Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there any musician who jumped the shark more dramatically than Grace Slick? She was the acid rock queen of Jefferson Airplane.... and (ka-blam!) she's singing the theme song to Mannequin!
Sweet Jesus! I've heard of musicians reinventing themselves, but this is ridiculous. Starship made Christopher Cross look innovative and edgy. Their music was so synthetic, so manufactured, that I wouldn't be at all surprised if you told me "We Built This City" and "Sara" were both composed by a Commodore 64.
But enough about Slick's shark jump, what about other artists who went from incredibly cool to total lameness? A few come to mind...
1. Ozzy Osbourne
Satanic metal god... to reality show buffoon
2. Alice Cooper
King of shock rock.... to golfer who hangs with Jamie Farr
3. Rod Stewart
Sex addict rock star... to actually being more boring than Michael Bolton
4. Lionel Ritchie
"Brick House" dirty funk... to "Dancing on the Ceiling" Caucasian junk
5. Steve Winwood
Hippie prodigy with a voice that sounded like Ray Charles... to geezer with a synthesizer that sounded like John Tesh.
6. Robert Plant
I thought his Honeydrippers venture was pretty embarrassing - okay for a Bryan Adams or Elton John but not for the voice of The Hammer of the Gods, the Mighty Zep!
7. Johnny Rotten
Public Image Ltd. was tame enough to blend in with ABC and Depeche Mode... the Sex Pistols would have raped, killed and eaten ABC and Depeche Mode (and not necessarily in that order).
Perhaps it's unrealistic to expect artists to maintain their rock star cred into old age, but you don't have to jump the shark quite so magnificently as these do. Maybe there are some better examples out there - leave a comment and let me know.
[Note: I've ranted about Slick's decline before in a post called Casualties of the 80's. Don't hold it against me for repeating myself - her shark jump is so horrificly gargantuan, it needs to be brought up more than once.]
