Downward Creative Arcs

(I’m writing something every day for #100days. This is post 15/100.)

Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney were responsible for some of the most influential music in history. Both of them are still alive today, but not producing culturally impactful music.

They are watching as other people around them succeed.

How do you think Bob Dylan feels about Iggy Azalea?

If you wrote ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ in 1965 — still today one of the great pop songs — how would you feel about ‘Fancy’.

What does it feel like to create work that resonates with millions of people worldwide for decades, and then seemingly no longer have that ability?

If you’re Billy Corgan, and you wrote Siamese Dream and Melloncollie and the Infinite Sadness in a 24 month stretch, how would you feel about the last 10 years of output — Zeitgeist (2007), Teargarden by Kaleidyscope (2009) and Oceania(2012)?

If you’re Eddie Vedder, and you wrote Ten, Vs. and Vitalogy in a 3 year stretch, how would you feel about the following 20 years — No Code (1996) Yield (1998) Binaural (2000) Riot Act (2002) The Avocado Album (2006) Backspacer (2009) and Lightning Bolt (2013)?

Since ‘Sign o’ The Times’ Prince has released 19 albums. How do you reconcile the fact that none of them have even come close to those soaring heights?

Is that a reason to stop? Or all the more reason to go on?

Since ‘Joshua Tree’ 27 years ago— Rattle and Hum (1988) Achtung Baby (1991) Zooropa (1993) Pop (1997) All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000) How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004) and No Line on the Horizon (2009).

For much of that time, U2 have held the ‘biggest band in the world’ status. But all of those albums reside wholly in the shadow what came before.

We’re listening as much out of gratitude for their early work as we are for the substance of the new.

Since ‘Low’: Lodger (1979) Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980) Let’s Dance (1983) Tonight (1984) Never Let Me Down (1987) Black Tie White Noise (1993) Outside (1995) Earthling (1997) ‘Hours…’ (1999) Heathen (2002) Reality (2003) The Next Day (2013).

Does any of this matter to Bowie’s legacy? Does he care? Is he a better songwriter now for all the practice he’s had in the intervening ~three decades?

I don’t know what to make of this.

There are some depressing inferences for creative people, that I don’t want to believe are true. Namely:

• Creative connection at scale (ccas) — the zeitgeist — is only ever fleeting.
• Past a certain point, there is no correlation between time spent honing your craft and ccas.
• Once lost, ccas is rarely recovered.
• Ccas is more likely to occur when you are in your twenties. Billy Corgan was 26 for Siamese Dream, Vedder was 29 for Vs., Prince was 29 for ‘Sign o’ The Times’, Bono was 27 for ‘Joshua Tree’, and Bowie was 30 for ‘Low’.

I’m 31.