Are there any artists from the classic rock era who would have the expectations of excellence on their new album like Scott Walker has?

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The man is assumed to still be in his creative prime and ready to unleash another monster album. Who else has survived liked this?

― Cunga (Cunga), Thursday, 16 March 2006 07:42 (twenty years ago)

Brian Eno

― plastic palace alice, Thursday, 16 March 2006 07:55 (twenty years ago)

IMO:

Tod Dockstader
Gyorgy Ligeti
Brigitte Fontaine
Possibly Caetano Veloso/Tom Ze

Do people still play Tilt as much as they talk about it?

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Thursday, 16 March 2006 08:05 (twenty years ago)

Brian Eno

I think people just have varying expectations of how far into his new albums they'll fall asleep, but not much else, right?

(Or maybe I'm still annoyed by the "FIRST VOCAL ALBUM IN 20 YRS!!!!!!" hype when he clearly sang all over the damn Eno/Cale thing only a decade ago.)

― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Thursday, 16 March 2006 08:37 (twenty years ago)

I'd say only Neil young and Tom Waits

― grapple (grapple), Sunday, 19 March 2006 06:12 (twenty years ago)

Neil's often good-to-excellent, but uneven; really wish Waits would compose, arrange, lead the band, behind real singers. (Like Duke Ellington, you know? No shame in that.)Richard Thompson's usually satisfying; Marianne Faithful, somewhat less so, but still trying new stuff (new for her, anyway), so when she's good, can be in a surprising situation. (Who would have predicted a truly fab! cover of 'erman's 'ermits' "I'm Into Something Good"?). The Stones' A Bigger Bang was good, but in a way that,so far, I'm not sure matters. (Which is kinda worse than if it were merely bad-and-done-with-it, but that wouldn't matter either.) But what do I know, I think Dylan's more dependably good-to-excellent than any of these, though I wouldn't want to do without any of 'em.

― don, Sunday, 19 March 2006 07:38 (twenty years ago)

Waits seconded. He's had an incredible run, and shows no sign of slowing down.

― Soukesian, Sunday, 19 March 2006 11:38 (twenty years ago)

Robert Wyatt

― Dr. Gene Scott (shinybeast), Sunday, 19 March 2006 12:54 (twenty years ago)

Randy Newman

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Sunday, 19 March 2006 13:07 (twenty years ago)

The rolling "Elvis Costello's new album is fucking awful." thread

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 19 March 2006 15:46 (twenty years ago)

xpost Waits thirded, you mean! I really like him musically, I just don't find the voice very musical. And yeah, Wyatt, Newman.

― don, Sunday, 19 March 2006 23:41 (twenty years ago)

i still play Tilt a fair bit- maybe 15 times a year. that's alot more than i play classic rock era act Gyorgy Ligeti ;)

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 20 March 2006 00:39 (twenty years ago)

I'm not sure who is doing some of "assuming" and "expecting" upthread, but:

ZZ Top's last album *Mescalero* was one of the best ones they've ever made.

― xhuxk, Monday, 20 March 2006 00:50 (twenty years ago)

Also, Merle Haggard (and probably some jazz guys.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 20 March 2006 00:52 (twenty years ago)

And some people (not me necessarily) would say Bobby Bare or Loretta Lynn or Jessi Colter or maybe Willie Nelson (who are certainly all "artists from the classic rock era," and at least as "rock" as many artists mentioned upthread come to think of it.)

― xhuxk, Monday, 20 March 2006 00:54 (twenty years ago)

& I'm sure there's soul and African artists etc who probably belong up there too.

― xhuxk, Monday, 20 March 2006 00:57 (twenty years ago)

bob dylan. his last 4 albums are all as good as anything he's done.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 20 March 2006 01:01 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, Robert Wyatt owns this thread.

― doug watson (solid air), Monday, 20 March 2006 11:13 (twenty years ago)

and in Soviet Russia this thread owns Robert Wyatt.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 20 March 2006 11:20 (twenty years ago)

i'm surprised to thin that but actually, the latest macca was great and got me more interested in him than anything he's done since... the beatles !

