Which Bands Got Worse After Replacing An Original Member

Think everyone accepts that Pixies have never been the same since Kim Deal left. Although, given that more than 20 years passed between the band splitting up in 1993 and them recording new material for Indie Cindy, maybe their later stuff would have been shite anyway. Mad to think they've recorded more albums post-split than they did in their original heyday.

To offer up something different from what OP's asking for, I actually reject the claim that Weezer got worse because Matt Sharp left. For starters, I don't think they got "worse" anyway - but the claim that Matt made Weezer a better band is based on the oft-repeated falsehood that he wrote his own basslines, when he didn't. They were given to him by Rivers Cuomo who wrote the majority of the songs for the band, even in the early days. Matt all but quit Weezer in 1996 to focus on The Rentals, who most people insist are "the band Weezer should have been" - which is strange considering it's only really their debut that's any good, and that debut album was released while Matt was still in Weezer. People think that Rivers' songwriting philosophy changing circa 1997 and Matt leaving around the same time means that there's a causation/correlation thing going on, when in reality it was just a coincidence. Weezer have definitely hit very low points since Matt left (Raditude, the Teal Album, other moments) but they've also written several albums that are considered just as good as Blue and Pinkerton (Everything Will Be Alright in the End, the White Album, and OK Human especially) and even more albums that are stronger than anything The Rentals have ever put out.

Although I will say this Rentals performance of their song 'Friends of P' with Blur is a cracker and arguably influenced the more American slacker/noise rock sound Blur would take forward onto the self-titled album and 13 in the last few years of the 90s.

 
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peter.evans said:
10CC ? Although not quite fair I guess because I do not think Godley and Cremes replacements wrote any songs
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Stewart and Gouldman carried on as 10cc. The album 'Bloody Tourists' was theirs - Dreadlock Holiday etc. You're right though, they weren't as good as the original four.
 
Mr Grumpy said:
The exit of Waters and Gabriel from Pink Floyd/Genesis turned both acts into "Dad rock" tribute bands.
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I thought Genesis was better without Gabriel save for Lamb, and I really liked PG’s first four solo records and even So. That said, Genesis became a pop band vs a “prog” band and I prefer pop to prog, but always thought they were hit or miss on both accounts. Brits often wildly overrate them IMO.

Never even thought of PF as a band without Waters.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
I thought Genesis was better without Gabriel save for Lamb, and I really liked PG’s first four solo records and even So. That said, Genesis became a pop band vs a “prog” band and I prefer pop to prog, but always thought they were hit or miss on both accounts. Brits often wildly overrate them IMO.
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I agree but the OP was asking if for bands that got worse so i had to be careful with my wordage.
Both bands became more modern when the leads left and were in some respects, far more listenable.
Pink Floyd became the David Gilmour band. I find AMLOR and the Div Bell more enjoyable and listenable than everything before it save DSOTM and WYWH. One could argue the Animals and The wall were Waters albums in reality.
Genesis became the Phil Collins band after Gabriel left. Same thing as above happened. TLLDOB is a great epic but not something one can chew through in bits. Invisible touch is much more accessible and has some great pop tracks on it.
 
youngbob said:
Think everyone accepts that Pixies have never been the same since Kim Deal left. Although, given that more than 20 years passed between the band splitting up in 1993 and them recording new material for Indie Cindy, maybe their later stuff would have been shite anyway. Mad to think they've recorded more albums post-split than they did in their original heyday.

To offer up something different from what OP's asking for, I actually reject the claim that Weezer got worse because Matt Sharp left. For starters, I don't think they got "worse" anyway - but the claim that Matt made Weezer a better band is based on the oft-repeated falsehood that he wrote his own basslines, when he didn't. They were given to him by Rivers Cuomo who wrote the majority of the songs for the band, even in the early days. Matt all but quit Weezer in 1996 to focus on The Rentals, who most people insist are "the band Weezer should have been" - which is strange considering it's only really their debut that's any good, and that debut album was released while Matt was still in Weezer. People think that Rivers' songwriting philosophy changing circa 1997 and Matt leaving around the same time means that there's a causation/correlation thing going on, when in reality it was just a coincidence. Weezer have definitely hit very low points since Matt left (Raditude, the Teal Album, other moments) but they've also written several albums that are considered just as good as Blue and Pinkerton (Everything Will Be Alright in the End, the White Album, and OK Human especially) and even more albums that are stronger than anything The Rentals have ever put out.

