List of musicians changed career with better success...

Wow cz, that’s some bold assertions, for which I applaud you. To say that Harrison’s post-Beatles career surpasses McCartney’s or Lennon’s means you are speaking in artistic terms, not commercial ones. I agree about Harrison; though he put out some dreck, I like his best stuff more than Paul’s or John’s (especially The Wilbury’s).

I for some reason have never heard Brooker’s solo stuff, but I sure liked PH. I guess I need to check him out.

I detested Zeppelin from the instant I heard them, so Jones’ stuff HAS to be better!

onhwy61, taste being what it is, I agree with you on some of your examples, but for me Robertson’s albums are absolutely unlistenable. Unbelievably pretentious, and he can’t sing to save his life. But Richard Thompson is a different matter---a great solo career. Dave Alvin I have mixed feelings about. I like his brother Phil’s singing in The Blasters much more, but Dave wrote those songs.

Nick Lowe’s solo work is a LOT better than Brinsley Schwartz were. Same goes for his bandmate, Brinsley himself, whose work with Graham Parker is excellent. Also in BS was Ian Gomm, who made some cool solo albums.

The great Dave Edmunds was in a late-60’s band named Love Sculpture, who were sort of progressive. His ’71 solo album started him on an absolutely fantastic Rock ’n’ Roll career, before and after he and Nick Lowe joined forces for Rockpile, who put out one superb album, though all four members are on many of Dave's and Nick’s solo albums.

Peter Case is liked by a lot of my friends, but I prefer his Plimsouls stuff more than him solo. He was also in The Nerves prior to The Plimsouls, as was Paul Collins, whose post-Nerves band The Beat made a couple of great albums.

There are many examples in Country music, but I won’t subject ya’ll to that :-).

The recordings of LZ, Procol Harum and the Beatles are hard to beat.

Ministry - went from synth pop to thrash metal/punk and never looked back. 

sevs - Speaking of Japan, did you ever hear their first LP?  It was a really bad arena rock attempt.  Nothing like the New Romantic sound they went for afterwards.

Also, sevs, I think Peter Gabriel moved in a great direction after Genesis.

Chrissie Hynde went from music reviewer to lead singer of the Pretenders.

David Sylvian solo albums are almost all with Japan members

Robert Gordon did fair as a punk rocker, but his career improved once he embraced Rockabilly. 

I hadn’t heard that onhwy61---that’s some guitar power! Duke’s a great player, having recorded and played live with both Dylan and Lucinda Williams, and many others.

I neglected to mention Emitt Rhodes, who was a member of The Palace Guard at 16, and The Merry-Go-Round (hit song "Live", covered by The Bangles) at 17. He put out his fantastic debut solo album in 1970 (which sold well), and two more in the next two years (neither of which did). Unfortunately, he had signed a terrible contract requiring those two follow-up albums be delivered to his record company in six month intervals! When he didn’t deliver them on time, the company sued him for breach of contract, and withheld all future royalties. He had received not a dime in royalties until after "Lullaby" from the first album was used in The Royal Tenenbaums movie in 2002. An Emitt fan who happened to be an attorney filed suit on his behalf.

I remember long ago hearing The Byrds called America’s Beatles. I didn’t see the truth in that statement then, but I do now. Hugely influential Group, and not just with Tom Petty and R.E.M. The individual members (well, four out of five anyway. Drummer Michael Clarke was not much of a musician) possess more talent than any other Group/Band I can think of, save The Band. Unlike the members of The Band (except for Levon Helm, whose last album garnered him a well-deserved Grammy Award), however, the various Byrds made a lot of great music post-Byrds, some of it doing very well commercially, some not.

Jim/Roger McGuinn has made several solo albums, and continues touring for a living. Gene Clark left The Byrds in ’66 and made many albums, though none did very well. David Crosby is of course better known as a member of Crosby, Stills, & Nash (and sometimes Young), as well as a few solo albums and duets with his buddy Graham Nash.

Chris Hillman’s post-Byrds career has been a very fruitful one. I think of Chris as The Byrds’ George Harrison. He brought Gram Parsons into the Group as a replacement for Crosby, then left with Gram in ’68 to start The Flying Burrito Brothers. When that Band ended after two albums, Gram put out a couple of highly influential solo albums, developed a close relationship with Keith Richards and heroin, and died of an overdose. Fortunately for us he brought Emmylou Harris to our attention before doing so. Chris made a few great Bluegrass albums for the Sugar Hill label (audiophile quality recordings, original LP pressings readily available at better record stores), was a member of The Souther/Hillman/Furay (Richie, from Buffalo Springfield) Band, and then The Desert Rose Band, who were Country stars in the 90’s. He and DRB member Herb Pedersen have made several albums together as well. All great music by Chris, the best body of work by any of The Byrds imo.

When Chris and Gram left The Byrds, Roger brought in Clarence White, an astoundingly great and influential guitarist (as player of the B-Bender Telecaster, invented by drummer Gene Parsons---no relation, replacement for Mike Clarke in The Byrds). Clarence had been a professional musician from an early age, as member of the Bluegrass Group The Kentucky Colonels. He had also done a lot of session work, recording with The Everly Brothers, Ricky Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Joe Cocker, Randy Newman, Jackson Browne, Arlo Guthrie, even The Monkees! While loading his guitar into the van after a Byrds show he was hit by a car, and died. What a drag.

I can’t think of another Group/Band with so many members going on to do so much after their original entry into the music business.

Of course, I guess I should mention the late, great, David Bowie, who changed his stage personality and musical styles so many times it’s hard to count them all. Did the changes improve his career? How does one improve on perfection?

An artist who flipped for the worse was Annabella Lwin, former lead singer of Bow Wow Wow. She went for Brit-pop singles on her first solo album, and it was a near-total fail (except perhaps for the cover of "Fever"). This former Malcolm McLaren product’s career mostly vanished after that one solo effort.

Adam Ant also went from British New Wave/punk to pop, with mixed results. He disappointed his original fans, and made new ones in the Brit-pop world.

Spandau Ballet went from New Romantic to pop. They sold more records as a pop act, but many fans like me missed the edginess of their New Romantic sound.

One of the more dramatic shifts was that of Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick of Eve’s Plum, a power-pop/punk act in the early 1990s, who resurfaced as Vitamin C. Again, while a commercial success, she abandoned her original fan base.