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

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 have heard that "seasons change, waiting on you" tune by the singularly poorly named Future Islands and disliked it intensely upon hearing it and have heard it many many times now… and now that I see how the singer comports himself live and on national TV, I dislike FI even more.

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

― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, June 25, 2014 12:55 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

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

― Immediate Follower (NA), Wednesday, June 25, 2014 12:57 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

Future Islands is such a great example of a band who slogged it out for years and years before becoming an unexpected sensation overnight.

― 3kDk (dog latin), Wednesday, June 25, 2014 11:33 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so so otm

three of Can's four core members were early 30s when they formed. (Michael Karoli was 10 years younger and had been one of Holger's students.)

UK Subs (Charlie Harper)

nifty thread, but the thing that stands out to me is: M.I.A. will be 39 years old in a few weeks?!?!

i srsly would've guessed like 27 or 29 something. wow.

then again, i can't believe it's been 9 yrs since Arular came out. time flies, etc

Scatman John was in his fifties when he made it big.
The Golden Earring started in 1962 so they must've been in their 30s/40s when they had their hits.

(The) Parliament(s)

agreed re the m.i.a mention.
i too had no idea ..

- bob marley

wrong thread nick

Mark Sandman

also belongs under the header - artists 10 years older than their 'contemporaries' of the time

Anastacia. 32 when I'm Outta Love came out, though to be fair I thought she was older.

Pulp, at least outside of the UK, were pretty unknown before Different Class came out in 1995 when Jarvis Cocker was 31. Makes me feel old to think of it now, but I remember seeing them on the tour for that record and being shocked at how old they looked.

i didn't know if this thread was going to buoy or sink my spirits, but the answer is buoy
three of Can's four core members were early 30s when they formed. (Michael Karoli was 10 years younger and had been one of Holger's students.)

― sideshow boob (haitch), Thursday, June 26, 2014 1:23 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

also god bless tiny tim

The first Tiny Tim album is a masterpiece of psychedelia. The second one has some great moments too.

ctrl-f "Garbage"

Phrase not found

hmm, maybe that's an arguable case considering that Shirley Manson was under 30? I was going to posit that Butch Vig was also famous pre-Garbage but he was 36 when Gish and Nevermind came out (not sure producing Die Kreuzen and Killdozer counts as "coming to prominence" when compared to those two)

hmmm, yeah Garbage / Butch Vig always struck me as a vanity project by a known producer, plus Manson was always the visual focus of that band. I even forget Vig is involved these days TBH.

The first Tiny Tim album is a masterpiece of psychedelia. The second one has some great moments too.

One of these days I'm finally going to get around to Tiny Tim's Rock album from 1993, with a 23 minute version of "Rebel Yell". It's one of those things where I'm so happy just to know that it exists that I've avoided it because I'm afraid it won't live up to my expectations.

Huey Lewis was 35 when Sports came out.

Xpost a bit like Chuck Berry's "Concerto in B-Goode" ?

Sleater-Kinney didn't make it overground till, what, The Woods?

Sleater-Kinney didn't make it overground until Carrie Brownstein got a tv show.

They did "Entertain" on Letterman!

sharon jones - age 46 when her daptone debut was released.

good one

William Onyeabor?

Omar Souleyman is 48.

Open Mike Eagle just put out his most prominent album so far and he's 33, which is like 57 in rap years.

Robert Quine -- in his 30s as a Voidoid, near 40 circa The Blue Mask.

Lucinda Williams

Vi Subversa was 41 when she formed Poison Girls in 1976

Michael Gira was 34 when Swans major label debit came out

lots of old blues folks probably fit in here

swans came to prominence before that.

Danny Brown