It's always fascinating to me to see a true talent destroy his/herself. It could be drugs or ego or bad management that lead to this flameout, but it's interesting to watch it happen. here are my favorite examples:

1. Rod Stewart: this guy was arguably the greatest Mod singer of all time. Back in the mid-sixties no one could touch him. His work with the Faces and his fisrt few solo albums are truly excellent. Now people remember him only for "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" and countless awful power ballads. Go back and listen to "Every Picture Tells a Story" some time. The guy was ridiculously talented. Too bad.

2. Evan Dando: Potential galore squandered here. "It's a Shame About Ray" is still one of my favorite albums from the last 15 years. The guy had talent, teen-idol looks, a great band, lots of powerful friends in the business. Too bad he is a crackhead. His new album is pretty damn good, we'll see how long it lasts. He also idolized my next flame-out:

3. Graham Parsons: the progenitor of alternative country. His work with the Flying Burrito Brothers and the Byrds is amazingly good. His solo albums are exceptional. He helped the Stones make "Exile on Main Street". The guy was a bonafide genius (Wilco would be nowhere without him). Think if he had lived just a little longer...

4. Th La's: people have totally forgotten this band. Their debut pretty much started the whole neo Brit-Pop thing (with the Stone Roses) and still sounds terrific. "Looking Glass" is absolutely amazing. Lee Mavers lost his mind and the band never recovered. He's still making music, and apparently it's terrific, but he refused to perform or record. Our loss.

5. Love: Arthur Lee is my favorite musician to come out of the Sixties LA scene. More goth than Morrison, he probably had a better and even more inventive ear than Brian Wilson and was more talented than everyone else. He was only able to make 2 great albums before folding. Now he's in jail. What a waste.

6. Kevin Shields: He was one of the most visionary musicians of the past 20 years. He created worlds of sound that rivaled Hendrix in their complexity and uniqueness. He's a primary influence on everything that's come out of England since him. His work with Primal Scream excepted, now he's a complete flameout.

7. Nas: His first album is an East Coast classic, prefiguring guys like Talib Kweli by a few years. His introspective lyrics were probing and insightful. Now he makes terrible bling party music. Biggest hip-hop sellout since Q-Tip.

I'm sure there are many more....

Prince, dammit!

Somebody should pull Larry Graham's head out of his ass, send the funky little man through intensive cult de-programming and then lock him in a studio with every instrument known to man and a mixing console at his disposal.

Would it be too much to ask for a straight ahead funk album from the man? Enough with the Najee, flutey new-age ******** and the psychotic paranoid religious tirades, already.

Just play the music again. Just play.

I agree with Prince. I thought Rainbow Children had some decent cuts on it though. Definitely better than the few releases prior.

Hiro, I entered the thread to say Lee Mavers as well. I saw them live in a small club in '91 and never would I have dreamed how quickly the La's would fade away. A true shame. Yeah, and what's up with Evan Dando? "Shame About Ray" was great from start to finish, but I wouldn't touch anything after that.

Prince has been hashed out on this thread before, but I don't recall me ever losing interest in anyone so quickly. After "Sign o' the Times" I checked out. Actually, I liked "Alphabet St."... THEN I checked out.

I'll have to think of some new ones to post when I have more time.

I would have added the Stone Roses to the list. Yeah, so they did break up but still . . . after their first two albums, the next one, "Second Coming", was pretty much crap except for the one song and then they broke up. And I haven't heard anything from any of the members since except for the ones who made that one Seahorses album.

Didn't know Evan Dando was a crack-head. Plus, the Lemonheads' followup to Ray was pretty week, IMO, and I stopped paying attention.

I'll go ahead and say "Kurt Cobain" -- the ONLY positive result from his departure was setting Dave Grohl loose to form the Foo Fighters. But I'm convinced there was at least one more great Nirvana album to be realized.

Jim Morrison -- I'm prepared to admit that he was finished as a musician/songwriter, but his talents as a writer and potential filmmaker could have been worth seeing brought to the fore.

Shannon Hoon -- Don't laugh. I liked Blind Melon.

Andrew Wood -- The Seattle Martyr, Mother Love Bone. Without his death, there would be no Pearl Jam, but he was fun to listen to.

Guns N Roses -- destroyed by bloat, and Use Your Illusion would have been a fantastic album had it been distilled into one worthwhile CD with a B-Sides release six months later under a different name, instead of what we got with The Spaghetti Incident.

Pink Floyd -- destroyed by infighting. Such a shame, too; I'd like to hear 'Amused to Death' with Gilmour on guitars.

hmm... well, i can make an argument for this, so...

