advertisement


Artists that were great, now awful

What’s all the fuss about McCartney? He wrote some great songs over a long period of time. He also wrote some rubbish. Any songwriter musician over that length of time can’t possibly be brilliant all the time.
I like some Beatles stuff and some of his solo stuff but haven’t heard any of his new say within last 20 years music.

I’m a big Bowie fan and he was no different some brilliance in the 70’s some dodgy stuff in later years although there were some good songs in amongst that but the key thing with Bowie was he finished with another great piece of work in Blackstar.
 
The problem I have with the “once great now awful” idea is once you have produced a great work that is your get out of jail card, you did it, you contributed to the world and made it a better place for some people with that great work, as an artist. The artist might reveal they are a racist (people seem to still revere Eric Clapton even though he’s never really atoned for that outburst sufficiently) fascist or homophobe or republican, or trump lover or malign a minority demographic and people not affected by these comments are quick to brush these things off as mere indiscretions or having a bad day, but it does tend to sour the entire arc or a composer’s work, it should not but it does unless they actively deal with their racism, homophobia etc.

Do we really know what Pete Towshend’s real motives for downloading child porn were for? “Research” really? That one? That kinda sours his past works but his work in and out of the Who has been damn fine in places.

John Lyndon perhaps? It’s hard to tell, Sex Pistols were too managed and shambolically produced to really work out if they were intentionally good, but good it was... and yet he trolls mercilessly with pro Trump bullshit and is just another property developer now... but his book No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs is a very good read... PiL are capable of awesome work, but less so today. He has two get out of jail cards, maybe three is his performance on I’m A Celebrity is considered canon.

There are a lot of so-so artists that have nosedived, Michelle Shocked, I never quite got the appreciation people had for her, now she turned into a bible thumping homophobe she seems to have flushed her career away, it takes just a moment of uncircumspection or not thinking or going out in public while high... or revealing who you really are... then it’s over.
 
Last edited:
What’s all the fuss about McCartney?


Bottom line? His voice is shot. He sounds woeful. He should retire from performing and carry on with the much loved public figure gig. There's nothing to stop him writing for others if he wants.

(...and no Leonard Cohen comparisons please, that's a whole different ballgame).
 
Rolling Stones live, oh dear.
My nomination is U2

This is worthy of any X Factor runner up..



And just watching the way they image themselves in the video makes me wish that they had retired a very long time ago.
They sound like Coldplay and as Coldplay tried to sound like U2 it shows how far U2 have sunk. To sound like you sound like a band trying to copy you ... thats poor.
Should have either packed it in after the first 2 albums or carried on in the same vein, once they hit stadium rock it was time to move on for me.
This video is shockingly poor.
 
Bottom line? His voice is shot. He sounds woeful. He should retire from performing and carry on with the much loved public figure gig. There's nothing to stop him writing for others if he wants.

(...and no Leonard Cohen comparisons please, that's a whole different ballgame).

Bottom line he is 76 years old, voice is still strong as he showed recently and can still fill stadiums.
 
I think you're confusing him with Tom Jones...and he's 78.

Nope, and if you had properly listened to the link I showed you , you would have seen his voice is still strong for a 76 year old. Our voices as anything else age differently he has adapted his and it works.
 
In their day, Aswad’s recorded output went from great to ropey. Lee Perry, likewise. Each Clash album is worse than the one before (excepting Combat Rock); while Pink Floyd managed a couple of terrfic 45s and a half-decent first album - then, sans Syd, spent the next fifty years on Planet Poo.

On a cheerier note, some enter a long sickening tailspin descent, often over decades, but then somehow turn it around at the end - for example (in different ways) Louis Armstrong, John Martyn, David Bowie. We like them.
 
In their day, Aswad’s recorded output went from great to ropey. Lee Perry, likewise. Each Clash album is worse than the one before (excepting Combat Rock); while Pink Floyd managed a couple of terrfic 45s and a half-decent first album - then, sans Syd, spent the next fifty years on Planet Poo.

On a cheerier note, some enter a long sickening tailspin descent, often over decades, but then somehow turn it around at the end - for example (in different ways) Louis Armstrong, John Martyn, David Bowie. We like them.
And, of course, Johnny Cash.
Chris
 
Red Hot Chili Peppers. Since their high point with BloodSugarSexMagic they've been unremittingly awful.

I don't mind some of their later stuff, the way I see it is, they stopped living so fast, calmed down on the drugs/party lifesytle and became a pop band. Same thing happened to Jack Black/Tenacious D, really like their first album, and they were great live. He gave up smoking cannabis after that album, and imo, everything since has been terrible.
 
Saw Pharoh Sanders live last year. He shambled onto the stage after his band, sat down, and occasionally offered a fairly random toot on the sax during the set. The rest of the time, he sat there looking at the sax like he didn't know what it was, and why he was holding it. I hope, for his sake, it isn't dementia, but he was utter pants and, on the basis of that performance, should have stopped a while ago.
 
I witnessed Pharoah Sanders in Leeds last November - it was one of the best performances I have experienced since first going to gigs in 1975. He was full of energy and inventiveness, so I guess you saw him on an off-night?
 
I saw some footage of him recently and his health was not good, guitar still sounded tasty though, but that deep sonorous voice has diminished.

I would vote Rod Stewart, although I've never been a fan, the stuff I've heard in the past few years has been worse.
I think he’s released the odd absolute belter, “The Killing of Georgie” is a real favourite but he’s also released a lot of cheesy drivel... my parents have always loved him but were left with a real sour taste after they went to see him last year, at the end of the last song the curtains went down and that was it, no encore, no bow, not as much as a “thanks for coming”... ultimate arrogant diva behaviour.
 
I think he’s released the odd absolute belter, “The Killing of Georgie” is a real favourite but he’s also released a lot of cheesy drivel... my parents have always loved him but were left with a real sour taste after they went to see him last year, at the end of the last song the curtains went down and that was it, no encore, no bow, not as much as a “thanks for coming”... ultimate arrogant diva behaviour.

It was his interpretation of the great American songbook that put the tin lid on it.
 
Saw Pharoh Sanders live last year. He shambled onto the stage after his band, sat down, and occasionally offered a fairly random toot on the sax during the set. The rest of the time, he sat there looking at the sax like he didn't know what it was, and why he was holding it. I hope, for his sake, it isn't dementia, but he was utter pants and, on the basis of that performance, should have stopped a while ago.
For some reason I can’t edit this post.

I misremembered, it wasn’t Pharoh Sanders, it was Wayne Shorter.

My sincere apologies to Mr Sanders.
 
Kate Bush - should’ve stayed in the 70s and 80s.

I disagree. The Red Shoes (1993) is a good album. I do think Aerial & 50 Words For Snow are poor though. Directors Cut and Before The Dawn are back on form. There is more good stuff to come I reckon, but it may take a decade if not longer.
 


advertisement


Back
Top