Band or Brand?

[Ron]

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/en...-initially.html

 

Originally posted: September 11, 2008

 

Yes, it's a thin line between band and brand

After initially canceling its 40th anniversary tour due to the illness of lead singer Jon Anderson, Yes will be hitting the road with the lead singer of a Canadian Yes tribute band.

 

Yes bassist Chris Squire told the Associated Press that he first saw singer Benoit David performing with his band Close to the Edge on YouTube.

 

Check out this clip of Close to the Edge playing the Yes song of the same name, and you’ll see why Squire thought David might be a fitting replacement for Anderson, who was diagnosed with acute respiratory failure this summer and ordered to rest for six months.

 

 

Said Squire:

 

“I think it's all going to work out fine. Of course, realistically, there's an element of risk, but there always is…

 

“You can't ever really replace Jon Anderson, because he's been such a force in the music business. We look upon his replacement as more of an understudy.”

 

Heck, this strategy has worked for Journey, which recorded a new album and has been touring with Steve Perry doppelganger Arnel Pineda, also discovered on YouTube.

 

This all makes sense when you consider that if you add an “r” to band, you get brand. Minus its original rhythm section, the Who is currently a brand, not a band, yet Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are still playing stadiums.

 

When Roger Waters tours “The Dark Side of the Moon” without any other Pink Floyd members—or when Pink Floyd tours without Waters—they’re selling brands.

 

Chrissie Hynde apparently is the only original member playing on the Pretenders’ upcoming album “Break Up the Concrete.” Then again, when her band was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, Hynde referred to the deaths of original guitarist James Honeyman-Scott and bassist Pete Farndon in saying, “I know that the Pretenders have looked like a tribute band for the last 20 years.”

 

Most bands have relatively short shelf lives. They peak, grow less popular and creative and eventually are dismissed as has-beens.

 

But brands go on forever. Send the “understudies” out on the road like some Broadway show touring company, and the fans will show up.

 

The Beach Boys without any of the Wilson brothers is a brand, not a band. Doors drummer John Densmore prevented guitarist Robbie Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek from carrying on the Doors brand without him or late frontman Jim Morrisson, so the pair instead tours as Riders on the Storm.

 

Is Styx without Dennis DeYoung or late drummer John Panozzo a band or brand? How about Journey without Perry or Yes without Anderson (and with Oliver Wakeman filling in for keyboardist dad Rick)?

 

Does it matter? Wouldn’t you rather see a relatively faithful performance of the music you love than none at all?

 

Did Menudo have the right idea all along?

 

I’d happily see Led Zeppelin with Jason Bonham pounding on his late dad's drum kit, but I can’t say I’d be there if Robert Plant were replaced by a younger guy who could hit all of those high notes (and I’m not even a huge Plant fan).

 

Where do you draw the line? Would you see the Rolling Stones with an “understudy” for Mick Jagger?