Bands that jumped the Shark
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Forum Description: General progressive music discussions
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=270
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Topic: Bands that jumped the Shark
Posted By: Dan Bobrowski
Subject: Bands that jumped the Shark
Date Posted: March 05 2004 at 12:28
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A television reviewer I'd heard an interview with has a term,"Jumping the Shark" which refers to the point where creativity wanes and the artist attempts something to try to gather attention. On the TV show Happy Days, the audience was losing interest so the producers sent the actors to Hawaii. Fonzi, in shorts and a leather jacket, Jumps a shark while waterskiing. That signaled the end of the show, grasping at straws, the writers ran out of ideas. This happens in music,too. Anyway, which bands released an album that "Jumped the Shark?" ELP - Love Beach Genesis - Abacab Yes - Big Generator
(No offense to member Shark intended) |
(I liked some of it)
(What happened?)
(Shoot High, Aim Low is the only reason I still own it)Replies:
Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: March 05 2004 at 15:10
| I can't think of anything off-hand except for when Spinal Tap is reduced to playing gigs on air force bases and playing second fiddle to puppet shows! One of the funniest movies ever made next to The Holy Grail. |
Posted By: shark
Date Posted: March 05 2004 at 19:30
| No offence taken danbo! Add Tull's Under Wraps to your list. |
Posted By: Peter
Date Posted: March 06 2004 at 02:34
 Big time, Sharkie! The worst Tull disc I've ever heard -- even worse than "Kissing Willie" on the undistinguished ROCK ISLAND!------------- "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy. |
Posted By: Redstar
Date Posted: March 06 2004 at 03:12
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Gentle Giant -CIVILIAN. Eek. ------------- "http://mywebpages.comcast.net/moorglade/index.html" - 'There's a fine line between stupid and...clever' 
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Posted By: Alexander
Date Posted: March 06 2004 at 03:18
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Hmm... If you consider Soft Machine's Land of Cockayne a "Jump the Shark" analogy, then sure, but I did enjoy some tracks. ------------- On A Dilemmia Between What I Need & What I Just Want 
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Posted By: The Owl
Date Posted: March 06 2004 at 13:32
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PFM - After the brilliant "Jet Lag", they just slid into pop mediocrity Return to Forever - Referring to the "Gayle Moran" edition ("Music Magic", "RTF-Live") with the horns and all, cheesy as a Broadway show, EEEEEEEEK! Mahavishnu Orchestra - MK I & II were brilliant (Gayle Moran notwithstanding), but "Inner Worlds" and the 80's Mahavishnu stuff TOTALLY BLEW!! Zappa - After Zoot Allures, it was straight downhill!, a lot of stupid jokes as opposed to actual humor he once excelled in (although a lot of the purely instrumental stuff was still good).
------------- People are puzzled why I don't dig the Stones, well, I listened to the Stones, I tried, and I tried, and I tried, and--I Can't Get No Satisfaction! www.myspace.com/theowlsmusic |
Posted By: Joren
Date Posted: March 07 2004 at 11:31
| I don't agree with you about Zappa. The albums after Zoot Allures are different. I can see why you don't like the humour, but I think that albums like Sheik Yerbouti are cool, in their own right. And there's still a lot of comments on society on Joe's Garage and You Are What You Is, so Frank remained sharp! |
Posted By: dude
Date Posted: March 23 2004 at 19:33
SHEIK YERBOUTI!!!...Maybe you should stay with your mamma(mamma!) she could do your laundry and cook for you!!,....maybe you should stay with your mamma(mamma!) your really kind of stupid and ugly too!!...and what about "Dancing Fool"(looking for Mr Goodbar!!?....well HERE HE IS!!!).......GREAT ALBUM
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Posted By: arqwave
Date Posted: March 24 2004 at 01:39
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i agree with the love beach album, and: yes: talk kansas: power queensryche: Q2K and i disagree with the zappa thing... why the agression, he is like David Bowie the father of everything different!!! of course we doubt, he was 10 years ahead of us |
Posted By: Hammar
Date Posted: March 24 2004 at 12:47
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I agree!!! Anyone listened to The Yellow Shark from 1993? It's extremely complex and serious. Another example of his genius and ambitions (maybe too high ambitions? The musicians have their difficulties!!). Sheik Yerbouti and Joe's Garage are fun, and Jazz from Hell is great! I don't have more of his later albums.. |
Joren wrote:Posted By: Radioactive Toy
Date Posted: March 24 2004 at 12:52
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All camel after moonmadness?? -------------   Reed's failed joke counter: ||||| R.I.P. You could have reached infinity.... |
Posted By: Hammar
Date Posted: March 24 2004 at 13:00
| I agree, it's the last interesting album, but I haven't heard anything from the 90s or later. I guess not everyone will agree on this.... |
Posted By: Hammar
Date Posted: March 24 2004 at 13:08
I have problems with Works as well.. Here, it's obvious what kind of intensions Greg Lake had... |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: March 25 2004 at 02:58
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What about a shark jumping duet? Hackett & Howe...... GTR -------------  Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Paco Fox
Date Posted: March 25 2004 at 03:08
NOOOOOO!!! What about songs like Echoes, Ice, Hymn to her, Stationary Traveller, Drafted, Long Goodbyes... and the WHOLE Dust and Dreams, Harbour of Tears and Rajaz albums! Pure beauty!!!