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Monday, 20 March 2006 12:42 (twenty years ago)

Not from the 'classic rock' era, but The Fall

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Monday, 20 March 2006 12:54 (twenty years ago)

The latest Macca was great, but even I didn't have too many expectations to him at this time (well, maybe after having read that Nigel Godrich would produce, I did)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 20 March 2006 15:01 (twenty years ago)

Eno fell off years ago he's so MOR it hurts nowadays, and I say that as someone who thoroughly enjoys his 70s to early 80s output.
Dylan's rep is sustained more by the weight of expectation (and the need amongst critics and fans for the new stuff to be seen to great) as much as anything else.

Tom Waits I'll accept tho, but he wasn't well known in the 60s was he?

If you're thinking those of Walker's generation (ie- Beatles, Stones, VU, James Brown, etc etc) most are dead, or alive but creatively utterly moribund.

What's needed is the kind of mature re-imagining of what is possible creatively without decomposition into ossified MOR or attempt to misguidedly recaptur the fruits of youth. People like say Nick Cave or Tom Waits (and above all else Walker...) have achieved that, it could be argued... wheras say Macca or the Stones have failed to a quite laughable extent.

― gekkoppppel, Monday, 20 March 2006 19:20 (twenty years ago)

Obviously Bob Dylan. Love and Theft towers over any rock record ever made by someone above 50. Maybe even 40.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Saturday, 25 March 2006 06:12 (twenty years ago)

I'm surprised no one has questioned the initial Scott Walker comment.

― Mitya (mitya), Saturday, 25 March 2006 12:02 (twenty years ago)

cause there's no arguing w/true believers! as my dad used to say "there's no point debating religion or morality."

also Scott Walker couldn't "decompose into ossified MOR" because he was always sort of an old fogey before his time anyway, right?

or "timeless" depending on yr taste

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 25 March 2006 14:56 (twenty years ago)

I questioned it: "I'm not sure who is doing some of 'assuming' and 'expecting' upthread,"

And hell, I'll question Waits and Dylan while I'm at it. (Though *Love and Theft* was okay.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 25 March 2006 15:09 (twenty years ago)

I don't get Scott Walker, really. but for me it's Tom Zé--he's 70, his latest record is brilliant and I've been listening to stuff he did just a few years ago too, and it's brilliant as well. the country people chuck mentions, like Willie, Jessi and Bobby Bare (Sr.), I dunno, Jessi and Bobby both did recent records that owe everything, or most everything, to producers, and Merle Haggard is good but gets a free pass from critics and has for years. and yeah, Randy Newman too. I'm not a big fan of Tom Waits hollering down his megaphone, nor Dylan; I like his recent records as grooves, I guess, but that's about it. someone like Jim Dickinson is far less significant but seems to me to be making the same kind of records Dylan makes, but they sound better, more fun, to me...

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Saturday, 25 March 2006 15:14 (twenty years ago)

yeah, edd, if you look back upthread, i wasn't nominating jessi or bobby (or loretta, whose record owed a lot to her producer too) (not that that should necessarily matter!) myself; just saying *other* people might well think they belong here. and since their comebacks have only lasted one album each, listing them is probably premature anyway. willie i've got even less use for these days, though obviously some people have way more use for him than i do. merle's a bit different; his last three albums *have* seemed a big improvement over what he'd been doing for the past couple decades, though i do kind of agree on the "free ride" thing, since of those three albums only *like never before* really stands up start to end. (on the other hand, even ze gets a free ride! when was the last negative review of *him* you saw? which is not to say he doesn't deserve it; i generally like his CDs just fine.) (on the other hand, how come nobody's nominated sonny rollins or anybody like that?)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 25 March 2006 15:48 (twenty years ago)

Tom Ze otm

― Dominique (dleone), Saturday, 25 March 2006 15:53 (twenty years ago)

(on the other hand, how come nobody's nominated sonny rollins or anybody like that?)

"artists from the classic rock era"

jazz has different expectations of obsolescence than rock, surely? for that matter so did country until the last decade or so.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 25 March 2006 16:02 (twenty years ago)

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