I was listening to some songs the other day by one of my all-time favorites, Bob Mould, and it struck me as rather amazing that this guy is more than 30 years into his career and he’s STILL got it. I don’t mean he’s not doing so bad after all this time. I mean he continues to release songs – “The Descent” and “Keep Believing” among them – I wouldn’t mind mentioning if you asked me to assemble a package of greatest hits. I continue to be genuinely thrilled when he releases a new album (as opposed to, say, R.E.M., which had gotten to the point that I was more or less pleased if the new album was listenable). What are some of your top songs by artists who have been at it at least 30 years? Pick whatever starting point for those 30 years that you deem relevant – first album, first single, first time that the artist played in front of other people.
IDK if its 30 years but Lenny Kravitz has held up as a good musician
Sonny Rollins has been performing professionally since the forties. Tony Bennett had his first success in the early fifties and is still going strong.
Sonny Rollins was my first thought as well.
How about Tom Waits?
(And, I totally agree that REM should have broken up around 1996 – after a fifteen-year run.)
Neil Young - though he’s much more patchy these days than he was even in the early-mid 90s, never mind the late 60s to late 70s - is still capable of pulling out amazing records. Still, I would stick Le Noise from 2010 up against his best work and it would stand up (and in some cases surpass some of those albums), I think. He’s getting divorced and on his last tour, he’s been playing some pretty pissed off new material - not necessarily about his marriage either - I can see him making at least one more amazing rock album before he’s done.
Of course, his last record was a set of covers recorded in a 1940s “make your own demo” recording booth and his next record is rumoured to be a set of songs backed by an orchestra (presumably like A Man Needs A Maid and so on from Harvest), so predicting when/if he’ll ever make that rock album is obviously a fool’s errand. He’ll just do whatever he wants and, if he hits it, he hits it.
Dion DiMucci, of Dion and the Belmonts fame, has been releasing music since 1959. In 2006 he was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional Blues category. Since then he has released two even better blues albums* Son of Skip James*, and Tank Full of Blues. He is a fine songwriter, a skilled guitarist and has a voice that is a thing of wonder.
Thirded.
When I saw him live, I was a little bit worried as he walked on stage because he looked frail and was moving very slowly. But as soon as he started playing, my doubts vanished. He was amazing.
That was ten years ago so I can’t say for sure that it’s still true now but it was extremely impressive anyways (he was in his mid-70s at the time).
Waits continues to grow and evolve. Just wait till he hits his peak!
Mozart was writing much better music at 35 than he was at 5. 
Leonard Cohen is set to have a new album, Popular Problems, out next month, and what I’ve heard so far was way up there. I’ve seem him live a few years ago, and it was one of my favourite shows ever.
Nick Cave’s latest album, Push the Sky Away, is perhaps his strongest in recent memory.
Cohen continues to put out brilliant stuff after 47 years as a recording artist, but he gets an asterisk for being less than prolific. This is only his 13th studio album.
There are MANY people I can think of who were still brilliant singers or performers after 30 years, but not many who continued to write good NEW music for 30 years or more.
Les Paul and Dave Brubeck, for example, remained excellent musicians into their 80s/90s, but neither had written or created any good new music in decades by the time they died.
Paul McCartney is still a great singer, musician and showman… but nobody at his sold-out shows wants to hear anything he’s written in the past 30 years. The same goes for the Stones, the Who, Springsteen, a LOT of people.
A pure vocalist like Tony Bennett can continue to make good new records ONLY because he has the luxury of choosing new songs written by other people.
I thought of Sonny Rollins, too.
I will say that Jeff Beck can still play things on guitar that no one else can touch. Won a Grammy or two recently, IIRC, too.
Well, Tom Petty just put out a new album and from what I’ve heard it’s pretty good.
He’s been at it for almost 40 years now.
“Weird Al” Yankovic just had his first number 1 album (and a good one at that) after 30 years in the business…
Carlos Santana belongs in this group. (Unfortunately his Corazon tour isn’t coming anywhere near DC.)
Terry Scott Taylor has been releasing great music with his band Daniel Amos and other projects since the mid-70s, and their 2013 album Dig Here Said the Angel is considered by many to be among their best.
Classical Pianist Earl Wild had a very long career. In 1931, at age 16, he was invited to play in the White House for President Hoover; in 2003, at the tender young age of 88, he recorded a CD that will go to the desert island with me.
*http://www.amazon.com/Earl-Wild-at-88-Mozart/dp/B00012UU2K/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1409855111&sr=1-1&keywords=earl+wild+88
*
His performance of the Balikirev Sonata in B-flat minor would be superb for a pianist of any age. For a man who was almost 90 it’s astonishing. He died in 2010.
Mark Knopfler immediately comes to mind; the first Dire Straits album came out in 1978; he released his eighth solo album, Privateering, in 2012, supporting it with a tour through the summer of last year.
Leaving his work with Dire Straits aside, each of his solo albums (and the collaborative albums as well, with Notting Hillbillies, Chet Atkins, and Emmylou Harris) has had several really exceptional songs. He’s my favorite musical artist, and he shows no real sign of slowing down in quality or quantity.
Robyn Hitchcock has been at it since '76 and just released an album that’s very listenable.