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Posted By: Dan Bobrowski
Date Posted: March 25 2004 at 12:25
Get 'em Paco.........
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Posted By: Radioactive Toy
Date Posted: March 25 2004 at 12:57
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I'm sorry.. didn't mentioned to be like that way.. I've bought nude.. and that Irish air (fortuned to trade it at the store) and both albums just gave me such an awful feeling.. Its just not like the early camel! ------------- Reed's failed joke counter: ||||| R.I.P. You could have reached infinity.... |
Posted By: Dan Bobrowski
Date Posted: March 25 2004 at 13:26
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It was a joke, RT. I loved Dust and Dreams, but it's a different animal than Snow Goose. Sometimes we buy stuff with preconcieved notions of what it WILL sound like, and ???????????? it's not what we expected and, even though it may be really good, it gets shelved because it didn't meet our expectations. I remember being a total Queen nut years ago. Night at the Opera, Day at the Races and News of the World came out, saw the shows.......... The Game comes out and they're doing Elvis and disco and playing synths (remember the little "no synths" disclaimer on each album jacket?) Oh GOD!!!! Shelved. (Was the Game Queen's shark jump album?) Anyway, no harm meant. |
Posted By: RobJ
Date Posted: March 25 2004 at 17:55
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I totaly lost interest in Queen after Night at the Opera so anything released after that I would refer to as serial shark jumping... I mean we will rock you? oy vey....... |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: March 26 2004 at 03:29
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'Under Pressure' Queen & David Bowie jumping the shark together How did they get there, from songs like 'The Prophet Song'?? Then again, how did Genesis get to 'Misunderstanding' from 'Dukes Travels' on the same bloody album! Now this may be controversial, but I don't think that Pink Floyd have ever succumbed to jumping the shark - OK, in the late 70s they turned into the mouthpiece for Waters's paranoia, but I do not think the quality of the output ever really dipped (except maybe 'another brick in the wall II', which could have been Waters cynically writing a song specifically as a chart hit, knowing the Xmas number one would be his......). Even when you take 'the final cut' into consideration, this is one of the darkest, most intense albums you'll ever hear - even by Waters's standards...... Notwithstanding this, the playing is top notch, maybe not 'Echoes' style progressive, but certainly not deserving of the critical drubbing it received at the time, and still does in some quarters. Then we come on to the post-Waters Floyd. Gilmour obviously made a concious decision to change the sound of the band to avoid comparisons, so in effect launched a completely new band; OK, they haven't exactly been the most prolific band in the world, but the albums they have released have been of the highest quality, if a little sterile, in places. Their rare forays into the live arena have been spectacular shows, but with little warmth - having said this, though, they are the only one of the old 'greats' who have maintained a huge following without compromising on their (admittedly increasingly rare) musical output. Their last studio album was 10 years ago - who knows, it may just be time for another one soon.... We can hope. ------------- Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Vibrationbaby
Date Posted: March 26 2004 at 10:48
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What about David Bowie and Tin Machine. I have a couple of their albums and Reeves Gabrels sometimes reminds me of Fripp`s playing with the 73-74 KC. |
Posted By: Jim Garten
Date Posted: March 26 2004 at 11:24
It was Reeves Gabrels who really kicked Bowie's  in the early '90's post Tin Machine & led to his complete resurgence as a serious writer/musician, after the debacle that was his '80s period/Tin Machine - it's a shame he no longer works with Bowie - although Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater has contributed keyboards to Bowie's last 3 studio albums.------------- Jon Lord 1941 - 2012 |
Posted By: Dan Bobrowski
Date Posted: August 25 2004 at 20:45
| An old shark jumping thread. |
Posted By: Ivan_Melgar_M
Date Posted: August 25 2004 at 21:38
