(Re)Invention
My mind was drifting today (to be fair, that's often its normal state), and I started thinking about artists who reinvented themselves.
Some of the biggest names in history did so, particularly in music. Elvis Presley was washed up. Nobody cared about Frank Sinatra. The Bee Gees couldn't sell a record. They'd all been hugely popular. Then, over time, crickets.
The Bee Gees, in particular, were astounding. Their 1975 album Mr. Natural can only be described as flaccid. Weak, full of overstuffed ballads, and lacking in originality, it limped into the top thirty in the UK (at #29), but barely broke the top 200 in the U.S.
It had been a six-year, steady decline in popularity. They were cooked.
Only thirteen months later, they release Main Course. It's barely exaggerating to say they sound like an entirely new band. The vocals are familiar, though far more passionate, but it's the addition of funk and soul rhythms that elevate everything (and in case you're wondering, the two big singles from that album were Nights on Broadway and Jive Talkin'). The Saturday Night Fever followed, which never would have happened if they hadn't radically reinvented their music.
I thought about all this because I can't imaging who would have the energy to reinvent themselves. Hell, I don't think I invented myself until about fifteen years ago, and it takes all my energy to maintain the original incarnation. Who could possibly do it again?
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