ACDC, end of an era

C.K Dexter Haven wrote: »

Leonard Cohen, Roy Orbison, Tom Waits....the list goes on, and doesn't include U2- not by a long shot.

Waits has been largely ploughing the same furrow for donkeys, Cohen has only really ever had one furrow to plough, Orbison was in the wilderness for decades and largely came back on a wave of nostalgia. I'm talking about people at the peak of their talents and still being relevant to new audiences coming along and not in a nostalgic way, but in a novel one. The reason I included U2 is that they had a few peaks along their long career and reinvented themselves along the way, from the Lillywhite period, to Eno, to Acthung baby. There's a wide gulf between New Years day and Zoo Station. They've certainly gone downhill in the last decade, but they sustained the creativity and novelty longer than their contemporaries in other bands. Madonna would be a solo example of the breed.