Carter Beauford - drummer for Dave Matthews Band.

now, i hesitate on this one, because Carter is not all that restricted in the band - he's pretty much able to do whatever he wants, and IMO, he MAKES the band. but, musical talent-wise, he is just absolutely light years beyond anyone else in the band, and i would just rather see him playing with other (better) musicians that are more on his own level... for instance, his work with Victor Wooten was absolutely incredible...

Ditto on Evan Dando. I actually liked portions of the next two Lemonheads albums, which to me emphasizes his lost potential. Even crack-addled he could turn out some great stuff. (Agree, however, that they don't come close to Ray.)

And there's another thread that's sorta covering this same ground, but Ryan Adams appears thisclose to completely losing it.

Weezer....the Pink album was even better than the blue album...then it went downhill

Will Smith, LL Cool J, Jeff Buckley, Nico

Forgot to add Phil Collins and Elton John

We Pink Floyd fans will forever mourn the loss of the relationship between Gilmour and Waters. It was every bit as essential as Lennon/McCartney. But we can still be grateful for the music they left us.

I was disappointed most in recent times with the (de) evolution of The Wu-Tang Clan. After releasing arguably the greatest hip-hop album of all time in their debut, they became so totally inconsistent after a few short years. Now they're only fitfully good or great.

Check out his singing on Wake Up in New York by Craig Armstrong. This is brilliance.

Hey Hiro1, Name one BLING party song Nas has made recently. Stillmatic and Godson are dope. I don't think there are "party songs" on there.

"I know I can (I know I can)
Be what I wanna be (be what I wanna be)
If I work hard at it (If I work hard it)
I'll be where I wanna be (I'll be where I wanna be)"

Not a "party song", but a pretty bad hook.

But I agree with you, he has gotten MUCH better after Nastradamus, though he will never again make an album as good as Illmatic. The whole Firm period if what made him drop in many eyes. Stillmatic changed all of that. There is no way you can say that he is a "hip-hop sellout", see Nelly & Ja Rule...

I also disagree with the Wu Tang Clan, there new stuff will grow on you if you give it more than 1 listen. Gza & Ghosts solo LP's are top 10 albums over the past couple of years.

Now if you want to add a Hip-Hop group to this list, add The Fugees, or even Lauren Hill as a solo artist. But Nas and Wu are way off, at least they are still making music.

Rod Stewart - hands down.

His first three or four albums were works of near perfection - and his work with the Faces during that time gave The Rolling Stones a run for their money - but then he pissed it away when he got a taste of fame and started to care more about his image than his music.

It hurts when I listen to those early albums because I hear what could have been that was just squandered.

Have to agree on Rod. Love the early stuff A LOT. Then came the L.A. lifestyle and it went to the crapper.

I also feel the same way about Elton John. The first few were brilliant but turned rotten as well.

Pink Floyd is a damn shame.

I also love Aeorsmith, early again. The last 15 years has been just trash as well. Hopefully this new one will be what they promise it to be.

Van Halen is another that has been worthless for a long time IMHO.

I'm surprised by all the Evan Dando fans here. While I admit to not knowing much of the Lemonheads, I remember seeing one video from them, (their cover of Mrs. Robinson), and I have to say that based on just that one song (and how he butchered it), I thought he was just a completely boring, monotonous, and unexpressive singer, and I had no desire to hear anything else from him. I guess I'll have to hear some of his other stuff sometime.

That cover is one of my favorite covers of all time. But I don't hold that against you.

I'd agree that Dando wasn't the world's best singer (though he's not bad), but I always thought his strength was songwriting -- good hooks and lyrics.

i give the purple one another vote. poor what's-his-name-now-was-unintelligible-symbol-after-being-prince. what a loss!
-di doctor-

Oh, hell yeah.

Mother Love Bone was freaking great. A nice bridge between the "glam" of the 80s metal and grunge.

"Apple" was a killer album, and I'd recommend it to anybody.

I like I can, has pretty good message, Nas doesn't equal 1/100 of Sell outs like Nelly and Ja Rule. Holla

Ice Cube back in his Death Certificate days his stuff was on point brutally honest some of it was even racist but he rarely came off as dumb and no one other than Slick Rick could tell a story better and force black people to blame themselves just as much if not more than they blame "The Man". But know that Cube is gone and we have "The Don Mega" stereotypical party gangsta OOh how I long for it to be 1991 again.

Good thread-just want to point out that Arthur Lee is no longer in jail. I saw him play a great live show last year w/Baby Lemonade backing him up.

<small> </small>Yes, he has been to Britain twice since his release: I am kicking myself that I didn't get around to seeing him then.

GNR
Layne Staley (Alice In Chains)
2Pac
Pink Floyd