The man’s a boring, old, has-been that should’ve knocked it on the head years ago.
You need to apply the Creative Peak Rule, Bob.
I first formed this for myself after seeing Public Enemy – not for the first time – after they had passed their creative peak (which was about 1990 IMO) and feeling massively short-changed as a result.
The CPR holds that it is pretty much never worth going to see or investing any kind of hope in a band once they have passed their peak in the studio. From that point on, they’re either vainly trying to recapture something that was fleeting to begin with, or they’re simply trading on past glories to prolong a career.
In the old days, records were bought by kids. When bands passed their peak, the kids largely went off them and there was nobody left to buy their records, ergo end of career. Now, the record-buying (for want of a more accurate term) public is made up of a far bigger age range and this, coupled with fact that most people find wider choice slightly bewildering as they get older, means that a band may have a customer base (for want of a more pleasant term) for far longer, ergo career can go on for ages. Also, older people have more money. Look at the Eagles – my mum went to see them play at Hampden last year and I nearly fell over when she told me the tickets were 80 quid each! To see the Eagles in a big stadium in 2010! When that’s on offer, its no surprise that ageing musicians (such as Clapton) whose creative peak was anything up to HALF A CENTURY AGO refuse to give it up. As long as someone’ll pay for it, they’ll keep doing it.
Its this kind of thing that makes my skin crawl – look at this tour Primal Scream are doing to play Screamadelica in its entirety. Jesus wept. I love that record, it has an important place in my record buying history, but it was clearly Primal Scream’s creative peak so for them to tour it now is at best an exercise in cringeworthy nostalgia that will see some gruesome sights and at worst a cynical plan to pay off a tax bill or something.
Now I’m old, the bands I truly loved (as a callow youth, when you truly love bands) are also old and have either died, split up or are trying to prolong their careers like this. The Creative Peak Rule saves me the heartache of seeing how low some are prepared to stoop and the painful truth that just because you were once great doesn’t mean you always will be.
(All IMO, of course!)