Musicians/Bands that got huge but still maintained "cred" with fans and critics throughout?

handsomeharry · December 30, 2009, 11:07pm

I think that’s something that he’ll remember.

hh

EinsteinsHund · December 30, 2009, 11:26pm

I can’t recall a time when Lou Reed was not cool to listen too. I think he never sold off.

WordMan · December 31, 2009, 1:39am

Did you hear him at the RRHoF 25th anniversary? Dude could never sing, but now?

Askance · December 31, 2009, 2:09am

REM up until Bill Berry left. Every album was somewhere between good and brilliant, sales increasing but they never sold out. Mind you when BB left they dropped off a cliff and produced 4 duds in a row.

Shakester · December 31, 2009, 2:21am

Way to miss the point, after three decades.

Lynyrd Skynyrd were always huge Neil Young fans, and they’ve gone on record a number of times saying that the line in Sweet Home Alabama was intended as a friendly retort, not as a big defensive put-down.

Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd wrote their song “Sweet Home Alabama” in response to “Southern Man” and “Alabama” from Neil’s 1972 album Harvest. Young has said that he is a fan of both “Sweet Home Alabama” and Ronnie Van Zant, the lead vocalist for Lynyrd Skynyrd. “They play like they mean it,” Young said in 1976. “I’m proud to have my name in a song like theirs.”

Young has also been known to play “Sweet Home Alabama” in concert occasionally. To demonstrate this camaraderie, Van Zant frequently wore a Neil Young Tonight’s the Night T-shirt while performing “Sweet Home Alabama.” Crazy Horse bassist Billy Talbot can often be seen reciprocating by wearing a Jack Daniels-styled Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirt (including at the Live Rust concert).

Lynyrd Skynyrd tried to arrange to have Neil Young come on stage during a performance of “Sweet Home Alabama,” where he would have sung “a Southern man don’t need me around anyhow,” but the performers were never able to arrange this performance due to conflicting touring schedules.

Source: Wiki article: Southern Man - Wikipedia

Anyhoo, I came in here specifically to say “Neil Young”, but of course many people already have.

GESancMan · December 31, 2009, 2:21am

The Who never sold out.

Oakminster · December 31, 2009, 2:40am

I’m well aware of the “friendly retort” thing between the bands, and the t-shirt deal. Regardless of how Skynyrd feels about it, I find Young’s “Southern Man” offensive. I will not buy his records, or otherwise put money in his pocket for that reason.

Chicagojeff · December 31, 2009, 4:00am

I love that song… thats my second after Man needs a Maid… … and you can’t beat that piano riff played by Nils Lofgren.,…

I would throw in Public Enemy… they stayed true to the sense even when everyone went ignorant and gangster…

Lobot · December 31, 2009, 5:57am

Exactly who I was thinking of. So was massively successful, but even that album featured tracks like “Mercy Street”, which were as inward-looking as anything on PG3 and PG4.

Tanbarkie · December 31, 2009, 6:14am

I don’t know about that. Radiohead has the cred they do not just because they shake things up with every album, but because they’ve always managed to do so in a musically successful fashion. IOW, “Kid A” wasn’t just an electronic album, it was a fantastic electronic album, loaded with some of the best compositions of the past decade. “In Rainbows” wasn’t just “that downloadable album for which you paid however much you wanted”; it was a “downloadable album for which you paid however much you wanted filled with amazing songs.” Etc.

wolf-alice · December 31, 2009, 10:28am

Absolutely agree, Tanbarkie.

Robot_Arm · December 31, 2009, 11:22am

I’m not particularly wired in to the critical or popular grapevines, but I got the impression that Barenaked Ladies made the big time without alienating their early, hardcore fans.