Biggest Decline In a Career?

[MBE]

  Elvis Presley, post "Burning Love"/ALOHA FROM HAWAII? Granted, he always had a large fan base at every stage of his career, but there was an unmistakable professional and personal decline after the worldwide success of the ALOHA project. His career seemed to consist of the rut of endless touring/Vegas and records that sold moderately well without any true smash singles after "Burning Love."

poor elvis :/ when did that fat elvis era began?

 He was husky in some of his movies (see PARADISE;HAWAIIAN STYLE 1966) but the real fat years began after the 1973 ALOHA special. Seems Elvis lost about 25 pounds while preparing for the event (late 1972) then immediately after gained it all back, plus more.

 Despite some decent to good singles ("Steamroller Blues", "If You Talk in Your Sleep", "Promised Land", "Hurt", "Moody Blue') and continuing to sell out concerts, Elvis spent the rest of his life and career in a  rut.

 

He never did look quite as good after early 1973, but he wasn't exceedingly overweight until 1975. In other words I think if Elvis died in late 1974 few would think of him as being fat. Out of shape perhaps but not huge.

[pixletwin]

Yep...The Lady in My Life is my favorite cut on the album, and one of my favorite Michael Jackson recordings.

I personally like Dark Side the best, but really all of their albums pre-Wall were great pieces of work, possibly aside from Atom Heart Mother.

atom heart mother has fat old sun and summer 68 which are beautiful tracks
i say the weakest from pink has to be ..Soundtrack from the Film More...Ummagumma...The Final Cut..

'More' has some great songs on it - 'Ummagumma' is the nadir, although the live stuff is superb.

'The Final Cut' is a masterpiece IMHO.

all 3 of those are weak albums especially the final cut :/

In your very limited opinion. :/

the final cut seemed so depressing :/..the first side of ummagumma doesnt sit well with me...something from the film more is the best out the three

Man I love Umma Gumma. Especially Granchester meadows and the SoSSoAGiaCWaP. 

[Jay]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned The Beach Boys. Although, their career has gone up and down so many times. But in this fairly "hardcore" fans opinion, 15 Big Ones was a mistake that they never really recovered from(until now?).

[Lonely Summer]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned The Beach Boys. Although, their career has gone up and down so many times. But in this fairly "hardcore" fans opinion, 15 Big Ones was a mistake that they never really recovered from(until now?).

Well, this is the 'general music discussion" area, we've talked plenty about the BB's fall from greatness after Holland in the Smiley Smile section. Still some occasional moments of brilliance, but overall, quite a drop from the glory years of 1962-1966, and the artistic but uncommercial works of 1967-1973.

[Newguy562]

I can't believe nobody has mentioned The Beach Boys. Although, their career has gone up and down so many times. But in this fairly "hardcore" fans opinion, 15 Big Ones was a mistake that they never really recovered from(until now?).

i already mentioned the beach boys..i said "besides the beach boys" and the bb's had more low points than high points but the highest point beats everybody that ever sung high point (pet sounds)

[Moon Dawg]

Moon Dawg, are you still an Elvis fanatic?  What's come out since the last time we talked on Cabinessence?  Anything essential?  I think all of the 50's/60's/70's Sun/RCA studio and live material and the Hawaii and Vegas shows have been done to death with all the various reissuing/remastering/remixing/reformatting releases. Any new revelations or new suff that's surfaced recently?

 I'm not really up on what RCA is doing with Elvis. The last I noticed they were putting classic albums together in one packagae. (From Elvis in Memphis/Back in Memphis, etc) The Follow That Dream label is a good source for outtakes and live stuff.

[Moon Dawg]

 Elvis Presley, post "Burning Love"/ALOHA FROM HAWAII? Granted, he always had a large fan base at every stage of his career, but there was an unmistakable professional and personal decline after the worldwide success of the ALOHA project. His career seemed to consist of the rut of endless touring/Vegas and records that sold moderately well without any true smash singles after "Burning Love."

poor elvis :/ when did that fat elvis era began?

 He was husky in some of his movies (see PARADISE;HAWAIIAN STYLE 1966) but the real fat years began after the 1973 ALOHA special. Seems Elvis lost about 25 pounds while preparing for the event (late 1972) then immediately after gained it all back, plus more.

 Despite some decent to good singles ("Steamroller Blues", "If You Talk in Your Sleep", "Promised Land", "Hurt", "Moody Blue') and continuing to sell out concerts, Elvis spent the rest of his life and career in a  rut.

  

he was loaded with money idk why he kept on trying smh :/

 Believe it or not, Elvis probably had to keep on working. Elvis and the Colonel had a financial philosphy of the $ going out one door and coming in the other. Not a lot of astute investments.

[pixletwin]

I remember reading somewhere that before Elvis died his estate was only worth about $700,000. That more than quadrupled the year after he died.

[Lonely Summer]

Elvis liked to spend money - on himself, his family and friends, even total strangers. This caused conflict with his father, who remembered when they were poor, and believed in setting some income aside. Elvis, of course, remembered being poor, and that's why he gave so much of what he earned away. He believed his wealth was a gift to share with others.

[MBE]

Elvis liked to spend money - on himself, his family and friends, even total strangers. This caused conflict with his father, who remembered when they were poor, and believed in setting some income aside. Elvis, of course, remembered being poor, and that's why he gave so much of what he earned away. He believed his wealth was a gift to share with others.

Very true

[Runaways]

Oasis got wretched in the middle of their career.  They at least finished being respectable/good again, but those middle years were truly awful. 

[nickdunning]

Yep...The Lady in My Life is my favorite cut on the album, and one of my favorite Michael Jackson recordings.

