What artist had the potential for a better album than what their discography ultimately delivered?

MC5

 

All I can say to that is: I disagree; he has produced several masterpieces. But I can see how someone would think that who never heard any album earlier than, say, A Single Man. Are you familiar with all eras of Elton?

 

David Johansen.

I'm talking about his solo work here, not the OG Dolls albums or the 21st century "Dolls" albums. And just to be clear, I’m a fan. I’ve seen him live several times in his various incarnations, even got to meet him (and Syl, RIP) backstage in the late 1970s.

But the first phase of his solo career was an exercise in diminishing returns, with each of the three albums following his stellar self-titled 1978 debut mattering less than its predecessor, as he tried (and mostly failed) to win a mainstream audience, bottoming out with the godawful, synth-driven Sweet Revenge.

By 1984, tired of playing the sacrificial opening act at heavy-metal "Hitler Youth rallies" (his words), he developed his "Buster Poindexter" persona — a tuxedo-clad, pompadoured, wisecracking, jump-blues bon vivant whose shows at NYC’s Tramps & The Bottom Line were must-see events.

Unfortunately, like many great live acts, Buster (and his Banshees of Blue) did not translate to the studio; his rather bloodless 1987 debut offered mostly slick, TV-ready fodder, nowhere more than with the dreaded & ubiquitous "Hot Hot Hot." Three more Buster albums followed, with only one, Buster's Happy Hour (1994) coming close to showcasing the musical & emotional range of his live shows.

Things did improve on the recording front with Johansen's two early-Aughts traditional blues albums, credited to David Johansen & the Harry Smiths. The second of these, Shaker (2002) is the must-have; it’s been in regular rotation here since its release!

So, basically just three studio keepers (the 1978 S/T, Buster's Happy Hour, and Shaker) in a solo career of 40-plus years. Which, of course, is three more than most people put out, but still…

 

I'm... incredibly confused by all this.
Warren Zevon had his biggest (only?) hit in 1978, several years before Letterman even had a show??
Kenny Rogers has no connection to the Bee Gees other than the fact that he scored a #1 hit with a song they wrote, after he'd been the biggest country artist for 5 years?

 

Yes, I wanted to comment along those lines, but I thought it was best left to an American... but, Kenny Rogers getting his start courtesy of The Bee Gees? That's a bit of a howler.

 

Letterman gave Zevon plenty of respect on-air, which reached a demographic who made him a cult icon. With an artist such as this, why would a chart rank matter. He gained cred from a hip public figure, which could have gotten him further as an artist.
Kenny & Dolly both "broke" format, and crossed-over into a completely different audience, outside the "bubble" Country can lock people into. Kenny's Christmas albums were the easiest way he could engage that audience without abandoning the Country cred he'd been earning since the First Edition. but with MTV changing the landscape, he didn't have much latitude there after his crossover hits.

I'm giving examples of artists I feel had more potential outside of where they were, due to the connections and associations they had made in their careers. But I seldom just "list people" in threads like this, I try to show unconsidered connections to outside influences that also contribute to what an artist can do. If all you can see are what all these artists have already done, all this thread gets is a list of names.

 

Yep, no idea where the original comment came from.
Quick check on Wiki.....
Number of #1 country hits Kenny Rogers had before ever meeting the Bee Gees: 11 (plus an additional 8 Top 10's)
Number of Top 40 POP hits Rogers had prior to the Bee Gees: 16 (including the #1 "Lady," which was a bigger pop hit than "Islands")

 

Better than "American Beauty, ""Workingman's Dead" and about half of "From the Mars Hotel"?

Damn, I'm glad I don't work for you in the Cumberland mine!

 

Asia.

4 world class musicians, with track records of making creative music with some depth.

They produced seriously schlocky, bland, overproduced, formulaic, cheesy rock. For me, painful to listen to.

 

American Beauty and Workingman's Dead are great albums, but their studio work never really captured the magic of their live performances.

 

Nobody ever said "he got his start" with "Islands", but this was a track from writers in that side of pop, which gave he and Dolly extra crossover success in a format where they would not have. How often do you think an Annifrid Lyngstad solo album would get any support from a radio format burned-out by ABBA years before that...if then-hot producer Phil Collins hadn't worked on it?

I'm not just an American, I'm a broadcast fly-on-the-wall that observes these strategic decisions get made, and how who gets spins, how charts affect airplay, fame and sales, which drives layperson fans here to distraction... just because I want to share perspectives they don't see, yet still contribute to what they grew up hearing.

