Supergroups

Supergroups

There was a fad in the late Sixties and early Seventiesfor ‘supergroups’, that is groups made up virtuoso musicians who were already famous as stars individually. About that time, there were many eminent individual musicians, so there were a lot of potential members for groups.

The appeal lay in the huge quantity of talent and celebrity assembled in one act, and the hope that it would create some truly great music.

Three of the most successful supergroups were:

Cream made up of Eric Clapton (lead guitar), Jeff Bruce (bass) and Ginger Baker (drums) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream_(band)

Crosby, Stills and Nash, who later became Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young This comprised David Crosby (from The Byrds), Stephen Stills (from Buffalo Springfield), Graham Nash (from The Hollies) and Neil Young, all of them outstanding songwriters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crosby,_Stills,_Nash_%26_Young Emerson, Lake and Palmer with Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and Carl Palmer. They blended rock with classical and jazz. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson,_Lake_%26_Palmer

Of course, assembling a set of great individuals doesn’t always lead to a great unified act, so it doesn’t always work out. As well as talent, there needs to be a good chemistry and balance between the musicians.

Many of the great groups are effectively made up of great individual talents, who have a good interaction as a single unit. Think of Abba, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, U2, The Who.

The idea of supergroups waned during the 1970s. Instead, there would be one-off collaborations of stars at tribute and charity concerts, such as this one in 2004 with Prince, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood and Dhani Harrison https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y

The Traveling Wilburys (1988-1991) are effectively a late, nostalgic, light-hearted take on the supergroup. All five knew each other and lived around Los Angeles, and would be working with each other now and again. When a song projected to be a minor track – Handle With Care – turned out to be rather good, they decided it would be fun to get together and record more as a ‘supergroup’. Three of them had been around twenty years earlier when supergroups were cool and happening. The name itself shows the project was light-hearted: they took the name ‘Traveling Wilburys’ and pretended to be a family of touring musicians.

However, all the ingredients were there for creative success: a lot of talent and good chemistry, and they produced a very popular and acclaimed album. Ironically, although it was light-hearted, they become one of the most eminent supergroups.