What band/artist has gone the farthest downhill?

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This is a three parter:

1)What artist?
2)What do you percieve as their artistic peak?
3)How low did they get?

I'll go and say Clapton - Started with The Bluesbreakers, CREAM and Blind Faith, peaked with Layla (featuring Duane Allman) and has spent the last ten years doing Babyface-produced wuss rock and accepting titles from the Queen of England.

― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 17:07 (twenty years ago)

Rod Stewart.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 17:10 (twenty years ago)

Rolling Stones. Peaked at (surprise) Exile on Main Street, 1972. Low point...Bridges to Babylon

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 17:15 (twenty years ago)

Simple Minds, between New Gold Dream and Once Upon a Time.

― stevo (stevo), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

Gang of Four.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

Grrr. Simple Minds, so true.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

Gear otm

― Masked Gazza, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 17:53 (twenty years ago)

Simple Minds 1999 album "Our Secrets Are The Same" is pretty good though

― musicjohn73 (musicjohn73), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 18:05 (twenty years ago)

REM

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 18:54 (twenty years ago)

R.E.M. (peak: Chronic Town, nadir: Around the Sun)
Paul Westerberg (peak: Hootenanny!, nadir: any of his horrid solo albums)
Bob Dylan (peak: Another Side of Bob Dylan, nadir: Self-Portrait)

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

There has been a thread on this before. Can't think of the title yet...

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

The Strokes!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:01 (twenty years ago)

they went the farthest?

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

The key to falling the farthest is to start very high and end very low - I think the Strokes are missing the first half of that equation.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

Dylan started pretty high, got very much higher, and then went all the way down. Then back up again. But the distance from Highway 61 Revisited to (not Self-Portrait, but) Down in the Groove is something to behold...

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:09 (twenty years ago)

Ok, here's one, but I'm pretty sure there's another longer thread out there on this topic as well:

Great beginnings to total disappointment

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

they went the farthest?

Make one of the greatest albums ever made, then one of the worst!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

http://www.karllintvedt.com/crispytenderbaconcheddarranch.JPG

― ath, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

Dude, Hootie is going up by doing that ad.

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

Another great answer to this thread: Badly Drawn Boy. Start out with the most incredible run of EPs in music history (better than Disco Inferno even!), then ditch the lo-fi amateurist charm because you signed to a major label and got all this slick 90s production, then COMPLETELY lose all your songwriting talent and run out of ideas as is painfully evident if you take a listen to your abysmal new album.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

Trying to think of the name of that other thread is driving me up the wall. In any case, I seem to remember that among the nominations there were David Bowie and the Beach Boys - both of which strong cases could be made for.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:26 (twenty years ago)

Self-Portrait rules! Dylan's nadir--Shot of Love

― bundy, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Paul McCartney - I think he DID die in 1969.

― darin (darin), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

liz phair. peak debut album in 93. lowest point. most recent major label self titled album. atrocious.

― breezy, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

I guess it's not really fair to count them, but Lynyrd Skynyrd. Cripes.

― Je4nne ƒury (Jeanne Fury), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 20:16 (twenty years ago)

Self Portrait is not Dylan's low point. At least, not to anybody who ever suffered through Live at Budokahn.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 20:18 (twenty years ago)

― giboyeux (skowly), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

Could anyone sink lower than Sly Stone 1978 - present?

(I ask this as one of the twenty or so people who bought Ain't But the One Way.)

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 20:38 (twenty years ago)

Box Car Racer?

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 20:38 (twenty years ago)

Beach Boys - both of which strong cases could be made for.

Not Brian, though.

― polyphonic (polyphonic), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 20:39 (twenty years ago)

Agree with Beach Boys, but feel like I have to mention another act as well.

1. ELO
2. Out Of The Blue
3. ELO 2 (Not their second album, but their non-Lynne incarnation in the early 90s)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 20:42 (twenty years ago)

Two words: Ice Cube.

― tylero (tylero), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 20:47 (twenty years ago)

cmon, that Lil Jon video where he pulls his G outfit from under the mattress is funny.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 20:57 (twenty years ago)

To whoever said Liz Phair, we should fight. Really.

How about the farthest uphill, Whipsmart to Liz Phair.

― dan. (dan.), Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:22 (twenty years ago)

Michael Jackson owns this thread!.

― A pair of brown eyes, Tuesday, 5 April 2005 22:29 (twenty years ago)

Lemon Jelly, same as Badly Drawn Boy, great EP collection and then... that last album.

