GOING into the family business is supposed to be easy. Your dad's already done the hard work and you can just waltz in to a job, right?
It's not so easy if you're a musician and your father just happens to have been a legend.
Here are five sons who have forged musical careers in the shadows of their famous fathers.
Harper Simon
THE son of Paul - one half of Simon & Garfunkel - has just released his self-titled debut and already the comparisons to his old man are coming in. Harper got his start playing guitar on Paul's Graceland tour (aged 11) before joining little-known group Menlo Park. Now, as a solo artist, he hasn't moved far from the nest, with Dad co-writing and guesting on a couple of tracks. Harper even admits the closing track Berkeley Girl is a deliberate musical reference to Simon senior's style. "The album really doesn't make very much musical reference to my father and the truth is, I am a really big fan of his. So I felt like, 'Why should I feel embarrassed about that?'," he told The Age recently.
Jakob Dylan
WITH his band The Wallflowers, the son of Bob had a major hit in the mid-'90s with the album Bringing Down The Horse, in particular the Grammy-winning single One Headlight. The band has released five albums and undergone numerous line-up changes (with Jakob the only constant) but struggled to replicate the success of the ...Horse outside the US. Dylan has also released two solo albums, on which he sounds more like his old man than on his Wallflowers work, but he has managed to mostly avoid comparisons thanks to his alt-rock band work and by guarding his privacy fiercely. Father and son have teamed up once - for a corporate gig in '97 for Silicone Valley company Applied Materials.
Liam Finn
SON of Crowded House's Neil, Liam released two under-rated rock albums (The Alphabetchadupa, Aiming For Your Head) with his band Betchadupa before they went on hiatus in 2006 so he could focus on his solo work. The resulting 2007 album I'll Be Lightning was something of a critical and commercial success in the US and Britain and the 26-year-old has developed a strong reputation as a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, performing live using loop pedals so he can play drums, guitars and bass all at the same time. Liam has never strayed far from his father though, joining Neil as a drummer for the senior Finn's solo work and touring with Crowded House regularly as a backing musician. The pair have also recorded together - notably on the I Am Sam soundtrack and a recent benefit album for Kiwi musician Chris Knox.
Julian Lennon
EVEN before he had a couple of hits, Julian had already made a pretty big contribution to music by inspiring two of his dad's band's greatest songs - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds and Hey Jude. Estranged for many years after John divorced Julian's mother, Cynthia, the two reconciled in the years leading up to John's murder in 1980, although he's still not fond of Yoko Ono. Julian's musical style wasn't that far removed from his dad's on his 1984 debut Valotte, which boasted the hit Too Late For Goodbyes, and on the Imagine-like track Saltwater, which went to number one in Australia for four weeks, but in recent years his output has been sparse. A new album is expected later this year.
Damian Marley
BOB Marley's children could fill a Musicology column on their own. He had 10 kids and most have made careers in music since their father's death in 1981. His youngest son, Damian, is perhaps the most successful, winning three Grammy Awards, including two for his landmark 2005 album Welcome To Jamrock, which fused reggae and hip-hop with great success. Damian regularly tours with some of his brothers and his profile has risen through a number of high-profile collaborations, including with Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, Gwen Stefani, Redman, Method Man, late rapper Guru and Mariah Carey. He is currently working with Nas on a forthcoming album called Distant Relatives (the first track As We Enter is awesome).
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