Would you rather -- music edition

This thread is an example of why this is my favorite place on the internet. I had never heard of Big Star. This search led me to the Modern Lovers where I was reminded that Jerry Harrison was a member before Talking Heads. This then led me to his solo album Casual Gods which I loved back in the day. I then listened to Man With a Gun for the first time in 20 years. I love that song!!!

 

According to Wikipedia, he hd a comeback in 1985 after a rough patch in late 70’s

 

From wiki:

Money continued his successes and took advantage of the MTV music video scene in the early 1980s with his humorous narrative videos for "Shakin'" and "Think I'm in Love," but his career began to decline after an unsuccessful album in 1983, accompanied by his struggles with drug addiction.

Money made a comeback in 1986, and returned to the mainstream rock spotlight with the album Can't Hold Back. The album's Ronnie Spector duet "Take Me Home Tonight" reached the Top 10, as did the hit "I Wanna Go Back".[citation needed] Money followed the album with another Top 10 hit, "Walk on Water" (1988), but his Top 40 career ended following the number 21 placement of "I'll Get By" in 1992.

Sounds like he was pretty big through the 80s, especially the early 80s, with one bad album in '83 that he recovered quickly from -- top 10 hits through 1988 and a borderline top 20 hit in '92 before he hit the skids. Not to go all OOP, but my point is that there's no way he was relegated to frathouse keggers in the early 80s when he was playing stadiums touring with the Who.

 

I now see that Eddie Money has a reality TV show on a network of which I've never heard. How far down the list of potential aging rockers did they get before Eddie Money was the first to say yes?

 

Eddie was pretty good in concert Saturday night. He sounded better than he did when I heard him a couple years ago. He was bit senile, though, telling Dad Jokes, a couple that he repeated. He also mentioned his aunt in the audience a half dozen times.


His son played a couple of songs from his band, Dez Money and the Faze, that were pretty good.

 

I saw him a couple years ago at some Ribfest or something I was stuck covering and he was awful. I was assuming it was just a bad night. I try not to judge performers at that age, though. I can't imagine the voice is going to fire up perfectly each and every night (Or in Bob Dylan's case ever again) at that age and after that many thousands of hours straining those vocal chords.

 

He headlined the lounge at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Natick (next Boston suburb over from here) a few years ago. They've tried to become a concert venue -- their focus is has-beens (ie. The Fixx, who are apparently still kicking around, and 10,000 Maniacs without Natalie Merchant. I'd love for them to get a Florida Redneck Jam in there with what's left of Lynyrd Skynyrd (I believe 1 original member and a couple of Ronnie Van Zant's brothers), Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot and the Outlaws. That might be kind of fun.

 

I think the Alarm might have played there recently too -- without a drummer, using a drum machine instead (unless they were somewhere else nearby).

I'd still rather be any of these bands (Eddie Money, the Fixx, the Alarm) with a few hits under my belt than a one-hit wonder.

 

It also might be cool to be part of a moderately successful band that's never big enough to headline major venues but stays recognizable and relevant for a while. Make a decent upper-middle-class existence doing something creative and rewarding with some of the perks of stardom but without being recognized everywhere. I sat next to a member of the Supersuckers at a Red Sox game a few years ago and from what he was describing he had a pretty great life.

 

Funny that you post that. I heard a new Jayhawks song on the radio and thought of this thread.

That band has been around for 30 years with some moderate commercial success, but no big hits. Still has enough of a following to make a living though.

 

In fairness, I met the guy in Supersuckers more than 15 years ago when people were still buying CDs. Now with the paltry earnings from streaming, unless you're getting your songs licensed, I doubt you're making that much unless you're really big.

 

There's a New Orleans band called Cowboy Mouth that's like that. They were a Southern staple when I was in college in the mid-90s.
They had one very modest alternative hit in the mid-90s, had a few songs licensed for commercials and things here and there, and still tour and pump out music. Two of the original members are still with the band (the bass player has always rotated and one of the founding members left after Katrina), and they still seem to have a good enough following after 25 years or so that they can play the Ribfest/small club and bar circuit at $20 a ticket. Seems like they make a comfortable enough living to keep doing it year after year as blue collar working musicians.