Artists whose peak period was middle-age

say, roughly, between the ages of 35 and 60. I think there's some line from John Huston about how middle age is the true enemy of art. This thread is for listing the exceptions and discussing whys and wherefores of artists floundering or succeeding during this period.

Anyway, some nominees off the top of my head:
George Clinton (sorta - was already 30 in 1971)
Willie Nelson (was already 37 at the dawn of the 70s)
Miles Davis
Sun Ra

seems like jazz and country are (or at least were) more amenable to the aging process than other genres

Underworld - they were in their 30's by the time dubnobass came out
You could definitely argue XTC fit in this category

David Axelrod : born April 17, 1936

peak : solo albums in late 60s/early 70s

also, mark e.

lemmy is a lot older than you think...he was probably close to 40 when motorhead was at their peak..

Alan Vega of Suicide is the first thing that comes to mind.

Earl Brutus : in pop terms, they had been around the block several times, before they hit their stride.

A lot of the jazz greats fit this timeline - Mingus, Coleman, Coltrane, etc.

Oh yeah LCD Soundsystem

Robert Wyatt (arguably)

Lucinda Williams

Lemmy was 30 when he founded Motorhead - if you place their peak as the late 70s/early 80s he more or less makes the cut

also, mark e.

I would be curious to see an argument that the Fall's peak period is from 1992 onward...

agree a ton of jazz guys fit the bill here, which is interesting

wyatt's work is so different compared to soft machine but ultimately i think it's more rewarding.

DJ Quik is making a case for himself

blows my mind that Andy Partridge is almost 60

dylan and neil young don't really fit in this but they kinda do, their careers are so all over the place but they both also did some great work, up there with their greatest in middle age or beyond in dylan's case.

Scott Walker

I would be curious to see an argument that the Fall's peak period is from 1992 onward...

Let me see if I can get my Lou1s J4gg3r bat signal to work...

What's funny is Huston fits the criteria - 1941's Maltese Falcon at 35 and 1964's Night of the Iguana at 58. Arguably, all his best movies fell in that time frame.

blows my mind that Andy Partridge is almost 60

he's been dormant for a decade!! sigh

classical would probably be cheating right?

dylan and neil young don't really fit in this but they kinda do, their careers are so all over the place but they both also did some great work, up there with their greatest in middle age or beyond in dylan's case.

Those guys have been middle-aged since they were young.

but i guess jazz and classical are more trades in a sense and require a lot more time to learn the craft and the theory etc than other forms of music so it's should be surprising that ppl tend to peak later

dylan and neil young don't really fit in this but they kinda do, their careers are so all over the place but they both also did some great work, up there with their greatest in middle age or beyond in dylan's case.

Those guys have been middle-aged since they were young.

― kkvgz, Tuesday, March 29, 2011 10:43 AM (7 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

they're younger than that now iirc

Leonard Cohen

looooool m@tt

Bill Dixon -- made his first record at 37, his last (yet to be released) at 84.

nick cave i don't know if you can say peak but abbatoir blues/lyre of orpheus and then the grinderman stuff i like about as much as anything he's done.

I think I'm in the minority of thinking late period Fugazi rules and pwns so to me Ian Mackaye

OH SHIT

Duh - Robert Pollard! he was 35 when propeller came out!

Tom Waits

it's looking like E-40 might be the world's first rapper where this is true

surely Frank Sinatra ?

good one

ooh yeah Pollard, he is a strange case. he always seemed so out of place with his 90s indie rock peers, like he was the Breeders' drunk uncle or something

Dieter Meier was already 35 when Yello released their first album, and their peak period wasn't until a few years after that.

It's pretty hard to think of female pop/rock singers for whom this would be true. Debbie Harry and Grace Jones almost make it.

Not sure if Can counts, since they were already in their 30's when they formed the band.

Yo La Tengo were a lot better in their 30's than in their 20's.

Moondog

Susan Boyle

Oh yeah, and I would argue that Meshell Ndegeocello's peak period started in 2003 with Comfort Woman, and hasn't ended yet. She was born in 1968.

Scott Walker

OTM. Not that I ain't a massive fan of the numbered albums, but SW is the first thing I thought of when i saw thread title.

this is a pretty idiosyncratic list of people so far

bill withers

Go-Betweens.

