# Artists who arguably have produced BOTH the best AND the worst in their field **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 4, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937 "2020-01-04T16:31:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/21 "2020-01-04T21:40:01Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Stevie Wonder’s early Motown stuff was already astounding, but the 5 albums from “Music Of My Mind” from 1972 to “Songs In The Key Of Life” from 1976 are transcendental. Well, later he made “I Just Called To Say I Love You” and “Ebony And Ivory”, two of the most trite and banal pieces of music ever put on a record. > [@erysichthon](#): > > Beethoven wrote an orchestral piece called _Wellington’s Victory_ which is a wacky, noisy mess, but it gets played once in a while because it’s got Beethoven’s name on it. Both of these are great examples that I had thought of too. In fact, “Ebony and Ivory” is a two-fer, demonstrating that two musical geniuses are capable of churning out sappy schlock. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/22 "2020-01-04T21:43:57Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > The thread title question may only be answerable if we don’t take “worst in their field” too literally. Yeah, it seems we are naming artists that were ASTOUNDING and then put out some pedestrian commercial stuff. Not the WORST to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/23 "2020-01-04T22:02:37Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Brian Wilson Indeed. Yeah, it’s possible [this:p](https://youtu.be/RKEsehvPOvM?t=29) isn’t exactly _Pet Sounds_-level quality. And I’m not talkng about production values, there, either. Filmmaker John Frankenheimer went from _Manchurian Candidate_ to _Prophecy_. Hal Ashby gave us _The Last Detail_ and _Being There_, but also _8 Milliion Ways to Die_. I see a _ **VAST** _ gulf between the Stones’ classic “Rocks Off” and “She’s My Little Rock’n Roll”. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2020, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/24 "2020-01-04T23:05:54Z")
> [@campp](#): > > Yeah, it seems we are naming artists that were ASTOUNDING and then put out some pedestrian commercial stuff. Not the WORST to happen. Ok, maybe I was a little harsh when I nominated Phil Collins and Steve Howe, then. But I stand what I said about [Jon Anderson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FukuwLwevUM) and [Rick Wakeman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ8DWJfbHJM). ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/25 "2020-01-05T00:27:29Z")
One of my favorite novels is _All The Bells On Earth_ by James P. Blaylock. _The Elfin Ship_ is admirable as well. But most of his other stuff is unreadable, IMHO, especially The Narbondo Series. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/26 "2020-01-05T00:49:08Z")
Thomas Harris wrote the classic _The Silence of the Lambs_ and _Cara Mora_, one of the worst ‘thrillers’ ever published. I’m not even sure it qualifies as a novel. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/27 "2020-01-05T01:05:57Z")
I own a masterpiece bracelet by a Navajo silversmith who made his daily living churning out tourist schlock because that’s what sold. Of better-known folks, I’ll nominate Bob Dylan, who won his Nobel because “The ghost electricity howls in the bones of her face” but dipped to “All the wild horses in the sun” and “You’ve gotta serve somebody.” ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/28 "2020-01-05T01:11:49Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > John Wayne: there was The Shootist, and then there was Riders of Destiny, wherein he played a singing cowboy. Granted, he was only 26 when he did the latter. But he should have known better at age 60 when he did The Green Berets. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/29 "2020-01-05T01:39:52Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Of better-known folks, I’ll nominate Bob Dylan, who won his Nobel because “The ghost electricity howls in the bones of her face” but dipped to “All the wild horses in the sun” and “You’ve gotta serve somebody.” Damn you! For thems what didn’t recognize it, Visions of Johanna is the song what won Bob his prize. Or was it Desolation Row? Or just Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde to make it easy. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/AwuCF5lYqEE/maxresdefault.jpg "Bob Dylan - Visions of Johanna (Official Audio)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwuCF5lYqEE) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/hUvcWXTIjcU/maxresdefault.jpg "Bob Dylan - Desolation Row (Official Audio)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUvcWXTIjcU) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/30 "2020-01-05T01:40:36Z")
I’m not the world’s biggest Billy Joel fan, but I have to admit that he was quite good in his style of pop songwriting – perhaps one of the best. Then there was his prog-rock band [Attila](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7s8PHnCTGI). I know, I know – it’s an easy one to piss on (and perhaps a bit unfairly, but I’m not one to judge as I dislike 95% of prog rock), but it often infamously comes up in discussions of “worst rock album ever made.” So, quite literally, he comes up in discussions of both best and worst albums of all time. Then again, you also have bands like the Shaggs whose only studio album can literally be on both someone’s best albums ever list and worst albums ever list. (The vast majority of people would put it on the latter list; I’d put it somewhere in between. It’s technically terrible, but it is interesting.) ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/31 "2020-01-05T01:48:20Z")
