Extremely productive artists

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In the 60s, releasing 2-3 albums a year was not at all unusual. However, sometime during the late 60s/early 70s, this became very unusual, and recently, releasing more than one album a year at most is very rare. There are some exceptions though, and I'd like you guys to point out whoever I may have missed

Prince
Pretty obvious this one. Since his 1978 debut, Prince Roger Nelson has released 23 ordinary studio albums (including two soundtrack and one album that wasn't released until a few years after it original supposed release). Out of these 23 albums, there were two triple albums and two double albums. Also, since 1990, most of his albums have had a playing time that has been considerably above 40-45 minutes per CD (this also includes the two triple albums he has released since). Nobody can possibly become much more productive than this

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 19 September 2003 21:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Robert Pollard.

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Friday, 19 September 2003 21:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmmm
I pushed "add" a bit to early here. Anyway. Frank Zappa released 22 albums between 1966 and 1985, which, I guess, makes him belong here too.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 19 September 2003 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

i think it has less to do with artist productivity (however one might measure that) as with the vagaries of marketing in the record industry and the increasing perfectionism that is taken as the norm in studio recordings. the possibilities inhering in overdubbing have much to do with this. in the pre-60s bands could just come in and do versions of their live set, and in a few sessions (or one!) have an album down. now it's expected that they lavish attention on every sonic detail. see also the increasing profile/professionalization of the producer.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 19 September 2003 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Pollard since 86: 15 GbV studio albums incl. a 5 cd comp, innumerable GbV singles and eps, plus 30+ solo/side-project releases in the "Fading Captain" series, including a 5 cd box set.

― Jeremy (Jeremy), Friday, 19 September 2003 21:47 (twenty-two years ago)

p.s. lata mangeshkar kicks everyone's ass.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 19 September 2003 21:48 (twenty-two years ago)

The Fall

― Matt Helgeson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 19 September 2003 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

= exact relationship b/t recorded output and extent of alcoholism

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 19 September 2003 21:53 (twenty-two years ago)

p.s. lata mangeshkar kicks everyone's ass.

That is the name of that guy who is labelled the "King of Bollywood" or something like that?

Heard of some guy there who had had an extreme output. :-)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:00 (twenty-two years ago)

it's a woman. supposedly she holds the world's record for most recording activity.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:02 (twenty-two years ago)

40,000 some songs to her credit?

add Acid Mothers Temple to the list

― JasonD (JasonD), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:03 (twenty-two years ago)

and Jandek. And Merzbow.

― hstencil, Friday, 19 September 2003 22:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Billy Childish, of course.

― ham on rye (ham on rye), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Ani DiFranco, famously.

― The Lex (The Lex), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:37 (twenty-two years ago)

John Zorn shouldn't be overlooked.

And indeed Eugene Chadbourne!

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Madlib

― oops (Oops), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:46 (twenty-two years ago)

= exact relationship b/t recorded output and extent of alcoholism

It does seem to work for Mark E. and Bob Pollard.

― Matt Helgeson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

And having a good appetite does seem to work for Dr Eugene.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Friday, 19 September 2003 22:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Prince
Pretty obvious this one.

He also has several hundred completed unreleased songs. In the early Eighties, he claimed that the reason why he played all of the instruments on his first record was that no one could stay awake as long as he could. (He was in the habit of doing 22-24 hour continous recording sessions.)

― Christine 'Green Leafy Dragon' Indigo (cindigo), Friday, 19 September 2003 23:11 (twenty-two years ago)

virtually every Jamaican studio musician

― oops (Oops), Friday, 19 September 2003 23:14 (twenty-two years ago)

i think doom does ok

― glenny g2003 (glenny g2003), Saturday, 20 September 2003 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

"Nobody can possibly become much more productive than this"

http://pretentious.net/Muslimgauze/disc.htm

― Xii (Xii), Saturday, 20 September 2003 01:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Might I add that Bryn Jones, aka Muslimgauze, passed away before nearly a third of these were released and there's a rather large line of his material still waiting to be released on various labels.

― Xii (Xii), Saturday, 20 September 2003 01:40 (twenty-two years ago)

"After Jackie Mittoo left Studio One, Coxsone's studio went to Canada. I am the one who took over studio arrangement. They tried to make Ernie Ranglin do it and he couldn't because he hadn't the touch of what the people want. The ghetto style, the street people style. And as a youth I had this all in me. I mixed Dennis Brown's first album and his first hit song under Coxsone, "No Man is and Island." I arranged it, I played, you know. "Satta Amassagana" . . . there's so much songs, I can't think how many music. Stuff that I arranged and played. It seemed that we were so much ahead of our time. So that's how much work I was doing. Did my own stuff plus others, that's what burned me out a lot to why I left and went and cooled out for awhile. We used to record at least six songs every day.

