Well Known Players on Not So Well Known Albums

Inspired by the thread "Interesting / Unusual Session Players on Well Known Albums", I thought it would be interesting to list not so well known albums with guest players that are well known.

I'll throw the first one out there -

Bill Bruford (drums) on At the Sound of the Bell by Pavlov's Dog.

 

Mike Heron- "Smiling Men With Bad Reputations"

Keith Moon, Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane play on the track - "Warm Heart Pastry"

 

Bowie's lead guitarist Earl Slick plays the guitar solos on Game Theory's "Shark Pretty," from their Distortion EP.

 

Hans Rotenberry (The Shazam) plays theremin on Bob Evans' album "Goodnight, Bull Creek".

 

Paul McCartney sings on Godley & Creme's "Freeze Frame"

Ian Anderson plays flute on Brian Protheroe's "I You"

Steve Howe is on Curtiss Maldoon's first album

 

Jimmy Page plays guitar on every track of Al Stewart's Love Chronicles (1970)

 

Roy Harper is so talented but he's much less famous than his friends. Jimmy Page plays guitar on his album Stormcock credited as S. Flavius Mercurius, and Paul and Linda sing backup on his song One of Those Days in England. David Gilmour appears on his album HQ, and for a while he had a backup back whose rhythm section consisted of Bill Bruford and John Paul Jones! Another concert had him backed by Jimmy Page, Ronnie Lane and Keith Moon - but wait we're talking about recordings aren't we...

Roy himself is maybe most widely known as the namesake for Led Zeppelin's song Hots Off to (Roy) Harper, and for singing lead on Pink Floyd's song Have a Cigar.

 

Here is another one and it turns out another Pavlov's Dog album. Hubert Laws played flute on the song Julia from their first album Pampered Menial. He is uncredited on it since he reportedly told the band "if you give me a credit, I'll sue".

 

Barry White on keys:

 

The McGough & McGear album......Jimi Hendrix, Graham Nash, Spencer Davis

 

Eric Clapton plays dobro on Kinky Friedman's songs,Ol Ben Lucas, and Kinky, on the album, Lasso From El Paso.

 

Joe Walsh plays on Ringo's Old Wave album.

 

Robert Fripp on Vandergraf Generator's Pawn Hearts

 

Walsh also plays on Michael Stanley's 1973 album Friends and Legends.

 

Joe Walsh also plays on Joe Vitale's solo album Plantation Harbor. There are also a few other guests - The album features guest performances by Don Felder and Timothy B. Schmit of the Eagles, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Mickey Thomas of Jefferson Starship, and the horns are led by Jimmy Pankow of Chicago.

 

Are you sure? I thought he only played on Old Compton Street Blues, Life and Life Only and the Love Chronicles track itself .

A semi-credited Fairport Convention (sans Sandy) provide the energetic backing on two other tracks (In Brooklyn and You Should Have Listened To Al.) Wonderful stuff.

 

No, actually I wasn't sure, I was just relying on an old memory of the album. There's only six cuts on it. so I guess Page is on half of them. It's still a good album. I didn't realize Fairport Convention was on it; I ought to give it another spin.

 

If I remember correctly John Cale plays cello on this album, too.

 

Early Bob on harmonica:

 

Graham Nash and David Crosby on Michael Hedges' "Taproot."

 

Recent release that comes to mind is "Disconnect" by John Wesley - has Alex Lifeson on it (just one track)

 

Timothy B Schmidt routinely does backing vocals on Robbin Thompson's records. Thompson had a lot of heavy hitters guest on his early albums.

 

George Harrison on Jack Bruce's first solo LP.

 

Ronnie Wood plays and sings co-lead on Izzy Stradlin's rendition of "Take A Look At The Guy" on the album Izzy Stradlin And The Ju-Ju Hounds.

 

Bob Dylan, piano & harmony vocals: