Improved in quality !

[trurl]

Good point.

I'm not your guy, buddy!

[PeterG]

.... and we have a winner (can't believe I didn't think of this one)! Barrett leaving and Gilmour joining (even though there was overlap) most certainly resulted in massive improvement!

Are you kidding, have you actually listened to Saucerful and More? Absolute tosh when compared to Piper. It took until Ummagumma and then Meddle before they all settled into their new roles, having completed the transition from space-rock pop band with a charismatic leader (as many such bands had then) to a proper prog rock group. What the hell happened during the AHM period is anyone's guess, they must have had a psych flashback or something, awful album!

[JIF]

A saucerful Of Secrets and Atom Heart Mother are great albums. Actually, Saucer more so.

[PeterG]

A saucerful Of Secrets and Atom Heart Mother are great albums.

Don't get me wrong, I like them, but IMO they are only great albums when compared to the offerings of the day by other bands BUT when compared to Floyd's truly great albums like Piper, Meddle, DSOTM they aren't that great, good in parts but not great. That is more correctly what I meant.

[Frumious B]

Perry was a great vocalist, and they clearly needed help in the vocals department. Maybe people can criticize them for their more mainstream material -I happen to like what they did between 78 and 83, but it can't be denied Perry was a talented singer.

I think Steve Perry is one of the great rock voices of all time. Out of that whole crop of late 70s and early 80s arena rock type bands I think it is Journey's music that has aged the best and still carries some weight in the broader landscape of popular culture.

[Frumious B]

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Marillion swapping Fish for Steve Hogarth yet? I think Hogarth improved them tremendously.

[Frumious B]

Van Hagar better than Van Roth?

Ha ha ha ha....I'll crack the jokes thank you.

With Roth they were this freewheeling, fun band with a flashy guitarist, but with this fast and loose spirit that also had a lot in common with power pop and punk. With Hagar they morphed into a rather pedestrian and ordinary arena rock band.

[Dodie]

Four pages and nobody has mentioned Marillion swapping Fish for Steve Hogarth yet? I think Hogarth improved them tremendously.

Actually, I did. See post #45, on p. 2 of the thread.

[ca1ore]

Are you kidding, have you actually listened to Saucerful and More? Absolute tosh when compared to Piper. It took until Ummagumma and then Meddle before they all settled into their new roles, having completed the transition from space-rock pop band with a charismatic leader (as many such bands had then) to a proper prog rock group. What the hell happened during the AHM period is anyone's guess, they must have had a psych flashback or something, awful album!

We are all entitled to our opinions. In this case mine does not align with yours ..... Although, I do tend to be of the opinion that everything prior to Meddle was generally crap.

[GuitarGeek]

I think Saucerful is a "good but not great" album. Apart from Saucerful Of Secrets itself, Corporal Clegg, Let There Be More Light, and maybe Remember The Day, most of the album is kinda iffy. Set The Controls has a cool guitar riff, but it worked much better as an improv vehicle onstage than it does in it's studio form. See Saw is an ok song, but it's not quite up to the standards set on Piper. And Jugband Blues is only interesting as yet another chapter in the very sad "Syd loses his mind" saga.

Can't really comment on More because I've never really heard it (there's only three Pink Floyd albums I've never owned: More, Atom Heart Mother, and Obscured By Clouds). I think in general, their attempts at conventional songwriting in the 60's really demonstrate that Syd was sorely being missed. I think their strong suit at this point was the more improvisational sort of psychedelic instrumentals. And even on the studio half of Ummagumma, some of the instrumental stuff doesn't quite work.

I personally think some of the songs that appeared on their singles were better than a few of the tunes that were on Saucerful and Ummagumma, at least.

I honestly think Dark Side Of The Moon was the first Pink Floyd album that didn't have any throwaways (with the reservation that I've never actually been able to listen to More or Obscured By Clouds closely enough to actually comment on either). Every album before that had a couple things where it sounds like they ran out of ideas and were just coasting until they had the 38 minutes or whatever they needed to complete a full album.

One wonders how things would have gone had Syd been able (or willing) to continue delivering coherent songs and/or performances, or what would have happened if, say, Point Me At The Sky or It Would Be So Nice had been hits.

[Wisdomview]

Which bands improved in quality when an original or previous KEY member/s left or replaced !

Dream Theater - Jordan Rudess & Labrie

I strongly disagree with this comment, although I believe that Awake was their best and the last worth owning.