Best solo career?

...AND STEVE HACKETT

 

Maybe Syd Barett

He made three solo albums after leaving Pink Floyd

Seiously two Peter's are my choice: Hammill and Gabriel

Peter Gabriel and Philly Collins certainly have to be by far the most successful solo artists from a band and I have most of Gabriels  material but the only Philly Colins album which lives in my collection is No Jacket Required.But for me the best has to be Jan Akkerman from Focus He was making solo albums even before Focus. When he was with Brainbox he recorded Talent For Sale. Look how diverse and experimental his solo stuff is from an album with Claus Ogerman which features clasical motifs to the heavy From The Basement which has tinges of heavy metal. Oil in the family which acording to rumour he did as a joke so he could toy around with his newly acquired synth ax. You could even dance this ( not that I dance ) but it`s interesting just the same. These days he`s exploring his blues roots. A very inconsistent solo output which always had me guessing what was going to be next. The only disappointment was 1979`s Jan Akkerman 3. What was that????????? A very esoteric and eigmatic solo career and one of the best guitar players on the planet.

yep: tony phillips

Steve Hillage was good with his own group, but what happened to him?

Even though I've only heard In Camera, I suspect that Peter Hammill has the most respectable solo career of any prog musician. He never made commercial sh*t I think. Steve Hackett has two amazing albums, and a lot of OK to average ones. Phil Collins has a lot of sh*t, even though I like a few of his songs ... wait ... I think I only like one actually.. Another Day in Paradise has a wonderful melody !

Rick Wakeman has made a few really good albums, but the percentage of sh*t he has released is amazingly high.


Edited by erlenst - May 02 2006 at 13:06

Good to see so many recognize Steve Hackett's solo career, whom I personally feel is the artist with the most exceptional discography in prog-rock music. He never strayed far from the prog vein, adding classical elements, blues, hard rock, minimalistic, etc. and stretching the boundaries of what one would define as rock or prog. He never let his technical talent overshadow the music and he's one of the few artists where I can listen to his complete discography without getting bored senseless (Wakeman comes to mind when thinking of boredom). Gabriel has a good career, but many of his records are weak, for example his first and second solo records, US gets boring after a while, OVO was useless... and so on. Phil Collins career is good, but not prog enough to completely satisfy in repeated listenings (except Face Value which is a classic record in my collection). Eno's solo career cetainly is better than what he did within Roxy Music. Anthony Phillips was so little within Genesis but has a very good solo career and very prolific too. But Hackett tops the list any day. None of the Yes nor Pink Floyd solo careers are of any trascendent value which serves to emphasize the importance of Genesis in prog music history.

Greetings

Mogens

Alex Lifeson

Big Ears wrote: Steve Hillage was good with his own group, but what happened to him?

Seriously, are you asking? He spent some time producing and doing some session work before he and Miquette Giraudy reinvented themselves as techno innovators System 7. He's more relevant today than most musicians of his generation.

Hammill and Gabriel are pretty obvious choices too. But you've all missed Holger Czukay. Shame on you - his solo career is sensational. Should also be able to say Bill Nelson here, but some plonkers forgot to include Be Bop Deluxe in the local list of what is prog.

Prog-man wrote:   Obviusly:  Mr. PETER GABRIEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!