Biggest mistake a band ever made

[58kites]

I always wonder how some bands (and people in them) make the decisions they do.
A few examples would be personnel changes, musical direction changes, changes in producer, recording engineers, their overall band "look" and stuff like that.

-Why did Mick Taylor leave the Rolling Stones? ....he never did anything of note since and Ronnie Wood stepped in and has had a great career as the other guitar player.

-Black Sabbath fired Ozzy and then Ozzy went and kicked their ass for a decade or two before reconciliation measures brought them back together.

-Kiss took off their makeup, the only thing the band ever had going for them.

-Alice Cooper dumped his band and his records just turned into mush.

-Any band that ever stopped using Bob Ezrin, Mutt Lange, Rick Rubin or Butch Vig payed the price.

-The Beatles breaking up was idiotic.

-Guns and Roses breaking up was bad for everyone but Slash.

-Pink Floyd breaking up was dumb.


So, what are the biggest mistakes other bands have made..???

 

[zontar]

-Alice Cooper dumped his band and his records just turned into mush.

I would disagree on this one--Welcome to My Nightmare, Goes to Hell, From the Inside--and even later ones like Flush the Fashion & Special Forces --as well as others really hold up--and the first two contain some of his best known songs--hardly a big mistake.
I would have liked to have heard him do more with the original band--but "Biggest Mistake a band ever made"?
Not even close.

 

[catcauphonic]

Good band dynamics aren't always forever ... like a marriage

 

[dtripoli]

-Any band that ever stopped using Bob Ezrin, Mutt Lange, Rick Rubin or Butch Vig payed the price.

Tell that to Shania Twain who he cheated on........

My contribution is an easy one.
Van Halen vs Singers

 

[Gorn]

How do you know what's a mistake? There's no guarantee things would've gone well had they made different decisions.

 

[mmbongo]

Metallica firing Dave Mustaine. They just fizzled after that.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

3 G'n'R members went on to form Velvet Revolver

KISS put their makeup back on, more than once

I think Ozzy actually thought he could do better on his own, from what I've read

Keith explains why Taylor left the Stones in his book Life
(yes, you should read it)

Alice (Vincent)'s new band rocks
Nita Strauss is in there & she is a goddess on her Ibanez Saber series (very similar to one I had)

Rick Rubin completely changed The Cult's sound (like the UK AC/DC). Yeah, they sold more records, but I'm unsure not using him on their subsequent albums is what curbed the fans' enthusiasm

the Beatles & PF breakups weren't exactly voluntary
Aerosmith went through the same sort of trials, but somehow pulled through


Wiliam Broad (Billy Idol) completely messed up when he released that techno-dance album, CyberPunk:

He wouldn't make another album for a over a decade after this farce.


add:
Rick Rubin did ok for the Cult on Electric, but Bob Rock did even better for them on Sonic Temple (it's considered their breakthrough album)

 

[yodedude2]

How do you know what's a mistake? There's no guarantee things would've gone well had they made different decisions.

well just another mistake then.

 

[jerry]

J Geils firing one of the most dynamic frontmen ever after finally breaking huge is up there. But we never know what the deal is, the Allman had to fire Dickey Betts because he was a bad alcoholic, sometimes it's just time for a change.

 

[shawshank72]

My vote is for bands who go on too long and become cover bands of what they once were.

 

[farace]

Lou Reed put out his best work with collaborators he clashed with. His on-again/off-again friction with John Cale was legendary, but resulted in some of the best the Velvet Underground recorded. Reed's frictions with Robert Quine resulted in The Blue Mask. Breaking those collaborations didn't help his music, but probably gave him a bit more day-to-day peace.

 

[Spectrum]

-Black Sabbath fired Ozzy and then Ozzy went and kicked their ass for a decade or two before reconciliation measures brought them back together.

Ozzy was a mess and the band had had enough of him. The reason he got awesome again was because he needed the kick in the butt of being fired.

-The Beatles breaking up was idiotic.

