Bands who, through their long existence, have had almost too many members to count?

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Reno and Blasmo's posts, on the Billy Mays (RIP) thread, made me think of this.

I think over the years the Byrds had more members than some small European principalities have citizens.

The Fall. At least 40 members so far, unless MES has lost count (which wouldn't surprise me at all.)

"You've got to understand that like in the world of rock and roll there are certain changes that sometimes occur, and you've just got to, sort of, roll with them, you know. I mean you read... you read... you saw exactly how many people who have been in this band over the years, 37 people have been in this band over the years."

.....

Hello-ahh! You have-ahh reached The Department of Human Resources Department of The Fall-ahh!

.....

If your band has more ex-members than Spinal Tap, you might have issues. There isn't even a general consensus about the issue.

Parliament/Funkadelic

Roxy Music (just because of the revolving door on the bass position)

the Temptations (who are also in the running for the heaviest death toll on its membership)

I'll be nearly every Southern rock musician with a beard and an instrument has been in either Skynyrd, 38 Special or the Outlaws in the past decade.

I wish everyone could be in Parliamanet/Funkadelic at some point. The world would be a much better place because of it.

I'm convinced that Santini from ShaNaNa was in the George Clinton P-Funk AllStars when I saw them at Lollapalooza. Somebody told me it was just some other bald middle-aged white guy, but I know it was Santini.

Practically every ska musician in NYC has been a member of the Toasters, or at least has recorded or performed with the band.

Similarly to the Byrds, the Flying Burritos lived well beyond the initial incarnation and featured more members than I can count.

The Yardbirds are the guitar wanker answer to this thread.

The Saints

Split Enz
King Crimson
Fleetwood Mac
Thin Lizzy

...to name a few.

Dexy's Midnight Runners (Another one where almost an entire band walked out on its leader, in this case to form the Bureau).

Black Flag (I think Greg Ginn is the only one who stayed the whole way through. What was said about Roxy/bassists could probably apply to Black Flag/vocalists as well, at least until Henry came around. Ditto Siouxsie & the Banshees/guitarists).

I think the Mothers of Invention had some noticeable turnover.

The Modern Lovers (not just the original group but everyone who backed Jonathan under the "Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers' moniker).

old vocal groups like the Drifters

Public Image Limited (the original group, the faceless 'live in Tokyo' group, the later 'new wave supergroup' etc.

Love

Of course if you want to stretch into other genres, then Art Blakely's Jazz Messengers probably has everyone else (even the Fall) beat hands down.

King Crimson and Fleetwood Mac! Excellent choices, Zoo - two bands whose arguably best known line-ups bore almost no relation to the original configurations or sounds. Crimson went from being the prototypical prog band to the wiry Talking Heads inspired post-punk of the Belew line-up, and the Mac went from a standard Brit-blues band to the apotheosis of California pop.

Canned Heat

Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson
Bob "The Bear" Hite
Henry "Sunflower" Vestine
Adolfo "Fito" de la Parra
Larry "The Mole" Taylor
Harvey "The Snake" Mandel
Antonio de la Barreda
Richard Hite
Stuart Brotman
Keith Sawyer
Mike Perlowin
Ron Holmes
Kenny Edwards
Mark Andes
Frank Cook
Joel Scott Hill
Ed Beyer
James Shane
Jock Ellis
Clifford Solomon
Gene Taylor
Chris Morgan
Mark Skyer
Ronnie Barron
Mike Mann
Jay Spell
Jon Lamb
Mike Halby
Ernie Rodriguez
Richard Kellogg
Walter Trout
James Thornbury
Smokey Hormel
Becky Barksdale
Ron Shumake
Mark "Pocket" Goldberg
Junior Watson
Paul Bryant
Stanley "The Baron" Behrens
Dallas Hodge
John Paulus
Don Preston
Robert Lucas
Barry Levenson
Greg Kage
Dale Spalding

I believe that is 46 members.



