Posted on 05/03/2021 2:31:54 PM PDT by mylife
Age is a terrifying thing for a lot of people. Your body is not as nimble as it was before, you start to forget things, and people generally tend to live in the memories of the glorious past rather than creating new ones. When it comes to big rock musicians it hits even harder since artists start losing the very energy that gave them fame and fortune. It’s tempting to just continue riding your name till the very end not releasing anything relevant and just exploiting your catalog of classics, but some bands have the courage to finish while they're still strong and able. Let's take a look at 7 rock and metal bands who called it quits at just the right time.
(Excerpt) Read more at ultimate-guitar.com ...
55 years and Kim Simmonds is unstoppable and he “Ain’t Done Yet”!
An enormously enjoyable piece of work.
Since 1965, this band has spawned and joined so many amazing Rock & Roll acts like; Chicken Shack, Yes, Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, the Kinks, Jethro Tull, UFO, Cactus and Foghat.
It’s still one of my favorite rock albums of all time. I didn’t discover it until much later, because I wasn’t such a huge rush fan. Wife and I got to see them in concert a few year back when they played their set in reverse chronological order of release. I told my wife there is no way they would play anything from that album but sure enough, the last 3 songs were. And I think maybe only 5 guys in the stadium knew those songs.
The Cult Electric is also one of my favorite rock albums. It’s straight ahead rock, I don’t think a single track on that album is more than 3.5 minutes. Verse, Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, guitar Solo, Chorus.
It was not long after that show I realized I grew out of The Who’s music. It does not age well unless one is perpetually 18.
trunuff
Hardly. There is no shortage of good music to listen to. I can live without Black Sabbath. I did see them live in Dago in 1970 when they opened for Grand funk and Paranoid was just coming out. Great show.
Never heard of most of those.
Led Zeppelin of course, saw them in concert early 70’s.
I went to what I thought would be their farewell tour in 1990. I’m guessing there were more..
yessir
Yep, Exhibit A on how to totally torpedo your legacy.
The Alligator review called it "a Broadway show that turned into a rock concert." I have to agree; it was just like being at a Beatles concert.
They came back for two encores before telling the crowd that they didn't know any more songs. Of course not, they weren't The Beatles, they were Broadway performers.
-PJ
Now there is another case of a band member leaving at the right time.
Peter Gabriel leaving Genesis, for example. No way he could ever top The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway with them. He went on and made his excellent first solo album, and Genesis went on to make their best album, A Trick of the Tail.
Missed out on that one.
If you had to make a list of the top five under-rated rock bands, The Kinks would definitely be on it. Maybe at the top. They churned out great music decade after decade and yet it’s rarely a band people will think of if asked to name their favorite rock bands. If you ask me, even though they were together 30-40 years more or less, I think they probably called it quits “on top”.
And fwiw, I discovered the cult in 1987 when they were opening for Billy Idol. Friend had free tickets so we went and saw them play their set, and then smashed their instruments like they were The Who or Sex Pistols or something. It was pretty awesome since I had never seen that done live. Showmanship yeah, but still awesome. Then Billy Idol came out and he was just awful. A big let down after watching The Cult literally and figuratively tear up the stage. We left Idol, went to the record store, bought The Cult Electric tape and drove around all night and me the next many weeks playing it constantly.
You are correct.
The Band was back in the road in the 80s, IIRC. Richard Manuel hung himself in a hotel room in Florida after a show.
L
Lennon, McCartney and Harrison continued to make good music solo. The Beatles could have continued on; they were not tapped out musically.
Same here and plenty of time for them all including sabbath. Paid $6 around 1980 for Judas Priest with warmup band and first tour from Def Leppard on through the night. They were the same age as me - about 17.
$6 for the pair and free weed they couldn’t stop passing it around.
Without checking.....I’ll add Queen.....
Lol. I went to see Steve Miller once and the show was opened by Commander Cody doing old rock n roll numbers like Buddy Hollys, etc. Then Miller came on. Within 15 minutes everyone was calling for Commander Cody to come back. Lol. what a boring performer was Miller.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.