Wrote it, sang it, played everything
Today my brain for some reason caused me to think of Emitt Rhodes, who wrote, sang and played everything on his first album. I used SkreemR to find some tracks and it was clearly sub-McCartney as I remembered. I know Ben Kweller has done something similar. The best example of this I have is Todd Rundgren's double LP Something/Anything which I bought in San Francisco in 1972. He produced everything on the first three sides, using other musicians on the last side. Lots of great music (including Hello it's me, It wouldn't have made any difference, I saw the light), but it makes it hard to do a live performance completely solo. Found this clip on YouTube - everything about it is great (the introductions! the clothes! the makeup!). Does anyone have another example of a great album totally done by just one person?
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Bolders...
...by Roy Wood
Sorry...
...Boulders
Didn't
Steve Winwood play everything on one or two of his solo albums?
Dave Grohl....
...played almost everything on the first (and in my opinion best) Foo Fighters album. The lone exception is the guitar part on X-Static which is played by ex-Afghan Whigs frontman - Greg Dulli.
In spite of this the album does sound very much like a band effort.
McCartney
His first solo album, I believe, is all his own work.
Ben Folds
played everything on Rockin' The Suburbs himself, bar the strings.
Prince did some of this sort of thing, too, didn't he?
Indeed, on "Sign of the times"
The diminutive polymath did pretty much everything bar sax, trumpet and some backing vocals. His credit reads:Bass, Guitar, Arranger, Composer, Drums, Keyboards, Vocals, Vocals (bckgr), Multi Instruments, Producer, Engineer. He probably made himself tea...
don't forget
Milli Vanilli.
Runt
Todd Rundgren did the same on several albums (including TRi and A Wizard a True Star) and I'm sure Stevie Wonder came close during his winning streak. It's just dawned on me that I really like an inordinate number of these artists. Hmmm I'll have to check out Emmit
Acapella
Todd went one better on his mid-80s album, Acapella by singing everything on it. Every sound you hear came out of his mouth via a Fairlight. It's not as grim as it sounds; Pretending To Care, in particular, is a masterpiece and the whole thing is a labour of love.
Not his greatest album...
...but I believe Bob Mould's 1996 self-titled album (sometimes known as Hubcap) was all is own doing.
Mike Oldfield?
Give or take the odd bit of narration?
"Boulders" revisited
Carl mentioned the wonderful album "Boulders" by Roy Wood. Apart from a harmonium on the first song, Roy sang and played everything, including guitars, cello, saxophone and recorder. He wrote everything and produced everything, and even drew the album cover (unfinished due to a rush to meet deadlines). According to Wood he also "made the tea".
I think I'm right in saying that Wood really wanted to call the album "Bollocks".
harmonium
Credited to Surfin Mike Kurlander, one of the recording engineers... it's just one note, therefore an example of Roy's rather odd sense of humour.
I'm not sure absolutely about the claim that he played everything. Some songs were worked up with The Move in 1968, and then the individual instruments replaced one-by-one by Wood. So even if every note was played by him, the feel of the music is not quite his own. This is why the first ELO single 10538 Overture may or may not include Rick Price's bass playing, because they have no idea if they erased him or not.
Anyway Boulders is a splendid record.
A much missed geezer.
What happened? Altho he still appears sporadically in the midlands, usually doing Xmas shows at small venues,at one time he was the man most likely, with songwriting as prolific as can be. From the Move to early (and thus tolerable) ELO thru' to Wizzard, so much more than a(n excellent) singles band, let alone his solo stuff. Can we expect, as per Ray Davies, a London equivalent, a late re-blossoming, or is this all there is?
Two words: Don Arden
The great Roy Wood was one of his victims. The ogre Arden stalled his career at its peak. His spawn continues to poison the music industry.
Not very active Wizzo
The Roy Wood Rock 'n' Roll Band have a good reputation, though they only play occasionally. It still seems that Roy's talents are desperately underused.
http://www.roywood.co.uk/gigs.html
In praise of Roy....
My favourite chapter in Joe Boyd's excellent 'White Bicycles' is the one about The Move. I saw him with his big band (Roy Wood's Army) a few years ago at Shepherds Bush Empire. It was patchy, and the new stuff was sadly lacking the energy and imagination of his 70's material, but when they hit the spot on the old Wizzard and Move songs they were fantastic. I think he lost his way somewhere along the way in the late 70's. He really needs his very own Darian Sahanaja to remind him (and us) what he was really special at - a little Brummie Phil Spector. Having said that, I'd like to think his PRS cheques for 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday' still keep him in a very comfortable lifestyle and he probably doesn't give a monkeys.
someone like Neil Hannon might be good
I reckon Neil Hannon could get a great record out of Roy Wood.
White Bicycles
I found the Move chapter to be quite amazing, as did a friend who also read the book. With Joe Boyd's track record you have to respect his judgement, but it doesn't square with the band's track record. But obviously things could have been so different.
