[x] Non-playing members?

I assumed it was obvious that the member actually has to perform his band member role during the course of contstructing the album. That is, if a band credits a lyric-writer-only as a member, then at least some songs on that album must have his lyrics for him to be a "member". Similarly, if a band credits their spiritual advisor as an actual band member, then he needs to have advised them during the process of making that album (though if we have no information we err on the side of trusting the band's judgment). Of course "credited" members who did not actually perform (on an album) whatever role they're credited as doing should not be counted as members (on that album); the point I was trying to make was that the difference in roles between drummer and lyricist is, to me immaterial, and the issue is the band's indication of membership status via crediting. Whether the crediting is ACCURATE, the issue you raise, is another important but to me separate issue.

In that sense, if a band credits someone as a member, who does perform that role during the production process, even if you can't detect the result, I call that a member. A dancer would fit this characterization for me -- IF that dancer is actually credited as a true band member and IF we have no evidence that the person did not in fact dance at all during the production process.

I claim most bands do not credit people like artists, dancers, and writers as band members; they credit them, if at all, as artists, dancers, or writers. For the few that do credit those sorts of roles as actual band members, I believe we should respect that choice; to do otherwise is, IMO, arrogant.

Now, as to Mark's question. I think live albums should be credited like all other albums: you read the album credits, if any, first, to determine what the band thinks. So, if a live album lists the band members, and they list a lyricist as a member, then he's a member on that album. If they don't list him, he's not. (If they list him but we know he contributed no lyrics at all to the songs on the album, then he's also not a member, by misterpomp's argument.) If there are no lyrics, then I guess I'm not sure whether to examine the performance and list who we can determine was playing, or simply to list whatever the original album credits were for that song, modulo changes in membership between the studio and live releases. My instinct is to do the latter, which is what I said already. So if the original studio release credited the lyricist as a band member, the band plays the song live, the lyricist is still in the band, and the live release has no credit listing at all: he's a member.