The thread about bands with non-original members who have served longer than the original members got me to thinking about bands still active with zero original members.
Three immediately come to mind:
Lynyrd Skynyrd (with the recent passing of Gary Rossington)
Riot
Molly Hatchet (with the entire lineup from the first album now deceased)
There's probably more, but those are the only ones I can think of off hand.
Any others?
The current line-up of Yes has no original members.
Guitarist Steve Howe has been in and out of the band since 1971, but Peter Banks was the band's original guitarist and appeared on the first two albums.
Peter Banks is awesome. His first solo album, but especially the band with his wife/girlfriend Sidonie Jordan - EMPIRE, which are all on YouTube. It's kinda sad, but their auto-generated YouTube site only has about 21 subscribers. I only like a few songs, but they're still interesting, and might wanna re-listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnVZv7Z5dc&list=OLAK5uy_m5G-IhfGVmxZsntGoQgvTZC23ifEMIops&index=5
You're right. Forgot about Yes.
shareTangerine Dream
Soft Machine
Canned Heat
My dad was a big fan of doo-wop music and some of the bands still exist today but doubtlessly have no original members. The Drifters and The Coasters come to mind. These bands have been active for over 60 years.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
shareThey had such a great distinctive sound - no other well-known band quite like them - though I guess you could compare them to early Chicago.
shareSilvio can score you some tickets...backstage passes, too!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHBBNONdkM4&t=70s
Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship (now this is a band with an interesting history!) is still touring as Jefferson Starship, but obviously with no original members of Jefferson Airplane (and it depends on whether or not you call David Freiberg an "original member" of Jefferson Starship).
sharedepends on whether or not you call David Freiberg an "original member" of Jefferson Starship....
Yes, I tend to agree. I've always thought of Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship as one band, anyway. Paul Kantner first used "Jefferson Starship" to describe the members who performed on his and Grace Slick's album, "Blows Against The Empire," and I don't think Freiberg was part of that recording (from 1970).
sharePaul Kantner first used "Jefferson Starship" to describe the members who performed on his and Grace Slick's album, "Blows Against The Empire," and I don't think Freiberg was part of that recording (from 1970).
Yes...Signe Anderson was actually the original lead singer of JA and I believe she sang on the JA debut album, "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off." She passed away a few years ago , sadly.
That "reunion tour" of Jefferson Airplane was a disaster, if I remember correctly. They just didn't get along at all, from what I remember (I'm a big fan of Jorma Kaukonen...apparently, he wouldn't even try to play on songs like "Miracles." ). Fortunately, I think the band members made up with each other before they started passing away.
I'm pretty sure the Beach Boys are down to one original member, Mike Love, but he's getting pretty old. I wonder if they tour without him at times.
shareAtomic Rooster