To me there was no Deep Purple, without Ritchie Blackmore.

Gwar is a great example of a working band with no original members, it get's so confusing you need a chart.

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There was some other band I saw a chart like that, it was bizarre as hell.

Foreigner was on one of the morning shows today. OP raises a great point. I saw them back in the day at MSG NYC and they were founders and spot on. Opened with Blue Monday, curtain rises, stage bathed in blue, band on stage….let the show begin. A great rock moment.

Q: can someone answer the question if a corporation, partnership owns the bands assets and then gets a fixed fee or percentage for use of name and use of songs. Ex band mates and songwriters would be first in line. The band name and songs are the draw. Opinions or answers?

I think Mick Jones is still in Foreigner but I think he did miss some shows for a while but returned AFAIK

I know what you mean though many groups have one or none original and still tour. Molly Hatchet is one I can think of off the top of my head...

Bad Company too.with the new singer was a decent different Band, the singer told us we were the Best fucking audience they have ever played for 3 times 3 different shows.I was there for Damn Yankees and Bad Co opened that year.Sometimes a show is awesome and seeing it multiple times takes away.Unless of course its SRV

IMO . . .

Van Halen was not Van Halen after David Lee Roth left (albeit I like some of Sammy's stuff).
Journey was not Journey after Steve Perry left.
Genesis is a tough one for me as I liked both Peter & Phil, but not the same band.
U2 would not be U2 if Bono or The Edge left.
And you can just forget about all the reboots from 30-40 years ago with multiple different band members.

The band can still be good/great, but it's not the same band.

In general if the lead singer and often if the lead guitarist leaves, I'm inclined to not call it the same band (i.e. the two most influential members of most rock bands who are responsible for a given bands "sound"). This is not to say that bass players and drummers aren't important, but in general their impact is far less noticeable than lead vocalist or lead guitar.

Depends on the group.

Depends on the members.

Tony IS Sabbath. Not Ozzy. He's been the one consistent member, literally, thru heaven and hell.

I wish I could see a "Born Again" reunion tour with that line up. Tony, Geezer, Ian, and Bev. It won't happen, but I love that album.

Word. Man the story behind that album is as hilarious as it is bad ass

It is a great album. Ian Gillan vocals are just out of this world. It just works. It's exactly what Sabbath is supposed to sound like in 1983. One original member gone? Big deal. Black fucking Sabbath.

Care to re-state that? I’m not clear on what you’re asking. Band assets like name, logo, etc are trademarks that can be licensed. Songs are licensed as well for use in commercials, or to be packages as an album to be sold in stores. The money paid out depends entirely on the deal in place for each different thing.

Lots of bands are corporations set up with one owner (say, the lead songwriter), who owns everything and pays the other band members a salary. They own nothing, except royalties to their performance on a recording. The corporation gets the “Publishing” royalties, which are much bigger, and that keeps the company going when they have to rent stuff for a tour, record an album, etc.

Wait, isn’t Bill on that album?

Yes, but Bev Bevan was the drummer on tour.

I guess it depends on how well the people replacing the original people are. Like with Journey and AC/DC, when they replaced the original singers with someone that was so damn close you didn't care, it wasn't as big of an impact. but if your main song writer leaves the band, and now the songs don't have the same vibe as before. Now it won't be the same band.

The band Yes has had quite a few come and go... I've got a buddy who would spend hours telling you their history if given the chance.
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They even have their own wikipedia article for the turnover..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Yes_band_members

Lots have bands have that section; but for me Whitesnake is always tops. I'm sure there's a band or 3 that must have more though.

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It’s interesting that many bands have this issue. Iron Maiden is a band that has so many mainstays you’d think they avoid it, but look at the number of guitarists and drummers.

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Any band that’s been around for decades is gonna have funky charts like this. Some worse than others.

U2 is probably the longest running original band at this point, now that ZZ Top has entered scab town?

And there’s no stopping that corporate juggernaut at this point. As long as edge and bono have a pulse I’d have to imagine that show goes on.

If you subtract Maiden's formative years prior to '81 that chart gets much smaller. Basically 6 mainstays beyond that point.

The best thing about going to see ELO these days is that even though there's only one member left, it's Jeff Lynne. And since he wrote, produced, and sang all the songs...it's still really ELO!

