Täp, Mach II -(or) - Jump the Shark

Sorry. Link was bad: Jump the shark.

(if you need help with the meaning of Jump the Shark)

Ha! I love that site; a most inspired thread, Dave.

Hmm...I guess it's a bit easier when a key band member leaves (say, David Lee Roth out of Van Halen). When Bowie recorded "God Only Knows" in the way he did, that was a shark jump of enormous proportions...

Simple Minds[Belfast Child]>JAMC[Automatic]>William Shatner[T.J Hooker]>Walker Crisps[Lineker]>NUFC[appointment of Dalglish]

oh...great artists>>>>gimme time

Sly Stone, _Small Talk_

Robyn Hitchcock, _Perspex Island_.

Guided By Voices, _Under the Bushes, Under the Stars_.

Stevie Wonder, _The Secret Life of Plants_.

Fleetwood Mac, _Tango in the Night_. Which reminds me to check for and/ or start a Fleetwood Mac thread.

I find that when many artists are held to have jumped the shark that's when they became much more interesting. This applies even to artists I love (e.g The Clash - Sandinista). Even though I don't love them (could anybody?) the Oasis and Blur albums which I listen to the most are Be Here Now and The Great Escape. I KNOW that Definitely Maybe is the best, and only decent Oasis album, but BHN tells me what Oasis are ALL ABOUT.

Jumping the shark often involves an artist changing what they do or how they do it or both. It can be an artistic OR commercial decision which somehow reveals more about them than their 'best work'. That's the attraction for me.

Douglas, I see yr Small Talk and flash a copy of High On You as proof that Sly had not yet jumped the shark with that LP, as he still had one more really good album in him.

gimmicky cross-cultural "I got you babe"-style duets are the most common shark-jumps in pop:

bowie & bing

jarvis & ali g

rufus thomas & blues explosion

elton & eminem

allen ginsberg & the clash

chuck d & sonic youth

elton & eminem

I hope you're referring to eminem. Elton jumped loooong ago.

I agree with Ned that "Tonight" was when Bowie really lost it. "God Only Knows" is bathetic... but I wonder; would Scott Walker have done better? And I don't mean Scott Walker now...

butthole surfers maybe "independent worm saloon" if not then the truly bankrupt "electric larryland"; minutemen - whatever their last album was (erased it from memory); swans "the burning light" (or whatever it was called)

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation. It has only ever been down hill since

Sebadoh III - it was never better

Yo bum rush the show - for me it was diluted Public Enemy every step of the way

REDUX.

All this talk of GnR lately ...

I hope you're referring to eminem. Elton jumped loooong ago.
Well, Elton may or may not have ever jumped the shark (you have to be good before you can *suddenly start* sucking.) but I'm sure Elton defintely jumped Eminem.

Stevie Wonder's Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants is a beautiful and hyper-ambitious album with at least three classic songs on it, and does NOT count as a shark-jumper, especially with Hotter Than July waiting in the wings. Stevie didn't jump until "I Just Called to Say I Love You." (Although "Don't Drive Drunk" was pretty excellent. Remember the video? "Come on, man, gimme the keys." Um, Stevie? You shouldn't really be driving either.)