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

(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

Wussy, sort of.

Yo La Tengo

Lemmy was 31 (born 12/24/45) when Motörhead's debut album was released in 1977.

Mary Gauthier didn't start writing/singing until her mid-30s. She was awarded "New Artist of the Year" by The Americana Music Association (copied from wikipedia) at the age of 43 -- that is, if you consider that award as her "breaking out".

I haven't heard any seasick Steve but they sell his cds in my local sainsburys and I hear people talk about him quite often so he's def recognised in the UK. It's def relevant to the thread but I think it's almost less easy for artists to rise to fame in their 40s than their 60s for some reason.

Maybe at 20 you can be young and endearing, in your 60s you can be wizened and eccentric, but at 40 it seems harder to convince the world of your credibility. Maybe it's a sort of 'cool dad' syndrome. You see a lot of musicians who endured success throughout their 20s fall from favour at this stage, listeners and pundits throwing 'losing their edge' accusations for doing pretty much the same thing as they ever did. Off the top of my head I can think of Johnny Cash, Scott walker, Michael gira, even Bowie, who either spent their middle ages absent or simply releasing ignorable material only to come back later in life and be celebrated as cult figures.

lemmy was in a very prominent band already fgs

earl brutus is a classic example of this if we forget world of twist ever happened

Xxpost this is speaking in very general terms of course. There will be exceptions (I hope, although not many examples in this thread which disprove it as most mentioned were in their early 30s)

wasn't gary young in his 30s when slanted & enchanted was recorded? not sure if this counts but w/e.

lemmy was in a very prominent band already fgs

Thread title is "Acts that came to prominence when their members were in their 30s or 40s". Lemmy was a semi-well-known member of Hawkwind in his 20s, but Motörhead did not exist until he was 30/31, and it's arguable they didn't "come to prominence" until Ace of Spades was released - in 1980, when he was 34.

ah ok

tuli kupferberg was in his 40s when the fugs started. born in 1923.

Jumping in to join the chorus on the "God Bless Tiny Tim" album being incredible! A triumph of production.

As for Lemmy, he didn't start making any money at music until he wrote songs for Ozzy's 80s pop albums.

Kim Carnes was 34 when she had her first hit in 1980 and 35 when "Bette Davis Eyes" went to #1. she'd been around since the mid-'60s (she did some time in the New Christy Minstrels and wrote some album tracks for David Cassidy and Frank Sinatra), but she was only moderately successful as a solo artist in the '70s, and her breakthrough album Mistaken Identity was her sixth album to date.

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