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Best/Worst solo careers from (ex)members of famous bands


Cosmo

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Sometimes when a band breaks up (or not), some of it's members take on a solo career, like Slash, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Noel Gallagher, Robert Plant, David Lee Roth, Iggy Pop, Michael Jackson, Bruce Dickinson, Chris Cornell, Ozzy Osbourne, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Dee Dee Ramone, Steve Harris, Ace Frehley, etc... the question is: Which of these solo careers, from members of famous groups were the BEST, the WORST, the most DISAPPOINTING, the most SURPRISINGLY GOOD and which solo career would you like to see some day? As an example I'll do my list:

Best: Michael Jackson

Worst: Peter Criss

Most Disappointing: David Lee Roth

Most Surprisingly Good: Justin Timberlake

I'd love to see: A Bono Vox solo album

PS: Side projects, supergroups and new bands don't count. For example: Sixx:A.M., Audioslave, Wings, VR, Fort Minor, Foo Fighters and Loaded don't count, since they're not solo careers, even if from members of famous bands.

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pretty cool idea for a thread. :thumbsup:

best: ronnie james dio. after leaving rainbow and sabbath he knocked it out of the ballpark with his solo stuff.

worst: paul di'anno

most disappointing: ozzy

most surpisingly good: quorthon

id love to see: axl rose

Going off the OP's rules, Dio wouldn't count since its technically a band, but I'd agree Dio would be in contention if you count it. And Paul Di'Anno's Battlezone's albums are great, but again, a band.

Best: Bruce Dickinson

Worst: Vince Neil

Most surprisingly good: Roger Daltrey

Most surprisingly bad: 3-way tie - Steve Harris, Alice Cooper, and Joey Belladonna

Love to see: Eddie Van Halen

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pretty cool idea for a thread. :thumbsup:

best: ronnie james dio. after leaving rainbow and sabbath he knocked it out of the ballpark with his solo stuff.

worst: paul di'anno

most disappointing: ozzy

most surpisingly good: quorthon

id love to see: axl rose

Going off the OP's rules, Dio wouldn't count since its technically a band, but I'd agree Dio would be in contention if you count it. And Paul Di'Anno's Battlezone's albums are great, but again, a band.

Best: Bruce Dickinson

Worst: Vince Neil

Most surprisingly good: Roger Daltrey

Most surprisingly bad: 3-way tie - Steve Harris, Alice Cooper, and Joey Belladonna

Love to see: Eddie Van Halen

yeah i can see that, will make changes :lol:

best: king diamond

worst: cronos

most disappointing- ozzy osbourne

most surprisingly good- quorthon

love to see: axl rose or jari maenpaa

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Best: Neil Young. He left Buffalo Springfield and has been god ever since. Also,Ozzy up to a point.

Worst: Anything Paul did post-Beatles.

Most Disappointing: Slash although I like bits of his postgnr stuff. His solo stuff lacks consistency.

Most Surprisingly Good: Gilby. Who would have thought he had a Pawnshop Guitars up his sleeve? Harrison's All Things Must Pass also is the greatest Beatles solo work although maybe that was not that surprising considering the calibre of his late-Beatles songs (Something and WMGGW).

Like to see: Axl, a big piano laden epic. John Deacon.

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Guest Len B'stard

I've only heard Izzys first album but i don't think it was disappointing. In fact i think it sounded brilliant, a lot better than Slashes, god bless him.

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I don't think there's any that I can call great throughout. Good and bad parts to each.

I think Robbie Williams did best given his band background (to my taste at least), coming out of a boy band, and ending up putting out some really good music - granted, none of that lately, but for a while he was pretty good.

Chris Cornell started out phenomenally with Euphoria Morning, but evened it out with Scream, while Carry On and Audioslave are alright but nothing special. The live acoustic tours are totally worth it though.

Roger Waters's The Final Cut and ...Hitchhiking I don't like AT ALL but I love Amused To Death and Radio KAOS to bits.

Izzy's stuff is generally very good up to and including Like A Dog but after that it gets repetitive and boring.

Robert Plant's 80s stuff I find borderline unlistenable but starting with Fate of Nations it's pretty damn good.

Mark Knopfler's stuff is generally alright or good but there are very few standout tracks and ultimately it's all pretty much a 20 year blur.

Chris Robinson I think may be the best. He's only got two solo studio albums but they're both excellent.

These are the ones I am most familiar with, unless I'm forgetting anyone.

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Most Surprisingly Good: Gilby. Who would have thought he had a Pawnshop Guitars up his sleeve? Harrison's All Things Must Pass also is the greatest Beatles solo work although maybe that was not that surprising considering the calibre of his late-Beatles songs (Something and WMGGW).

Agreed.

It's actually hard to think of solo records that aren't really side projects while they're in their main band still.

Mark Lanegan must be up there for me. I much prefer his records (especially Mark Lanegan Band) to Screaming Trees.

Edited by Chinaski
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Best Ozzy Osbourne, Mark Tremonti

Worst: Vince Neil

Most Disappointing: Slash (I was looking for so much more from him, the worst part is that he has the talent for great songs but then it comes with avarage to nothing bad songs with little exceptions like Anastasia) also I would have to put on the list Chris Cornell

Most Surprisingly Good: Gilby, then Izzy, then DJ Ashba (his work with the solo band ASHBA and Sixx:A.M is amazing) and the best of them all Buckethead (the guy became one of my all time favorites with songs like Earth Heals Herself, Soothsayer, Electric Tears, I Love My Parents and so many others...) The guy is a God at guitat playing.

I'd love to see: Axl Rose, Steven Tyler, Myles Kennedy, Shaun Morgan, Amy Lee, ZP Theart, and so many others

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Guest Len B'stard

I'm laughing at all of you putting Axl under "love to see." You mean like if he hired a whole new set of musicians and assumed complete creative control of the music? :crazy:

:lol:

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I'm laughing at all of you putting Axl under "love to see." You mean like if he hired a whole new set of musicians and assumed complete creative control of the music? :crazy:

It's the name that constrains him, not creative control. He said that he tries to make the music fit what is expected of GNR but if that were gone he would do some completely different stuff.

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