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Artists that should stop

As a musician I have to say that artists and bands can do whatever they bloody well like - carry on to 90 if they're able to. It's their job, duh.....

As said many times - you don't have to follow or like them, but you have no right to tell them to stop. Ridiculous idea.

But I agree completely that rock and pop (but not jazz) musicians often fade out. Songwriting is particularly difficult to sustain, since there's probably very little happening to old geezers in their daily lives that would interest young people. Steely Dan said it pretty well....

I don't mind the quiet
Or the lonely nights
I don't miss the funky attitudes
And I don't miss the fights
I lie on the couch 'til suppertime
And hunker down and read the Post
And that's when I remember the things I miss the most:

The talk, the sex, somebody to trust
The Audi TT, the house on the Vineyard
The house on the Gulf Coast
These are the things I miss the most

I kinda like frying up my sad cuisine
Getting in bed and curling up with a girlie magazine
The days really don't last forever
But it's getting pretty damn close
And that's when I remember the things I miss the most
 
les24preludes said:
As a musician I have to say that artists and bands can do whatever they bloody well like - carry on to 90 if they're able to. It's their job, duh.....

As said many times - you don't have to follow or like them, but you have no right to tell them to stop. Ridiculous idea.
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Agree entirely, and I don’t think anyone is actually saying that. My view is that past glories should never be viewed as excusing a piss-poor current album or shamelessly hollow cash-in tour. Always assess stuff rationally. In other musical forms (jazz, classical, world etc) artists regularly produce exceptional work in their later years. I’d certainly argue most classical composers later works were their best.
 
I am very tongue in cheek on this thread I hope that comes over. But the gilmour thing is a bit cringe, sorry.
 
Tony L said:
Bowie, Eno, Klaus Schulze, David Sylvian, The Fall, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Carlos Santana etc come to mind. Usually non-mainstream artists who carved their own path far away from ‘hits’, but every now and again someone really surprises me, e.g. I’d not have predicted EBTG knocking out one of the best albums of last year. I think the key is to write to your age and current experience. Never try to turn out stuff similar to the peak teenage and early 20s years. Always move forwards.
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No. No. No. No. No. There is only one true God, and his name is Tom Waits
 
In the case of the Rolling Bones, they're still putting on a great show. I'm pretty sure they don't need the cash, they just love it and it shows.
If they were in a phonebox anywhere near me I'd be there in a (jumping j.....no I won't go there...) flash
 
ks.234 said:
No. No. No. No. No. There is only one true God, and his name is Tom Waits
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Interesting. I’ve never had the patience to wade through the later stuff as I felt Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs did everything Tom Waits I needed. I really like them. I had Mule Variations for a while as everyone raved about it, but flipped it when the value went up as I never played it. Don’t know why it didn’t connect, but it didn’t. Other stuff I own by the yard, e.g. I’ve got most of Stereolab’s output!
 
Tony L said:
Interesting. I’ve never had the patience to wade through the later stuff as I felt Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs did everything Tom Waits I needed. I really like them. I had Mule Variations for a while as everyone raved about it, but flipped it when the value went up as I never played it. Don’t know why it didn’t connect, but it didn’t. Other stuff I own by the yard, e.g. I’ve got most of Stereolab’s output!
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Heratic.
 
A few years ago there was a brief Radio 4 series looking into creativity - it was primarily looking at writers and poets, but did consider other artists such as composers and musicians and apparently there is pretty solid research to suggest that creativity tails off quite rapidly around the age of 40. Yes, there are plenty of exceptions such as Robin Trower but....

As an example, Stevie Wonder has not produced anything of worth since 1990 with the release of Free - yes he continued to perform and so on, but his writing more or less dried up.
 
Not sure what weight to attach to "should". Artists can do what they like, or then again they may need the money. Whether we like/listen/enjoy is up to us.
 
onlyconnect said:
Incidentally Bob Dylan continues to be extraordinary.
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I have no statistics on this but from casual reading (these days) he seems to polarise people into those who think his shows are the most disappointing they have ever seen and those who think he goes from strength to strength as the years unfold.
What he thinks is anyone’s guess - no change there.
 
I found that if he was too lazy to pick up his Nobel prize himself, he might just as well stay home for good and enjoy his newly won 300 million or whatever.

His friendship with Pattie Smith must be very strong and genuine, as more or less everyone else would have answered his demand with a clear go **** yourself.

The good thing about the incident was the magical interpretation of ’A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall’ in Oslo that day.

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onlyconnect said:
Not sure what weight to attach to "should". Artists can do what they like, or then again they may need the money. Whether we like/listen/enjoy is up to us.
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I took it as arguing that, as artists, they should have enough self awareness and critical faculty to judge when their output is falling below the standard they would set for themselves, and decide to quit for the sake of their dignity and to preserve their reputation.
 
Caliente said:
A few years ago there was a brief Radio 4 series looking into creativity - it was primarily looking at writers and poets, but did consider other artists such as composers and musicians and apparently there is pretty solid research to suggest that creativity tails off quite rapidly around the age of 40.
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No - the research you are thinking of was about poets as you say, but not creativity in general.

"...if creativity is assessed by productivity or by making original and valuable contributions to fields such as science and art then by that measure, output first increases in our mid-20s, climaxes around our late 30s or early 40s, and then undergoes a slow decline as we age. The precise relation between age and creativity depends on the domain. Some creative types—such as lyrical poets and mathematicians—tend to have early peaks and relatively rapid declines, whereas others—among them, historians and philosophers—are prone to later peaks and gradual, even negligible declines. Also creative people vary greatly in total lifetime productivity. At one extreme are the one-hit wonders, who make single contributions; their creativity is almost over before it begins. At the other end of the spectrum are highly prolific creators who make dozens, if not hundreds, of contributions and who are often still going strong well into their 60s and 70s, if not beyond.

it seems unlikely that creative declines are caused simply by ageing brains. If that were the case, it would be hard to explain why the creative path differs by domain, lifetime output, or the time someone embarks on his or her career. After all, late bloomers reach creative peaks at ages when early bloomers are past their prime. So the good news is that it is possible to stay creative throughout one's life span."

www.scientificamerican.com

Does Creativity Decline with Age?

Psychologist Dean Keith Simonton answers
www.scientificamerican.com www.scientificamerican.com
 
Caliente said:
A few years ago there was a brief Radio 4 series looking into creativity - it was primarily looking at writers and poets, but did consider other artists such as composers and musicians and apparently there is pretty solid research to suggest that creativity tails off quite rapidly around the age of 40. Yes, there are plenty of exceptions such as Robin Trower but....

As an example, Stevie Wonder has not produced anything of worth since 1990 with the release of Free - yes he continued to perform and so on, but his writing more or less dried up.
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If it's the research I'm thinking of, it wasn't that straightforward. They found that while most artists burned brightly for about a decade or two then declined, there was a small number who continued to refine and improve throughout their life. They gave Picasso and Rembrandt as examples of the two types in painting, but musically you could find lots of parallels.

I don't even think it's an age thing. For modern musicians, sometimes the complete change of life from achieving success kills the creative drive: we all know of acts that had a solid catalogue of good music before that one big breakthrough, and went to the dogs after.

Also, for new artists, the commercial realities of the recording business often push them into releasing more work before it's really finished ("The difficult second album" is often the "it took me eight years to write the first one, and now you want a second one in nine months?" album). I think a lot of the "still delivering the goods" musical artists are those who gave the industry the middle finger early on and decided to work at their own pace.
 
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