Musicians who left a FAMOUS band for a BETTER band...

[Miles Archer]

...inspired by the many friends I have who love Dave Grohl & Foo Fighters but think Nirvana was an overrated piece of you-know-what.

OR...you may think that Dave Musitaine did better in Megadeth than his former adversaries in Metallica.

WHICH musicians GOT OUT and GOT BETTER?

[NightWatcher]

1. Jimmy Page went from the Yardbirds to Led Zepplin

Does that count?

[Miles Archer]

2. Yep, it counts

Then he left Led Zeppelin for The Firm.

That one doesn't count.

[Lochloosa]

3. Ringo from whatever to the Beatles?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.

Clapton went from the Bluesbreakers (John Mayall) to The Yardbirds (named after Charlie Parker-clever, as in "prison yard&quot
to Cream to Blind Faith. And maybe some other bands I don't know about.

All of those were excellent bands.

[Lochloosa]

5. Warlocks to the Grateful Dead. The whole band.

[progressoid]

6. Jimi leaving the Isley Brothers and then Little Richard's band to form The Jimi Hendrix Experience

[RiffRandell]

7. The dude from Suicidal to Metallica, but that's up for debate.

[OriginalGeek]

10. Nice step for him (Rob Trujillo)

Because I like to see a guy make some bank and I like his bass playing. I'm still pissed at Lars though so I DGAF what they do.

Sadly, Suicidal Tendencies current bassist (Tim Williams) died earlier this week. He was a great bass player - saw them a little while ago and the dude was a monster.

[RiffRandell]

16. I'm sure you saw Some Kind of Monster.

Good stuff.

[Lithos]

8. Hmmmm

George Michael - Wham! to Solo
Lionel Ritchie - Commodores to Solo
Michael Jackson - Jackson 5 to Solo
Ozzy Osborne - Black Sabbath to Solo
Dave Mason - Traffic to Solo (and a few other bands)


And a controversial one

George Harrison - The Beatles to Solo

And from band to band

Eric Clapton - seemed to get better with each new band
Flo & Eddie - The Turtles to Frank Zappa
Joe Walsh - James Gang to the Eagles
Graham Nash - The Hollies to CSNY
Neil Young & Stephen Stills - Buffalo Springfield to CSNY (I could use Buffalo Springfield for Jim Messina and Richie Furray as well)
Crosby - The Byrds to CSNY
Stevie Winwood - Spencer Davis Group to Traffic to Solo (getting better)
Rick Derringer - The McCoys (Hang on Sloopy) to The Edgar Winter Group (Played on Frankenstein)
Jimmy Page/Robert Plant (The Yardbirds) to Led Zeppelin
Paul Rodgers - Free -> Bad Company

Could go on

[OriginalGeek]

12. I like Ozzy and all

but there is no solo Ozzy album as good as even the dumbest Sabbath Ozzy album.


OK, I'll give ya Diary of a Madman and Blizzard of Oz are better than Technical Ecstasy. But that doesn't make up for the mostly crap Ozzy has put out since then.

[Initech]

20. Speaking of Black Sabbath

There's the weird web of the Dio era Black Sabbath (fucking amazing) and then Ozzy's awesome string of post Sabbath (mainly Diary Of A Madman) solo albums that he put out. And now Ozzy is back with the original members of Sabbath and still putting out some amazing metal.

[Miles Archer]

31. "End of the Beginning" is right up there with the pre-Dio Ozzy hits

That was the one that grabbed me first on the new album.

Iommi's closing solo is EASILY one of the best of his career.

[Initech]

32. Yes I love that album. The tour was great also.

I went to the Hollywood Bowl show back in April and had a great time. Those guys may be getting older but they can still rock. And Ozzy can definitely bring it when he wants to.

[calimary]

24. Excellent list, Lithos!

Might also consider McCartney - Beatles to Wings to Solo. Granted, Wings was NOT a bigger band than the Beatles, but a famous band nonetheless. Who could possibly top having been in the Beatles? McCartney would fall into the band-to-band category.

Same thing for John Lennon. Band-to-band. Beatles to Plastic Ono Band.

