The Worst of the Best

[mr scratchy esq]

Love You is an acquired taste to be sure but I really like that record. Notwithstanding the new Smile, it's the last truly original creation from BW. I really dig those fuzzed out synth-bass lines and think it's a bold and unique production. Johnny Carson is just one of the strangest songs ever written... The album is probably the best exploration of Brian's childlike side. I have a bootleg of the aborted "Adult Child" BW solo album from the same era and there is some really fascinating stuff of that too.

Bill

[jdparris]

or the solo catalog of Mick Jagger.

"Wandering Spirit" from '93 is a fantastic album, probably the strongest Stones-related release since "Tattoo You". If more alt-country bands could write a song as strong as "Evening Gown", then they'd be on to something.

Otherwise, Jagger's solo work is fair game, imho.

jdparris

[Don Shumai]

What about that Jefferson Starship song "Out of Control" and the awful video that goes with it? Someone in marketing decided they needed to write a new wave song, and so in the video they are wearing red leather jackets and crap like that, but are totally middle aged dorks at that point. It cracks me up and bums me out at the same time. Especially the lyric "I like to be outside, everything happens outside!"

It's up there with the Grace Slick solo song "All the Machines" that contains the priceless line "without a vacuum cleaner, who would suck up all your dirt?"

[Don Shumai]

while discussing this thread with an associate, Roger Daltrey's solo albums were also brought up (though personally I always thought he was dragging the rest of the Who down in the first place, what with his running in place dancing style, and awful hair).

[Fieryjack]

Remember that song that Brian Wilson did on his first solo album, that rap tune where he raps about being an original Beach Boy? Man, low days...

One good example of a group's career going off the rails is Foreigner. I really liked (and still do) their first album. Each one got progressively worse as the group turned their eyes to the charts. Another example? Genesis (with Phil Collins!!). Have you ever heard A Trick of the Tail? Masterpiece....hard to believe it was the same group that put out "ABACAB" 2 records later....what a load of crap.

[mjau]

Though I'm a big fan of the Beach Boys Carl Wilson years (especially the absolutely underrated stuff Dennis Wilson was putting out then), and treat Brian Wilson as something just shy of a deity, I have to say that his song "Sprit of America" (not sure of the album off the top of my head) is singularly the worst song I've ever heard.

McCartney II is pretty bad, in a very cool way. "Temporary Secretary" is laughable.

I have to say, though, that lately I've been into Pete Townshend's solo stuff more than The Who.

[drmorbius]

IMO the 80s Allman Bros. Band catalog should be tied to the whipping post.

Horrible album titles, too:

Win, Lose, or Draw
Reach for the Sky!
Wipe the Windows, Check the Oil, Dollar Gas

[nestle]

late Elvis, or the solo catalog of Mick Jagger.

What are your favorite examples?

Dunno about that, Elvis still had mojo in the end and She's the boss is OK.

[honkyjonk]

"Hang around long enough, and you will lose the thread ... in public ... for everyone to see (and hear)"


Hmmmm. . . .
For some reason, A LOT of the old blues guys never lost it. I guess that's because a lot of them were in a context whereby they were lost and found during the folk revival, so many of them were just playing the songs of their youth, but just as good, in the case of
Skip James, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Rev. Gary Davis
And Lightin, well that guy was always good, every note always.

Maybe it's too soon to tell, buy it my opionion, Tom Waits has generally gotten more vital, creative, and brilliant since day 1.

[nipsy]

"It's Hard" by the Who...........quote]







dude, face dances is a great album......

[thereminman]

Does being a SUPERSTAR make you more prone to this cycle?
(I'd like to think so, not being a superstar, and I'd also like to think
that my own work will get better as go...but I'd also like chocolate cake to be healthy.)----plenty of 'serious artists' have done great work right into old age---poets, novelists, composers, musicians---but some knocked the ball outta da park the first time up and then just couldn't get it together (they had one good book/album/etc in them).
Whatdya think?

[Rigsby]

I think it varies from person to person, but there's obviously a definate trend for older artists (whatever) in popular culture/music to get a decade on from their original endevours and think they have to keep up with the new upstarts. It's often hilarious, but also pretty tragic. Personally i don't understand it, your art is your art, it's personal and if someone buys it then you make a pound or two, but that's not the point of it all, but i guess most 'big stars' have had to make a lot of compromises on the whole, climbing that ladder just to achieve fame and fortune and if that's your goal and your fame (if not your fortune) is waining then i guess you'll do anything to keep hold of it, just like you did when you first made your way 'to the top'.

Pretty pathetic in a lot of ways this fame thing IMO, i mean it's one thing to be famous for doing something that is yours and you love, but just for the sake of people knowing your face? - i don't understand.

There are exceptions to all of this of course, as with any generalisation.

[Rigsby]

Sorry, i guess where i was going with that, is that the serious artists that you mentioned if they've achieved fame, it's obviously not because that was their goal, it's a by-product of their work, so when they're out of favour they largely carry on regardless, ignoring 'market forces'.

[thereminman]

Yeah, Rigsby --some good points.
Seems , perhaps , one way to avoid 'loosing the thread' is just keep trying to do good work, dig deeper etc.---rather than chase the tail of trends (which is what eventually either waters down your work, or, one embarasses themselves trying to act like a teenager or whatever)----

to use the Jefferson Airplane example....what if they'd continued to explore their pyschedelic folk/rock thing and take it deeper and deeper?-----they might have (would have) drifted farther down the popularity charts....but 30 years after "Surrealistic Pillow" they would have been thought of (and rightly so) as "deep' and the 'carriers of a torch" rather than ones who embarassed themselves with 'built this city'.

[Devlars]

Maybe it's too soon to tell, buy it my opionion, Tom Waits has generally gotten more vital, creative, and brilliant since day 1.

ABSOLUTELY!