I’ve been surprised about how many musical acts from the 60s have been active and performing the past couple years. I wondered how many more groups that SDMBers could identify in this vein.
Here are some currently active musical groups that I can recall with at least two members from the original lineup or at least a 60s era lineup:
The Rolling Stones
The Who
The Association
Jethro Tull
The Turtles
? & The Mysterians
Fleetwood Mac
The Hollies
The Beach Boys
The Zombies
Pentangle
The Stooges
Deep Purple
The O’Jays (formed in the '50s actually)
maybe Black Sabbath although their first album wasn’t released until early 1970
maybe Crosby Stills Nash & Young
maybe Moby Grape
Bob Weir and Phil Lesh (of The Grateful Dead) still perform together as ‘Further’ performing some Dead songs, so perhaps that sort of counts.
I’ve heard rumors that Led Zeppelin might tour again with a different singer and John Bonham’s son on drums. They did perform that one off show a couple years ago.
Bob Dylan’s endless tour is still rolling.
Jack and Jorma from the Airplane are still playing as Hot Tuna.
Buddy Guy still buddying.
Let me think of some more…
Only one original member of the Moody Blues remains- drummer Graeme Edge. But vocalists Justin Hayward and John Lodge have been with the Moodies since 1967.
While they went through a little personnel shuffling in their first few months, the current three member line-up for ZZ Top has been the same since February 1970. I’d call that close enough to the sixties to count.
Only 1 original member of Deep Purple remains: drummer Ian Paice. Vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover joined in 1970… though both left for long periods in the mid-Seventies.
Furthur. They play almost entirely Dead songs and covers that the Dead also covered. They also do some new (to them) covers and a couple of new songs. I’ve seen Furthur a few dozen times and they still can jam like the old days.
I should have thought of The Moody Blues. Good catch. Hot Tuna counts in the same way that Further does.
I didn’t mention Buddy Guy and Bob Dylan because they’re solo artists with backing bands. There are plenty more if you consider solo artists and bands with only one member dating back to the 60s: Paul McCartney and Roger Waters performed last night, Os Mutantes, Steppenwolf, Roger McGuinn (formerly of the Byrds), Van Morrison, Diana Ross, Al Green, etc.
Hawkwind formed in 1969, and they’ve been releasing albums and touring consistently since. No major break-ups or periods of inactivity, they’ve been playing and recording the whole time.
Tonnes of member changes though. The line-up has always been really fluid. People come, and go, and come back, and leave again. The only original member is the guitarist, Dave Brock.
Dude, you forgot the Monkees! (I saw them last month!)
Here are a few other bands from that era with two or more members from the early days:
The Pretty Things – still active, with Phil May and Dick Taylor.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (formed 1966) – still active, with Jimmie Fadden, Jeff Hanna, and John McEuen.
Blues Project – did a reunion tour this fall, with Steve Katz, Danny Kalb, and Roy Blumenfeld.
New Riders of the Purple Sage – still active, with founding member David Nelson plus Buddy Cage who joined in 1971.
Golden Earring, a Dutch band which has had two hits in the U.S. (“Radar Love” and “Twilight Zone”), has been, AFAICT, continually active since 1961. They still have two of their original members, and the other two current members of the band have been with them since 1968 and 1970.
Yes formed in 1968; bassist Chris Squire has been in the band for its entire history, and singer Jon Anderson was a founding member, and has been on all but two of their albums (though he and the rest of the band had a falling-out in 2008, when they wanted to tour while he was recovering from an illness, and they have since toured with two other singers, and released an album without him). Guitarist Steve Howe joined in 1970, and has been with the band for most of their albums and tours since.
Fleetwood Macwas formed in 1967, but Mick Fleetwood is the only original member still with the group, and only he and John McVie were in any of the 60’s lineups.
I guess I’m a purist, but I wouldn’t call that a “60’s era band that’s still active” any more than I’d call Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr a Beatles reunion.
Alice Cooper springs to mind, although it’s / he’s an odd example. Originally Alice Cooper was a band - it’s first album came out in 1969 - but they split in 1975 and Alice Cooper the man continued solo. And he’s still going.
Obviously there are, as previously mentioned, lots of 60s solo acts. Elton John and David Bowie can still fill large arenas, although Bowie seems to have retired; I hope he’s alright.
Technically Kraftwerk is a 60s band - first album recorded in mid-1970, but the band had been around before then - and they can still crash the Tate’s booking system. Only one original member. Odd to think of them as a 60s band, though. They owe more to the pre-war years.
Jethro Tull is currently inactive, possibly defunct. Ian Anderson has spent most of 2012 touring Thick as a Brick 2 as a solo artist. Technically, Anderson has been the only original Tull member remaining since Clive Bunker left in 1971, anyway.
Last I heard, Jacqui McShee was the only member of the '60s Pentangle lineup left. Has someone else rejoined?
Sadly, yes, although I presume the absence of Davy Jones is one main reason why the current lineup includes Mike Nesmith, who had previously essentially refused to tour with the others since the breakup. (He did, I believe, one US show and a few shows in the UK after the reunion album in the late 90s.) Seeing him on stage with Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz doing the old tunes was … how shall I put it … groovy.
I presume Nesmith’s decision to do the tour this time was due to either a sense of impending mortality, a desire to honor Jones, or the fact that Jones was reputedly a huge prima donna on tour.