--Leroy Sibbles

― oops (Oops), Saturday, 20 September 2003 08:12 (twenty-two years ago)

gotta be kevin shields

― cinniblount (James Blount), Saturday, 20 September 2003 08:14 (twenty-two years ago)

babybird/stephen jones

― scottjames23 (worrysome-man), Saturday, 20 September 2003 08:32 (twenty-two years ago)

badly drawn boy released two in a year (one, admittedly, a soundtrack). still two albums too many

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Saturday, 20 September 2003 08:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I have 1960s-style productivity. Since 2000 I wrote and produced:

Kahimi Karie 'Journey to the Centre of Me'
Momus: 'Folktronic'
Mashcat: 'Mashroom Haircat'
Milky: 'Travels with a Donkey'
Momus: 'Oskar Tennis Champion'
Momus and Anne Laplantine: 'Summerisle'

Three years, six albums.

― Momus (Momus), Saturday, 20 September 2003 11:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Me old mucker, Derek Bailey

― Dadaismus (Dada), Saturday, 20 September 2003 12:46 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah I've always preferred lotsa albums to few, but have slowed down lately in deference to...ummm, lotsa things. Also, the first line of every review used to be "The M*untain G*ats release an album every couple of weeks" which irritated the piss out of me and took two years' silence to correct, only to have a bunch of people last year write "the MG released four albums this year" when two of 'em were singles comp REISSUES and the third was the final singles comp

so, in short, there would be more "'60s-style productivity" if there weren't this pervasive & ridiculous notion in the press & in the biz that the highest number of pop or rock songs that the public can process from a single artist in a year is fifteen.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Saturday, 20 September 2003 12:51 (twenty-two years ago)

the thing about someone like pollard, who i used to like very much, is that he puts out way more misses than hits when he's in his album-every-two-weeks mode. you may be able to compile yourself a good album or two out of the dozen or more he's put out over the last three or four years, for example, but i'd have been a much happier gbv fan if he'd just put out those two. what impresses me more is an artist who churns 'em out fast and makes 'em count. quantity *plus* quality.

examples for me:

stephin merritt. in 1994 and 1995 he put out three magnetic fields albums and a sixths album, all of them good-to-great. he slowed down to only two EPs and an album for his various side projects over the next three years, along with a few mag fields singles and comp tracks, before returning with his triple album in 1999.

george clinton. 17 parliament/funkadelic albums in the 1970s, not including live albums, and a not-too-shabby eight more albums under various names in the 1980s.

husker du. starting with zen arcade, they put out two double albums and three single albums in a 28-month stretch. i'm not a big "warehouse" fan, but it certainly doesn't suck, and everything else was pretty damn great.

the clash. that awesome 1979-80 spurt of a definitive double album followed by a definitive triple album 12 months later. and in between they found time to write and produce a mostly, but not completely, crap ellen foley album.

― fact checking cuz, Saturday, 20 September 2003 16:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Fela
Keiji Haino
Peter Brotzmann
Matthew Shipp (a dozen albums as leader or sideman since 2001)

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Saturday, 20 September 2003 16:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Frank Zappa, obviously. and, of course, each and every one of his records is worth listening to ...

― Little Big Macher (llamasfur), Saturday, 20 September 2003 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Neil Young probably belongs in this thread, too. Doesn't he (like the Zappa Family Trust) have thousands of unreleased songs squirreled away?

― Little Big Macher (llamasfur), Saturday, 20 September 2003 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Pete Namlook, especially circa 1994.

― Siegbran (eofor), Saturday, 20 September 2003 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Sun Ra!

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Sunday, 21 September 2003 00:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Not sure if Glenny means MF Doom or not, but he's definitely up there, especially this year, where he will put out four releases: King Geedorah, Viktor Vaughn, Madvillain (with Madlib), and Special Herbs Vol 3 and 4 (vol 3 is from last year, but I believe vol 4 is new).

― Jonathan (Jonathan), Sunday, 21 September 2003 01:36 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah i was talkin' doom as in mf. i just got Viktor Vaughn the other day. i haven't heard the madvillain, but they're all pretty quality from what i've heard. though he seems to recycle beats a bit.

― glenny g2003 (glenny g2003), Sunday, 21 September 2003 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Centro-matic, who are about as productive as Pollard/GBV (and sound a bit like him too).

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Sunday, 21 September 2003 21:16 (twenty-two years ago)

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