> [@RioRico](#): > > Of better-known folks, I’ll nominate Bob Dylan, who won his Nobel because “The ghost electricity howls in the bones of her face” but dipped to “All the wild horses in the sun” . . . Nitpick: All The Tired Horses. But I knew what you meant. “Wiggle Wiggle” is probably even worse. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/32 "2020-01-05T03:02:51Z")
Hey, I LIKE “A Boy Named Sue.” So much so that I went and named my son… ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/33 "2020-01-05T03:36:54Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > Which artists – any medium – could be argued to have produced both the best work, and the worst work in their field. Pressing on the walls of “any medium”, I’m going to nominate Richard Garfield: the game designer who created the wildly successful _Magic: the Gathering_ collectible card game in the early 90s which laid the foundation for the collectible card game (CCG) genre and is still played by an estimated 20,000,000 people. It’s the most successful CCG of all time and still going strong both in physical paper card form and through multiple digital/online versions. A few years ago, he was hired on by computer game company Valve to design a game for their video game platform. He created the digital card game _Artifact_, which was widely panned and went from 60,000 concurrent online players at launch to less than 100 players eight months later. A Valve rep confirmed its failure, saying “Artifact represents the largest discrepancy between our expectations for how one of our games would be received and the actual outcome”. Some of its issues (card costs) were out of Garfield’s hands but it was also considered difficult to learn, not much fun to play and boring to watch. Obviously a lot of video games (and CCGs) fail but the collapse of _Artifact_ will be one for the books, given its expectations and hype. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/34 "2020-01-05T04:00:47Z")
I was going to go with Roger Waters, but then I remembered Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ contributions to music. On the one hand he did Constipation Blues (pure brilliance), but on the other he did… everything else he ever did (apart from maybe _I Put a Spell on You_, a cover to which I believe I’ve heard making the rounds recently). ---
**Author:** ![lingyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lingyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lingyi)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/35 "2020-01-05T07:45:22Z")
Eric Clapton’s \*Layla \*Unplugged! Jefferson Airplane as Jefferson Starship - _We Built This City_ A lot of Asian artists have done some really horrible movies even later in their career, especially to break into the Western market. Chow Yun Fat - _The Replacement Killers_ John Woo - _Face off_ Jeon Ji Hyun as Gianna Jun - _Blood: The Last Vampire_. Whyyyyyy Ji Hyun! Thankfully she went back to Korea and did \*The Thieves \*there! ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/36 "2020-01-05T08:24:22Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Without his solo career, we would not have [the greatest drum solo of all time](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ft954vXPa4). Oh, lord. Actually, I was expecting [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo). ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/37 "2020-01-05T12:09:47Z")
**Igor Stravinsky** ’s _The Rite of Spring_ is arguably one of the most important works in the Western canon. With its savage but complex polyrhythms and primitive, pungent yet evocative dissonances, it altered the course of Classical Music and opened the doors of a completely new world. That piece has a place on any serious top 10 of the most important Classical works of all time, full stop. But apart from that… Well, he wrote half a dozen works that range from very good (_Symphony for Wind Instruments, Symphony of Psalms, Petrouchka_) to near-masterpiece (_The Firebird, The Song of the Nightingale, Les Noces_). However, for the remaining 40 years of his career, he produced either cardboard, facile and immediately forgettable Neo-Classical drivel or, belatedly, dull dodecaphonic works. Minimal effort, zero staying power, but it’s got “Stravinsky” written on it, so it must be good, right ? His entire output from those decades feels like a cynical cash-grab. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/38 "2020-01-05T13:21:27Z")
What about George Clooney? He was absolutely amazing in Up in the Air and O Brother Where Art Thou while also bringing us Return to Horror High and Return of the Killer Tomatoes. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/39 "2020-01-05T13:35:19Z")
> [@lingyi](#): > > Eric Clapton’s \*Layla \*Unplugged!.. I really think you don’t understand the question. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2020, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937/40 "2020-01-05T14:08:35Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > GEORGE. LUCAS. > > Thread over!!! Considering his field includes folks like Ed Wood, he has never made anything remotely close to the worst. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artists-who-arguably-have-produced-both-the-best-and-the-worst-in-their-field/845937.md?page=3)