Yes in NYT article about 70s bands reinventing themselves for the 80s

[Paulrus]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/05/a...ynths-mtv.html

[Mister Triscuits]

One of my favorite albums is The Who Reinvent.

[Dana5140]

Not a very deep article.

[Dave (in MA)]

Paywalled.

[Baribrotzer]

I'd never heard those stories about 90125, particularly the ones about the drum machine.

[markwoll]

non paywalled ( scraped ) https://archive.ph/BziVE

[arturs]

I was recently reflecting on this topic more generally, and it seems so many 70s artists re-tooled and had some 1980s success commercially.

The article mentions Yes, ZZ Top and Don Henley, but there were many... Genesis, Bad Company, Heart, (Jefferson) Starship, Aerosmith, Sabbath, and even Fleetwood Mac (who had already re-tooled once in the 70s with a sound very different from their late 1960s successes).

Maybe an easier question to ask is which major 1970s stars flopped commercially in the 80s? Tull and ELP come to mind, though Tull won a Grammy for Crest, which went gold.

[JJ88]

^With ELP, Asia have to be mentioned. ELPowell did OK, though I wouldn't personally say it was as overtly 'commercial' as some of these. 3 was more in line with an AOR sound and didn't do so well.

Genesis stretched it into the 90s with We Can't Dance, and without the 'help' of the 'song doctors' that the likes of Aerosmith had.

As for which older acts had an unsuccessful 80s, Neil Young did until Freedom. He famously had a lawsuit filed by his own, then-new record label for 'unrepresentative' output.

Really Black Sabbath also fell away after Dio left. Born Again with Gillan did OK-ish, but after that...

[Vic2012]

I've heard a few of the Tony Martin albums. It wasn't thrash or hair metal. It was traditional, British heavy metal.

[arturs]

^^ re: Sabbath... I was counting the Dio period as the successful "re-tooling". I agree they fell off a cliff commercially after that, even if they continued to put out some decent quality metal albums.

[JJ88]

^It was a reinvention, but the Dio era wasn't really an MTV-friendly, commercial sort of thing like these others.

I would tend to agree that Jethro Tull didn't really have that one really big hit album or single. But they weren't doing too badly.

Maybe 'supergroup' The Firm can go in the list of failures. Not the finest achievement of anyone concerned IMHO. I get the feeling it was expected to do better than it did.

I guess The Moody Blues can also be added to the list of successes, as they had a few big 80s US hits.

It was the 90s that would prove a bigger challenge for a lot of these acts.

[GuitarGeek]

Ya gotta love them referring to Jon ANderson as being "helium voiced". I guess it wouldn't be a mainstream article if they didn't take a pot shot at something like that.

I wonder what Trevor Horn meant he said that the band would "ruin my career" if he let them use Alan White on Owner Of A Lonely Heart.

[pb2015]

It was the 90s that would prove a bigger challenge for a lot of these acts.

I think one or two of the memoirs from those musicians mentioned that after 1991 or 92 there was no chance radio would play their new records.

[pb2015]

The article mentions Yes, ZZ Top and Don Henley, but there were many... Genesis, Bad Company, Heart, (Jefferson) Starship, Aerosmith, Sabbath, and even Fleetwood Mac (who had already re-tooled once in the 70s with a sound very different from their late 1960s successes).

Chicago

[pb2015]

I'd never heard those stories about 90125, particularly the ones about the drum machine.

I hadn't read that particular story either. I do remember reading that Alan White's high pitched snare on "Owner" was controversial with the a&r people.

[kirk781]

Paywalled.

If one is on Firefox, then the Bypass Paywalls Clean Extension does the job for many such sites including this one. Not that it's worth it in this case, because not much is devoted to Yes and it's not very in depth either [the whole article].

[GuitarGeek]

Chicago

David Foster admits he "fucked up" (his words) Chicago.

[happytheman]

David Foster admits he "fucked up" (his words) Chicago.

In the Netflix bio I watched some time ago he was a bit arrogant re: what he did with/for Chicago..

[Baribrotzer]

.......even Fleetwood Mac.

Fleetwood Mac were in the odd position of being a band with no sound of their own. They were a solid - but non-singing, non-songwriting - rhythm section, and an established name. So whoever joined Mick and John to front and write for them became the band's sound. Yes, Christine did sing and write, but wasn't quite strong enough at either to carry that whole weight; she was a George with no John or Paul and needed a Bob Welch or a Lindsay + Stevie to share the load.

[pb2015]

In the Netflix bio I watched some time ago he was a bit arrogant re: what he did with/for Chicago..

I understand being (at least) "a bit arrogant" is Foster's style.

[Scrotum Scissor]

It's Ok.

[Batchman]

If one is on Firefox, then the Bypass Paywalls Clean Extension does the job for many such sites including this one. Not that it's worth it in this case, because not much is devoted to Yes and it's not very in depth either [the whole article].

Or just stick "https://archive.is/" in front of the full URL. Works for NYTimes and WAPost among others.

[Piskie]

I can't think of one 70s band that got better in the 80s.

[Batchman]

I can't think of one 70s band that got better in the 80s.

King Crimson.

[mozo-pg]

King Crimson.

I don't think so. Red and Lark's Tongue (just two examples) are superior to their 80's. Discipline is impressive too. Not Beat and Three (which are good but not groundbreaking).