The drummer from Spirit was 85 when their debut came out.

weren't The Damned kinda old or at least some of them?

tonetta

Jeez, is anything over 30 middle aged now?

lee hazlewood

Trish Keenan was 35 when Broadcast released their second album (Haha Sound).

Pet Shop Boys

Marianne Faithfull
Lucinda Williams

Ivor Cutler

serge gainsbourg

he was 40 when he made "je t'aime moi non plus" and 43 when he made "melody nelson".

you would think that electronic music producers would improve with age, since it's a craft that benefits from knowledge and experience, but it doesn't seem to work that way. proof that ideas trump craft, i guess.

Lucinda Williams and Tom Waits are spot-on choices.

I don't expect a lot of people to agree, but I like the new Dinosaur Jr. stuff better than their 80s records.

surely Frank Sinatra ?

Arguably, Johnny Cash

No 35-year-olds pls, that is not middle aged unless we're talking about the 19th century or earlier.

agree that a lot of these nominees are more of the "older than their peers" but not necessarily middle-aged variety. My initial inclination was to make the cut-off 40-60, tbh

sometimes I think Eminence Front is the best Who song

but 1982 was def not their peak period

LOL no

I know we're spread out all over the globe, but the Median age in the U.S. Is 36.8 as an example.

Good lord, unless you're in Japan where everyone's 100, 35 is pretty damn close to middle age!

does Sting count?

Radiohead

this is just an interesting phenomenon to me. the tendency to burn out/give up/lose interest prior to reaching the age of 40 seems really strong across the musical landscape (lol at one point I had a drummer who insisted that "nobody over 40 made any good music". he also thought the golden age of popular music was from 1992 to 2000 or so). Not sure what to attribute this to really - obviously part of it is market forces (in general, younger people have more time/money/more of their personality invested in music) and some of that gets built into aesthetics ("if it's too loud, you're too OLD", "rock/hip hop is for pissing off your parents", etc.), and part of it just seems a natural tendency for people to get tired/bored/bitter, particularly if commercial success has been elusive.

seems like jazz and country are (or at least were) more amenable to the aging process than other genres

In the case of early country music, a lot of acts spent 10 or 20 years performing and broadcasting in their home states/counties so that they were pretty advanced in age by the time they achieved national fame. I think that's part of the reason why the genre came to be dominated by middle-aged performers. a more obvious factor is the tradition of paying respect to wise, experienced elders, which guarantees certain country stars a fanbase at an age when many pop stars are inclined to retire. I know this has more to do with commercial peak than artistic peak, but there's often a correlation between the two.

anyways, I can think of a bunch of country ppl who recorded their best work after the age of 35:

Hank Snow
Charlie Rich
Kitty Wells
Dolly Parton
Bob Wills
Porter Wagoner
Buck Owens
Johnny Cash
Loretta Lynn
Uncle Dave Macon
AP & Sara Carter
The Osborne Brothers
Hazel Dickens
Doc Watson

etc.

yeah agree with yr assessment on country there. although I dunno if this:

a more obvious factor is the tradition of paying respect to wise, experienced elders, which guarantees certain country stars a fanbase at an age when many pop stars are inclined to retire.

is still in place in current country. seems like it applies more to previous generations, but I could be wrong (will defer to xhuxh lol)

Fennesz.

s still in place in current country. seems like it applies more to previous generations, but I could be wrong (will defer to xhuxh lol)

Alan Jackson (52), George Strait (58), Garth Brooks (49), and Toby Keith (49) have all had huge hits in the past few years, so I'd say the trend is alive and well. otoh a lot of purists feel that none of those guys are fit to floss with Merle Haggard's butthair, so maybe it's too early to tell if the country stars of the baby boomer generation will ever be treated with the same degree of reference as their forebears.

Toby Keith is the only one of those I would say is anywhere close to his peak period

this thread needs xhuxk asap, my guess is that he'll rep Kid Rock.

is xhuxk an Uncle Kracker apologist? cuz I dunno if I can deal with that.

I'm surprising ok with the idea of Kid Rock as the elder statesman of meatheaded white trash buttrap-rock.

Last night I turned on the tv for a minute & saw Kid Rock singing and George W. Bush in the audience bobbing his head. Then I noticed Bush Sr., Clinton and Carter too. WTF?

If that isn't Kid Rock's target audience, I don't know who is.

lol middle aged america?

billy paul

Barry White?

