She was also a very talented drummer. Lou Gramm of Foreigner is too.
The DC5 may have stopped in 1969 or so, and Dave Clark become a bit reclusive, but he’s one of the richest men in the UK (a lot of investments).
Although, fair enough, their music is difficult to find on CD and MP3 as DC has always been very protective of his music, which has hurt how well remembered they are.
1985. She lived long enough to do a disco remake of “Dominique.”
I saw an interview sometime in the past year or so on CBS Sunday Morning with him and his wife at their mansion where they talked about how they were donating their time and considerable fortune to music education organizations. No rags at all there.
Wait!
We have forgot Sly and the Family Stone. Sly, if not the group, was super hot, for a while, having played Woodstock and consistently putting out great stuff from, when, 67-74?
Now, he ain’t doin’ so well.
By no means a riches to rags story, but Rod Stewart was the first artist I thought of when thinking about artists who were critically acclaimed initially, but are now critically panned.
His work with the Faces and Jeff Beck was lauded and 'Every Picture Tells a Story is one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
And then he turned more and more commercial, reaching his nadir with 'Do You Think I’m Sexy?"
Now, he’s basically a jukebox playing whatever he thinks will be commercially successful. He’s made a ton of money, but he has squandered all that promise.
Sting has had a similar career trajectory, but at least he’s still turning out original work.
Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull has pointed that the award wasn’t “Heavy Metal” but “Heavy Metal/Hard Rock”. Tull is not a heavy metal band but could do heavy rock. Ask a rock fan to do a Tull song, many would hum the opening riff and sing the first couple lines of “Aqualung”.
Tull fans will say “A Passion Play” album and tour was criticized by the rock journalist corps and they have never been “the flavor of the month” since.
Most of these examples are not real “riches to rags” stories. Here’s one that is:
You all know the Easybeats, even if the only song most of you would recognise is Friday On My Mind. In Australia they were Beatles-level BIG, with a string of hit singles that stand up very well against anything else of the era.
The Easybeats’ guitarists/songwriters, Harry Vanda and George Young, went on to more success as songwriters and producers, including the first six albums by a little group you may have heard of, AC/DC, featuring George Young’s little brothers, Angus and Malcolm.
The Easybeats’ singer, Stevie Wright, on the other hand, hasn’t done quite so well. After some small success in Australia in the early 70s, he fell into drug addiction and his life over the last 30+ years has been about as “rags” as it gets. Long periods of homelessness, lives in a caravan (US: “trailer”) park when he’s doing well. There have been numerous attempts to help him out over the decades, but he just keeps on sliding back into the pits.
Another literal riches to rags story was Marianne Faithfull, although she sorted things out again. After a few successful albums in the 60s, and her high profile relationship with Mick Jagger, she very quickly fell into major drug addiction, including suicide attempts and long periods of living on the streets.
Speaking of “new Beatles”, does no one remember the Knack? They hit it big in 1979 with “My Sharona” and were touted as the next Beatles for a while, but the loutish misogyny of their lyrics turned people off and they vanished pretty damn quickly.
Aside, were they the last “next Beatles”? I don’t recall seeing a band hyped in that way since then.
I know they copied a lot of Beatles stylings (album covers, clothing), but were they ever considered the next Beatles? (I’m not saying it didn’t happen, I just don’t recall hearing it).
Also, is there a rags part to this? (again, just asking). Doug Feiger passed away like a year ago or so, but I don’t remember any hard luck stories (aside from the deadly brain tumors and lung cancer). FYI - His brother is a rather famous attorney and former Michigan gubernatorial candidate.
I remember them being touted as the next Beatles. I also seem to remember, from about the same time, Ann Jillian being touted as the next Marilyn Monroe. It’s probably always tempting for PR flacks to try to get the entertainment press to make such statements.
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Florence Ballard sang on ten Number One hit records (and 16 Top 40) with the Supremes in the 1960s. She lived well in this period, with a large house in Detroit and fancy cars. In 1968 she accepted a very modest financial settlement to leave Motown Records, and due to bad luck and bad advice, by 1974 was on welfare. She was attempting a comeback when she died in 1976 at age 32.
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Darlene Love sang lead on the Number One record “He’s a Rebel” plus lead or backing vocals on many other hit singles produced by Phil Spector in the 1960s. She later had a contractual dispute with Spector which led her to stop singing in the 1970s. As told in the recent documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, she was cleaning houses for a living when she heard her music on the radio and decided to reenter the music business in the early 1980s. Now she does quite well (performs on David Letterman’s show every year etc.). This is a riches to rags to riches again tale.
Also, 3. Isaac Hayes. Wins an Academy Award for “Theme from Shaft” plus two Grammy Awards in 1972; files for bankruptcy with $6 million in debt in 1976.
That’s because people now realize that if you want to curse a promising new band, just call them the “next Beatles” (or, in the case of a singer-songwriter, the “next Dylan”).