With some of these "big" bands I think the same perfectionism and attention to detail that made them great, productive, successful etc. in their early years is like a double-edged sword that causes them to move at a glacial pace, if not entirely grind to a halt in their senior years. I'm sure almost everyone is a fan of at least one of these bands: Genesis, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Steely Dan etc.
It's sort of ironic, because as a music fan you want to support the creative endeavours, and decision-making sovereignty of the bands you love, but the bigger the band, the more autonomy they seem to have in this regard, and the more likely it is they'll use this power to veto releasing the things you'd like to hear come out. Some of these bigger bands seem to have figured it out (Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, etc.) but for groups like Genesis it seems like they feel that every move they make requires endless pondering, so they end up like the Ents from the Lord of the Rings, the ancient tree creatures that spend an eternity cogitating and doing very little. So as a result we end up mostly getting the same things rehashed again because they require the least amount of "thinking" having already been approved previously - the 5.1 mix of Lamb is a perfect example of this.
I think there's a kind of happy medium between artistic control and productivity/giving the fans what they want - Yes (whose members have never always gotten along) seem to have figured this out, as has Pink Floyd to an extent - but I just don't think that some of these guys are, or will ever be, ready to cede any creative control. It's a shame because we all know that eventually all of this stuff will come out, and those preparations will start exactly one minute after the last controlling member's will is settled - look at how quickly the executors of Prince's estate moved to act after he passed away.
No one's in any position to tell Tony Banks (or any other legendary musician) what to do, but you just wish they could have the perspective to say 'I'm 74 now, it's time to hand over the keys to the family business.' In the case of Genesis, 20 years or so ago they posted pictures of boxes and boxes of soundboard tapes from their tours - they could have set up a subscription service to either stream or sell physical copies of all these recordings, and could've had 20 years of adulation for these performances but instead they languish in a vault somewhere because I'm sure all Tony and his mates think about when they hear those is that all their mistakes an frailties are laid bare because they have no way to fix the mixes. Led Zeppelin is in the same boat here, they actually went as far as registering a trademark for 'The Led Zeppelin Experience' (and forcing Jason Bonham to change the name of his tribute act in the process) for a proposed streaming service for their archives of live performances, but Jimmy Page is such a perfectionist that I don't think he can countenance letting anything out that he hasn't sweated over in post-production - the "outtakes" on the Led Zeppelin deluxe editions sound like he took the final stereo mixes and flew in one or two overdubs from the multitrack, such is his fear of letting anyone hear the band in a less than 'perfect' state.
It's sort of ironic, because as a music fan you want to support the creative endeavours, and decision-making sovereignty of the bands you love, but the bigger the band, the more autonomy they seem to have in this regard, and the more likely it is they'll use this power to veto releasing the things you'd like to hear come out. Some of these bigger bands seem to have figured it out (Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, etc.) but for groups like Genesis it seems like they feel that every move they make requires endless pondering, so they end up like the Ents from the Lord of the Rings, the ancient tree creatures that spend an eternity cogitating and doing very little. So as a result we end up mostly getting the same things rehashed again because they require the least amount of "thinking" having already been approved previously - the 5.1 mix of Lamb is a perfect example of this.
I think there's a kind of happy medium between artistic control and productivity/giving the fans what they want - Yes (whose members have never always gotten along) seem to have figured this out, as has Pink Floyd to an extent - but I just don't think that some of these guys are, or will ever be, ready to cede any creative control. It's a shame because we all know that eventually all of this stuff will come out, and those preparations will start exactly one minute after the last controlling member's will is settled - look at how quickly the executors of Prince's estate moved to act after he passed away.
No one's in any position to tell Tony Banks (or any other legendary musician) what to do, but you just wish they could have the perspective to say 'I'm 74 now, it's time to hand over the keys to the family business.' In the case of Genesis, 20 years or so ago they posted pictures of boxes and boxes of soundboard tapes from their tours - they could have set up a subscription service to either stream or sell physical copies of all these recordings, and could've had 20 years of adulation for these performances but instead they languish in a vault somewhere because I'm sure all Tony and his mates think about when they hear those is that all their mistakes an frailties are laid bare because they have no way to fix the mixes. Led Zeppelin is in the same boat here, they actually went as far as registering a trademark for 'The Led Zeppelin Experience' (and forcing Jason Bonham to change the name of his tribute act in the process) for a proposed streaming service for their archives of live performances, but Jimmy Page is such a perfectionist that I don't think he can countenance letting anything out that he hasn't sweated over in post-production - the "outtakes" on the Led Zeppelin deluxe editions sound like he took the final stereo mixes and flew in one or two overdubs from the multitrack, such is his fear of letting anyone hear the band in a less than 'perfect' state.