Although I will say this Rentals performance of their song 'Friends of P' with Blur is a cracker.

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The thing with Weezer, which is part of their appeal really, is you never really know if their ‘poor’ music is bad on purpose.

Take Ratitude - a terrible record but in my view it’s Cuomo writing shit songs on purpose just to take the piss out of lazy rock bands.

They’ve always been quite a subversive and post modern band underneath the indie-pop glam.
 
Think the big example of this from my teenage years, actually, is Crystal Castles going off a fucking cliff after Alice Glass quit.

Their first two albums were brilliant and a massive deal in the late 2000s/early 2010s if you were a bit of an alternative/NME kid. Their third album wasn't bad either. Then Alice left Ethan on his own quite suddenly after departing under a cloud in 2014/2015-ish, so Ethan picked up this other singer called Edith... and it was obvious from the get-go that he was just after an identical concubine. She was nowhere near as much of an individual presence and provided basically no contrast to what Ethan was doing.

Crystal Castles worked originally because their image was based very much on opposites attracting - Ethan was the studious, quiet musician who stood in the background, and Alice was the misunderstood tortured poet who was an unpredictable frontwoman and a real livewire. They came together and used their different approaches to make introverted, thoughtful dance music that always sounded like it was on the brink of exploding like an anthrax bomb. When Alice left, though, Ethan became the face of the band and Edith was sort of positioned like an Alice mannequin, instructed to perform the character of Alice Glass rather than write and forge her own personality. That fourth album came out - the only one with Edith as lead singer - and it was flat as fuck.

Then all the awful stories came out about how Ethan had basically groomed Alice into the group when she was 15, abused her throughout their time together, and then denied her writing credits on dozens of songs they'd both made, leaving her no choice but to get out for her own safety and artistic integrity. Crystal Castles went dead, stopped touring, stopped releasing music, and basically withered away on the wind. There were no resistant voices asking for Ethan and Edith to carry on and absolutely nobody misses them or talks about what they might be doing now if they'd stayed together. Alice (understandably and successfully) burned the whole thing down as she left.
 
bluetonium said:
I find that albums and bands I turned away from for changing band members in the past, as I get older I'm more open and chilled to listening to their stuff from that period. Sounds like the OP's taste is pretty similar to mine too!

Poison firing CC DeVille and replacing him with Richie Kotzen angered fans who just wanted more hair rock, yet there's little doubt that Kotzen was, and still is, an excellent guitarist who wrote some great stuff and on reflection that album has some good tracks. Just don't feel like Poison tracks.

Similar with Kiss. No Peter Criss or Ace Frehley for decades but for a long time my favourite era was with Bruce Kulick on the axe. Still love that MTV unplugged set though with them all coming out on stage.

Van Halen is one that has always divided fans. I prefer Roth but I wouldn't turn it off if a Hagar song came on. I did struggle with Gary Cherone going there though, especially as I was a huge Extreme fan so it was like ruining two bands in one swoop.

Aerosmith breaking up the toxic twins and replacing Joe Perry and Brad Whitford would have been huge, and whilst the album produced without them can be said to have no real standout tracks, it's doesn't have many bad ones either.

I wasn't too happy about Guns n Roses losing Izzy Stradlin, or taking on a keyboardist as a permanent member, but the Use Your Illusion albums turned out pretty good.

Have seen Skid Row a few times post Sebastian Bach and although they're still very good you're always going to think of the era and those songs as being the definitive.

Blackie Lawless and Chris Homes falling out was big too, what with Blackie even dropping the fake blood and guts props and doing a reborn Christian thing, but there were so many replacements that I'm just glad they finally found some stability and could knock a few more songs out. Even if he won't play certain animalistic ones any more

I know Hinder. They got selected via a rock talent show with Motley Crue as judges, or at least Nikki Sixx I think. Fantastic debut album, All American Nightmare was great, but I didn't listen to the others much thereafter though.

Speaking of the Crue, John Corabi didn't work out well and he was hardly given a fair crack, but even despite what happened with Vince Neil people still wanted that classic line up.

But, to bring it back full circle, now I'm middle ages myself I'm just happy to get to any gig nowadays, and much less bothered about whether it is the actual guys who lived and breathed the life playing the songs, if the effort to putting on a great show is there.
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