Jason Falkner
I will sing the praises of this feller forever. The ex-Jellyfish guitarist and in-demand session player (Air, Paul McCartney, Aimee Mann and many more) played everything on his first three albums apart from the strings, which he arranged. The Nigel Godrich-produced 'Can You Still Feel' is a masterpiece and the song 'She Goes to Bed' from his first album '...Presents Author Unknown' is the most glorious power-pop tune known to humankind.
Other DIY gems: Jon Brion's 'Meaningless', Eric Matthew's 'Foundation Sounds', and 'For You' and 'The Black Album' by Prince.
Jon, you beat me to it!
Jason's stuff is highly recommended, and all the more so for having him play pretty much the lot.
"She Goes to Bed" also contains one of my favourite guitar solos of all time - nothing flashy, but just fits the song perfectly. Don't know if you've had the chance to see him live or not but he's scarily talented on that front too, especially the solo show I saw.
Cheers
Keith
JF appreciation society
I was going to mention "She Goes to Bed" has a nigh-on perfect guitar solo as well! I've seen Mr Falkner twice, once at the late-lamented Embassy Rooms (now a bloody Spearmint Rhino) with a band and a deaf soundman; and a few years back at Dingwalls on his tod. Were you at that one? Really hope he'll be touring over here again at some point, but without a big label to back him up we may have a wait.
I believe that
Sir Lenworth of Kravitz did pretty much everything on either Let Love Rule or Are You Gonna Go My Way
whether you deem them as great albums is another thing! ;o)
Maps - We Can Create
One of the best albums of last year - James Chapman played/sang everything I believe. If you feel in the mood to download one song, 'When You Leave' is a belter.
Skip Spence...
...Oar.
Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat
Credited to Grandaddy but all done by Jason Lytle as the band were breaking up and it was pretty much always his gig anyway. Incidentally, anyone who likes the band might want to check out the JLTFC demos which are available from www.jasonlytle.com, yours for free although charitable donation would be the cool thing to do...
Phil Collins
"Both Sides Now" - oh sorry, the original post said great albums made by one person. 'Music Of My Mind' by Stevie Wonder - he does it all apparently, apart from trombone (fair enough) and one guitar part.
The Bevis Frond
The Bevis Frond, Nick Saloman, plays every instrument on most of his albums. 'New River Head' is particularly good, verging on great.
He also won C4's Countdown for weeks on end back in 1991, so he's probably a bit handy at Scrabble too.
Lou
Don't forget Metal Machine Music!
John Surman
The Road To St Ives
brilliant brit Jazz Guy Etc
One man bands
Whatever happened to them? You just don't see them anymore these days.
Funny you should say that.
Meet Son of Dave, featured on the next Now Hear This CD.
Yet another reason to subscribe.
He's brilliant
But he doesn't carry a big drum on his back though and cymbals etc. Not enough instruments. I guess he's got his gizmo instead.
Son of Dave
I now recall I saw him on Jools Holland a while back. Entertaining chap.
Seasick Steve!
One guitar, three strings, and a big ol' box to kick.
It's all good!
Jawbone
The (relatively) young bluesman Jawbone plays guitar, harmonica and box too. His real name's Bob Zabor; he's from Detroit and works part-time in a car factory, last I heard.
When he played on Mark Radcliffe's show a while back he just put a tambourine inside a cardboard box they had lying around the studio after some computers had been delivered.
If you haven't heard him, try his fun cover of the Jim Reeves song "Chug a Lug", from his album "Hauling". In the words of the song, it "...makes you wanna holler hi-de-ho!".
David Ford
http://uk.
Remember Duster Bennett?
One man blues band from the 60's/70's
I was reading through the above
and thought I must mention DB, only to find myself beaten to it. He died tragically young in a car accident.
Don Partridge!
Come on, who remembers Rosie, the only bona fide one-man band hit?
Stevie Wonder
Wrote, played and produced almost everything on Talking Book and Innervisions - I think a sessionier may have played timpani or something but that's about it.
Can't think of a better example.
But Stevie Wonder never did THIS...
On the subject of one-man bands, we'd better mention Vivian Fisher's "Blaze Away", recorded in 1978 under the name of Me, Myself and Me Again.
It consists only of Fisher on vocals, doing impersonations of all the instruments in a brass band. It's the sound of a studio engineer messing about, but it's very well done. I've got it on a cassette somewhere, but you can hear the B-side here, which is the same tune but split into its different parts. It's not so impressive, though all the parts come together with about thirty seconds to go:
http://tinyurl.com/282l2c
If you're having a slow weekend, you can find out more about it here:
http://tinyurl.com/2hqguk
Fisher later sang the theme tunes to Blott On The Landscape and Bob's Full House. A cornerstone of the entertainment industry, I'm sure you'll agree.
wunderkind
I heard that Zach Condon played all (or at least most) of the instruments on the first Beirut album himself, and only got a band together when he had to play the songs live. I don't have the cd to hand, could anyone confirm?
Fabulously talented chap either way.
Prank Sinatra
Prank Sinatra is an indie Filipino artist. He wrote, arranged, produced and played almost all the instruments on his albums under his own record label, D Chord Records. He is not famous internationally tho but you might be interested to check out his music.