I saw them on that same tour, and I agree completely! Their acoustic version of “In My Dreams” blew me away! Amazingly, Kevin Cronin still has his voice. I ran out and bought their Greatest Hits the next day.
I actually went back stage and interviewed them afterward. They were a cool bunch of guys, even if they WERE all old enough to be my dad.
Paul Simon should have retired 11 years ago, gone out on a high note after the Concert in the Park. His new stuff is just terrible.
I remember seeing Styx on the Tonight show 10 or so years ago…They were attempting a ressurection. They found somebody to replace Tommy Shaw as their front man, and I guess they were hoping to repeat their success formula of getting somebody multitalented and young to be their lead. Did them no good. The new lead guy wasn’t anything memorable, and the core group members were sporting poofy mullets and wearing tight rock-n-roll costumes, and you could see the saggy flesh of their necks flapping over their collars.
Hear that heavy thud? That’s your glory days behind you.
Along the same lines…
A couple of years ago, I was in LA with some friends, walking around drunk on Sunset and stumbled into the Key Club because Foghat was playing. Yeah…Foghat. We thought it’d be a hoot.
They ROCKED! I was never a huge Foghat fan, but we thoroughly enjoyed the show. The lead singer (Lonely Joe something) looked like Don Knotts up there…only older, but the guy could still belt out the lyrics with the same quality as the recorded versions of the songs he was singing. It was incredible. I’ll never forget it.
He died just a few months afterwards. Pity. I’d have paid to see them again.
In notable contrast: YES should most definitely not retire any time soon. I heard them live not long ago and they were fantastic. I went out and bought any of their albums I didn’t already have.
I’ll mention The Band, and stroll away.
Has anybody seen the lead singer of Loverboy lately? Yeah, they’re pretty much done.
The worst I have encountered is ELO. Back when they were all still together in the seventies up through the mid-80’s they were great. They’re still my favourite band. However, after they broke up in 1986, Jeff Lynne went his own way, made an awful solo album (the dreary Armchair Theatre), and only regained good graces by hanging around with Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and George Harrison, as astorian noted earlier.
Meanwhile, three of the original members of ELO gathered up some new ladz and became ELO Part II, and while their new stuff was awful, the live performance they gave up here at last year’s Wildflower! Festival was nothing short of wonderful.
The crushing blow came when Lynne, together with his newfound friends (he was the only original member of ELO left), produced a new awful album (Zoom) with only one good song on it (“Alright”), and then totally blew the prospects of any kind of tour by mutiliating all my ELO favourites.
You can probably find the footage of their only show (in Los Angeles, IIRC) at your local Blockbuster. The rest of the tour was cancelled because nobody wanted to come hear them ruin the songs Lynne had done so wonderfully all those years ago.
Tough call in my opinion. In the case of a band that has few of the original members, hasn’t put out any new and noteworthy material in years and most importantly doesn’t sound great, yeah, maybe they’re just cashing in on their name and taking advantage of the ignorant. But no one is forcing anyone to go see that band. Eventually the market will decide when it’s time to pack it in.
Regarding Kansas, yeah, I wish it was 1975 again and they were filling the stadiums and Kerry Livgren was still the leader, cranking out new tunes left and right. But it’s not. But the boys still sound great. Steve Walsh sure had some down years but his voice is better and he’s full of energy again. Kansas has put out some decent albums since they dropped off the radar in '83. Their newest live release really rocks.
With the exception of '83-‘86 when Kansas was defunct, this band has been on the road since 1973, doing more than 200 shows a year for the lion’s share of those years. Maybe they like it. Their fans still love it and their fans’ kids seem to like it, too.
I remember when the media made a bid deal of Mick Jagger’s 50th birthday. Many of the members of Kansas will be turning 50 soon if they haven’t already. But they still rock and to me that’s what it’s all about.
I could see how somwone who was a borderline Kansas fan in '76 could be getting tired of their old schtick by now, but their hard core fans say “Bring it on.”
Radiohead after “Creep”.
I know this isn’t quite in the spirit of the OP, but my husband and I have talked about this a few times. I used to assume playing gigs like the Iowa State Fair or a casino or Local Town’s Skanky Bar would be kind of humiliating for the band, and felt sorry for them.
But his take is entirely different: that these are people who have found a way to do what the absolutely love doing. Why should they stop simply because fewer people are listening? So what if a good gig is at Treasure Island casino? They’re still performing, which is what they love, and they likely don’t get any more tired of singing the songs they wrote (or made famous) than you or I get tired of telling a cherished family story or sharing something else you’re proud of.
And there are plenty of bands out there that haven’t written much that’s very good lately, but have been together so long that they sound absolutely polished and at the top of their game in live performance – I just saw Rush in concert, and yeah, their latest stuff isn’t so great, but they freakin’ rocked on both the old and new material: they’re much more in sync with each other and just basically know how to get the rocking done.
That said, some just need to give it up altogether, though my choices for that are mainly with bands whose founding members have died. The Who never should have continued on this tour. And the The Monkees are just sad.
The Byrds played the Algonquin, Illinois Founder’s Day festival a few years ago. I think they had, like, one of their original members.
I didn’t even want to be at Founder’s Day…they had to be there. Time to start living off of royalities…or coming up with a different name.
If anyone cared…Blue Oyster Cult is playing with Foghat and Grand Funk Railroad’s Mark Farner next year. Now that’s a marquee gig, if the year was 1976.
http://www.blueoystercult.com/Road-main.html
Also, Kiss without a doubt. While they may be ‘retired’ haven’t they had about four ‘final’ tours in the last ten years? You can count on seeing them back for more next time they miss a mortgage payment.
You wanted the best…well ya a’int gonna find it here, moron!
Doobie Brothers pre Michael McDonald. Great band.
Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald. Phhhhhhtttt.
My wife and I saw Supertramp at an Indian casino a few months ago. They are now a pathetic shell of what was a great band.