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 ...
a great American band.
“The Last Waltz” The Band
How about Little Feat?
i like these threads. Reminds me not all FR’s are sitting at home listening to chamber music and reading the bible.
Or grousing about covid and racism..
Bowie was still working a material after he finished Blackstar. He knew it might be the swansong but no guarantees
true enough! I am not concerned about COVID or racism! Bring on the rock and roll please.
True
I makes me cringe when I post something apolitical and some freeper jumps me and claims I am a closet liberal, devil worshiping homo jerk..
It’s Auntie Poons pie recipe.. ;)
Please tell me Don Ho Live at Honolulu made it!
I will say my favorite band XTC closed with one of their best songs ever, The Wheel and The Maypole.
We are talking final albums here. Any list that leaves off The Last Waltz which was their final tour and had a movie made is just not a credible list.
Not just write them, but he let them sing on some of them, with pretty lame results.
Except it’s not their last album. For one thing “last album” is usually referring to studio work. For another they reformed without Robbie 6 years later and went on to make 3 more albums.
Last Waltz should head up another list “we thought we were hanging up, but...”
there are all kinds of thread hi jackers. I stay away from certain subjects as i have no interest. 9 times out of 10, someone will try to steer the conversation away from the subject at hand to bring up something entirely different ( ha! like I did on a music thread, i guess)
With Robbie Robertson it ain’t The Band.
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