Hmm, The only one I can kind of agree with is Frusciante. His solo stuff is better then anything the chilis have done in my opinion, but not alot of people listen to it and he would have even less exposure still if it wasn't for his day job, and I expect being in probably the worlds biggest rock band is quite fun as far as day jobs go

I'm a huge Wilco fan so im biased but no one is being carried in that band (especially the current line up) they are all giant talents

and lets not forget no matter how good a lead guitarist you are, you're always gonna need good songs to play eg. Coxon/Albarn, Greenwood/Yorke

Craig Scanlan of The Fall.

the epitome of this is FRANK ZAPPA

Eno is the first that came to mind.

did someone here said yes suck? fuck man...

rick wakeman also played in the strawbs and did session work with black sabbath. i'm still very afraid to listen to any of his solo stuff, i truly am scared shitless.

i would say greg ginn, but black flag had other amazing players too. this question is too hard for me to answer.

No, I wouldn't go so far as to say "Yes sucks", just much of their worse excesses (but on the other hand and to the other extreme also their most commercial endeavors, Big Generator anybody?) I really like the first two albums, which were psych rather than "art-rock" records, and actually The Yes Album is still great, and Fragile has it's moments if starting to get over indulgent and certainly way overplayed. I just don't see any defense for Topographical Oceans though, nor Relayer, Tormanto, etc., etc. (not even to get into the most recent reunions).

And I was straight up that I think my tastes are subjective to begin with. I prefer less is more, and Wakeman has done it really well for other artists. What he's famous for in Yes is the keyboard equivalent of wankiness though. And yeah, a great deal of his solo catalog is even more of the same, in fact worse, since he's free from the "song" strictures of the prog rock group...

James Iha?

I have no idea.

i was kinda kidding man, i know nobody likes yes. at least you really show appreciation.

i'm yet to venture to the yes album and back but i'm kinda familiar with them, and out of the ones i heard, my favorite is fragile. i noticed that yes were a lot better live than in the studio, they always tried to super polish everything and multitrack as much as possible, i love "close to the edge" live but find the studio version just ok, same with relayer, too smooth but life i love all three songs. weird. but i'm not saying this so you should like them, just i don't know, making conversation...no, actually, to show you that even thought i love them, i know what you mean.

but i agree, not only wakeman, but all of them could fare really well playing less.

I'm not ashamed to admit that in the days before punk rock existed in the suburban NW (it seems weird, but there's a reason that Queensryche were the first band to come out of my homeground and why even years later the underground bands were all so versed in Zeppelin, and it's the fact that the local radio stations in the '80s never once admited that the Ramones had ever existed!) I listened to quite a lot of Yes (and for that matter Rush, and even worse, Triumph). Of the music that I had been allowed to know existed in the world, art rock was the most appealing to me because it was rock with at least somewhat artistic goals (i.e. pretentions). I also listened to my share of metal because of the power.

Then one day I was randomly twisting the radio dial and I caught the tail end of "She's in a Bad Mood" on the local college station. In those thirty seconds my life was completely changed. Here was music that was artier than anything Yes had ever dreamed of and with more power than any metal band I had ever heard! What's more it wasn't cheesy, wasn't overproduced, and even the dj who came on to announce it afterward sounded like she was from another, much more interesting, planet. In a total epiphany I realized that there was a whole world of possibilities and sounds that AOR radio had been completely hiding from me, and I was never going back.

So I still have a nostalgic soft spot for the geeky 17 year old that was listening to Yes when that happened. Through my much more informed musical ears today, I can still admit that The Yes Album (which is actually pre-Wakeman when you come down to it) is a decent record that isn't light years away from Tortoise in terms of theory and minus Anderson's vocals (which are much less elfy on that one than later) sound. I'm glad Sonic Youth are arty and not just noisy and powerful, and that this made them palatable to my teen art-rock geek ears.

Well, Frusciante quit Chili Peppers finally.. I know this is late but yeah.

I think my vote for this is probably THE FATAL FLYING GUILLOTTENS's guitar player, who is one of the most talented, unique, and awesome guitarists ever, but the rest of the band sounds kinda like kinda poor Jesus Lizard wannabe and the singer is terrible, leaving his mouth open way too long after every word is spoken.

Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode.

Avey Tare of Animal Collective, whose solo stuff is better than every other AC-related project combined.

SlipKnot's drummer.

3rd or 4th-ing Nick Zinner, thirding Nels Cline. Other than that I dunno. Those were the ones that came to mind looking at the thread title.

(PS How can you say Tweedy's better than Wilco are good, considering he IS Wilco? That'd be like saying Trent Reznor is better than Nine Inch Nails. Same damn thing!)

Oh yes

Morrissey was too talented for The Smiths, which he proved when he went solo.

Haha KiS, funniest thing you've ever posted.

What did the other members do when Morrissey left the band? Practically fuck all because they didn't have the talent to continue without him. The most talented of the three, Johnny Marr, did nothing but prostitute his half-decent guitar playing to other bands.

Morrissey's solo work ranges from terrible to terribly mediocre. Marr -- by far and away one of the greatest guitarists to ever live -- never did anything after the Smiths ended, but he was The Smiths (he ended the band, not Morrissey), so why does it matter? He'd already done that band, made his mark, and that was that.