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I think one of the many things that complicates things is that, in the McCartney scenario above, both things can be true. Folks can have a great time, and he also doesn't have a voice anymore.
I bow to no one in my love for McCartney and his work, including even some of his most recent stuff. But his voice has been shot for years. It's a different thing than the thing with Brian's voice. But I'll absolutely not back down from the pretty-darn-close-to-objective fact at this point that McCartney's voice is shot. But I don't have any interest in saying he should quit, or that people shouldn't go see his show. And, I'm not even prepared to say how "shot" it is. It's pretty well toast at this stage, but I mean, it could be even worse. I mean, at this stage, I'd pay to *not* hear him try to sing "Maybe I'm Amazed" ever again, but his voice holds up better on some solo acoustic stuff and, ironically, some of the throat-searing things like "Helter Skelter" that don't require the pristine voice.
And then calling for an artist to quit is complicated as well by live shows versus studio work. I think both McCartney and Brian Wilson can muster at least slightly better vocal performances in the studio, and also with or without the aid of studio techniques or tricks, some of the issues can be smoothed out. Not completely. But I dunno, I think Brian's "Right Where I Belong" is worth having. And some of the stuff off "McCartney III" is worth it. He may be croaking through "The Kiss of Venus", but it's still good, and your brain can almost kinda just fill in imagining like 1968 (or hell, even 1982) McCartney singing it.
Also complicating things is the status of their non-vocal work. McCartney is still an excellent musician; there's some great instrumental work from him on recent albums, including the most recent "McCartney III."
Brian can still lay out stuff on the piano.
So I guess the idea is that I think it's fair to raise the issue of retirement or semi-retirement from some aspects of their careers, and it's obviously true more than anything that we just make our own decisions as fans/scholars/consumers of the artist. I'm mostly done seeing McCartney. I saw him a bunch of times in 2002, 2004, and 2005. His voice was stunningly quite good in 2002, and held together somewhat through the end of that decade. But in recent years his voice has vastly deteriorated, and that coupled with high ticket prices and *larger* venues (I have no desire to pay for a stadium show where I'm just watching the video screen the whole time) has dictated that I haven't sought his show out in a number of years.
And I'm in a similar spot with Brian shows, although it's more difficult with Brian because his ticket prices are more reasonable, he has Al and Blondie and Matt still singing great at his shows, and Brian's decline in live shows has kind of been more sporadic and more difficult to discern because his voice has been challenged for so many years.
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