From the
Beatles to
Roxy Music to
Radiohead, bands in their later years often sound markedly different from how they sounded in the beginning. But that’s a natural process of evolution, and typically such changes occur over time. Far less commonly, either by necessity or by choice, a group undergoes a seismic shift in style seemingly overnight. Below are five bands who did just that.
Yes
Yes had been through no less than eight incarnations by the turn of the ’80s. Through it all, however, the band held fast to its classically inspired prog-rock style. Having built its reputation on such epic tracks as “Close to the Edge” and “The Gates of Delirium,” the group was by then an institution that transcended personnel changes and trends. The 1983 album
90125 changed all that. With producer-maestro
Trevor Horn at the controls, the disc boasted snappy, effects-laden pop songs that dovetailed perfectly with the dawn of the MTV era. On the strength of tracks like “Owner of a Lonely Heart” and “Leave It,” the album sold more than six million copies and earned the group legions of new fans, while managing for the most part not to alienate long-time followers. Eventually Yes returned to their prog-rock ambitions, but
90125 remains one of rock’s most strikingly successful departures.
Pink FloydTo lose your lead singer is one thing. To lose your lead singer, your guiding spirit, and your main songwriter―all in one charismatic package―is something else. But that’s exactly what
Pink Floyd was confronted with in 1968, when the profoundly gifted
Syd Barrett became unhinged to the point that he was asked to leave the band. Barrett's songs, as dazzling and imaginative as they were, were at heart pop songs filled with child-like whimsy. His departure left a gaping hole that replacement guitarist David Gilmour could occupy, but couldn't hope to fill. Nonetheless, Pink Floyd forged on gamely, recording a series of albums that were free-form, experimental, and avant-garde―but also wildly uneven. At last, with
Dark Side of the Moon, the band crafted a work that boasted mainstream accessibility while retaining the essence of Barrett's fractured sensibilities. Pink Floyd went on to reinvent themselves yet again―in the wake of
Roger Waters’ departure―but in that instance the change in direction wasn't nearly so striking.
Doobie BrothersMuch like
Grand Funk Railroad before them, the
Doobie Brothers started out as a “people’s band,” projecting a communal boogie spirit with feel-good anthems such as “Listen to the Music” and “China Grove.” Built around the solid songwriting of Patrick Simmons and Tom Johnston, who also fronted the group, the Doobies’ early ’70s sound was marked by vestiges of the hippie era―the aural equivalent of bell-bottom jeans and a laid-back mindset. But the arrival in 1975 of Michael McDonald, as a replacement for the ailing Johnston, changed all that. Under contract to release a new album in 1976, and with Johnston unavailable, the band turned to McDonald for guidance. The result was a shift in style and sound that few could have imagined.
Takin’ It to the Streets, the first McDonald-period album, saw the Doobies’ boogie rock give way to jazzy funk and blue-eyed soul. Even more striking, the group’s trademark high harmonies were gone, replaced by McDonald's sludgy tenor. His health restored, Johnston tried to resume his leadership role in the Brothers on the band’s next album, but by then McDonald’s hold was firm. A full decade passed before the Doobie Brothers reunited with Johnston for a series of shows, after which the group returned to its original sound.
GenesisWith 1973’s Selling England By the Pound and 1974’s The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway,
Genesis joined the ranks of the prog-rock elite. Centered on charismatic frontman Peter Gabriel―whose on-stage theatricality rivaled that of
David Bowie at the time―the band had forged a style that was both ambitious and accessible. When Gabriel left the band in August 1975, one scribe wrote that his departure “was rather like Mick Jagger leaving the Rolling Stones.” Gabriel's replacement, Genesis drummer Phil Collins, proved the naysayers wrong―sort of. Whereas Gabriel-era Genesis embraced risk and pushed the prog-rock envelope, the Collins-led band opted for a more streamlined, consumer-friendly approach. At the time even Collins himself copped to the fact that the music was “more concise and less fragmented.” The singer/drummer's solo career, undertaken concurrent with his work in Genesis, had the effect of pushing the band even further toward nondescript pop fare.
T. Rex For all his ambition, T. Rex founder
Marc Bolan was going nowhere fast in the drippy, flower-power guise that comprised his late ’60s period in the acoustic folk duo Tyrannosaurus Rex. First with multi-instrumentalist Steve Peregrin Took, then with conga player Mickey Finn, Bolan wrote and recorded whimsical, Tolkien-inspired songs that sported such titles as “Chariots of Silk” and “Once Upon the Seas of Abyssinia.” With the catchy “Ride a White Swan” and the even more commercial “Hot Love,” however, Bolan transformed himself from acoustic-strumming hippy to amped-up rocker. Shortening his band’s name to T. Rex, and turning himself into a riff-making machine, Bolan set the glam movement ablaze with such pop-rock masterpieces as 1971’s
Electric Warrior and 1972’s
The Slider. Fans of Bolan’s early work cried “sell out” at the time, but the impact of T. Rex’s ’70s work reverberates to this day.
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