ballady thing with a great rythm and super melody that is in so many beatles songs but without the rock edge that you see in ive got my mind set on you and without the harder satirical edge of imagine - none of those have the lighter touch that comes from ringo's solo stuff with the allstarr band.

[kcwayne]

13. Eric Clapton - Better in Cream and Derek & the Dominoes

Eric has some pleasant tunes as a solo, but I always liked the stuff that came out of the groups much better.