What's the greatest moment of revenge in Music History?

Or self preservation - Lou was existing on speed. "My weak beats your year" as he said in the MMM liner notes.

Also not all people are cut out for the stupidity and intrusions of mainstream fame, so he killed it before it killed him and lived out his career as a cult artist. It took a lot of balls, self belief and arrogance. Not many artists in the same precarious situation have that, so they end up killing themselves, see Kurt Cobain, or overdosing out of desperation, see dozens of dead legacy artists.

 

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I always thought that Neil Young’s commercial and critical success with Freedom, Ragged Glory, Harvest Moon, Sleeps With Angels and Mirror Ball was a hell of a middle finger to David Geffen. (Someone earlier in the thread also mentioned the excellent example of ‘Everybody’s Rockin’, so I guess old Neil was doubling down!)

 

Geffen became a billionaire in 1990/1991, aged 47, by which time he was far removed from the daily pettiness of the music biz.

 

good call! i always wondered how she was able to do that.

 

Mike Love scoring a number one hit without Brian Wilson, while Wilson's critically-acclaimed album wouldn't sell.

 

So he got his revenge on Neil for (presumably) losing him money….

Yeah, any notion of revenge is pure imagination on my part, but I always found it ironic that Neil re-found success soon after switching back to Reprise, after a string of commercial failures with Geffen. Almost as if he were deliberately releasing commercial turkeys to spite Geffen (certainly the case with Everybody’s Rockin’), and then releasing gems as soon as he was free from Geffen.

 

That's not revenge that's just the stupidity of mass consumption.

 

Dean Martin mocking the Rolling Stones on television (Hollywood Palace) in 1964.

Keith Richards gets even by sleeping with Dino's daughter.

Mick And Keith: What We've Learned (So Far)

 

I'd hardly call This Notes for You a gem but it was better than all the Geffen albums except for Trans.

 

So many artists get dropped and then get a new lease of life on another label. Many are already mentioned here. There was also Bonnie Raitt - Warner Bros. -> Capitol; Shaggy - Virgin -> MCA; Wallflowers - Virgin -> Interscope; Johnny Cash - Mercury -> American; Aerosmith - Columbia -> Geffen (!). I doubt any of them saw their renewed success as revenge. Bonnie Raitt certainly didn't when I asked her. It's just the stars aligning.

 

The audiophile turning their noses at the various stereo rag reviewers and making MQA a non factor

 

Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord

 

I don’t know if it’s in covered here in this thread but bachman-turner overdrive… Randy Bachman wrote “hey you” for Burton Cummings his old partner in the Guess Who. Burton felt like he was the successful one of the group - Bachmann turned out to be more successful with his years in BTO

 

MY FAVORITE: Decca refusing the Beatles...Incredible blunder.

 

is this kokomo then orange crate art era?

 

Kokomo handily outselling BW’s 1988 solo album.

 

well. stars and/or. but i like that one and joe smith really did as well.

i'll give you the antithesis of this. al teller signed patty smythe twice. once to cbs once to mca. she was the warrior lol

gimme "lets' give' em something to talk about" for 1000 alex.

 

yes, thanks. i know much about kokomo and those involved. orange was van dyke and wilson, of course.

i never heard BW solo in 88. but pushed "crate" as hard as i was able. at the time.

 

Yes, few people realize that everything the Beatles did was a calculated act of vengeance against Dick Rowe's valid decision.

 

To me that is almost, almost understandable. Even George Martin said, he had NO idea what was underneath their surface charm, when he signed them for a one-off single.

The part that makes absolutely NO sense, even today, is what came next.

"I'm sorry Mr Epstein, but guitar groups are on the way out." LOL

I could see not seeing the nascent diamonds in the rough, few did, but to miss the dominant trend of popular music for the the next 20 years? And Rowe was the talent guy at Decca?

 

Brahwahhhhaaa.....guffaw, brahahuuaaa!

Well played, sir!

 

fair enough, but still the biggest blunder ever...

 

gee thanks! that was enlightening! feel better? Hope so...: )

 

Perhaps.....with 20/20 hindsight.