Too long since I’ve blogged about music.
We hear a lot about the moment when TV series, movie franchises, series novels and even RPG lines “Jumped the Shark”; the episode when what had once been good becames a stale parody of itself. (see http://www.jumptheshark.com for a fuller description).
But what about bands? There are plenty of bands that were once good, and descended to become pale shadows of what they’d once been. But when did they Jump the Shark? Here are some suggestions:
Genesis: Once one of the most creative and innovative bands of the 70s progressive rock scene, Genesis turned into a boring, bland stadium rock act selling millions of records to people called ‘Kevin’ with no taste in music whatsoever. While some wrote off the band when Peter Gabriel left and Phil Collins took over as vocalist, for me the point the band blanded out was with the departure of guitarist Steve Hackett. It was clear on the first Hackett-less album “And Then There Were Three” that there was a dimension missing from the band’s sound. When the banal piece of fluff “Follow You, Follow Me” from that album was a hit, the siren songs of commercial sellout beckoned. When the dire Collins-penned drivel “Misunderstanding” from “Duke” was a hit with the Kevin brigade, it was time to put a fork in them. They were over.
Yes: Many people consider Yes to have died horribly with the over-ambitious and overlong double album “Tales from Topographic Oceans”. I, however thought this was a temporary blip, and the albums “Relayer”, “Going for the One” and even “Drama” all had their moments. The early 80s saw them play musical chairs with the lineup, culminating in the overproduced but hugely successful “90125″. Yes went pear-shaped with the weak followup, “Big Generator”, and never really recovered.
Deep Purple: Deep Purple are as much a soap opera as Yes, and have had more ups and downs than David Mellor’s trousers. After the band crashed and burned in 1976, they reformed eight years later, and despite some people doubts came up with a strong reunion disk, “Perfect Strangers”. Perhaps they should have just done one album and a world tour, then split. Instead, they tried to carry on, and “House of Blue Light” was the result. A weak, forgettable album with none of the spark or energy of it’s predecessor, it was the sound of a band going through the motions who’s heart wasn’t really in it any more. And the next two, including one featuring Joe Lynn Turner on vocals, were little better.
Queensrÿche: Queensrÿche are a band that peaked too early; after their classic third album the cyberpunk concept epic “Operation Mindcrime”, they charted a slow, graceful decline culminating in the empty “Q2K”. While some say the rot set in with “Promised Land”, I think that’s an album with good songs buried in muddy production. To me, the shark-jumping moment was the followup, “Hear in the New Frontier”, which lacked the scope and energy of their previous work.
Kansas: Kansas’ early work is a rare example of American first generation prog-rock, with heavy use of violin as a lead instrument. Unfortunately the musical climate of the early 1980s wasn’t friendly to this sort of complex music, and, presumably responding to record company pressure, they blanded out completely. “Audio Visions” was the album that showed this new, blander style. It didn’t help that this coincided with Kerry Livgren’s conversion to Evangelical Christianity giving the album a lot of embarrassingly cheesy ‘born again’ lyrics. Not a good advertisement for evangelical Christianity, I’m afraid.
Any other suggestions? Use the comments facility!