I'm all for letting rock stars keep cranking out albums no matter how old they get.
Daniel Amos released a new album just this year. A lot of DA's fans are saying it's their best album ever. (I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it's really really good all the same.) DA frontman Terry Scott Taylor is in his sixties, I believe, so old age and the looming shadow of death are major lyrical themes.
Pet Shop Boys put out Electric this year. Not only is it more of a banging dance album than anything the current crop of young "EDM" producers have put out (to my knowledge), it's harder-hitting than Pet Shop Boys themselves were, the last time they were on top of their game. I hope it signals a career resurrection for them.
David Byrne seems to have more gray hair than black, but his collaboration with St. Vincent, Love This Giant, was one of my favorite albums of 2012.
I guess Robert Plant is getting old but holy crap that Rising Sand album he recorded a few years back with Alison Krauss was amazing.
edited 1st Nov '13 12:53:36 AM by MetaFour
Someone pointed out to me this blog post
about the new PSB album. The cycle that John Lucas describes is one that every pop or rock star seems to go through once they've worked long enough to be considered a "veteran".
- Album is widely praised as a ‘return to form’.
- Album sells a little bit less well than the one that preceded it.
- Album is completely forgotten by all and sundry within about two weeks of release.
- Time passes. Neil writes a ballet, Chris buys a hat.
- New album is announced.
- Cycle repeats.
Both the industry and the fandom are obsessed either with The Latest Big Thing or with nostalgia, which means there isn't much audience for a veteran musician who wants to keep writing new material rather than just replaying their hits from twenty years ago. Though they can game the system by changing what name they perform under—it worked for Damon Albarn.
Scott Walker and Bruce Gilbert both remain scarier and classier musicians in their sixties then many an experimentalist less than half their age. Ditto composers like George Crumb and (I think now the late) Pierre Boulez. I should hope to be so lucky.
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.I'd definitely say that Rush is a big one. Active since the late 60s, and still touring and making albums to this very day, and yes, with the exact same line-up. Their latest album (from 2012), Clockwork Angels, really speaks for itself, I think.
The American Pentagram's Bobby Liebling (vocals) is 60 something and certainly looks the part
.
I wholeheartedly agree that good musicianship shouldn't be judged by how old the artist is.
At the moment the only example I can think of on top of my head, is Jaki Liebezeit, who was the drummer of Can. He's now involved in various bands and projects, including a regular collaboration with electronic musician extraordinaire Burnt Friedman, and his percussion work on their common albums is still flawless.
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.![]()
![]()
Liebezeit rules.
That's flawed logic, methinks. Very flawed.
![]()
I don't really get this. Why should any artist be booted out of composing/performing music in virtue of his/her age ?
Do you imagine how little interesting music we'd get if we were to eliminate every musician that's like 35 and older ?
Seems like it would be underestimating the value of experience quite a bit.
You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.To say nothing of how younger artists dominate the pop charts, anyway. When was the last time you heard Paul Mc Cartney on Top 40 radio?
Insert witty 'n clever quip here.
Overdramatic much?
I have to ask; how did you jump from "all the old musicians are hogging the charts and public mind (even though they really aren't)" to "musicians shouldn't even try anymore"?
Like, there's a difference between literally inventing new music out your ass and using the principles and tools at your disposal to make something new out of something old, essentially. There are subgenres and styles that exist today that practically no one probably even thought were possible even 10 years ago (e.g. dubstep—like it or not, it is a great example of a musical trend that I doubt anyone could've ever predicted).
edited 22nd Nov '13 9:14:58 AM by Odd1
Insert witty 'n clever quip here.Also, there's still Western music which continues to exploit different paths and making new stuff. You just gotta look very well.
So, about this topic: I'm ok with musicians performing and recording into old age, as long as they have something different/new to say or have their 'final goodbye' tour before retiring and/or dying.
![]()
From wikipedia:
What wasn't predicted was its explosion that reached other people beyond the electronic music audiences. That being said, Dubstep was, for a while at least, a breath of fresh air and brought some originality to the front.
edited 22nd Nov '13 3:33:57 PM by Quag15
Why should I care whether or not an "old" artist keeps performing? If the music's good, I'll listen to it. I should hope I'm still doing what I love when I'm their age.
John Williams is 81 and still composing and conducting movie soundtracks. Sure, sometimes I think it's a missed opportunity when filmmakers go straight to him instead of trying out one of the newer guys (I'm glad Peter Jackson went with Howard Shore for Lot R & The Hobbit), but he's been in the business so long in part because he's, you know, good. Who am I to rain on his parade?

With The Tigers all in their mid 60s now and reuniting as a whole band in December, Kiss almost reaching their 70s, and The Rolling Stones all in their seventies, I am beginning to want to open a discussion on artists who perform into old age...
Is it a good idea, or just a cash grab with no actual quality?
Any time i post a live of the above artists in the "Rate The Song Above You" a remark about their age is almost always a given. My question is- why? Does old age automatically destroy any skill or appeal the artist once had? As far as I know, David Bowie and his Far East equivalent Kenji "Julie" Sawada's careers and voices are even stronger than they were than whenthey were young....
David Bowie 1947-2016