Fela Kuti

imo Kate Bush... Wuthering Heights was great and all, but she really didn't start producing a constant stream of quality stuff 'til her 4th & 5th albums

Underworld. 92-95 being their middle period.

PJ Harvey's headed that way on the strength of the last two albums.

I'd say Aerial is the only album Kate Bush has produced in middle age so far.

Derek Bailey

The Stranglers and the House of Love (or at least Guy whatshisname)

Chadwick. He was only early thirties though when the House Of Love made their best records.

Chas & Dave

hanson will peak in 15 years

Chris Eckman

Lee Scratch Perry

James Brown

Louis Philippe

Wendy Carlos

the average age of Sonic Youth's members was 35 when they released their highest selling album (Dirty).

classical would probably be cheating right?

Many of the greatest classical composers were actually past middle age when they composed their best work.

Otherwise, The Police? Or at least Andy Summers.

Those (i.e. not myself) who consider Peter Gabriel's solo work to be superior to his Genesis work may also go for him.

Personally, I think Aerosmith peaked in the middle age, but I know the majority will disagree with me.

Lieutenant Pigeon

I think Aerosmith peaked in the middle ageS

Lol, bands are old joek.

James Brown

ugh can't believe this didn't occur to me. duh

Well, Gregorian chants surely peaked in the middle age. :)

personally i'm planning to peak around 43

Guess I'd better shoot for late 50s

Madonna released Ray of Light at age 40, and Confessions on a Dance Floor at age 47. Those are my two favorite records of hers, though she definitely had quite a run of awesome songs in her late 20s/early 30s.

how old were Vital Remains when they put out Dechristianize?

in any case, them...

XX-Post My favourite Madonna album was "Like a Prayer", but she had turned 30 then, so I guess that may count as middle age if you stretch it a bit.

(And those two albums, plus "Music", are awesome as well - all three clearly made when she was middle age)

Which brings me to Kylie Minogue btw. If her age at the time of "Fever" and "Body Language" counts as middle age.

Scorpions

I consider "The Visitors" to have been ABBA's peak, by which time three of the group members were in their mid 30s.

personally i'm planning to peak around 43

― adult music person (Jordan), Tuesday, March 29, 2011 5:27 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah this is a good inspiring thread for any musician who hasn't done anything of particular note yet in their youth

Joseph Haydn composed many of his most famous and acclaimed works after he turned 60s,

Bach's "Die Kunst der Fuge" is by many considered to be the definitive culmination of his fugue work. He started work on it at 65 and worked on it until his death at 75.

Ella Fitzgerald did the first of her famous Songbook series of LPs at about age 39 and all the other great stuff she did on the Verve label post-dated that

Peggy Lee did "Fever" at age 38 and her second phase on Capitol Records, which was full of interesting work, stretched from her late '30s to her early '50s... though whether that was her peak period is highly debatable

Tina Turner certainly belongs on this thread...

jandek

the besnard lakes' latest album is an artistic triumph and the two main members are both (well) over 40

outrageous cherry are old as fuck and still putting out awesome recs

Scott Walker already been mentioned, but he comes to mind as someone who may well have peaked in old age - he's 68 now and as relevant to the modern music scene as he's ever been.

Outrageous Cherry

In two bands...Matthew Smith is great in the Volebeats too.

I'd say Aerial is the only album Kate Bush has produced in middle age so far.

― The Louvin Spoonful (WmC), Tuesday, March 29, 2011 2:51 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Yeah, once again it my own failure to read the first post of the thread.... I was thinking in terms of middle of career age versus actual age.

like when somebody said Radiohead upthread I thought it was blasphemous that King of Limbs (they're pretty much middle-age NOW) could be their career high-light, but then summing their entire discog together, found that OKC & Kid A fit right into the middle of their career. anyways.

i've never put a hyphen inside "highlight" in my life until now

--Scott Walker already been mentioned, but he comes to mind as someone who may well have peaked in old age - he's 68 now and as relevant to the modern music scene as he's ever been.--

man, fuck that guy. wisconsin was bad enough before.