Post Edited (06-30-09 01:00)

"...I believe that is 46 members."

Big stage for those guys.

no wonder some of CH "songs" were 20 minutes long.
lotta time to give each member a chance to solo........

The Damned:
Dave Vanian − vocals, theremin (1976-1978, 1978-present)
Captain Sensible − guitar (1978-1984, 1989, 1991, 1996-present); bass (1976-1978)
Monty Oxy Moron − keyboards (1996-present)
Stu West − bass (2005-present)
Pinch − drums (1999-present)
Brian James - guitar (1976-1978, 1988-1989, 1991)
Rat Scabies − drums (1976-1977, 1978-1996)
Lu Edmunds - guitar (1977-1978)
Dave Berk - drums (1977)
Gary Holton - vocals (1978)
Henry Badowski - bass (1978)
Jon Moss - drums (1978)[16]
Algy Ward - bass (1978-1980)
Paul Gray - bass (1980-1983,1989,1997)
Roman Jugg - keyboards (1981-1989) guitar (1984-1989)
Bryn Merrick - bass (1983-1989)
Paul Shepley - keyboards (1985-1989)
Kris Dollimore - guitar (1993-1996)
Allan Lee Shaw - guitar (1993-1996)
Jason "Moose" Harris - bass (1993-1996)
Garrie Dreadful - drums (1996-1999)
Patricia Morrison - bass (1998-2005)
Spike Smith - drums (1999)
Lemmy - bass (1978)

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have gone through guitarists about as much as Spinal Tap went through drummers. Except that (to the best of my knowledge) ony one of those guitarists is dead.

The Marshall Tucker Band deserves a mention here – they've had about 25 members over the years, none of whom were named "Marshall," "Tucker" or "Marshall Tucker."

Well, heck! Even Ultravox has hit the 13 member mark, something I'd have never suspected, thanks to Currie's post-Ure lineups.

Billy Currie
John Foxx
Chris Cross
Warren Cann
Stevie Shears
Robin Simon
Midge Ure
Mark Brzezicki
Tony Fennelle
Sam Blue
Vinny Burns
Tony Holmes
Gary Williams

Let's not forget Hawkwind.

Savoy Brown: 39 members
Polyphonic Spree: 39 members
Hawkwind: 31 members
The Animals: 31 members
Lynryd Skynyrd : 31 members (including backing singers)
John Mayall's Blues Breakers: 29 members
Marshall Tucker: 27 members
Yardbirds: 20 members
Foghat: 18 members
Fleetwood Mac: 18 members(not counting bogus group)
REO: 18 members
Climax Blues Band: 17 members



Post Edited (06-30-09 11:51)

I don't recall what I was searching the forum for that led me to this ancient topic, but I see that Blood, Sweat & Tears escaped mention way back when. Per Wikipedia, 180 people, give or take two or three, have done time in that combo. Their current line-up contains nothing resembling an original member.

I thought maybe another no-original-members walking corpse band, the Guess Who, might give Blood, Sweat & Tears a run for their money, but those slackers seem to have only had 40-some odd members over the years. Losers. I don't know if the Guess Who is even a going concern at all anymore, since Burton Cummings took the nuclear option and terminated performance rights for anyone besides himself to perform his songs. Not much point dragging yourselves around to mighty metropolises like Mt. Vernon, Illinois or Sedalia, Missouri and passing yourselves off as the Guess Who if you can't play any Burton Cummings songs at the show.

And one of the pre-eminent post-punk bands could properly be called Gang of Fourteen.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2024 07:30PM by breno.

Ha… I had to search through the posts to find why it got bumped!

Actually, with John mayall’s recent passing I thought of his entourage as a contender. I saw he did get mentioned …

Angelic Upstarts - 19
Alternative TV - 21
Cockney Rejects - 13
Vibrators - 21
Killing Joke - 16
Agnostic Front - 20
The Exploited - 35
The Business - 15
Misfits - 17

...and the Champ - UK Subs with 67!

