Acts that came to prominence when their members were in their 30s or 40s?

Al Stewart was 31 when Year of the Cat went platinum, he'd been around since the late '60s but at nothing like that level of success

a lot of legacy 80s indie rock/punk/post punk bands got a big bump in popularity in the mid 90s, post Nirvana...bands like Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Meat Puppets, etc

I had always sorta assumed that Steely Dan were one of these acts until I found out that Walter Becker had only just turned 30 when Gaucho was released

Kind of a special case and an elastic definition of "broke it big", but Jandek.

Toni Basil!

George Clinton was in his late 30s by the time P-funk blew up

wins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ee4bfu_t3c

Guided By Voices, all or most of whom were in their mid/late 30s when Bee Thousand came out

Bill Withers

bob seger (31 the year both night moves and live bullet came out)

cyndi lauper turned 30 the year SHE'S SO UNUSUAL came out

bonnie raitt

sheryl crow was 31 the year TUESDAY NIGHT MUSIC CLUB came out

Looks like no one came to prominence in their 40s then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ur063fMhs

(b. May 28, 1944)

charlie rich, discovered by pop radio in 1973, at age 40

Future Islands guy projects full-on "I've waited 10 years for this and I'm not going to blow it" vibes.

I know Ivor Cutler (b 1923) had already been appearing on the radio since the late 50s, I think he became more well known in the late 60s following his association with the Beatles and John Peel, though? (Or just known to a different audience?)

Dory Previn?

robin thicke

susan boyle, age 48 when her first album was released

LCD soundsystem

Looks like no one came to prominence in their 40s then.

Willie Nelson

supertramp
dire straits
chris de burgh

M.I.A.

She released Arular when she was 30 and Kala 2 years later which includes her most famous song.

Michael Bolton

Lucinda Williams was in her late 40s when Car Wheels came out.

andy summers was pushing 40 when the police got super popular in the states. el stingo and stu were about 30.

I thought Seasick Steve would be the first name on the thread. He was in his 60s.

Did you really think "Seasick Steve" would be the first name on the thread?

haha

who dat?

Tiny Tim was already 36 when his first album came out in 1968.

I realized I'd never listened to a Tiny Tim record, so now I'm listening to God Bless Tiny Tim and it's fucking weird as shit (in a good way).

!!! that record is awesome

It is!

Alejandro Escovedo was in his 40s when his first solo records started getting traction.
Michael Been of The Call was in his mid-30s when "When The Walls Came Down" was released.

Ed Cassidy was in his mid-40s when Spirit formed.

wasn't saxa already in his 50s when the english beat put out their 1st album? i love that guy's story.

That old guy in the rocking chair in Arrested Development.

"I thought Seasick Steve would be the first name on the thread. He was in his 60s."

Maybe re-read the title of the thread?

Immediate Follower (NA) says "Did you really think "Seasick Steve" would be the first name on the thread?"

Yes, the music media made a pretty big deal out of him being around so long before achieving any fame. I think part of his success was from that aspect. I just searched this forum for him and there is very little about him. Don't know how well he did in America. To be fair, I haven't heard him mentioned in a while. I don't think I've ever heard his music.

There is a clip on YouTube about him moving to Norway and meeting former Emperor members. You see Peccatum watching his reaction to their music and he looked to me like he didn't know how to react.

huey lewis had his first hit at 32.

http://cdn.funcheap.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/148256-anvil1.jpg

Don't know how well he did in America.

Most Americans have zero idea who he is. I only ever heard of him because of something I saw on PBS.

NickB says "Maybe re-read the title of the thread?"

Others have been mentioning older than 40s people, surely that's of interest?

he is not recognized, period

Dio was 33 when Rainbow started, 37 when he joined Sabbath, and 41 when the first Dio album came out.

Drive-By Truckers

He's just about over sixty now.

75 according to Wikipedia. Apropos of nothing much, I saw him outside a restaurant in Malmo a few weeks ago - eating not playing guitar.

I thought Seasick Steve would be the first name on the thread. He was in his 60s.

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, June 25, 2014 7:55 PM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He's just about over sixty now.

― Mark G, Thursday, September 29, 2016 11:14 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, just reading this about him on the Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/sep/29/seasick-steve-session-musician-ramblin-man-book

I usually could not give less of a shit about (ugh) "authenticity" - but watching his breakthrough clip from 2008 with the knowledge that he's a session musician and not in any way a former hobo, can't help but find it massively insulting, both to the audience and to actual homeless people. Why did people ever fall for this bullshit?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNoPNC3ebYQ

I think Daevid Allen was well into his 30s when Gong got going.

Cast King

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gzIeHe-wz4

Joseph Spence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alfqX3WRJP0

Re Daevid Allen - he formed both Soft Machine and Gong before his 30th birthday, though you could say their best known work was done when he was in his mid-30s.

maybe; Lonnie Johnson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8fyb9vpIc0

why not indulge......inappropriately?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxze3nn_z3E&index=4&list=PLVxivsPLLXBCkjsCw78vzpcxm7OhIEu95
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QIjYQYNezY

I'm uncomfortable with the fact that I find this thread comforting
― unknown pleasure zone (uptown churl), Saturday, July 19, 2014 10:37 AM (two years ago)

for some reason I thought Jim Croce didn't get into music until his 30´s, but I checked and actually he died at 30 :(

There's a bit of chat on the web casting doubt on the reliability of this new Seasick Steve biog. Interested parties can read up for themselves but suffice to say that I wouldn't necessarily take everything Bob Stanley says in that Guardian article (via the biog) to be 100% accurate.

Cap'n Save-a-Hobo

lol I didn't know much of anything about this but the wikipedia talk page for Steve is a fun place

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/reluctant-icon/Content?oid=6010

So if a guy has to pretend that among other things he's 10 years older than he really is, does it prove that there's an 'uncool dad/mom' period for musicians roughly between the ages of 35-50 where they stop being taken seriously and just have to ride it out until they're pension-age and can cast themselves as roguish elder states-people? I'm thinking about the big-hitters of my youth - people like Damon Albarn and Stephen Malkmus whose cred seems to be at an all-time low at the moment, but I'm sure will bounce back in about 10 years' time.

would that be the Albarn with a music group that has a new tour coming up

I don't think anyone has to pretend they're older necessarily it's just:
- studio guy wishes he could get back to the basics
- Jack White, bunch of other acts make blues riffs and back-to-basics production cool
- guy adds a decade to his age to make it seem like he was an unknown, broke contemporary of people from the age people in younger acts think were cool
- profit!

it's easier to add years than remove them from your age typically, although people do the latter all the time

I think there are probably more acts coming to prominence in their 30s than we think of, mostly because of the age deflation that goes on.

Sia's entire public image is more of an artistic statement but at least a small part of her incognito act is due to her not wanting to put her face/age/etc out as the defining characteristic of her music

I just learned Sturgill Simpson is 41 and was in his mid 30s when Metamodern came out

The B-52s. I was surprised to learn (in this Pitchfork piece) that Kate Pierson was born in 1948, had been a full-on hippie, etc. (Though the other band members are older; Fred Schneider seems to be second-oldest surviving member, born in 1951). So some of them were just scraping 30 when they formed the band, and Pierson & Schneider were both around 40 (give or take a few years) when Cosmic Thing broke big.

*though the other band members are younger...

Debbie Harry was 36 when "Rapture" came out