I had enough Lang Lang after 2 weeks, does that count? Ditto for Valentina Lisitsa.
And I could get excited about Arkady Volodos again but haven’t heard much. Maybe I’m just not paying attention.
ETA: For a more obvious one, Pavarotti hung it up WAY too late.
On at least two occasions he duked it up with Bruford - after one of BB’s last gigs with them, and during Rick Wakeman’s audition. I recall a Bruford complaint about Squire always going apeshit insistent that BB’s kick follow particular bass lines, and how they’d be up at 4:30 am (Close to the Edge) working on practically the same note, over and over.
I guess Bill was getting close to the edge.
Rush was one of my favorite bands when I was a kid, but…
This is exactly why I stopped going to Rush concerts after seeing them on the Test for Echo tour. Half the damn concert was songs from that album and Counterparts. One can only go to the bathroom so many times.
I was a huge fan of Queen from when they first started out (yes, I’m that old :D), and I had a huge crush on Freddie Mercury when I was a teenager. I’ve seen Adam Lambert with Brian and Roger (I presume, from what you are saying that Roger has retired) singing a Queen song on tv and I thought he did “Freddie” justice, he’s a very good singer. I imagine that I’d be quite critical of somebody doing “Freddie’s role”, but I liked Adam, thought he was good.
I’m not much of a fan, but I liked AC/DC’s hits with Bon Scott. I think the “new guy” Brian what’s-his-name is ok too. He’s obviously been accepted by the fans because they’ve been gigging for years with him as the singer.
I guess I’m quite accepting of changes in lineup, as long as the replacements are any good.
Yeah, but they can play to 100,000 capacity football stadiums and they have a large number of touring band employees and staff that make a good living, too.
Actually, it’s John Deacon who has retired. He was apparently never particularly comfortable in the spotlight, and about 20 years ago, he stepped away from performing, and has only infrequently made any public appearances or statements since then.
He’s still technically a member (and part owner) of the band, along with Brian and Roger, though the two of them have indicated that they don’t have much contact with him anymore. They still always consult with him on financial decisions regarding the band. I know that, in the past, Brian has stated that, whenever they’ve embarked on any new projects (recordings and tours), they had always asked John if he was interested in joining them, and he had always turned them down.
True… And yet they ARE going to stop someday… Have they made a conscious decision to continue touring until they’re dead? If not, then they’re going to have to have some sort of decision or plan, whatever it might be. (Maybe they have one already. Maybe they can’t agree. Who knows?)
The “new” guy, Brian Johnson, has been retired for a couple of years, due to hearing problems. He’s been replaced by another new guy, somebody named Axl Rose.
You mean a couple after Eliminator, right? I ask because that was their eighth album. I’m glad they stuck around long enough to make it.
Yeah, I was going I say this. Eliminator is one of my all time favorite albums.
Thought I’d posted already in this thread, oh well.
I liked Steel Wheels. Not as big a fan of later stuff, and even Wheels wasn’t anything like Exile on Main Street or Some Girls.
U2 was the band I was thinking of. No Line on The Horizon was OK, though if they’d stopped after All That You Can’t Leave Behind, that’d have been fine. EDIT: Finish with their Super Bowl halftime show and go out on top.
They sound like both elevator music and a U2 cover band at this point.
Men At Work was a band I thought hung it up too early. Or Colin Hay wanted more of a solo career, I dunno.
So many bands have been cut short from tragedy. AC/DC’s been mentioned though I grew up listening to Brian’s vocals, I prefer Bon’s. Joy Division, of course, though New Order is great too. Nirvana. Just so many.
No. I meant the first three. A couple of things:
The dreck that is Afterburner is a direct response and follow-up to the success of Eliminator. So fuck Eliminator just for that. Besides, Eliminator hasn’t aged well, though that’s not exactly the point of this thread. I did enjoy it at the time, but wouldn’t listen to it now.
ZZ Top’s music is sort of like listening to Bluegrass. It’s ok, kind of fun, but after three songs it all just starts sounding the same. I could listen to every song they ever made, or just the same three songs over and over, and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. YMMV.
I disagree. True, their studio output isn’t worth even a free download. But in concert they are fantastic! In fact, they are musically better than they were when they were at their peak in the early 70s. Well except for maybe Keiths’s solos…
Yes, thanks, I obviously messed that up, saying Roger was performing AND retired.
I didn’t know Brian Johnson wasn’t still in ACDC, shows what I know, but he was with the band for a long time, wasn’t he? Longer than Bon? Bon died a long time ago now.
You can say what you want about bands lasting “too long” but I admire the stamina of the “older” members. Mick Jagger has the energy of a bloke a fraction of his age, he still dances around the same as when he was young. When you think he’s over 70, his physical ability is pretty impressive.
A lot longer. Bon died in 1980; Johnson was the band’s singer from then until 2016. Johnson was forced to retire (or maybe just take a break, depending on what story you read) due to hearing loss (his doctors warned him he faced possible deafness if he didn’t stop touring).
Has anyone discussed R.E.M. yet? Back around 1990, one of them (Peter Buck?) said in an interview that they were considering retiring on New Year’s Eve '99-'00. Instead, they soldiered on for another eleven years.
In fact, I thought their last good album was 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi. They should have retired after touring for that album – indeed, drummer Bill Berry did just that, though mainly for personal reasons (mostly, health related). It’s hard to say what’s cause and effect, but I think the band was running out of musical ideas and cultural relevance already, and Berry’s departure was simply well timed.
I am shocked that we’ve gotten this far in and no one has mentioned Kiss yet.
Even being the huge fan that I am, they’ve been around way too long. They did release some new material (2009 & 2012) but they just announced a nearly 3 year tour, and I don’t see how they’re going to pull it off. Paul Stanley’s voice is shot. I’ve seen some videos of the first shows of this tour and he sounds awful. Just plain awful.
Visually, they still put on a great live show, but it’s the same set list they’ve been playing for the last 20 years.
It’s a shame they can’t just retire gracefully instead of milking their early success.
All this kvetching about the Stones and not one mention of Blue and Lonesome, good or bad? It was a fine album and a rare pleasure by any standard. Yes, it is 100% covers, but that is the nature of the genre. I’m glad they did such good work, though I am a little disheartened by folks who would rather scoff at how the group hasn’t produced any good material in decades than listen to their fresh takes on the standards.
Artist who should probably pack it in: Bob Dylan. I’ve seen him three times: 1986, 1992, 2010. He’s been phoning it in for a long time now.
I’ve not ever seen Dylan live, but the sense I get, from reading various articles and reviews of his shows over the past few years, is that the quality of a Dylan show is highly variable (and has been for a while). Apparently, there are still nights in which he’s into it, and puts on a very good show, and other nights on which he’s pretty clearly going through the motions.
It also sounds like he plays what he wants to play, with little regard for what his audience might want to hear (which sounds so very Bob, anyway).