Prog artists solo lps which were major prog disappointments....
 

...(or which went in a different musical direction altogether)

One that I believe is outstanding, since he was in so many well-known prog bands like King Crimson,UK,Wishbone Ash etc , is John Wetton.

Not surprizing that he went in another direction: Jobson wanted to take UK further into prog, but Wetton wanted it to go commercial and thus (shudder)....Asia.

If you took the best (proggiest) tracks from his (over 10 releases), you would be hard-pressed to fill a 45 minute cassette.

Do I have to mention Phil Collins? Not only was his first album a real downbeat affair, the next an uppy pop thing but then he went salsa with No Jacket Required? Please: not a prog touch since he went solo, probably never will be.

Collins is, of course , the obvious one.

Gabriel also.

Rutherford put out a load of ****e. (But his first solo, Small Creep's Day", does have the rather worthy side-long title piece.)

Yeah none of the Genesis alumni covered themselves in glory. Banks' music is okay but now he's gone very classical, which is great, but not prog. Marillon's guys on the other hand are doing well. Another one who actually went on to good things, again classically, is Anthony Phillips. Never quite sure about Hackett; I like some of his solo stuff but find a lot of it boring, but then, that's guitarists for you I guess.

Moody Blues offshoots are all pretty-well dismisable.

However Lodge & Hayward made the brilliant "Bluejays" lp which is as good, if not better , than most of the strong early MB titles.

Other than Mike Pinder's sole lp, none - except the latter Lodge cds - can be deemed of prog interest.

Graeme Edge Band(with Gurvitz brothers) ,especially the second lp are disparate styles.Embarassing, really.

The two Ray Thomas solo lps , "From Mighty Oaks" and I forget the other, each have great focover arts but only one half-decent track.Also sound very dated - but that is expected,afterall MB concert fans would tease as being the "grandfather" of the group.

Biggest letdown for myself were the Justin Hayward solo lps, especially "Star Gazer...or Star-wotsit". Lovey-dovey ballads and such uninspired, predictable mash. I expected so much more of him.


To be fair, the two latest John Lodge cds are quite good.

I suppose generally speaking you can't really expect solo prog artists to sound the same as their band. There wouldn't be much point in them going solo if all they were going to do was play the same music with another band. I'd say interesting prog-ish solo albums would be Roger Hodgson's (Supertramp) first two, In the Eye of the Storm and Hai Hai, Clive Nolan's Skeletons in the Closet and his collab with Oliver Wakeman on The Hound of the Baskervilles, Bob Catley's Spirit of Man, all Rick Wakeman's solo records of course, the Lunatic Soul albums from Riverside's Marius Dudza and Roger Waters' second and third albums, Radio KAOS and Amused to Death. All I can think of off the top of my head.

Amused To Death,...Hitchhiking and Final Cut (Floyd but basically a Waters project) are the Trilogy Of Shame. Absolute bore-fests.
The tedious, verbose Amused, of course , is nigh-unlistenable. Roger is all whine and anger. His solo lps so same-y.

The other above bands you mention, I don't know. Except "Hound Of Baskervilles" which sucks cob.

A real good solo effort from an prog-cornerstone guy is Chris Squire's "Fish Out Of Water.( But this thread is not about great prog solo lps.)

"All Rick Wakeman solo lps". Are you for real?
I'm a great Wakey fanboy, but even the fans admit he put out lotta chaff lps. Starting with the double "RhapSODy" (which should have been an EP.)

The trouble was high expectations from fans of bands they are/were a member of.

Totally agree with your description of Water's Trilogy of Shame. Each to their own but it baffles me how anyone could like those albums.

My personal pick for this would have to be Steve Howe Beginnings. Not a bad album, or rather it wouldn't have been, if Howe had hired someone else for the vocals...

Whatabout Dan Swanö