Entertainment For Lively Minds
Unusual reasons for quitting bands
Posted by Brookster on 4 December 2011 - 3:10pm.
Band members who quit for reasons that were idiosyncratic, bizarre or frankly precious.
Angus MacLise, original drummer with the Velvet Underground, left the band after they got their first paying gig, accusing them of 'selling out'.
Roger McGuinn reportedly left The Byrds following the band's decision to include a cover of Gerry Goffin and Carole King's Goin' Back, on The Notorious Byrd Brothers.
So who else threw all their toys out of the musical pram?
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The story goes
that Glen Matlock was ousted from the Sex Pistols because:
(a) he liked The Beatles
(b) he washed his feet
More likely to get the marketing opportunity that was Sid Vicious into the band at the expense of the bloke writing most of the songs.
(I know - all the songs had an equal writing credit. But how many songs bore the name 'Vicious'?)
Other than accusations of "selling out", Angus MacLise was also not happy about having to start and stop playing at set times
I seem to remember
that The Beautiful South called it a day due to "musical similarities."
Still Paul Heaton stays busy, not content with cycling between pubs that were his tour venues he has now bought a pub in Salford.
Leppo, the fifth Rutle
"In those days there was a fifth Rutle, Leppo, who mainly stood at the back. He couldn't play the guitar, but he knew how to have a good time, and in Hamburg that was more difficult. For five hungry working class lads there are worse places than prison, and The Rat Keller Hamburg is one. For fifteen months, night after night, they played the Rat Keller before they finally escaped and returned to Liverpool. In the rush they lost Leppo. He had crawled into a trunk with a small German Fraulien and was never seen again. (This inspired Nasty to write the song "Goose-Step Mama".) His influence on the Rutles was so immeasurable that no one has ever bothered to measure it."
(from http://www.rutles.org/rstory.html)
Blues purist Eric Clapton
quit the Yardbirds after they recorded the song For Your Love because he felt it was "too commercial".
Gram Parsons left the Byrds because they planned to play in South Africa
Lemmy was sacked from Hawkwind for, among other things, taking drugs(!)
Jeremy Spencer walked out of Fleetwood Mac to join the religious cult The Children Of God
Gram Parsons may
have left The Byrds because he saw hanging around with the Rolling Stones, and Keith Richards in particular, as a more attractive option.
That's the more likely reason
but the official South Africa protest line sounds more honourable ;-)
Byrds
I think you'll find it was Crosby that had a problem with the Byrds covering Goin' Back, not McGuinn.
Yeah, McGuinn never left
Crosby also was annoyed that the Goffin-King song (which does sit perfectly on the album) was taking up the space that Triad could have filled. Two drivers on that - from an artisitc viewpoint Crosby argued that the band shouldn't be buying in songs anymore (since their main competition - the lacklustre by comparison but better selling Beatles - weren't) and also from a selfish point of view he was losing out on the publishing credit.
With three main songwriters The Byrds always had this issue - Gene was let go so easily (I believe) because he was hoging the writing credits (and therefore earning more than the rest of the band).
Didn't Robert Fripp leave Crimso...
...in 1974 to pursue academic study with some unusual organisation? A 'bizarre educational accident'?
Also, Gary Moore left Skid Row in 1971 because they PLAYED TOO FAST. Yes, that's GARY MOORE... the one who spent the next 40 years playing very fast...
Russell Senior
Apparently left Pulp as it wasn't "creatively rewarding" anymore, which was strange to hear as it was just after Different Class, which was the point at which their creativity was finally rewarded!
I have a dim recollection...
...that Curt Smith decided to divorce Roland Orzabal after the sleeve notes for their final album together showed Smith thanking his therapist and Orzabal thanking his jeweller.
Or was it the other way round?
I personally find a trip to a jeweller to be frequently more emotionally rewarding than a trip to a therapist. As long as you don't buy anything, of course.
PS This is Tears For Fears we're talking about, in case names aren't ringing the requisite bells.
Crosby
was the horse as well! (See above)
McGuinn always says
if they'd meant it that way he'd have had the horse stand the other way around, 'cos Crosby could be a horses ass sometimes.
Unusual reasons for NOT quitting band
Singer sleeps with guitarist's girlfriend (Ramones).
Singer moves from guitarist's bed to drummer's (Sleeper).
Pretty sure the Ramones one should read...
Singer's girlfriend transfers affections to guitarist. Decades of silence ensue.
Jaz Coleman
left Killing Joke and went to Iceland because he was awaiting the apocalypse in 1982. The rest of the band followed him. They came back when it didn't happen.
Fripp went to J.G. Bennett's International Academy For Continuous Education at Sherbourne citing that he didn't want Crimson to become a "Dinosaur" band.
Malcolm Mooney left CAN on the advice of his psychiatrist.