Lauryn Hill, Fugees, the the great Misseducation, to... well.. nothing.
I guess it would be fair to name Wyclef Jean in the same category.

Daft Punk again...

Garbage with their new album sunk big time.

Billy Corgan, from Pumpkins to Zwan to his new solo single which doesn't really promise a lot.

Wu Tang Clan, anyone bothered to listen to their last album? I did.

Oasis, i still have a little bit of faith in their new album, but.. Be Here Now?

― elgolfo (elgolfo), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 02:38 (twenty years ago)

sly stone, gang of four, and simple minds ring truest to me

― j blount (papa la bas), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 02:42 (twenty years ago)

Dylan and Rod Stewart certainly OTM, also Elvis.

― Burr (Burr), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 03:57 (twenty years ago)

i think i agree with badly drawn boy. when his first album was out i was obsessed with his music. thanks to the third one i'll probably never listen to any of it again.

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 04:03 (twenty years ago)

"Another great answer to this thread: Badly Drawn Boy."

OK, I agree. But can you really fault him for the lush production? Even from the very outset, it was clear that he had technicolor dreams for his arrangements. I think it really comes down to a lack of memorable songs. Taking what's good off the About a Boy soundtrack, if he had made a record full of songs like that instead of Have You Fed the Fish (don't even talk to me about the last one), I don't think he would fit so comfortably on this list.

― Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 04:17 (twenty years ago)

yeah it's definitely the songs that are the problem, not the production.

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 04:18 (twenty years ago)

This really resonates with me, b/c I took a keen liking to Bewilderbeast and, with eyes agog, I considered the AAB soundtrack like: OK, if this is what he's turning in for a film, how good is the next full-length going to be? Well.. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?! Did he marry a model or something?

But, then again:
http://www.modernista.se/katalog/bilder/talkie_walkie_stor.jpg

― Yngwie AlmsteenMay (sgertz), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 04:27 (twenty years ago)

yeah it's definitely the songs that are the problem, not the production.

I really think it's a bit of both on the last one, not to mention far too many none-too-subtle references to his kids and wife.

― Kate / We'll always be together in electric dreams (papa november), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 04:48 (twenty years ago)

Gary Numan, it pains me to say...

You start with Tubeway Army, then within one year, release two of the greatest albums ever -- Replicas and The Pleasure Principle, follow it up with another brilliant supposed career ender, Telekon..

FAKE!

OK, Dance may not suck. I, Assassin... eeeeeh, ok I'll let it go this time.

Warriors? Ber-FUCKING-zerker? The Fury? All Numan is missing in The Fury's album cover is Philip Michael Thomas.

Well, let's just cut to the chase. Machine + Soul. pfffffffffft.

All I want is just a decent issue of the Living Ornaments live series on CD, and that'll do me fine.

― donut debonair (donut), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 05:09 (twenty years ago)

Oh, come on, everybody knows it's Metallica.
Why are we even discussing this?

― Mr Deeds (Mr Deeds), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 05:41 (twenty years ago)

"Wu Tang Clan, anyone bothered to listen to their last album? I did."

Yeah, it's great.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 05:44 (twenty years ago)

Elton John.

― Roz, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 05:49 (twenty years ago)

Carla Bley after about 1974, riding that escalator downhill all the way to the yawnsome jazz-lite she's been purveying for the last 25 years.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 05:57 (twenty years ago)

Jimmy Page. Zeppelin to The Firm.

― The Velvet Overlord (The Velvet Overlord), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 08:10 (twenty years ago)

and no-one has yet mentioned Prince.

Up, Down. Up, Down.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 08:15 (twenty years ago)

Lou Reed.

― ldg, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 08:40 (twenty years ago)

Blue Õyster Cult. First five LPs untouchable, then it was up and down, hot and cold, good and bad and worse and still worse, bottoming out with Club Ninja.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:11 (twenty years ago)

Badly Drawn Boy was once better than Disco Inferno? I must hear this.

― What we want? Sex with T.V. stars! What you want? Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:34 (twenty years ago)

Elvis Presley

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:35 (twenty years ago)

Geir Hongro

― Elvis Presley (mark grout), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:36 (twenty years ago)

and no-one has yet mentioned Prince.
Up, Down. Up, Down.

when was prince's second up?

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:50 (twenty years ago)

when was his first down?

― Sven Basted (blueski), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:52 (twenty years ago)

Manic Street Preachers

― Sven Basted (blueski), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:53 (twenty years ago)

because i saw 'Motorcycle Emptiness' on TV the other day and altho i don't know if i LOVE the song, it's okay, whereas NOW...

