Bands That Get A Couple Albums In And Falter
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:14 pm
....continued from a different thread.....
The suggestion was offered that by the time Help! came out, that the Beatles may have been tapped out of good original material. Of course it was temporary, and they certainly rose to the challenge and changed music history even further.
So....
Many bands go through a period of growing pains. They schlog it out in the clubs for a few years, with little or no following. Gradually they gain some traction. In the meantime, they have at least a couple albums worth of original material that they've accumulated, honed, polished, and performed. Then they are "it." They hit it big. The first album often presents the best of the material that had been collecting during the hungry years. It has at least a few tunes with hit potential, has excellent flow, and zoom!...up the charts it goes.
The second album collects the material which didn't cut it for the first album, but which still consists of mostly fully-formed and polished songs. It gets released and zoom!...onto the charts. Sometimes it makes it as high as the first album. Sometimes not. Many times this second album sounds like it could be a continuation of the first album. And then....tapped out.
One band which comes to mind is Van Halen. Anyone who has followed their history and acquired the demo's, early versions, etc., can see that by the third album, Women And Children First, they were mining the dregs which did not make it onto the first couple albums. And by Diver Down,....well let's just forget that one..
Anyway, VH are a band which had tapped out after their second album. Yes, they came back. Yes, Fair Warning and 1984 are awesome. And even some of the Van Hagar stuff is awesome, too.
Another band might be Rush. Many would agree their third offering, Caress Of Steel was a big miss. Maybe a couple good songs. But side 2 was (and still is, IMO,) awful. Yeah, they recovered and figured out who they were for the very next album, 2112, and onward.
Another band, Guns N'Roses. Had enough for Appetite For Destruction and then an EP. And then....tapped out. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan. Saw them play a few times in the early 90's. I dig Slash's Snakepit a bit more....a bit more bluesy and raw. However, the 2nd GNR album, Use Your Illusion, while racing up the charts and receiving all kinds of accolades, to me was a case of the emperor's new clothes. One or two songs (Civil War and You Could Be Mine,) a lame cover of Live And Let Die, a slightly more tolerable cover of Knocking On Heaven's Door, an overlong plodding (and bo-o-o-o-ring November Rain), and the rest of it subpar filler. For two albums.... Yeesh!! Tapped out.
Can you think of any other bands that went through this kind of growing pains? Did they break free and pull out of it to see even greater success? Did they break up too early? Did they keep going and release mediocre record after mediocre record?
The suggestion was offered that by the time Help! came out, that the Beatles may have been tapped out of good original material. Of course it was temporary, and they certainly rose to the challenge and changed music history even further.
So....
Many bands go through a period of growing pains. They schlog it out in the clubs for a few years, with little or no following. Gradually they gain some traction. In the meantime, they have at least a couple albums worth of original material that they've accumulated, honed, polished, and performed. Then they are "it." They hit it big. The first album often presents the best of the material that had been collecting during the hungry years. It has at least a few tunes with hit potential, has excellent flow, and zoom!...up the charts it goes.
The second album collects the material which didn't cut it for the first album, but which still consists of mostly fully-formed and polished songs. It gets released and zoom!...onto the charts. Sometimes it makes it as high as the first album. Sometimes not. Many times this second album sounds like it could be a continuation of the first album. And then....tapped out.
One band which comes to mind is Van Halen. Anyone who has followed their history and acquired the demo's, early versions, etc., can see that by the third album, Women And Children First, they were mining the dregs which did not make it onto the first couple albums. And by Diver Down,....well let's just forget that one..
Anyway, VH are a band which had tapped out after their second album. Yes, they came back. Yes, Fair Warning and 1984 are awesome. And even some of the Van Hagar stuff is awesome, too.
Another band might be Rush. Many would agree their third offering, Caress Of Steel was a big miss. Maybe a couple good songs. But side 2 was (and still is, IMO,) awful. Yeah, they recovered and figured out who they were for the very next album, 2112, and onward.
Another band, Guns N'Roses. Had enough for Appetite For Destruction and then an EP. And then....tapped out. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan. Saw them play a few times in the early 90's. I dig Slash's Snakepit a bit more....a bit more bluesy and raw. However, the 2nd GNR album, Use Your Illusion, while racing up the charts and receiving all kinds of accolades, to me was a case of the emperor's new clothes. One or two songs (Civil War and You Could Be Mine,) a lame cover of Live And Let Die, a slightly more tolerable cover of Knocking On Heaven's Door, an overlong plodding (and bo-o-o-o-ring November Rain), and the rest of it subpar filler. For two albums.... Yeesh!! Tapped out.
Can you think of any other bands that went through this kind of growing pains? Did they break free and pull out of it to see even greater success? Did they break up too early? Did they keep going and release mediocre record after mediocre record?