Quick round up of other examples of burning out and fading away, in reference to my previous post.
One thing of note is this is all subjective; I do not have a solid metric on this. It’s all opinion-based. I suppose you could measure all of this in terms of commerce or by doing straw polls, but I’d much prefer to force my opinion on everyone. That’s just what happens when you wallow in the anonymity of the internet.
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Round 1:
John Lennon Vs. Paul McCartney
John Lennon was violently murdered. Paul McCartney has made a healthy career of writing silly love songs. Lennon is an icon for peace, with his face plastered all over merchandise and his wife stoking the fires with a seemingly endless collection of cash-in posthumous releases, limited edition shoes and baby toys. McCartney writes silly love songs, still, to this day!
Advantage: Lennon.
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Round 2:
Nirvana Vs. Pearl Jam.
Kurt Cobain was drug addict who committed violent suicide. Eddie Vedder really hates right-wingers. Nirvana flamed out with minimal studio output, while Pearl Jam has been rockin’ in the free world for twenty plus years. Nirvana is legendary; Pearl Jam is respected. Nirvana caught the Lennon bug and issue a healthy amount of posthumous material (not nearly as much as Lennon). Pearl Jam have operated admirably as a mainstream band with ethics who fight the power, promote left-wing causes, and kiss babies.
One could very easily make the argument that, in fact, Pearl Jam has more closely operated to the punk rock ethos that Kurt Cobain was so fond of referencing. While Kurt joined the 27 club and his wife and bandmates fought like hungry dogs, Pearl Jam operated largely on their own terms, and continue to do so.
But….walk into any given Hot Topic and you’re going to see a whole lot of Cobain’s pouting face and very little of Eddie Vedder’s.
Advantage: Nirvana.
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Round 3:
Sublime Vs. Sublime with Rome
Sublime died in 1996, when lead singer Bradley Nowell died of a heroin overdose…..
…..Only to be gratuitously resurrected in 2009. Initially, Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh called the outfit Sublime, with a younger fellow named Rome Ramirez, who I’m told plays guitar and sings, but I’ve yet to find palpable evidence to prove it.
….And then Nowell’s family intervened. Hence the name change.
Sublime were great musicians and Bradley Nowell had a great voice. Two thirds of Sublime with Rome are great musicians and the other third has a voice that should be sold to accompany vinyl siding.
Seriously, Sublime with Rome must be a ploy to sell back copies of Sublime albums by reminding you what a truly distinct talent Bradley Nowell was. He could wail on guitar, he had a positively angelic voice, and he could pilfer African-American music better than Led Zeppelin.
Really, well played, boys. Van Halen pulled the same shit for eleven years with Sammy Hagar, the sucker.
Advantage: Sublime.
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I only have three rounds. I hope they meant as much to you as they did to me. Maybe you have some you’d like to share?