I have this half-baked idea that most artists lose their melodic gifts as they age; there are exceptions but I feel like it's true in most cases.

really? I feel like if anything artist decline at that age typically has more to do with creative fatigue or ego or ambition or pretentious experimentation or running out of things to say lyrically than losing the ability to write melodies.

well, I did say it was half-baked. But I'm thinking of Springsteen, Townshend, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Petty, McCartney, Elton John, Brian Wilson, Prince, Bowie.

yeah...it's possible some of those guys simply don't write tunes like they used to but i feel like in most cases there are distinct other issues. if i had a better understanding of melody i wish i could really break it down and examine that theory, though, it's interesting.

if only there was an ilxor who was an expert on melody

Songwriters growing older and losing the ability to write engaging melodies

sonic youth?

^ their discog is so damn extensive.... elaborate? imo i consider their peak period to be murray st/sonic nurse, and at that point they were p much middle-age then as well. but i can't seem to find an ilxor that doesn't think daydream nation is their holy grail, and they recorded that... what, when they were in their 30's?

well, I did say it was half-baked. But I'm thinking of Springsteen, Townshend, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Petty, McCartney, Elton John, Brian Wilson, Prince, Bowie.

Prince never really lost his melodic gift! Just listen to Emancipation, for example, it has some brilliant melodies. If he lost something, it was his gift as a cutting-edge producer.

Ian Hunter (if not quite at the peak w/Mott)
Paul Simon
Captain Beefheart (post-punk resurgence anyway, if not exactly peaking)

Isn't the Simon & Garfunkel era generally considered to be Paul Simon's peak period?

Did anyone say Jarvis Cocker yet?

Mark's waning-melody theory chimes with my thoughts listening to the King of Limbs that Thom Yorke couldn't write another Karma Police or Fake Plastic Trees with a gun to his head - his trick is to convince the world that he just doesn't want to but could totally pull it out of the bag if he felt like it. His other examples (except maybe Waits) all chime with me.

Isn't the Simon & Garfunkel era generally considered to be Paul Simon's peak period?

His 70s albums get a whole lotta love among people I know, and then Graceland was a pretty big deal at the time. Anything after that is generally only loved by Simon devotees, though (and imo it isn't as good as what had come before it).

I have this half-baked idea that most artists lose their melodic gifts as they age; there are exceptions but I feel like it's true in most cases.

I think more a matter of running out of ideas at a certain point. If they don't start until they are close to middle age, they may do great stuff then.

Mark's waning-melody theory chimes with my thoughts listening to the King of Limbs that Thom Yorke couldn't write another Karma Police or Fake Plastic Trees with a gun to his head - his trick is to convince the world that he just doesn't want to but could totally pull it out of the bag if he felt like it.

Still seems a bit weird considering "Kid A" arrived just three years after "OK Computer", and was basically just as devoid of good tunes as "King Of Limbs" is, even though it may have been considered groundbreaking and creative in a lot of other ways.

Isn't the Simon & Garfunkel era generally considered to be Paul Simon's peak period?

His 70s albums get a whole lotta love among people I know, and then Graceland was a pretty big deal at the time.

No doubt, but if you'd ask random people what was Paul Simon's peak period, I'm sure 95% of them would say the Simon & Garfunkel years. And it was his most commercially successful period as well.

Random people will probably consider Celine Dion to be more important than Radiohead. I am not sure if asking random people is always the right thing to do though...

Random people may also tend to prefer Elton John's middle age works such as "Sacrifice" and the new version of "Candle In The Wind" over his 70s work.

Yeah, for the purposes of this discussion, let's just consider us and not random people.

Huey Lewis always seemed like a really old guy when I was a kid, kind of surprised that Sports came out when he was in his early thirties.

Debby Harry was 32 when the first Blondie record came out.

She's a pretty good example. My best friend in high school kinda freaked out one day when he realized she was one year younger than his mother.

esp. with "sex symbol" status through at least the break of the 80s ... she'd be 40 starring in Videodrome

Those (i.e. not myself) who consider Peter Gabriel's solo work to be superior to his Genesis work may also go for him.

Gabriel as Genesis's frontman was interesting. Gabriel as an autonomous artist is ALL-TIME great. I guess he was about 30 when the 1980 record came out, which would make him 36 for So (which is probably his greatest commercial success). He seemed like an old guy to me in 1986, and now I'm one year older than he was then.

I would have thought Annie Lennox would count but she only turned 30 after "Be Yourself Tonight" so peak-era all 20s. She seems older.