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I believe Jumping the shark is the moment when you can still listen the music without feeling nausea, but you know from that point everything is downhill. Am I right? In that case here is my list: Second's Out (Genesis): Not a bad album, but when I heard the mutilition done to Steve's guitar sections and the horrible version of Supper's Ready, I knew the next album would be crap, I think I was right. Going for the One (Yes): One good song, the rest way bellow the level, I wasn't right, because Tormato was even worst but Drama was very good, so they jumped the shark at that point because 90125 was terrible. Works II (ELP): Works I wasn't good, but neither bad, Works II was really poor, in this case I think I was right, because Love Beach (No coments), and ELP never reched the peak again. Pompeii (Triumvirat): This is the last album from the german band that I can listen, later stuff is real crap, reaching the peak of the cheese with A La Carte. Criminal Record (Rick Wakeman): Wonderful aolbum, probably among the best, but there was something that made me think Rick's music will never be the same after this one, and believe I was right again. Rhapsodies acts as a Valium pill and the later is New Age, he recovered with Return to the Centre of the Earth. Audio Visions (Kansas): Very far from the level reached before, but still pretty decent, still thought they could do a great job, but when found that it was Steve Walsh's last album with the band, I knew there was no hope. The Elefante Lineup proved me I was right, Vinyl Confessions is their worst album at that point, Drastic Meassures was even worst, then Kerry Livegren left and all hope was lost. Thanks God they are back again in the 2000's. Iván |
Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: August 26 2004 at 04:45
Agreed. The first four albums represent Camel IMHO. And who mentioned Queen????????? ------------- Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy! |
Posted By: Fragile
Date Posted: August 26 2004 at 16:42
| Well said Blacksword couldn't have put it any better.Ivan for once I have to seriously disagree with you GFTO doesn't have a bad song on it.It contains the truly awesome 'Awaken' and the beautiful soul cleaving 'Turn of the Century' But as to the jumping the shark thingy it has to be the minute Rabin came on board the good ship lollipop. |
Posted By: gdub411
Date Posted: August 26 2004 at 17:08
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Genesis-anything after Lamb....even the so called Prog albums Trick and Wind....Phil Collins voice grates on me Marrillion-everything after Fish sucks. Hogarth can't sing and the lyrics are horrible....at least when compared to Fish Pink Floyd> anything after Animals(I realize this will be unpopular)The Wall and Final Cut should be Roger Waters solos and the horrific Momentary Lapse of Reason and Division Bell are just lousy David Gilmour solos. These 3 bands have something in common. When your guiding light decides to move on you ought to call it quits lest you release horrible music like Abacab and tarnish your otherwise good names. |
Posted By: Fragile
Date Posted: August 26 2004 at 19:30
| gdub 411 first two lines almost perfect 'Trick' is their last seriously good album. Collin's pale imitation of the great man grates on me his pop leanings were soon to be so bloody obvious therafter, how I dislike this little man so much! |
Posted By: Ivan_Melgar_M
Date Posted: August 27 2004 at 17:38
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You are right Fragile, but if you read my post again you'll see there are two differences with the rest: 1.- I considered they jump the shark as tyhe moment you realize things will never be the same, even if the album is good. When I listened GFTO I realized that after this album things will never be the same. 2.- Also I say when I thought this I was wrong, because Drama is a great album. Just a small addition to my post. Iván |
Posted By: threefates
Date Posted: August 27 2004 at 20:36
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Ok.. I didn't say anything about the Works 1 remark... however, I think that 3 album set is a masterpiece... from all 3... But this.... AMLOR was not horrific in the least... Sorrow, On the Turning Away, Yet Another Movie... Learning to Fly...all brilliant songs and brilliantly played by David Gilmour... I wasn't that fond of Dogs of War at first, but on the DSOT live cd... that song really rocks... love it. That solo on "Sorrow" is hard to beat by any other band... and then there's The Division Bell. This is actually my favorite Floyd album after Animals... it should of been called "Light Side of the Moon", because it was such a breath of fresh air after The Final Cut and AMLOR in lyric content. But I think the sound is unquestionable Floyd.. and Dave is at his best. BTW.. if you haven't heard his solo on Alan Parson's new cd... "A Valid Path" you really should!! ------------- THIS IS ELP 
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Posted By: Reed Lover
Date Posted: August 28 2004 at 18:59
I'm amazed you think GFTO was a below par performance.I think most people would disagree with you.Tormato is one of the worst albums ever by a top band. As for Works 2- tee hee! |
Posted By: Ivan_Melgar_M
Date Posted: August 28 2004 at 20:30
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I have to agree about Tormato IMHO it was a terrible album. About Works II I'm not so sure, I believe there are lots of worst albums by prog' bands. Genesis is a good example of that, We Cant Dance and Invisible Touch are simply horrible. About GFTO I have to admit it's true that not many people will agree with me. Not a bad album at all, but still I believe it's under the level of every Yes previous release. Iván |
Posted By: zappa123
Date Posted: August 29 2004 at 10:12
My list:YES - GOING FOR THE ONE GENESIS-TRICK OF THE TAIL ELP--LOVE BEACH MIKE OLDFIELD-AFTER OMMADOWN KING CRIMSON-AFTER RED |