Uriah Heep

Magma beats them all. The chart below only goes through the early 1990s and comes close to 100 members not counting guests on recordings, and the band has gone through another half-dozen major personnel changes since then.

[www.expose.org]

Menudo


Nefty Sallaberry ( 1977 — 1979 )
Carlos Melendez ( 1977 — 1980 )
Fernando Sallaberry ( 1977 — 1980 )
Oscar Melendez ( 1977 — 1981 )
Ricky Melendez ( 1977 — 1984 )
Rene Farrait ( 1979 — 1982 )
Johnny Lozada ( 1980 — 1984 )
Xavier Serbia ( 1980 — 1983 )
Miguel Cancel ( 1981 — 1983 )
Charlie Masso ( 1982 — 1987 )
Ray Reyes ( 1983 — 1985 )
Roy Rosello ( 1983 — 1986 )
Tommy Leaman ( 1984 — 1987 )(as Robby Rosa) ***Que Pasa?
Ricky Martin ( 1984 — 1989 )
Raymond Acevedo ( 1985 — 1988)
Sergio Blass ( 1986 — 1990 )
Ralphy Rodriguez ( 1987 — 1988 )
Ruben Gomez ( 1987 — 1990 )
Angelo Garcia ( 1988 — 1990 )
Robert Avellanet ( 1988 — 1991 )
Rawy Torres ( 1989 — 1991 )
Cesar Abreu ( 1990 )
Victor Albert Marrero(1990)
Adrian Olivares ( 1990 — 1993 )
Edward Aguilera ( 1991 )
Jonathan Montenegro ( 1991 )
Alexis Grullon ( 1991 — 1996 )
Ashley Ruiz ( 1991 — 1996 )
Andy Blazquez ( 1991 — 1996 )
Abel Talamantez ( 1991 — 1996 )
Ricky Lopez ( 1993 — 1995 )
Alexis Grullon
Anthony Galindo
Caleb Aviles
Pablo Portillo
Didier Hernandez
Abel Talamantez
Troy Tuminelli
Daniel Rene Weider
Daniel Rodriguez
Elliot Suro
Luis Montes
Lorenzo Duarte
Dean Ramos Garcia
Daniel "Paco" Barthel
Carlos Emmanuel Olivero- 19 years old
José "Monti" Antonio Montañez- 20 years old
Emmanuel Jose Vélez Pagán- 18 years old
Christopher Nelson Moy- 16 years old
José Bordonada Collazo- 16 years old.

Plus countless more...

i'd thought about Menudo but wasn't sure if they fit the spirit of the topic, since they've always been intended to be an ongoing concern with members rotating out once they reach a certain age.

I also thought about the Lilys, but have never known for sure if they're actually supposed to be considered an actual band or if Lilys is just the brand name Kurt Heasley gives himself and whoever works with him on any given album - sort of like Stephin Merritt with the 6ths or Mayo Thompson with the Red Krayola.

There have supposedly been over 30 members of the Waterboys over the years.

The New Christs
The Leaving Trains

Bar-Kays go all right.

Members
James Alexander
Chris J
Carlos Sargent
Ez Roc
Bo Dae
Angelo Earl
Darryl Sanford
Devin Crutcher
Katrina Anderson
Past members
Larry Dodson
Ben Cauley
Ronnie Caldwell
Carl Cunningham
Phalon Jones
Jimmy King
Marcus Price
Vernon Burch
Ronnie Gorden
Michael Toles
Winston Stewart
Charles "Scoops" Allen
Alvin Hunter
Barry Wilkins
Lloyd Smith
Dywane Thomas
Mike Beard
Frank Thompson
Sherman Guy
Larry "LJ" Johnson
Harvey Henderson
Tony Gentry
Archie Love
Bryan Smith
Carl Sims
Daroll Hagen
Mark Bynum