 

I'm just guessing here, but I suspect Zevon liked having the budgets and marketing push of an artist-friendly label like Asylum in the '70s & early 80s.... Over being a cult figure with one late-night talk show host championing him (while radio ignored him).
Look, I love Zevon. I'm glad Dave gave him props and made sure people didn't forget about him. But "where would Warren be without Letterman"?? Well, in the '70s BEFORE Dave, he was on a great label making critically-acclaimed albums with assistance from Jackson Browne and Fleetwood Mac's rhythm section, and having his songs covered by Linda Ronstadt, one of the biggest pop stars of the time.
Between 1978 and 1982, Zevon had 3 Top 100 albums for Asylum. During the era when Letterman was at his cultural peak (late '80s through the 2000's), Zevon only cracked the Billboard 200 once (Life'll Kill Ya peaked at #173).... Until his final album The Wind, and we all know the circumstances there.

Are you forgetting that Kenny did the same thing 3 years earlier, on a bigger scale, with Lionel Richie and "Lady"? First song to chart on Pop, Country, AC, and R&B simultaneously in the '80s, and hit #1 on 3 of those 4. "Islands" was also a crossover on 3 of those 4 charts, but didn't do anything on the R&B side. (Dolly Parton also had her own triple-crossover #1 years earlier as well, with "9 To 5.")
Following the Bee Gees, Kenny and Dolly didn't suddenly see huge upticks in their careers. If anything, both of them experienced huge DECLINES on the pop side.... Kenny only had 2 more Top 40 hits before disappearing from that chart completely after 1984. (He'd had 16 Top 40 hits pre-Gibb.) And Dolly, who'd had 6 Top 40 hits previous to the Bee Gees, would never touch the pop Top 40 again after "Islands."

So to argue your point, it seems like Kenny and Dolly were both well outside the "bubble" of country music before the Bee Gees, only to go back INSIDE the bubble following that huge hit. I'd also argue that Kenny's career definitely declined overall post-Bee Gees, so any "crossover" momentum he picked up from that single was short-lived.

 

Nope. I'm only forgetting that I'm not allowed to make my own opinions and reflections and contributions in this thread like others do, because...reasons.

 

I have all the albums from the late 60s and 70s, and as I hoped to indicate, I was sure my take would sound sacrilegious. I do happen to think that the cream of Elton's singles discography could make an album to rank with the 30 greatest albums ever, that's how much I respect his talent. But, to me, as an "album" artist, he's not on the highest level. Agree to disagree, and respect your reverence for his albums. Which is your favorite?

 

Prince. I always felt he had it in him to provide a few more classic albums post-1995 but following The Gold Experience (IMHO his last truly great album) his work was patchy at best. A few great moments here and there but overall the albums were bland & unchallenging. Planet Earth came very close in 2005 but even it had its filler moments. And now we’ll never know.

 

Wrong! The Visitors was their masterpiece and I’d even make as case that Arrival is a great pop album if you loosen your pop snobbery!

 

Triumph. If they had a real top producer and Rik Emmett was put in a position to sing and write an entire album.

 

Mothers Finest

 

My favourite would have to be Elton John, with Caribou a close second, but GYBR and Captain Fantastic and several others I also rate highly.

I'm not saying that every single song on those albums is a winner, but I think an album can have one or two dodgy tracks and still be a great album, and by extension the artist a great "album artist".

 

I know who!
Katy Perry
Pendulum (the band not the Creedence album)
ELP
Linkin Park (can they write songs about something else?)
Porcupine Tree
Maybe, Gentle Giant
Steven Wilson and his solo career
The Pineapple Thief
Rolling Stones (possibly)
Moody Blues

 

Yeah and he just kept releasing too much stuff, much of which sub par, I think Warner had a point, although he will always be a legend for everything up until TGE.

 

Except that, by that time, Clapton was all doe-eyed about The Band. Extremely difficult to see how the direction that he was heading would fit with them.

 

"Roger the Engineer" is pretty good, but most people don't know any of the songs other than "Over Under Sideways Down" and maybe "Lost Woman." I guess it says something that this was also the first actual studio album they had -- they really were a band that made great singles but struggled on LPs.

I will say that side one of "Having a Rave-Up" plus "Shapes of Things" makes for one of the finest EP's of 60s material, easily rivalling what The Beatles and Stones put out in '65/'66.

 

The Polyphonic Spree