Gabriel as Genesis's frontman was interesting. Gabriel as an autonomous artist is ALL-TIME great. I guess he was about 30 when the 1980 record came out, which would make him 36 for So (which is probably his greatest commercial success). He seemed like an old guy to me in 1986, and now I'm one year older than he was then.

I'd argue even "Up" is a great record, and when that one was released, Gabriel looked like a 500 year-old gnome.

Has there been a better example of a musician visably having aged so extremely between albums?

(of course, he did leave it 10 years between 'proper' albums, but some casual fans may still have been a bit shocked)

Robert Fripp aged about 20 years in the 10 years between 1984 Crimson and 1994 Crimson.

my theory regarding the melody thing has something to do with artists not wanting to repeat themselves. if you write something really hooky, it's probably going to be at least somewhat reminiscent of another melody, and maybe after a while writing less catchy lines is preferable to falling into your usual melodic traps?

Here's a theory: most artists' melodic sense is actually fairly limited. Melody writing in pop/rock music usually comes down to a bag of tricks that come naturally to the artist, and you hear plenty of artists essentially rip themselves off over and over again as their careers go on. Usually listeners don't object to it too much because the successful ones are able to change the environment enough to mask what is essentially a fairly limited compositional scope.

Does melodic decline come from an artist's attempt to break their own mold, with the result that they grasp beyond their innate melodic reach and come up empty?

― southern lights, Wednesday, 27 April 2005 23:01 (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
Southern lights OTM. It's seems almost like an idiot savant effect with many pop musicians, just doing it pretty effortlessly through their own unique set of comfortable patterns of neurological activity. But exhausting the possibilities of one's god-given bag of tricks spells the end. This also predicts the better longevity with trained composers, as they more often understand how each compositional trick in the book actually works, and can extend or reject them in almost endless permutations...

I say this as someone who loves garage-band simplicity, at least "for the initial singles and the debut LP before they lost it". Hell, many bands are at their most distinctive early on, precisely because they can hardly play.

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Thursday, 28 April 2005 00:37 (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Two great posts closing that other thread started by Mark.

PJ Harvey's newest album has, for me, her strongest set of melodies in over a decade, if not since 1993; notably, she said in interviews that she doesn't play guitar AT ALL except when writing songs (or performing / gigging) in an effort to keep her skill level just slightly above 'rudimentary' and thus maintain her ability to 'feel' melodies coming out of it. Danny from Embrace (yes, yes, I know) said something very similar to me about having a dry-spell for songwriting with acoustic guitar and then having a rush of inspiration when he started learning piano. So I think there's definitely something in this, and that musicians who can keep to a child-like level of skill re; actual playing-technique when it comes to songwriting props can potentially sustain or recapture that early melodic skill.

my theory regarding the melody thing has something to do with artists not wanting to repeat themselves. if you write something really hooky, it's probably going to be at least somewhat reminiscent of another melody, and maybe after a while writing less catchy lines is preferable to falling into your usual melodic traps?

I do reckon this is pretty much OTM.

One odd thing here is Neil Finn. His songs, to me at least, are still great, although he basically keeps on using the same ideas and formulas he has done ever since the early 80s.

Richard Thompson, maybe? You can argue over what's his peak (solo) period but Rumor and Sigh and You? Me? Us? are up there with his best stuff and he came out with those in his forties. and for sure he's never written a better song than "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" (1991).

i think there's a lot to be said for trying a new instrument or a new approach in order to inspire new ideas and to shake off your usual routines, but to actually equate a lack of instrumental ability w/good ideas is some bullshit

oh wow, geir otm'ed me on the topic of melody. my morning is made.

Richard Thompson, maybe? You can argue over what's his peak (solo) period but Rumor and Sigh and You? Me? Us? are up there with his best stuff and he came out with those in his forties. and for sure he's never written a better song than "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" (1991).

It could be argued that he did actually peak already in 1969 with Fairport Convention though.

yes but they were a band and he wasn't even their main songwriter so no

Had it not been for "Dare", Human League would have fit perfectly in here. "Secrets" and "Credo" are both Human League at their very best.

*bookmarks thread*

Credo, really Geir? That album is *barf*

Has there been a better example of a musician visably having aged so extremely between albums?

It is a little strange because most in showbusiness do a lot to "keep up their appearance", so to speak, so when someone like Peter Gabriel decides to just age like a normal human being, it strikes people as a little odd. Especially when it comes to going bald...in this day and age. Guess I have to give him props for that.

