What do Jeff Lynne, Mike Oldfield and Dave Grohl have in common?

They can and have played all the instruments on certain tracks.
Does anyone else know of other musicians able to do this?

Josh Homme played all the instruments on the first QOTSA album (bar drums) can play drums though (Eagles Of Death Metal)

Brant Bjork has done many solo albums playing everything.

Fred Drake has done a very awesome solo album

Tom Vek also played all the instruments on his album (to best of my knowledge)

duff mckagan the bass player with guns n roses has done all stuff on a solo album.

i think roger taylor of queen has as well

Prince
he's the man!

Ani DiFranco's last but one album 'Educated Guess' (http://www.righteousbabe.com/ani/educated_guess/more_info.asp) was pretty much a one woman affair.

i know this isn't exactly on the line of this thread, but wanted to say it anyway. There is a blues guitar player called Jeff Healy. So what, i hear you say. Well, this man has been blind since birth, and taught himself how to play the guitar (flat on his knees) to a fantastic standard. You may not recognise him, but he is in the film Road house. He played the guitar player and singer in the double deuce house band (inside the chicken wire fence)



http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f46/michael_v2/jeffheally.jpg

trent reznor - nine inch nails

the smiths - morrisseys lyris and marrs guitar!

the smiths - morrisseys lyris and marrs guitar!

the question was who does the whole shebang i think

another few off top of my head

Rob Dougan - music from the matrix

Beck - made some amazing albums

Jim Moray - played violin, vocals, piano, guitar, synths, drums, bass and programming on his album Sweet England (at the tender age of 23).

trent reznor - nine inch nails

I'm probably wrong but I'm pretty sure a lot of his stuff is guest artists and synth'd :) although I know he plays a fair few intruments but I'm pretty sure he doesn't play them all on any tracks, he got a lot of famous people in for the last album, including Dave Grohl...

Arjen Lucassen is a similar type of person, can play a lot of instruments and for a lot of his bands and albums writes the parts for all the instruments then gets guest artists to play the parts, and plays some himself, usually guitar and singing :)

What do Jeff Lynne, Mike Oldfield and Dave Grohl have in common?

They can and have played all the instruments on certain tracks.
Does anyone else know of other musicians able to do this?

Just curious, which album are you refering to by Dave Grohl?

Kraftwerk... The beatles of electronic music?

Paul McCartney.

Used to play drums for the Beatles in their drummer-less days (that is, prior to Pete Best) and played on the occasional track (Back In The USSR, The Ballad Of John & Yoko for example) and on many solo albums including his most recent 'Chaos and Creation In The Back Yard'.

Played lead guitar on many tracks from the Help! album (1965 - Ticket To Ride and Another Girl for example) and played a superb solo on George's Taxman (Revolver - 1966). He was originally the Beatles rhythm guitarist and swapped to bass when Stuart Sutcliffe couldn't be bothered (which was quite often). When Stuart stayed in Germany with girlfriend Astrid Kirrcherr Paul took over bass playing permanently (although John plodded out some bass during the recording of the 'Double White' [Rocky Racoon] and also during the Let It Be/Get Back sessions [listen to his awful playing on The Long and Winding Road]).

Paul also played piano on loads of Beatles songs, though not all. John, George and Ringo could all play keyboards, each to varying degrees but in the early days most of the piano was played by George Martin. His piano part in Good Day Sunshine (Revolver) is beautiful as is the spinet played during the middle eight to In My Life (Rubber Soul - 1965. The recording was speeded up).

As for solo McCartney, you need to check out his first solo offering (McCartney - 1969), its follow-up (McCartney II - 1980), and his more recent DIY albums (Flaming Pie - 1997 and Chaos And Creation... 2005). But there are loads of tracks on all his solo and Wings albums which feature just Paul playing all the instruments.

However, when he plays live, it's fair to say he recruits master craftsmen (superb guitarists and drummers) although he always gets round to playing bass, lead guitar and piano during the concerts. Sometimes he plays drums though bass will always be his main instrument and the one he plays best.

Musicians that have played all tracks on albums at one time or another;

Prince
Squarepusher
Aphex Twin
Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails

Though whether you count them as impressive is attibuted to how much you like/dislike their music.

Prince
he's the man!
Seconded.:)

I'm probably wrong but I'm pretty sure a lot of his stuff is guest artists and synth'd :) although I know he plays a fair few intruments but I'm pretty sure he doesn't play them all on any tracks, he got a lot of famous people in for the last album, including Dave Grohl...

pretty hate machine was all trent reznor

Jim Noir: I can't stop listening to his album tower of love