Musicians Who REALLY Improved

And one hell of a soloist.

 

Scott Walker.

The distance between his very early singles (as Scott Engel) and his last LP Bish Bosch... its baffling.

 

Marshall Crenshaw.
While I don't go see him anymore, I suspect that when he was forced to go out solo years ago, he really worked on his guitar skills. He's really a good player now, instead of just a pop singer.

 

Yes, he's completely overlooked in the light of the other huge talents/characters in the band, yet for years he has been a pretty wonderful front man for the band and I agree that his voice has aged very well.

 

I've seen them twice over the last two years and they sound great in concert. Of course they're not trying to be the Manhattan Transfer. Slightly lazy (for lack of a better term) vocals is part of their sound. Their playing also improved greatly after their first couple albums. I highly recommend Dusty Notes, their latest album. Derrick Bostrom is back on drums.

 

Of course everyone starts as a beginning novice, and most of those who became really great probably left behind some record of when they weren't so special--unless they just made a great debut album, then broke up the band and disappeared, or never found the magic again.

I guess John Coltrane is the most famous example, in jazz. He was a journeyman musician with Dizzy and other bands. Miles said that when he hired Trane, people would ask why he kept him in the band. In '56-57, he was just a good tenor sax. But working with Monk, and getting off heroin, flipped a switch in him.

But, Miles was like that, too. The kid who played with Charlie Parker grew a lot just from the late '40s until he put together that band with Trane, not to mention all of the advances that came later.

 

I don’t know if he’s been mentioned yet but Dennis Wilson went from a capable but limited rock drummer to a talented singer-songwriter and keyboardist.

 

Danny Hutton of Three Dog Night

Back when the group was flying high on the charts and was a major concert draw Hutton was overshadowed by the the powerful wail of Cory Wells and smooth as silk delivery of Chuck Negron. Next to those two juggernauts Danny came off a bit un-polished and plain Jane. His free-wheeling rock and roll lifestyle didn't help matters either.

But, fast forward several decades to 2002 and the DVD, Live With The Tennessee Symphony Orchestra and you find a not so much new but a very much improved Danny Hutton singing far better than he ever did back in his youth. In fact, his vocal turnaround was even noticed and noted by Chuck Negron.

 

Many times I ask because I can't think of any.

 

Chris Cornell's voice matured very nicely as did Soundgarden's sound. That's not to say that the early material was bad, I just think he/they became more polished as each aged.

 

Voivod from War and Pain forward progressed with every album.

 

I agree to this.

Was always a fan of Soundgarden but in my opinion, Chris really came on his own when he kick-started his career as a solo artist.

 

To be fair, they're well into their 70's now. Regression is only natural at this point. They has a hell of a run though, from 67 - 87, which I think is an unparalleled 20 year period of creativity.

 

I agree with them improving on the second album but there's still very derivative stuff - a lot of Magazine, and "Reel to Reel" is Kraftwerk's "Radio Activity", basically. But less Roxy Music/Eno possibly.
The drumming on the first album is not steady, not tight. It became much better on albums two and three.
These guys fascinate me : they were so young and put out three good and different albums in just two years. The difference between the first two albums is even more amazing knowing they came out the same year! I'd love to read a book on these albums.

 

I can think of 3 vocalists who have withstood time. Roger Hodgson, Neil Young, Eric Clapton (and the last two aren't favorite of mine)

 

He was a pretty good guitar player early on (pre-Airplane) who took naturally to the bass...and he kept getting better and better as the 60s rolled along.

 

Eric Dolphy - you can hear him learning during his Chico Hamilton phase, leap into the future when he's with Mingus and then claim the future on his own recordings culminating in Out To Lunch, one of the 60s masterpieces.

Scott Walker grew and grew, then retrenched, then took the bold leap forward creating a music that couldn't be classified.

Surprised no one has mentioned Talk Talk. I remember hearing that first album (and hearing them live) and thinking of them as New Wave mediocrities. Then, 2 albums later, whoops! What happened? How did they get that good in so short a span.

 

I have no thoughts on Hodgson, but Neil Young's voice is horrible now, compared to his early years. He used to have a clear, sweet voice - listen to him sing "Helpless" on Live At Massey Hall. It's beautiful. His voice since the mid-80's has been getting worse.

Clapton is not a great vocalist now, nor was he ever. He's good.

 

Neither would '80 Paul. Norman Watt-Roy played bass on that one

 

I got that. But he did play it live and became overall a much better bass player in two to three years.

 

KISS had some big jumps

Original era to Lick It Up
Lick It Up to Revenge/COS

 

Yes, Empires and Dance is probably the first album where they were truly original.
Simple Minds had a strange arc where they started off playing accessible, slightly dark but poppy music, went into darker and more angular music for a few albums (Real To Real -> Sons and Fascination) before going poppier again, all the way to stadium rock. They've repeated that transition a few times since, although nothing since the mid 80s has been quite so left field and experimental as albums two to five.

 

Joe Elliot
His vocals seemed to change overnight between the debut and High n Dry .

 

As a guitarist, Phil Collen has greatly improved (in speed, articulation and more interesting solo's) from 1982 with Def Leppard to 2018 G3 Tour with Joe Satriani & John Petrucci.

 

Dylan improved enormously as a singer between '61 and '75. After that, I'm not so sure.