5 days Ago
released 12 albums in seven years and changed music forever, while released three of their greatest albums in 1969 alone. If rock’s taught us anything, it’s that momentum is king. Pause, and the creative juices evaporate.
Break up, you might recover. To celebrate the MC5 releasing fourth album 53 years after their third, 1971's – all the original members were gone by the time it saw the light of day – here are ten more acts who ignored such wisdom and took their own sweet goddamn time. More power to them.
English rock legends had been inactive in the studio since 1982’s and lost bassist to a cocaine-induced heart attack in 2002. But by 2006 band mainstays guitarist Pete Townshend and vocalist Roger Daltrey were back in action with an eleventh studio album, . It featured nine standalone songs, together with 10 pieces that formed a “mini-opera” titled , and ably showed that — despite just 11 studio albums in 50 years — there’s still life in the old dog yet.
Lumped in with new wave when they first appeared in 1978, Boston outfit were much more of a quirky pop/rock band at heart. Hits like and made the group a fortune, but 1987’s album saw their commercial popularity nosedive. Time for a break.
Bassist Ben Orr sadly died in 2000, but the four remaining band members reunited for a seventh album, , in 2011. There’s been no further material released since, and Rik Ocasek's death in 2019 means there almost certainly won't be. lived the ‘70s West Coast dream to the full – right until it became a nightmare.
The band sold gazillions of records, then developed drug habits and ended up hating each other. 1979’s was a multi-platinum success, but everyone had had enough. By 1994, though, Eagles were back together.
And despite another spat that saw guitarists Don Felder leave for a second time in 2001, they finally released a new album, in 2007. It went on to sell over 3.5 million copies.
New York’s trash/glam/punk rockers descended into drug and alcohol-induced chaos in 1977, three years after their second album, 1974’s appropriately titled . Three band members – bassist Arthur Kane, drummer Jerry Nolan and guitarist – were dead by the time a third studio album appeared, 2006’s . Held together by original vocalist David Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, the album was hailed, if not as a triumph, then certainly as a worthwhile endeavour.
Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! The Stooges have long been credited with developing the blueprint for punk rock. The Michigan band had already split once in 1971 after two raw and uncompromising albums. But they joined forces again under somewhat acrimonious circumstances to record 1973’s , with the release credited to Iggy & The Stooges.
2007 finally saw the core of the band – vocalist , guitarist Ron Asheton and drumming brother Scott – back together and releasing new album, . Most critics hated it. Brooklyn outfit were formed in 1968 and is credited as inventing stoner rock.
Two albums – 1970’s and 1971’s – didn’t lead to a breakthrough, and poor sales and drug issues hurried the band’s demise. But in 2006 vocalist/drummer John Garner and guitarist Louis Dambra joined forces again to release . The album featured music originally written for an aborted 1976 release, but offered an intriguing new Christian slant in the band’s lyrics.
These 1960s garage rockers from the Washington state area of the US were an early inspiration to , firing out standards like and originals with intriguing titles like and . The band released a début album, , in 1965, a year later and in 1980. Sporadic live shows and a 2010 EP followed, but it wasn’t until March of 2015 that another fully-fledged album, , appeared, a mere 35 years after their last.
Famous for giving us über-guitarists , and , the Yardbirds were nonetheless anchored by rhythm guitarist/bassist Chris Dreja, drummer Jim McCarty and vocalist Keith Relf. The band’s fourth album, 1967’s , came before a 1968 split. Relf died in 1976, but McCarty and Dreja reformed The Yardbirds in 1992 and released a new album, , in 2003.
It featured seven new tunes and eight reworkings of the band’s classics. Beck made a guest appearance on . This little-known singer/songwriter from Connecticut released the album on his own label back in 1973 after recording the songs with undue haste.
Why? Because Higgins was about to do time for possession of marijuana. The record didn’t pull up any trees. But after Six Organs of Admittance man Ben Chasney covered leadoff track, , in 2005, Higgins finally released a new album, , on the same label – Drag City – in 2009.
Musical support came from a couple of his original collaborators, as well as son Graham. An English psychedelic pop act whose first demos so impressed Parlophone that the label immediately released the tunes as the album back in 1968. Sales were slow (although you’ll be lucky to pick up a copy for less than £1000 today), and the band members threw in the towel that same year.
That well-known 48-year itch needed to be scratched, however, and in 2016 year the band (minus guitarist/vocalist Richard Dunsterville, who now lives in the US) came roaring back with a second album, the cleverly-titled . “I was on coke and dope but doing all these edibles. That’s what I’d become.
My teeth were all gone”: Lemonheads leader Evan Dando on the moment he knew he had to get clean “It was a dream! We’d love to meet them one day and thank them for the inspiration!” Italian goth metallers Lacuna Coil react to Depeche Mode endorsing their Enjoy The Silence cover "Peyote didn’t make me puke, but some of the other guys puked for all of us": The Eagles on Indian tribal rituals, playing with Guns N' Roses and the lyric police Howard Johnson is a music writer based in France. The editor of Rock Candy magazine, he's also written for Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, RAW, Q, MoJo and Japanese rock magazine Burrn!, and is a French football correspondent for World Soccer mag. He has also written a book on AC/DC, Get Your Jumbo Jet Out Of My Airport.
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