― Sven Basted (blueski), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 09:55 (twenty years ago)

People have nominated a lot of bands that went from "meh" to "shit" or "great" to "meh" or "who cares" to "still, who cares"... I haven't seen anything that matched the fall of Clapton from Blues God to Phil Collins Wannabe.

― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 10:31 (twenty years ago)

Oh, come on, everybody knows it's Metallica.
Why are we even discussing this?

-- Mr Deeds (ilxmember196...), April 6th, 2005.

OTFM

― latebloomer: strawman knockdowner (latebloomer), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 11:12 (twenty years ago)

Bowie, Lou, The Stones. Do Simple Minds still exist? if so...even when he was good, Rod Stewart always seemed destined for hackdom.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Wednesday, 6 April 2005 11:50 (twenty years ago)

It's a battle between Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Bowie, Mick & Keith, and . . . Alex Chilton.

I remember Paul Westerberg commenting on Chilton's "19 Songs" retrospective. He was alarmed at the distance between the magic of the Big Star he loved and the just-okay stuff that followed. Oh the irony . . .

― Taylor, Wednesday, 6 April 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

eleven months pass...

Vanilla Ice!!!!

― .a..p.{pirate_capt}, Sunday, 26 March 2006 15:49 (nineteen years ago)

and no-one has yet mentioned Prince.
Up, Down. Up, Down.

And Up again, for certain. "3121" is impressive.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 26 March 2006 17:12 (nineteen years ago)

McCartney has had his ups and downs. I would say the most recent, "Chaos and Creation..." is among his most obvious ups, but obviously, then man whose output varies from "Penny Lane", "Eleanor Rigby"/"Yesterday" to the "Wild Life" album has quite a way to go from the top to the bottom and otherwise.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Sunday, 26 March 2006 17:22 (nineteen years ago)

They Might Be Giants. Amazing Dadaist Lower East Side avant-pop --> dumbed-down frat geek rock w/ guitar solos & poodle-haired drummers on huge risers

― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Sunday, 26 March 2006 20:43 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, come on, everybody knows it's Metallica.
Why are we even discussing this?

I agree:

They start out revitalizing a genre, and become sucessful without much airplay or hype, and crossover into stardom in a way where they still feel like peers of their fans. Then, kaboom, they make the black album and turn into a more typical metal band, and within a decade are suing their fans. They coulda been the Greatful Dead of loudness.

― bendy (bendy), Monday, 27 March 2006 01:02 (nineteen years ago)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/Raiders3184/Raiders/Metallica_AFC_CG.jpg

― latebloomer: My name *COCKS SHOTGUN* is Horace! (latebloomer), Monday, 27 March 2006 01:04 (nineteen years ago)

It's true. Metallica is the correct answer. Tied with Elton John. Followed by Clapton, if you are even able to access his back catalog in spite of his shit reputation now.

― regular roundups (Dave M), Monday, 27 March 2006 02:09 (nineteen years ago)

Paul Weller. An album of MOR covers, from the man who wrote Strange Town and I Got By in Time? Then I suppose he's been down this low before at the end of TSC.

― Craig Kenny (Dr X O'Skeleton), Monday, 27 March 2006 09:55 (nineteen years ago)

if you count 'Squeeze', the Velvet Underground have this thread wrapped up. does having your band name co-opted by talentless hacks count as going downhill, though?

― Lee F# (fsharp), Monday, 27 March 2006 10:56 (nineteen years ago)

If activities outside music count, then Metallica are candidates for sure (but then, there's Gary Glitter and Phil Spector too....)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 27 March 2006 12:36 (nineteen years ago)

Genesis

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 27 March 2006 13:10 (nineteen years ago)

Genesis is actually a very good choice.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 27 March 2006 13:12 (nineteen years ago)

the answer is obviously SUB SUB! they started out as sub sub and did 'ain't no love (ain't no use)' ie one of the best songs ever. and then years later they emerge as boring plodding doves. talk about butterfly-into-slug.

also the streets. first album amazing and fantastic, everything from then on laddish rubbish.

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 27 March 2006 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

Genesis is probably the correct answer. From Gabriel's Genesis through to Collins' Genesis and finally down to Bloke Out Of Stiltskin's Genesis - wasn't it a strange way down?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 27 March 2006 13:20 (nineteen years ago)

That last album was actually a step in the right direction, with Tony Banks being a more central songwriter again. Pity about that voice though...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 27 March 2006 18:45 (nineteen years ago)

Neil Young : (

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Monday, 27 March 2006 18:47 (nineteen years ago)

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