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Three Glorious, Short-Lived Supergroups of the 1980s
A Rate-A-Record from my youth
If you’re the lead singer of a successful rock group and you get sick of looking at your band, you can always cut a solo album (Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska and Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever come immediately to mind). But what if you’re the keyboardist, drummer, or worst of all, the ever-overlooked bassist? Simple: you form a supergroup, especially if it’s the glorious 1980s, the heyday of such musical conglomerations.
Some of these ’80s supergroups were little more than several members of two major bands getting together for an album or two, as was the case with Robert Palmer and the two Taylors (John and Andy) from Duran Duran forming The Power Station in 1985 or half of The Babys and two-thirds of Journey forming Bad English in 1989. Others were one-off live albums. And one has been ongoing since 1989 with a rotating lineup that has included legends like John Entwistle, Joe Walsh, Sheila E., Clarence Clemons, Peter Frampton, Todd Rundgren, Jack Bruce, Colin Hay, Slash, and Stevie Nicks; when you are the most famous drummer in the history of drummers and your supergroup is called Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, you can pull names like that.
For me, there are three supergroups from the 1980s that will always rise above the rest, for various reasons. Check…
