What is amazing to me about AC/DC is that they continue to fill arenas decade after decade after decade by doing the exact same type of music. Most bands who try this just lose their audience over time. I can't think of one other act beside AC/DC who has pulled that off. Maybe Status Quo in the U.K.? But even they started as psych-popsters (and probably were a blues group before that...)
Wouldn't Kiss be another group who pulled that off? Not that I would know from experience, never having attended a Kiss concert.
I think once a band gets to a certain stage of mass appeal, the concerts become less about hearing the music and more about getting the T-shirt and the warm fuzzy feeling of hanging out with other members of your tribe.
...and then on to 10cc-ish arty pop on Level-Headed.
LOL, I knew I recognized that name somewhere. I had this image of poofy Aqua-Net hair and a Southern accent. Never bothered watching Wings, always thought it was kind of a paragon of sitcom mediocrity.
Rare Bird have lineup shifts to blame for their sound changes at least partially. Compare the dual keys/no guitar lineup of their first two with their dual guitars/one keyboardist plus percussion of Epic Forest and it’s no surprise they sound different.
All of JLP’s albums sound a bit “Mahavishnu-lite” fusion to me, so I don’t hear any drastic shifts in his sound. Mind you, I have not heard his very early output from the 60s.
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
The first time I heard Ponty (aside from Zappa's "Hot Rats," which he was on iirc) was this oddly named live album, "Jean Luc Ponty Experience with The George Duke Trio (pick a band name, guys!)." It came out in '69, before Duke got involved with Zappa. I guess some of it could be considered as early fusion, but more of it is straight ahead jazz. His writing on those '70s albums were hit and miss (often within the same tune) for me; it felt like glued together sections that weren't quite related; some of those sections being great, some not. I haven't heard that Ponty/Duke album in eons, but I remember liking it much more than anything he did since. And I just happened to find it on YT:
Last edited by No Pride; 09-25-2015 at 01:18 PM.
Wings was actually pretty good if you could get past Crystal Bernard and Tim Daly being a pair of assholes to each other and everybody else. One of the best episodes involved everybody thinking (wrongly) the old woman who ran the main characters' flight services was a "black widow" on the run. There's a sequence of events that takes place in a kitchen where both brothers knock themselves out and she is standing over them with this giant leg of lamb (the choice of murder weapon for the black widow) and Crystal Bernard comes in and thinks she killed the brothers. I nearly died laughing. We watched the show so much that part of a joke in our family was having a big sandwich at family functions (including one of my birthday parties).
Tony Shaloub was in Wings, too.
"Alienated-so alien I go!"
Did anyone mention the Bee Gees?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
A-Ha
It went from synth to guitar in 1990, a great change. I liked those until they released one in 2009 and 2015 that I haven't given a fair listen to, maybe because a minute of a few songs seemed like enough.
Best from the guitar era in descending order: 1) Major Earth, Minor Sky 2) East of the Sun, West of the Moon 3) Lifelines
A couple of solo artists who definitely changed dramatically after establising themselves early on as folk:
Donovan
Joni Mitchell
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