> Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 08:22:19 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Daniel Carlson <danielcarlson@yahoo.com>
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Re: Career equators
> Message-ID: <20060403152219.65541.qmail@web60518.mail.yahoo.com>
> 
> Stevie Wonder
>   Marvin Gaye
>   Beatles   
> I think you're right about Tom Waits


I'd agree about Waits, but not about the other three. I'm probably pretty typical among Auditeers in that I think the Beatles peaked in '65 and '66. Stevie Wonder's career is more of a parabola -- an occasionally-inspired but often filler-laden product of the Motown machine in the sixties, he had a very serious career peak from 1972's *Music Of My Mind* through 1976's *Songs In The Key Of Life*, but he suffered a pretty radical dropoff in quality after 1980's *Hotter Than July*. Marvin Gaye's career path followed a similar but less radically-curved arc. His last few albums were pretty spotty but occasionally brilliant, and he definitely peaked with *What's Going On* and *Let's Get It On*. There's an awful lot to be said for the Motown stuff that came before it, too -- he had a better batting average than did Stevie Wonder in terms of the Motown assembly line.

  >    
>   Steely Dan (before the re-form)? 


I think that seventies-era Steely Dan was amazingly consistent from '72's *Can't Buy A Thrill* all the way through '80's *Gaucho*. If anything, I think that the first four albums were slightly better than the subsequent three from that period.

>    
>   I want to include Elvis Costello, who I think continues to 
> make excellent records, but can't honestly say that I like 
> anything as much as "This Year's Model". 


I don't think many artists have ever had a winning streak at the outset of their careers as sustained as the one Elvis Costello and the Attractions put together from '77's *My Aim Is True* through '82's *Imperial Bedroom*. There's always been something to like on each of Costello's subsequent albums, but he's rarely come close to the quality he had in that amazing six-year stretch when he and the Attractions were at their peak and could do no wrong.


> 
> That's a tough split. I'd still take the early years per Let it Be.
> 
>


I think that the 'mats are another example of a recording act whose career followed a parabola: Undistinguished and pedestrian thrash at the outset (*Sorry Ma ...* and "Stink*); a stylistic and qualitative breakthrough with *Hootenanny*; a three-album peak with *Let It Be*, *Tim*, and *Pleased To Meet Me*; and a decline as the band found itself lost at sea with *Don't Tell A Soul* and *All Shook Down*.


Gregory Sager