But other bands? It's really like a cover band plus one original member. Whenever you see 3 or 4 80s bands touring together, you can be pretty sure that collectively they could only form one band with original members. (The present Motley Crue/Poison/Def Leppard tour is an exception to this rule...)

Early days though. Before Nicko they really only had Clive Burr on their albums. One or two of the dudes may have been on the early Sanctuary single and/or the Soundhouse Tapes, but those don’t really count

Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’ by Crazy Elephant reached #12 in 1969 on both the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA and the UK Singles Chart. Crazy Elephant was a studio concoction, created by Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz of Super K Productions. A touring group (which did not include any of the musicians from the original recording) was formed later for promotional purposes. Since the actual musicians who played on the recording never appeared or performed live under the name Crazy Elephant, should the touring group be counted as original members of the band?
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Not to be confused with the group Elephant's Memory, formed by Stan Bronstein (saxophone, clarinet, and vocals) and Rick Frank Jr. (drums), whose 1970 hit single Mongoose peaked at #50 on the Hot 100 but reached #5 on WCFL in Chicago and #1 on KQV in Pittsburgh. Elephant's Memory briefly included Carly Simon on vocals in 1968 before recording "Jungle Gym At The Zoo" and "Old Man Willow" for the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy in 1969. In 1972 they called themselves Plastic Ono Elephant's Memory Band and performed with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on various TV shows, albums and concerts.
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What about grand dads axe . It’s had three new handles and two new heads. It’s been a great axe over many decades .

Unfair because the jesus keep them together.

My desktop PC. Started as a 386-25mhz and has been continually upgraded since. I always carried at least one component over to the next build, whether it be hard drive, case, video card... whatever.

Radiohead has been around since the 80s with all five original members sans Jesus.

Rdoyle1978 you answered my question. I’ll ask specifically about Foreigner, since they have no member playing live. Do you think someone like Mick Jones and perhaps other original living members own the trademarks? Could they have sold their interests to a third party? Music rights and performance royalties are a different question.

A band that comes to mind with one original member is the Guess Who. The drummer is the only one. I was told that he owns the Trademark and pays the other musicians a salary.

It’s an interesting discussion and I’m sure there are many different types of contracts surrounding who gets paid what, and who owns what in a band.

Food for thought…who got paid for the Led Zepplin pin? Jimmy and Robert?

I agree, KISS should have hung it up after the reunion tour ages ago. And I used to play Ace Frehley in a KISS tribute band. But even BEFORE the reunion tour (or since) when Paul or Ace would come to some smaller venue in Detroit, I could never bring myself to go see them. Still never have. My friends are like "Dude, it's Ace Frehley for gods sake!" And I have to tell them "No, Ace Frehley is the guy in makeup with the smoking guitar playing with the 3 other guys"...it's just not the same. It would be like seeing Santa Claus in a pair of jeans.

Some vanity pics of KISS'D for everyone that didn't get to see us live (which is pretty much everyone LOL) That was about 30 years ago, '92, my real hair.....

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Yeah, i heard Joe Satriani was being considered....yeah, he's ok but he's nothing like Ed either as a performer or a musician. I dont care WHO you are, who would have the balls to walk out into an arena w 10,000 screaming fans to fill in for EDDIE FUCKING VAN HALEN??

And I agree that there were 2 distinct VH's, Dave and Sammy. They made some good music w Sammy, sold lotsa records, but he brought too much of the beach mentality w him, all happy and sunny. He could never write a lyric like "They found a dirty faced kid in a garbage can" (D.O.A., VH II).

Oh man, you guys never played in Virginia, did you? I saw a KISS tribute band in a little club probably around that time. They were really good...right up until "Gene" did the fire breathing bit and caught his face on fire.

It wasnt me, i didnt tour with them, dont know if they ever did make it out of Michigan -

Those are pics of a tribute band?!

Friend of mine did a KISS tribute for a few years, and I've been in a few tribute bands. Tribute bands are not the same as just playing someones songs. The good ones tend to go all out, especially KISS tributes.

All out or not those guys look exactly like KISS

Look at the clown the current actual KISS has pretending to be ace. Doesn’t look anything like him !

Well that's because actual bands don't care what they 'looked' like back when with different people, while tribute bands try to capture an era.

Also, KISS is old.

Yeah that was me in my glory days!

Gene was a little short/plump but the rest of us pulled it off pretty good, i think.

