The idea for this thread is based on something Wardo said in the Sting: Live In Berlin Featuring The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra thread:

http://www.imwan.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=67726


Question for all ICErs: have you ever been so put off by an artist's later work that it changed your opinion of the earlier work?

Chubby Checker.

Twist it Up had me rethinking The Twist, Twistin' U.S.A., Let's Twist Again, and Slow Twistin'.

Reaching the point with Rod Stewart and Sting, although I don't think either could lose me as completely as REM and Billy Joel have done.

REM lost me after they signed with a major label -- enough that I pretty much can't listen to any of the indy work.

interesting:

REM
billy joel
aimee mann
tracy chapman
rod stewart


close:
paul mccartney (solo)
chicago (post terry kath)

U2
Steely Dan

I would say Rod Stewart. but the way Linda posed the question with "changed your opinion of the earlier work"......I still love the Jeff Beck Group albums, Faces albums, and his solo stuff up through Never A Dull Moment......so my opinion of the early work is still great despite not being able to stand him now.

Probably the Doors...I discovered the "Greatest Hits" material in high school, but burned out on it after a year or two...never found the rest of their catalog particularly compelling, was extremely disappointed to learn how poorly they sounded live, was bored silly by Morrison's poetry, and was finally unable to take them seriously at all after the Oliver Stone movie--"Let'sh fuck death *hic* away!"

Neil Young is seriously trying to put me off him. I have everything he ever did but his last few CDs really don't do it for me.

Perhaps Neil is going to do what he did in 1989 and release his big 'comeback' album like Freedom was.

While there's tons of artists where I like their early work & dislike their later work, I can't think of any that I've dropped due to it.

Considered it with Ted Nugent & Marshall Tucker, but that was due to politics (though both are musically lame these days also), but haven't even dropped them.

Shelby Lynne.

Loved her early country / big band / swing / Bob Willis inspired stuff....LOVED IT!!

When she left country behind, her stuff just ceased to grab me. Still...a dynamic voice, but it just doesn't hit me like it used to.

I really don't see how it's possible, for me anyway. Once I like music from any artist, I never stop liking it. A lot of artists who have released albums I love have also released albums I don't care for. I can't blame the music I enjoy on the music I don't like. The thing to do is to not buy or listen to the artist's records that puts me off (unless or until my taste or theirs changes).

The Band. All the albums after Stage Fright hinted at it but when the CDs were released with bonus tracks it showed how much of a fluke the first two albums were. They were also hit or miss as a live act. The guys at Capitol who sequenced the albums and picked which takes of the songs to use were the real geniuses.

Billy Joel: He's still a terrific live artist, but as I've gotten older, I've come to feel that his songwriting has always (by and large) been lame and shlocky.

Michael Jackson (solo): The Jackson Five will always be great in my book. I've never been a huge fan of his solo albums, although the singles from The Wall and Thriller are pretty infectious. However, from Bad - onwards, I feel that his singing and songwriting deteriorated badly. Vocally, I found him to be increasingly shrill and lazy.