Had no idea about Debbie Harry, btw; I can't believe she's 65 (!) now. Something seems very much not right about that...I would have guessed mid-50's (not seeing any recent photos of her). Crazy how good she looked at 40. Some people have all the luck.

but to actually equate a lack of instrumental ability w/good ideas is some bullshit

I literally only mean in terms of vocal melodies. Nothing else.

Man, I was just thinking this morning, while listening to the new High Llamas album, about how sad it is that Sean O'Hagan can't write a decent melody anymore.

Man, I was just thinking this morning, while listening to the new High Llamas album, about how sad it is that Sean O'Hagan can't write a decent melody anymore

fixed

Sonic Youth OTM

also
Teenage Fanclub
Drive-By Truckers
Sir Richard Bishop
Bill Callahan
Wilco
Flaming Lips
Miles Davis
Mellencamp

Notice the thread refers to peak period (subjective) and not 'most popular period,' otherwise this house of cards comes down, I think

Wish there were more metal bands over the age of 35. There's Neurosis I guess. Guess metal's a young man's game though, huh?

aren't there a ton of '80s and '90s metal bands who are still out there? slayer, anthrax, testament, maiden, megadeth etc? even opeth and those bands must be getting up there.

(peak period is a different story, although i remember some of those '00s maiden records sounding at least as good as the '80s stuff)

Thinking about Derek Bailey, mentioned upthread -- I think free jazz and free improv players really benefit from years of playing and are only just coming into their best playing in middle age. Early years: learn your instrument, learn what it does and what it can do; middle years: unlearn it all and play free. I've heard a few decent young free improvisors, but the best ones all seem to me to be at least 40, if not at least 50.

i think there's a lot to be said for trying a new instrument or a new approach in order to inspire new ideas and to shake off your usual routines, but to actually equate a lack of instrumental ability w/good ideas is some bullshit

― adult music person (Jordan), Wednesday, 30 March 2011 14:46 (6 hours ago) Permalink

easy to see where you're coming from, but i equate it more to language - that one, in order to come up with rhyme/(melody)/prose in the first place, they must first learn the language. you can't write great poetry if you're still learning to cross your t's.

that said, i'm questioning myself as to whether one can become a better writer by learning another language (?)

maybe the writing analogy would be a veteran writer writing about a topic (or using a setting etc.) that she's never broached before? or i guess writing in longhand instead of on a computer would be the more direct one.

I think free jazz and free improv players really benefit from years of playing and are only just coming into their best playing in middle age

That would seem to be true for free improv, but in free jazz there were guys like Ornette and Dolphy and Sanders who were all doing amazing stuff relatively young. Ayler didn't even make it to 35!

Yeah, maybe there's something in there that could explain or at least illuminate the differences between free jazz and free improv. I don't know.

There are always exceptions and outliers -- Machine Gun was made by a bunch of twentysomethings (and one guy barely into his 30s).

Wish there were more metal bands over the age of 35. There's Neurosis I guess. Guess metal's a young man's game though, huh?

― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, March 30, 2011 5:11 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Mastodon, as one example, is in their late 30's.

Dio didnt hit his stride till 35, i think. If we even know how old he really was.

Matt Pike has to be 40 years old. Peak for me was Blessed Black Wings in '05, so that's pretty close to 35.

Had no idea Mastodon dudes were that old.

Mastodon had the Today Is The Day connection remember. At the Cathouse gig some years back just when Leviathan came out some smart arse was shouting for today is the day songs. (everyone knew who they were too) think those days might be gone.

Pulp was formed in 1978, but didn't creatively or commercially peak for almost two decades later (albeit with a mostly revamped lineup). They have some live shows scheduled for this year, by which time at least one band member will be 50.

As for artists whose commercial peak came long after their creative peak, I'll nominate Steve Winwood, who creatively peaked around 1967-68 - although some would argue it was anywhere from 1966 to 1971. But he was 40 when "Roll With It" (both the album and the single) topped the charts in 1988.

Decrepit old bluesmen.