It's funny, some places we played people would be holding up KISS tshirts or something and I'd be thinking to myself "ok, you know we arent REALLY KISS, right..."....but it was very fun and flattering to pay homage to a group like that.

It all depends.

First of all - this has been going on for decades when all of the 50's acts were touring in the 70's and beyond, sometimes without any original members at all. Was it the same group? No - but most of those groups were just vocalists signing the works of New York songwriting companies.

The way I look at it is it depends on who created the material, and originally recorded it. To get all original memembers is rare nowaways. Sometimes you are forutnate to get at least 2 or more original members. To me, that usually is good enough.

I just saw The Cult - with only Ian and Duffy - but those were always the two core members of this band. So to me, I saw The Cult.

I've seen KISS 25+ times in my life. Love Ace, but the guy has been unprofessional and unreliable for decades. Great guitar player when he was on, but those days are long gone. Peter is and always has been a piece of shit. I never liked him and both Erics were far better than he ever was.

Tommy and Eric and professionals and ground the band and have for what....20 years? The only thing I wish they would have done is kept Bruce throughout the years. He's a shredder and still a great guitar player and guy.

But KISS is KISS and while the shows are nothing like they used to be, I have no idea how Paul and Gene can keep it going for sooooo long and a their age. I stand there and play and move around just a bit, but I get tired after a few hours. It's time to put it to an end however as the setlists have been stale for many years. But it was a fucking fantastic run.

And I love Priest as well but Priest is not Priest without Glen and KK. Nuff said on that topic.

I’m talking about their faces.
That’s not Paul Stanley?!

Very impressive work, Kiss’d !

Oh I agree.

I think it was always Mick Jones's band, and I'm fairly certain he owns the rights to the name and collects on it. But if he's not even playing, you shouldn't even call it Foreigner, IMO. That band ceased to be Foreigner when Lou Gramm left, if you ask me.

Peter Grant probably beat it out of them and took the payments in cash.

I was in a band that once played a show with mini kiss.. really.

They look allot like kiss also. Only mini.

Love those guys.

If its organic... its fine.... long term bands that have continued on and on.... replaced a member here and there....
If they are up front about the current line up... and you do your research before you pay for a ticket.... all's cool.... it's about the Music, the Music is for the ages.

Mozart would be proud that his art is still performed worldwide.
Rock bands are just a recent creation in the timeline of music history.
How Rock n Pop music is curated and performed for future generations is being decided right now....
Using the BAND concept for a long term presentation of a Canon..... is a viable avenue to keep an artist's profile alive.

My two cents anyway.....
Live music is king for me...
I'll continue paying for Australian Pink Floyd tickets.... and other Tribute acts... as long as they are kick ass presentations, with killer musicians.

Cheers.

Ironic that Led Zep was brought into the conversation in that way. Led Zep showed the way to do it. Band member dies, band breaks up. The Who replaced an original band member who died the day before a tour started. Didn't miss a date. Legendary band, Pinball Wizard, but that's not how it's done.

They don't play any instruments, unless you count cardboard props. Come on Mini Kiss- you can do better!

Beelzeboob. Thanks for the Peter Grant reference. Just read about him. What a shrewd individual. However he passed back in 1995. Who gets the $? Enquiring minds want to know.

It's also possible for a band to get better when all the original members are gone. For example, I'm confident this will be the case with Ed Sheeran.

Tribute bands are a whole thing that could be another thread. I’ve known a few people in tribute bands and always am amazed at how big it can be. My guitar teacher was in a Rush band and they were paid to fly to Japan to play, and it was first class all the way. Another friend is in a Depeche Mode band, they are playing gigs all over the place all the time. I mean they are not making millions or anything, but are getting paid some dough for what I assume is a fun time.

I haven’t heard too many tribute bands over the years, it’s not my thing really so I don’t seek it out. But I did hear a few that sounded pretty good. There was a tv show on AXS that showed “the Worlds Greatest Tribute Bands” playing at The Roxy in LA, I watched a bunch of them and I thought every one of them was horrible. The double whammy is when the playing is pretty so-so AND the attempts to get made up to look like the original band members falls way short.

Well, I would assume the band does as well as Bonham's estate (like, Jason, perhaps). And with all the weight he carried in the 70s and all the cocaine use, it's amazing Grant lasted until 1995.

Peter Grant was right up there with Don King for stealing money