I went to see "The New Cars" in concert a couple of nights ago; Todd Rundgren has replaced Ric Ocasek as lead vocalist and frontman. (Disclaimer: having been Todd's business partner for many years, I'm probably a wee bit biased). Having been a fan of the original Cars line-up, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. The show was fantastic; note perfect -- if you closed your eyes, you'd have sworn it was Ric singing. In fact, I've seen a few concerts where this has been the case. Steve Augeri has replaced Steve Perry as lead vocalist for Journey (I dare anyone to close their eyes and see if you can tell the difference!). Likewise, Sammy Hagar stepped in for David Lee Roth as replacement lead vocalist for Van Halen; seems they were more popular than ever when he did. And Styx has carried on just fine without Dennis de Young. Some would argue this is sacrilege; they don't want their memories tampered with. Sometimes it can be a disappointment, but many times it's their loss when in fact the new combination works out.
You might wonder how this applies to digital music. A related example is when the surviving Beatles completed two half-finished John Lennon tunes for their Anthology project and "reunion" in 1995. "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" featured Lennon's vocals backed up by the others, and enabled by state-of-the-art production technologies. The result was two new Beatles tracks even after Lennon's death; for many Beatles fans (myself included) it was pure magic. Same thing when Natalie Cole re-recorded her dad Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable" with her deceased dad's vocal tracks backing her up (goosebumps!). Digital technologies will enable more projects such as these to come to fruition -- whether recorded or "live", and whether all of the original members are living, speaking with one another, or some have been replaced.
Never having seen the original "Cars" in concert, this was going to be my only opportunity; I went with an open mind, and enjoyed it to the hilt. As I did when I saw all the other artists referenced above in concert in new line-ups. What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences related to this topic.
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Read More Entries by Kelli Richards.
Actually Van Halen sucked without Roth. If you look at riaa.com, you find Roth sold about 40 million records with VH and Sammy only had 20 million. 4 of the top 5 selling VH albums were with Roth. VH's only two albums to sell over 10 million were with Roth. A recent Van Hagar reunion was a dud and only 4 shows sold out and over 1/4 of the seats were left unsold. RS mag reported the tour LOST money. Roth was offered 50 million to reunite with VH according to Mike Anthony. It would and will be huge. Van Hagar was popular in their day, but they have not stood the test of time. Mainly because the music was top 40 crap and is largely forgotten now.
Great post! I’m reminded of the classic philosophy question: If you replace each plank, nail, and piece of cloth on a ship (or, for that matter, each cell in your body), eventually there will be nothing left from the original. Is the rebuilt ship authentic? Now suppose you had saved each component after you removed it, and had built another ship from the parts. You’d have two identical ships. Would one be more real than the other?
Of course, bands don’t sit still the way a ship does, and we shouldn’t expect them to. That’s one of the downsides of the recording industry — the record becomes the definitive performance of a song, and the artists becomes slaves to it. I hope now that it’s so much easier and cheaper to distribute (and remix) music that fans will be open to multiple interpretations of a song or even a group.