To wit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRgg_9TmI-w&feature=fvwrel

Sorry - got lost in the thread - posted, then read the thread title.

thought of a good one: Mark Sandman turned 40 the year Morphine released its first album

I don't know how old Nina Nastasia is (40-ish?), but she waited a long time before recording her debut (having performed live in NYC since the early '90s), and last year's Outlaster is as good as anything I've heard by her.

oh, and Mark Lanegan has produced some of his best work while in his 40s. the latest Soulsavers album is one of the high points of his career, I think.

Howlin Wolf was 41 when he started to record for Chess in 1951.

Muddy Waters hit Chess Records peak started around 1950 when he was 37.

Erykah Badu? She's just put out two of her best albums in her late 30s.

I would be curious to see an argument that the Fall's peak period is from 1992 onward...

― in my world of loose geirs (Shakey Mo Collier)

http://www.residentadvisor.net/images/features/2009/mark-e-dj.jpg ≠ http://media.musicfeeds.com.au/files/mark-e-smith.jpg

he's been dormant for a decade!! sigh

only five years. no idea if much of the smattering he did in the five years before that is any cop though.

Revive.

There are very, very few women mentioned on this thread. Why is that?

Well here's one: Jane Weaver's at he absolute peak at the moment and she's 46.

Parenting affecting female careers more than male careers, perchance.

Neko Case seems to be in peak form in her 40s. Many of the artists on the ILX Gonna Shine in My Backdoor Someday are late bloomers, probably due to the proficiency required.

also rampant gatekeeping throughout their youth

no "perchance" about the parenting thing either

Tina Turner

Ella Fitzgerald, probably lots of other jazz women

Yeah I argued for Peggy Lee upthread, her run between "Fever" at age 37 and "Is That All There Is?" at 49 is for me her most fun period to listen to and also when she took the most chances

Vi Subversa was 42 when she founded the Poison Girls

https://www.discogs.com/artist/420468-Vi-Subversa

Gyorgy Ligeti

38 for Atmosphères, probably the start of his peak period

Laurie Anderson?

Lou Reed

Kim Gordon was 42 when Washing Machine was released, many people think SY peaked after that

The majority of Moondog's recording career was between the ages of 37 and 55, and the most famous stuff is all from his 50s.

many people think SY peaked after that

Is this actually true?

hi!

to my ears they released with a couple of mediocre exceptions a string of wonderful albums through 2006 but

GBV?

I do like the latter day albums and, maybe especially, a lot of the SYR stuff! I just don't think of "post-1995" as Sonic Youth's peak period.

Alex Harvey was 33 when The Sensational Alex Harvey Band was formed, which seemed really old for a rock star at the time.

I think Bill Callahan's best work was done as Bill Callahan, and Woke on a Whaleheart came out when he was already 41. Even the best Smog material (imo) was done in his 30s.

Yeah, tbf, even Sonic Youth's 80s work was done when Gordon was in her 30s; the band name was always ironic.

It would be an easy argument to make that Celia Cruz peaked after age 35 or even after 40

Bill Frisell: mid-30s during downtown NYC days, 37 when he moved to Seattle, over 40 by the time of Have a Little Faith. Some of my favourite work of his might actually be post-middle age!

Duke Ellington was in his early 40s when he composed/released a string of masterworks ("Take The 'A' Train," "Cotton Tail," "Harlem Air Shaft," "Jack The Bear," "Ko-Ko," "Concerto For Cootie," etc. etc.).

And he was in his late 60s when he started a series of brilliant suites (The Far East Suite, The Latin American Suite, The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse, New Orleans Suite).

Wow I didn’t realise Kim Gordon was 66! I would have guessed at a minimum five years younger.

Sorry, should correct the above to co-composed -- Billy Strayhorn was either the sole composer or a collaborator with Duke on many of the '40s pieces.

xp

Duke is a good one.

Nels Cline was in his 50s when he made my favourite albums of his, probably past middle age when he made Macroscope.

personally i'm planning to peak around 43

― adult music person (Jordan), Tuesday, March 29, 2011 4:27 PM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Still on track for this

Pauline Oliveros fits in here for sure

Steve Reich was 39 when Music for 18 Musicians premiered. I think this is common for classical and jazz artists in the contemporary era.

Lucette Bourdin was a visual artist who released her first ambient album in 2005, when she was 51... Then, in following 7 years, she released something like 25 albums, most of which are excellent. Sadly, she died in 2012, but it was an amazing burst of music from someone who had never made (commercial) recordings at all in her first fifty years.