I personally like Dark Side the best, but really all of their albums pre-Wall were great pieces of work, possibly aside from Atom Heart Mother.

atom heart mother has fat old sun and summer 68 which are beautiful tracks
i say the weakest from pink has to be ..Soundtrack from the Film More...Ummagumma...The Final Cut..

'More' has some great songs on it - 'Ummagumma' is the nadir, although the live stuff is superb.

'The Final Cut' is a masterpiece IMHO.

all 3 of those are weak albums especially the final cut :/

In your very limited opinion. :/

the final cut seemed so depressing :/..the first side of ummagumma doesnt sit well with me...something from the film more is the best out the three

The first side of 'Ummagumma' has the superb live version of 'Astronomy Domine' on it - Rick's keyboard solo is truly superb.

[nickdunning]

Not sure whether anyone's mentioned REM.

Horrendous long decline after 'Automatic For The People' - almost 20 years before they finally gave up.

[runnersdialzero]

Oasis got wretched in the middle of their career.  They at least finished being respectable/good again, but those middle years were truly awful. 

Eh. Even then, stuff like "Roll It Over" or "Go Let It Out" were good, and songs like "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" or "Let There Be Love" are up their with their best. "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" is one of my favorite songs of theirs.

That said, if I like someone, then they generally never become completely bad in a way that I can't stand 100% of their newer material. Even with bands I'm not into anymore, I still bother to check out their new records and generally find at least a song or two that I enjoy quite a bit.

[runnersdialzero]

he was loaded with money idk why he kept on trying smh :/

God forbid a person enjoy performing or, in other people's cases, writing and recording.

[runnersdialzero]

Smashing Pumpkins had a great career trajectory until Adore. Then they went from hitsville to splitsville.

Adore was a step down (for me), but only a small one. "To Sheila", "Perfect", "The Tale Of Dusty And Pistol Pete", "Annie-Dog", "Shame", and especially "For Martha"  are all really good, and I enjoy a few others to a smaller extent. After that, however, I'm not much a fan of most of their work except a handful of songs.

[joshferrell]

with Elvis it wasn't really a "decline" but more of "not caring anymore",he still had it the last couple years but it all depended on his mood .when he didn't care his performances suffered (Aka:June 19th 1977), when he did care his performances were still great (Aka:Dec 31st 1976,June 26th 1977),the same with his studio stuff,he stopped caring in 1971 with the christmas album and you can tell,then after that it all depended on the song,some songs he cared for and you can hear it because he put more effort into them while others he didn't care for and he didn't put as much effort into those songs,but he still had the voice and stage presence,even though I do agree that after 1975 it became VERY obvious,especially with the way he looked and perform on stage..

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

Not sure whether anyone's mentioned REM.

Horrendous long decline after 'Automatic For The People' - almost 20 years before they finally gave up.

Yeah, REM was a painful one for me. I absolutely LOVED them back in the day, but even then I'd listen to something like Out Of Time, and though it was great, it paled in comparison to something like Life's Rich Pageant or Reckoning. But alas, Automatic was insanely great (if still not as good), I actually quite liked Monster and LOVED New Adventures, but when Bill Berry left, that was it. They were one of those few bands who are such a "real band" that no member is disposable. No one in the band stuck to their main instrument and Berry wrote a lot as well. In fact, he wrote the basis of some of their best songs. They were a genuine unit and his absence just gutted them, in my opinion. Sure, there were some bright spots in the ensuing years but they just came off a damaged goods and it always seemed like THEY knew it as well.....

[OneEar/OneEye]

biggest decline in a career? 

Mine. 

[JohnMill]

Not sure whether anyone's mentioned REM.

Horrendous long decline after 'Automatic For The People' - almost 20 years before they finally gave up.

Yeah, REM was a painful one for me. I absolutely LOVED them back in the day, but even then I'd listen to something like Out Of Time, and though it was great, it paled in comparison to something like Life's Rich Pageant or Reckoning. But alas, Automatic was insanely great (if still not as good), I actually quite liked Monster and LOVED New Adventures, but when Bill Berry left, that was it. They were one of those few bands who are such a "real band" that no member is disposable. No one in the band stuck to their main instrument and Berry wrote a lot as well. In fact, he wrote the basis of some of their best songs. They were a genuine unit and his absence just gutted them, in my opinion. Sure, there were some bright spots in the ensuing years but they just came off a damaged goods and it always seemed like THEY knew it as well.....

I feel the same way and although I hold out hope that they will release one more record or tour one last time somewhere in the future, I hope if they ever do it's will Bill behind the kit.

PS: I love "Monster", it still finds it's way into my cd player often now ever twenty years later.  Some awesome music videos for that album as well.

[I. Spaceman]

Yep...The Lady in My Life is my favorite cut on the album, and one of my favorite Michael Jackson recordings.

I personally like Dark Side the best, but really all of their albums pre-Wall were great pieces of work, possibly aside from Atom Heart Mother.

atom heart mother has fat old sun and summer 68 which are beautiful tracks
i say the weakest from pink has to be ..Soundtrack from the Film More...Ummagumma...The Final Cut..

'More' has some great songs on it - 'Ummagumma' is the nadir, although the live stuff is superb.

'The Final Cut' is a masterpiece IMHO.

all 3 of those are weak albums especially the final cut :/

No, More and The Final Cut are both great albums.

[I. Spaceman]

Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants is a brilliant, beautiful cult album. Some of the most expressive, pictorial music around. Huge favorite of Prince.

[hapman]

How come no one has mentioned David Bowie? From Scary Monsters to Tin Machine in 9 years is quite an achievement.

[Newguy562]

you think let's dance was a fail?

[Jay]

What about The Red Hot Chili Peppers?