As would Robbie Robertson and the guys. From Dylan's backup band to The Band in their own right.

There's also the Traveling Wilburys:
George Harrison from the Beatles.
Jeff Lynne from ELO.
Tom Petty from himself and the Heartbreakers.
Dylan. Well, from Dylan.
Roy Orbison. Well, from Roy Orbison.

But definitely Timothy B. Schmidt. From Poco to the Eagles.

[Hoyt]

28. Bernie Leadon from the not so famous Flying Burrito Brothers to Eagles.

[murielm99]

9. Janis Joplin

and Big Brother and the Holding Company.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

11. Clapton: Yardbirds - Blues Breakers - Cream - Blind Faith

He peaked thereabouts or shortly after, and unfortunately lost his mojo. He was erratic and floundering with Derek and the Dominoes, and lost it shortly thereafter.

[RedstDem]

15. Dereck and the dominoes

might have been his peak, the live album has insane guitar work....but then again, cream was pretty damn good.

[Coventina]

13. Hmmmm....well I can list a bunch of band switchers, but I don't know about a quality improvement.

Camper van Beethoven's lead singer later formed Cracker, which was much more commercially successful.
Another member joined Counting Crows, also more commercially successful.

Brian Setzer formed the Brian Setzer Orchestra after the Stray Cats, and he's been pretty successful with that.

And, of course 3/4 of Bauhaus formed Love and Rockets. I like Love and Rockets as an act much better than Peter Murphy solo. If he could get his head out of his ass and make up with them, it would benefit them all.

Mick Jones did very well with Big Audio Dynamite, but how are you ever going to top the Clash?

Vince Clark left Depeche Mode and created Yaz and then Erasure. I love all three but Depeche Mode is still the clear winner.

I can't even talk coherently about Morrissey vs. the Smiths. They need to get need to get over themselves and make the magic happen again.

Then there's the weird incestuous web of the Pixies, the Breeders, Belly, and the Throwing Muses. They're all great but Belly's my favorite------or the Pixies------but they're all great and I hope they all keep bed-hopping because it seems to help the music!!
I'm going to see the Breeders in a few weeks!

[RedstDem]

14. Zak Starkey

from the who to oasis....maybe?

[Zorro]

17. Ronnie Wood

Small Faces (with Rod Stewart) to the Stones.

[Codeine]

18. Damon Albarn leaving Blur (great) to form Gorillaz (even better.)

On a more obscure note, David Tibet leaving Psychic TV to form Current 93.

[Initech]

34. I love Gorillaz but I didn't care for their last album "The Fall".

Plastic Beach and Demon Days were both great though.

[Initech]

19. The Queensryche split

The band itself is a lot better without Geoff Tate in it. Their self titled album that came out last year is worlds better than Geoff Tate's "Frequency Unknown".

[Kaleva]

21. Cher

[sakabatou]

22. Gackt from Malice Mizer to being solo (I believe)

[calimary]

23. Those who eventually assembled Crosby Stills Nash and Young.

David Crosby from the Byrds.
Steve Stills from Buffalo Springfield.
Graham Nash from the Hollies.
Neil Young also from Buffalo Springfield.

Also, well, there was Buckingham Nicks (famous in college radio at least) - the two namesakes of which went on to Fleetwood Mac. (Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks).

[Hoyt]

29. Just thinking of them, particularly Crosby.

[Miles Archer]

33. I bought most of my albums at that time in Palo Alto...

...a place called Chimera which was actually a converted house. Very cool. A stone's throw from Stanford. Great selection of used books as well as used and new records. Best prices around at the time. When the first B&N Mac album came out, they couldn't order copies of the "Buuckingham Nicks" album fast enough. Everybody wanted it.

[Tom Ripley]

25. Mick Taylor from Bluesbreakers to Rolling Stones

[Tom Ripley]

26. Fred Smith from Blondie to Television

[Tom Ripley]

27. Fernando Saunders from Jan Hammer Group to Lou Reed

same is true for Robert Quine (although the Voidoids were pretty damn good)

[wyldwolf]

30. Jonathon Cain from The Babys to Journey