zombiezilla

And the tons of bands with unstable line-ups usually put out spotty quality music of wildly varying styles. Any band that has had as many changes as WS probably really suck.

Not to hijack this thread, but what other bands with extensive line-up changes suck? Or, perhaps more importantly, DON'T suck? Most do. And WS is not "any other band that has ever had a line-up change", they look to be the KINGS of line-up changes. RATT? Used to love 'em. Hate 'em, now, because of the absence of original members. The New Cars w/o Ocasek? You gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me. And Axel Rose has forever tainted the G-N-R legacy with this type of stupidity.

Supermallet

For bands with wild line-up changes that don't suck, try Yes and King Crimson.

Mordred

Whitesnake is obviously one of the worst, but it's not like Sabbath and Deep Purple haven't had 20-25 band members either. Of course, those bands do have a "classic" lineup that most people think of.

zombiezilla

Exactly, Mordred. I don't take Deep Purple very seriously either, simply because the group's founders don't seem to, either. I love some of their stuff, don't get me wrong; but the line-up that recorded Machine Head is the "true" DP, and no other. And Sabbath? Abso-fucking-lutely classic w/Ozzy, and damn good with Dio (but nowhere near the classic tunes with Ozzy). And having Bill Ward replaced with Vinnie Appice didn't hurt them one bit, sound-wise. But any group where the only member who is original is the singer or guitarist is a joke, unless they are some type of "project", or MAYBE a prog-rock band (and who cares who's in those line-ups, anyway?). And it's exponentially worse if the original member is only the bassist or drummer. Whitesnake is not a group; it's David Coverdale stubbornly and futiley refusing to work within the confines of his "non-band rock band".

devilshalo

Is this love?

zombiezilla

What the hell?!? How did this thread get started? I did not start it; it was part of the Whitesnake 30th anniversary discussion. At least I thought it was! Mods, please delete this thread. Or at least close it.

FUCK WHITESNAKE!

zombiezilla

I would like to know what 'hole screwed with my comments, though.

reverie

All other stuff aside, I can take the New Cars since at least the added "New".

If you want a pretty unstable band, look at Fleetwood Mac. What have they gone through, like 15 line-up changes?

B5Erik

Deep Purple - almost every line-up has been great (very good at the least).

Iron Maiden - improved after the first few line-up changes (Adrian, Bruce, Nicko).

KISS' best line-ups included replacement guys (Eric Carr, Bruce Kulick, Eric Singer)

Hell, Black Sabbath made some GREAT albums with guys other than Ozzy or Dio (Tony Martin on vocals for The Eternal Idol, Headless Cross, Tyr, and Cross Purposes - but the less said about Forbidden the better). Drummers like Eric Singer, Cozy Powell, and Bobby Rondinelli were great additions to the band during those years.

Whitesnake had several good line-ups, but it was always David Coverdale's band (it was named after his solo album, Whitesnake). Adding John Sykes to the line-up (just prior to the U.S. release of Slide it In) was sheer brilliance. Firing him before the Whitesnake (1987) album's release was sheer stupidity.

Hiro11

Good bands with unstable line-ups:

The Pretenders: even after two key members died, they were able to make one of the classic albums of the eighties, "Learning to Crawl"

Wilco has kicked out lots of seemingly key members but continues to make good music

Roxy Music lost the de facto leader of their band (Eno) after two classic albums and seemingly got even better.

Genesis has had more people in it than the BSO and yet they always seemed to turn out good music (at least up until Abacab)

UAIOE

KMFDM had a changing/rotating lineup for years and I think those years were the best and most creative.

Supermallet

That's not correct. Roxy Music's leader was always Bryan Ferry. He has almost all the songwriting credits and was the guiding force of the band. Eno left because Ferry wouldn't let him contribute songs. Eno certainly helped shape the initial sound of the band, but if you notice, the further away you get from For Your Pleasure (their last album with Eno), the less experimental they get.

cranberries fan

Depeche Mode-has always had a great-line-up(Vince Clarke-Alan Wilder)

Michael Corvin

I wouldn't say they are unstable but Dream Theater is very successful and they've been through three keyboardests and three vocalists. To be fair though the current vocalist, Labrie has been there since 92, pretty much when they broke through.

ultimatejim

Queen w/out Freddie just reeks.

Matthew Chmiel

I don't think that applies to the topic as Queen stopped producing music once Freddie died.

When they toured with Paul Rodgers, they added some quality musicians to the mix (such as Danny Miranda) with Brian and Roger, however, all that came out of that tour was a live album -- all of the rumors of another Queen album have not become a reality yet.

What about The Polyphonic Spree and Trans-Siberian Orchestra?

mndtrp

Pigface...

cactusoly

one of the most unstable lineups ever Megadave (Megadeth) always puts out great tunes.

All versions of Deep Purple are great

Black Sabbath with Ozzy Dio and even Ian Gillian are great but after that it really got out of hand (even though there were great musicians) 7th Star was supposed to be a Tony Iommi solo album after all.

All the Iron Maiden line ups are great with only a slight hiccup with Blaze Bailey

Iced Earth is worse than Megadeth as far as hired guns, and Jon Shaffer just booted their greatest asset Tim 'Ripper' Owens

islandclaws

Queens of the Stone Age - Awesome band, but now it's basically Josh Homme and friends. Works fine for me since I think he is the band, pretty much.

Nine Inch Nails has never really had much of a stable line up, but I've always preferred their older catalog to newer releases.

Even though I like them a lot less than I used to, Cradle of Filth seem to have a revolving door policy. Their older stable lineup was much better than their ever-changing one in recent years.

Of course, the almighty KISS. I love the old stuff, but I think they played the tightest with Kulick and Carr in the band. I'm not a Thayer fan, but I do think Singer is a kick ass drummer.

Alice Cooper, since the demise of the Alice Cooper group, has had lots of changes. I think the best line up he recorded with was on Welcome to my Nightmare.

The Bus

Least constant band I like is probably Spiritualized. Their lead singer usually fires everyone after each album.

Gerry P.

The Fall has had at least 20 band members.

jdodd

In one of the Jethro Tull box sets they include a "family tree" type of chart that shows all band members, past and current (at the time), and what bands they were in before and after Jethro Tull.

This is a limited version of that but it appears to be more current, and shows 24 members.

MetalGator311

NIN's changing line up hasn't had much affect on the albums considering Trent is a dictator in the studio. Trent was just angrier in the older material, Fragile was very experimental, and the sober-Trent era is far from PHM and TDS.

I think The Fragile had the best touring lineup (shame that Finck and Reznor hate each other now), which is why I'm really disappointed Tapeworm never happened. I would love to hear Reznor and Lohner as true collaborators. Lohner never really got to enjoy A Perfect Circle's success, but in the studio he made contributions to their albums.

ResIpsa

Ha ha ha! And about twice that many (legitimate) releases, at least. Close the thread now, we have the indisputable winner .

Jason

Deep Purple Family Tree

http://www.thehighwaystar.com/rosas/misc/dp-tree.html

This is more complex than the other versions of this I've seen.