The one thing all of these bands have in common that sets them apart from STP is the primary core of songwriters stayed in place from one signer to the next (the Youngs in the case of AC/DC, Jerry Cantrell in the case of AiC, Eddie Van Halen in the case of VH). With STP, though, while the remaining members often contributed the basic music tracks, Weiland wrote the lyrics, melodies and arrangements for basically every single STP song, ever.
Point being is STP is already one step behind the three other bands mentioned since 50% of the core songwriting team is deceased. In their case, I would say STP should probably call it a day as STP.
Complete and total bullshit. Scott pretty much didn't arrange anything for STP. He occasionally came up with a guitar riff that Dean or Rob would re-purpose, but throughout the entire history of STP Scott almost never contributed to the arrangement of the songs. The Deleos, Kretz, and Brendan worked out the instrumentals and then Scott put a melody and lyrics to it. He was NEVER "50% of the songwriting team."
I'm not saying Scott is exactly replaceable by any stretch, but to give him credit for stuff he had absolutely no part in is ludicrous. It's like saying Eric Kretz played every guitar solo in every album. It's complete bullshit.
Rob is 50% of the songwriting team. Dean is the other 50%. Kretz and Scott contributed, but if you removed their contributions you'd still have 95% of STP's song catalog, just with different vocals and drums.
Excuse me, but fuck you too.
It's been said in interview after interview with STP that the songs don't become what they are until the musical ideas are given to Scott and he crafts them into what they ultimately become. His contributions go far beyond just putting words over 100% completed pieces of music (this may be more debatable on self-titled). Rob and Dean come up with the riffs, sure, but Scott shapes the songs into what they ultimately become.
Your analogy of saying it's like saying Kretz played a guitar solo on every song is completely and totally way out, wacko, it's not even CLOSE to the same thing.
Rob is 50% of the songwriting team. Dean is the other 50%. Kretz and Scott contributed, but if you removed their contributions you'd still have 95% of STP's song catalog, just with different vocals and drums.
No fucking way. Not even close.
No where in any interview has it ever been said that Scott constructed the songs. What has been said is the his vocals and melodies
elevated the rest of the band's music to an entirely new level, which is true. But his influence over the actual construction of the songs, I.E. the key they are played in, chord progressions, riffs, the tempo, the song structure, is almost non-existent.
The DeLeos wrote almost every single chord progression in almost every single song. they selected the tempos, they created the structure of the verses and choruses and bridges, they selected the keys. Scott then took those ideas and crafted a melody that
elevated that song to another level. But the keys he sang in? Those didn't come from Scott, those came from the music the Deleos gave Scott. The choruses and verses he wrote? Those were inspired by pre-existing guitar parts the Deleos showed him
Plush, without Scott, would be the exact same song with different vocals. Same for every single other STP song besides Unglued, Tumble in the Rough and the songs from SLDD.
But without the Deleo's, there would be no Plush, no ILS, or Down or Sour Girl or Atlanta, or any other song from any of those albums. The vocals to those songs would have never even existed because the key, chord progression and structure they are based on will never have existed. Unglued would just be a guitar riff, with no choruses or verses or solo because Scott had nothing to do with those parts. Tumble in the Rough would just be an idea.
Would they be as popular without Scott's voice and ideas? Probably not, but the songs came from the DeLeos.
I'm not downplaying Scott's role here, but you just can't come up with delusional notions and then act like they are real. Read ANY article about the construction of STP's music and it is very clear how they did things. Dean or Rob would come up with the riffs, verse, and chorus on guitar. They'd show that to Scott, Scott would go off and write his melody based on that and then write lyrics to it. While he did that, Rob and Kretz worked bass and drum compositions based on the song Dean or Rob wrote. Then either the instrumentalists would record the song with Scott adding vocals later, or all four would record together. It's at this point, when vocals are being laid down, when Dean works out his solo.
In the instances where Scott came up with the riff, he showed that riff to Dean and Rob, who came up with a verse and chorus themselves, then built a structure around those idea. Then the rest of the song would be written the same as usual.
In the case of Trippin', Kretz wrote the guitar parts, bass line, and drums himself and brought it to the group as a almost completed song. Scott then came up with a melody and lyrics for the song while Dean crafted a solo.
SLDD is the one real exception. Scott had a huge hand in production and therefore had a hand in the construction of most of the songs.
