Chula Vista

I was going to mention them. The reason why I collect a lot of Zeppelin bootlegs is because they never did the same show twice. A song like Dazed or No Quarter could be 20 minutes one night and then 30 the next. And during jams they'd insert bits of other songs by anyone from Simon and Garfunkel to Bob Marley to Elvis.

Listen to how they did Ramble On during the O7 reunion show, or In My Time of Dying. Very different vibe from the album versions.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Basil C. Thurston III

I think they do. Without money, the band ceases to exist. Money is the sole reason many bands continue to perform. The reason they had money to begin with is due to the people who purchased the albums and went to the shows. Saying "tough s***" to ANY part of your audience is a sure way to lose fans, don't you think? I'm not sure that sort of artistic leeway exists in a corporate world. Artistic bands can perform any way they wish, and a good portion of the time, they fail to achieve the level of success that brings them big money, IMO.

I went to a Todd Rundgren show last year, in a really small venue, in a wealthy part of town. It was part of his "State" tour, an album which was mostly techno beats in nature. During the show, he performed a good number of his older songs with a new techno style. I enjoyed the show very much, from both a production sense and in an appreciative fashion because Todd always stretches the boundaries. But, honestly, I wanted the live versions of the songs the way he made them- because they were so good to begin with- it's what made me a fan. And there were a good number of Toddheads there, who worshiped every move he made. But I have never seen the sheer amount of open hostility towards an artist as I did both nights of shows at that venue- people walking out 4-5 songs in, yelling out during song breaks for him to play "the old stuff", and in particular, one lady who took the time to write a scathing note for Todd, which she left with the soundman (who allowed me to read it after the show)- the note basically said how angry and disappointed she was that he ruined his songs with this new style, how big a fan she had been for over 35 years and now felt that he was mocking his own material by modernizing it to capitalize on a trend, and that she would never, ever pay money to see him again, as she felt betrayed. Soundguy told me that this anger was happening in pretty much every city they played. To his credit, it did not deter Todd. But for an artist who is past his Top-40 prime, and survives on touring revenue now- either with Ringo or solo- is it in his best interest to lose fans. In an interesting move, once the state tour was completed, he changed gears and began a tour that was him basically doing a greatest hits set with full band, in original form mostly.

Frownland

So you would prefer bands to be a bunch of sellouts? Because that's what compromising the artistic decisions that they want to make for the sake of money equates to.

__________________

Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

grindy

Did anyone gasp so hard, their monocle fell into their champagne glass?

__________________
A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Trollheart

Basil, you'd probably prefer this band...

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

DeadChannel

Waaah waaah Bob Dylan went electric.

Basil C. Thurston III

Hilarious!! The old "sellout" defense!! If your favorite restaurant makes your favorite meal the exact same way every time, are they sellouts? Or are they providing their customers exactly what they want? Every band is a sellout, every one of us is a sellout so that line of thinking, while noble, doesn't carry any water in the real world.

grindy

That's a terrible analogy.

__________________
A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Basil C. Thurston III

I guess it fits in with your contributions to this thread then.

ChelseaDagger

Instead of contributing, I'm having much more fun watching you guys rip each others guts open over this I feel like I should at least be gambling over who will emerge from this cockfight with intestines intact.

{insert nonexistent spilled-gut emoticon for redundant emphasis of dead-horse-esque joke}