The most influential new member!

I went with Gilmour, whose influence on the overall Pink Floyd sound was massive. However, the most influential new member was certainly Neil Peart - Rush wouldn't be what they are now without him. BTW, I noticed Bill Bruford in the list, but there was no mention of his KC partner-in-rythm John Wetton. Even though I'm no big fan of his singing, I think he was enormously influential to the sound of KC's "golden era".

erik neuteboom wrote: I am very curious to your opinion which new band member had the biggest impact/influence on the music after his entry. Personally I tend to choose for #1 Rick Wakeman: his incredible musical knowledge, his virtuosic skills, his wide range of keyboards and last but not least his creative and adventurous mind. But another #1 choice could be David Gilmour because of his wonderful flowing guitarsound, his distinctive voice and his compositional skills. So what's your choice? By the way, I have not mentioned all bands in which the new band members have played, it's subjective and everybody is invited to name more!

Definitely Dave Gimour. If Syd wouldn't became schizophrenic and have stayed in the band, there would be possibly not such a radical change from psychedelic towards mainstream-compatible prog happened. Rick Wakeman was also highly influential to Yes with his classical-approach, but I feel he hasn't changed the sound as much as David Gilmour has done to PF, since the typical YES-style was from the beginning on there, only through Wakeman and Howe they became more extensive and progressive in their songwriting skills.

^ I agree.

I was going to say Gilmour, but when I thought about it... his influence was more of a gradual thing. He eventually became a very key element in the Floyd sound, but the impact doesn't sound as profound to me as the difference that was immediately noticable with The Yes Album.

That said... Neil Peart would totally win this poll if he were included. 

erik neuteboom wrote: It seems to become a battle between Wakeman and Gilmour but Hogarth does well too, to my surprise. But on the other hand, he does not well for me because I left Marillion when he joined my favorite neo-progrock band  ..!

We are not talking about people who had a GOOD impact on the music of these groups. The thread is about the BIGGER impact (not necessarily good). That's the reason I voted for Hogarth, he made a BIG change in the band, despite I like much more Fish-era Marillion.

cmidkiff wrote: How do you know that Neil Peart made the big change in sound? What if Geddy and Alex decided to change direction and they needed a new drummer at the same time? Of coarse there is the lyric thing, but that is not necessarily directly related to a change of sound.

A valid point. I've never read/seen any interviews with Lee or Lifeson in which they address that topic. Has anyone else?

erik neuteboom wrote: In recent interviews Alex Lifeson admitted that he never liked synthesizers ..

I always suspected as much. I always thought I was imagining it, but it seemed to me that Lifeson's solos on Signals sounded almost angry!


Edited by Empathy - May 19 2006 at 15:11

Gilmour!

David Gilmour.

He pretty much turned the band from a lighthearted 'experiment' to a very serious study of society and politics.

David Gilmour ...followed by Wakeman