Having brothers in rock bands together can be a recipe for disaster. They often fall out. There are numerous examples, some of which lead to the break-up of the band, some ended in very acrimonious lawsuits and some where sadly the brothers never spoke to each other again.
Why is this ? I suspect the central reason is that as Bruce Springsteen says “Democracy in rock bands, with very few exceptions, is often a ticking time bomb”. Talking about Steve Van Zandt, one of the guitarists in his E Street Band, he says “.. a strong personality can be disruptive”.
The second reason I reckon is that brothers always have some sort of testosterone rivalry–who is the silverback, the most powerful, the ruler ? The eldest brother automatically thinks that role is his. (Just for the record, I have an older brother). In a band, invariably one of the brothers is more talented than the other. The key is for the less talented to recognise that fact and accept it. Many can’t do that.
The Kinks contained two warring brothers, Ray and Dave Davies, with Ray being the eldest. “You’ve heard of vampires,’ says Dave. ‘Well, Ray sucks me dry of ideas, emotions and creativity. It’s toxic for me to be with him. He’s a control freak.” Ray is now in his seventies, but the two brothers still squabble if and when they speak to each other or bitch about the other brother to reporters. Dave was the lead guitarist in the Kinks, responsible for that great riff in “You Really Got Me”.
‘I think Ray has been happy for only three years in his life,’ he says. ‘And those were the three years before I was born.’
Dire Straits originally had two brothers in the band, Mark and David Knopfler, but David walked out in 1980 during the recording of one of my all time favourite albums , Making Movies. Listen to “Skateaway” or “Tunnel of Love” to hear what I’m talking about.”Too domineering” was David’s take on the situation, and maybe Mark subscribed to Bruce Springsteen’s view above, with David stating ” I was building a democracy and Mark was making an autocracy”. Sadly they have rarely spoken since and their two sets of children, cousins, don’t know each other. Mark is the eldest.
The rows between Noel and Liam Gallagher from Oasis were headline fodder through the 1990’s and early noughties. Noel left first claiming he couldn’t go a day longer working with Liam. The familiar pattern of lawsuits and cancelled gigs preceded the actual disintegration of the band.
For bitter sibling rivalry, that between Tom (the eldest) and John Fogerty, of the brilliant Creedence Clearwater Revival, takes some beating. It ended up in the courts, and involved millions of dollars. Most people will know the song made famous by Status Quo, “Rockin’ all Over the World”, but this was written by and originally performed by Creedence in 1975. It was the song that opened Live Aid in 1985, in a fantastic performance by Quo. John Fogerty has one of the best rock voices ever, and wrote brilliant songs such as “Proud Mary”, “Bad Moon Rising” and my favourite “ Have You Ever Seen the Rain”.
The original band was formed by Tom, but John took over lead vocals and lead guitar in 1967. Tom left in 1970, after John had allegedly taken control of all business and artistic decisions, resisting pleas for democracy. Despite having eight million seller singles and six platinum albums seeming to indicate John’s insistence on control was fully justified, the band imploded. What followed is a long tale of lawsuits, leaving record labels, disputes over song ownership and royalties. It makes the Kinks rows look like tiffs at a vicar’s tea party.
Interestingly, after Asylum Records bought out Fogerty’s contract with Fantasy Records, with Fantasy retaining publishing rights to Fogerty’s songs up to that point, John Fogerty brought out a solo song called “The Old Man Down the Road” for Asylum Records. Fantasy Records claimed it bore a similarity to a Creedence Clearwater Revival song called “Run Though the Jungle” that Fogerty had written when he was contracted to them. They brought out a lawsuit, which was essentially self-plagiarism, (read my “Plagiarism” post) that is, Fogerty had copied a previous song written by himself. A jury found in Fogerty’s favour. The two brothers rarely spoke again, and sadly Tom died in 1990. John did deliver a eulogy at Tom’s funeral, saying:
“We wanted to grow up and be musicians. I guess we achieved half of that, becoming rock ‘n roll stars. We didn’t necessarily grow up.”
Says it all really.
On a happier note there are/were numerous examples of brothers in bands which seemed to be relatively harmonious. Malcolm and Angus Young in AC/DC, The Osmonds, the Bee Gees, the Proclaimers and the Kings of Leon to name just a few. Pete Townshend’s brother Simon plays with The Who these days, which is nice to see.
Discuss: -do you think sisters in pop bands get on much better than brothers ? Why is that ?