Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Del Shannon's "Rock On" is missing.
Posted on 04/15/2021 7:21:36 AM PDT by mylife
Rock bands tend to peak early in their life cycles, riding the wave of youthful inspiration. It's hard enough to keep a project going for years. It's almost impossible to make great albums up through the end.
In other words, not all "final albums" are created equal. Some long-haul acts slowly fizzle, trickling out average material every few years — mostly as an excuse to rev up the touring engine and play the greatest hits. Others keep the machine running organically, hitting the brakes due to inevitable creative tension, oversized egos or commercial backslides. In cases like Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Stevie Ray Vaughan, projects end in tragedy.
Some final albums are tougher to categorize. Take David Bowie's 2016 swan song, Blackstar, which he recorded after being diagnosed with liver cancer. The art-rock icon knew this batch of songs would likely be his last, and he left it behind like an artful goodbye — dying two days after its release.
We took an objective approach in compiling the Stories Behind 41 Classic Rock Final Albums. The LPs are sorted chronologically, rather than being ranked by quality. And you'll notice that, in some cases, we applied the phrase "final" liberally: While the Doors and Lynyrd Skynyrd both continued to record after L.A. Woman and Street Survivors, respectively, both of those LPs marked the end of distinctive musical eras.
We rounded up the final studio records from more than 40 of classic rock's most notable acts, diving into the music's creation, reception and broader legacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at ultimateclassicrock.com ...
I must say, “Innuendo” was Queen’s best album since the 70s, Freddie gave it all he had.
“Made in Heaven” really shouldn’t count, by the way.
Led Zeppelin’s ‘Coda’.
there is some good stuff on the list and other stuff that would never grace my turntable.
Isn’t that always true when people compare opinions about music?
Doesn’t count.
absolutely
David Bowie ’70s recordings announced for new compilation
does not count...
“In Through The Out Door” was, I think, their best album ever.
That was a good one as are a couple other ones on the list. For the most part though, the list shows how the later stuff of great bands pales in comparison to their early works.
Interesting list.....
“Love Beach” by ELP. Just kidding. That sucked.
While not on the list, I wish Guns & Roses had quit at Use Your Illusion II. The subsequent albums by Axl were a pale comparison to the greatness of GnR.
Did it run away?
I never liked Axl
And The Spaghetti Incident? should have been aborted.
I know they’ve released albums since then, but Alice In Chains’s self-titled album marks the end of the band with Layne Staley. AIC with William Duvall is still pretty good, but it doesn’t have quite the same feel.
CCR’s Mardis Gras is actually a pretty good Americana album. Definitely not as good as Cosmo’s Factory or any of the earlier albums but still worth listening. It’s funny how John Fogerty gave up after listening to the other guy’s whine about Fogerty getting all the song writing credits ($) so he let them write songs on the album. “Sweet Hitch Hiker” is one of his contributions and one of their best songs.
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