John Lennon wanted to quit / break up his band. If you can't stand being in the room with your band mates, breaking up is not idiotic. They were set for life financially anyway. Paul and Ringo are doing quite well today.

-Pink Floyd breaking up was dumb.

Pink Floyd never broke up. Waters quit. Again, if you can't stand being in the same room with somebody, leave.

Technically, Floyd still exists today and has two members: Gilmour and Mason, although the band is likely permanently inactive due to age and lack of interest on Gilmour's part.

 

[58kites]

["Killed_by_Death said]I think Ozzy actually thought he could do better on his own, from what I've read.
They claim he was a mess so they had to fire him, while three members were a mess.
What I read was that he was devastated when they fired him.
Turns out he could do as well on his own, he made much better records without them than they did without him, maybe firing him is what he needed to get himself back on track.

["Killed_by_Death said]Keith explains why Taylor left the Stones in his book Life
(yes, you should read it)
I read it, think Mick could have found a way to stay, and been very successful and the band would have been better than they were after he left.
I think the best records The Rolling Stones ever made were with him in the band.

["Killed_by_Death said]Alice (Vincent)'s new band rocks
In my opinion, he spent 30 years making records that have never been close to what the Alice Cooper Band did, even with tons of great help from hired guns. He made two passable albums right after he dumped the band, but I think the rest have been pretty weak.

So, John Lennon was dumb for wanting to quit, but that is the Beatles fan talking here.

So, Roger Waters quitting was clearly a dumb idea, and eventually lots of musicians figure that out.

It is hard to guess what would have happen if things had gone differently in lots of popular bands.
And I agree sometimes it is time to change or call it quits, but sometimes it sure does look like a mistake.

 

[BassFishingInAmerica]

Biggest band mistakes?
With everything they had going for them:
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Jim Morisson
Keith Moon
Sid Vicious
Kurt Cobain
and so on and so on ...

 

[AdamR]

My vote is for bands who go on too long and become cover bands of what they once were.

Skid Row firing Bach

 

[JW_Manhattan]

-The Beatles breaking up was idiotic.

Idiotic or not, it did NOT hurt their record sales.

RIAA: 178 million albums sold.

 

[gln1955]

Isn't the TB solution to band problems to rage quit or fire the {drummer, guitarist, keyboardist and/or singer}? Just because a band is at superstar level, doesn't mean there aren't the same toxic relationships.

 

[Spectrum]

So, Roger Waters quitting was clearly a dumb idea, and eventually lots of musicians figure that out.

I don't think Roger Waters would agree with you. He still sells out stadiums as a solo artist and, while he seems to now get along with his former band mates, he doesn't seem to regret not rejoining Floyd.

I think that's a fan reaction. Many of us think Floyd's music suffered without Waters' writing, but they still did quite well and are still making truckloads of money off of their 70s albums.

 

[Wandering Bass]

Alice In Chains not officially breaking up and starting a new project. Cantrell (and Kinney too) was always the music and poetry, but Staley was the public face and defined the delivery of the songs. The two post-Staley albums have some of Cantrell's best writing, the band have all matured musically, and DuVall has a presence that is worth listening to. But so many people still dismiss it as a lame version of the original. I think had they renamed themselves they could have minimized the distractions.

Yeah, they are doing ok for themselves, so not the biggest mistake ever, but still.

 

[pudgychef]

The mistake with KISS was not sorting out a way for Peter and Ace to remain in the band. The contrast is music, attitude, interest and 'what they brought to the band' was what made the band such a beast...once SimStan took full control, the band became reactive and focused on trying to mimic what was popular...and then we end up with World Without Heroes while makeup is worn.
Vinnie Vincent's big mistake was that terrible 'throwing motion camera point' just before the chorus on the Lick It Up video....you would think that by the time the world had reached post nuclear Holocaust, guys in street gangs wouldn't throw like girls.
Ace should have considered joining as Tom Snyder's Ed McMahon...there was legit chemistry there as well as an appreciation for laughter and fish related puns...empires have been built on less!