Bands that flamed out after one or two spectacular albums. Discuss.
My first choice for this is always Quicksilver Messenger Service. The first two albums ( their self-titled debut and "Happy Trails" ) were time capsule-worthy examples of San Francisco / Summer of Love psychedelia.
The third, "Shady Grove," was OK. Not great, maybe not even that good, but OK.
Then founding member Dino Valenti got out of jail (he was busted for weed right before the band released its first album).
I always viewed him as a poor man's Marty Balin at best. The songs got shorter, John Cippolina's solos became shorter, Cippolina left, the band flamed out.
Your pick for bands that flamed out early?
= new reply since forum marked as read
From this:
to this:
in one year.
Didn't chart in the U.S., highest position in the U.K. was #47.
Sold so poorly that they didn't tour behind it.
Two years later, the "Rumours" lineup reunited and all was well in their world again.
Mason locked himself into the Traffic / Alone Again sound early in his career, and that's all audiences ever wanted from him. He did have that late-career hit with "We Just Disagree," but no one really wanted to see him as a member of Fleetwood Mac, They wanted Buckingham and Nicks, and when they returned, fans started spending money again.
:toasto
Cream
Jack Bruce & Leslie West with Joe Franco on drums.
http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/21-facts-about-tom-hanks-brilliant-timeless-that-thing-you-do-.php
"Sh*t Sandwich."
I bought the remastered "Deluxe" versions of the first two albums, with Hagar. Both CDs feature complete concerts, originally broadcast on KSAN. The first album, in particular, took the top off of my head.
I followed Ronnie's career through all of its various configurations. Wasn't a fan of vocalist Bob James (Hagar's replacement). Loved Gamma 1, 2, and 4. On Gamma 3, he relinquished too much control to Mitchell Froom...it's keyboard / synth-heavy.
He also had a number of solo albums that were amazing.
Not sure if you heard last year's 10x10...it was an album-in-progress finished after Ronnie's death by Ricky Phillips. From Amazon:
Before his untimely death in 2012, renowned American rock guitarist Ronnie Montrose began recording an ambitious passion project with bassist Ricky Phillips (Styx, Bad English) and drummer Eric Singer (Kiss, Alice Cooper). The idea was to record 10 songs with 10 different singers and call the album 10X10. Sadly, Montrose was unable to see the album through during his lifetime. Instead, Phillips made it his mission to finish the songs by enlisting a small army of Ronnie’s musician friends to record the vocals and the guitar solos for each song, completing the album in recent years.
Phillips says the songs represent some of Montrose’s best work. “His songs still have the fire and angst of a young rebel, but with some added wisdom and foresight voiced in his own unique language of ‘guitar-speak.’ On 10X10, we hear Ronnie at the top of his game, from the opening crunch guitar of ‘Heavy Traffic,’ all the way to the closing song, ‘I’m Not Lying,’ which was Ronnie’s tip of the hat to his friend Robin Trower.”
10x10 features inspired pairings, like Deep Purple singer Glenn Hughes with Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen (“Still Singin’ With The Band”) and singer Sammy Hagar with Toto guitarist Steve Lukather (“Color Blind”). Legendary blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa also showcases his guitar talents on the track “The Kingdom’s Come Undone” with Ricky Phillips on vocals. A few artists both sing and play, like Edgar Winter (“Love Is An Art”) and Tommy Shaw (“Strong Enough”).
https://www.amazon.com/10X10-Ronnie-Montrose/dp/B074HJM7Z5
Blind Melon. I still love "the bumblebee girl" song. (Yes, I know the name of it) 
I love that song. 
...and was thinking of bands, but yeah, individual performers should also be part of the conversation.
I thought of Morissette and Crow as "vibe" performers...I never really got behind their vibe.
It's like Stevie Nicks, you have to get behind that vibe, or not. I read a piece on Rolling Stone the other day...Stevie basically comes right out and says "Here's my vibe, take it or leave it."
In the male realm of performers, it reminds me of Lou Reed. There's a song, and there's a freight train of attitude behind it, and if you're up for the attitude, cool. And if you're not, you need to think about getting off the tracks. I own everything Lou recorded but I listen to him "selectively" because sometime the vibe is laid on so thick that I can't find the vibe.
One more performer I'd mention here is Joan Osbourne. Her "What If God Was One Of Us" hit just as big as the aforementioned performers, and then she was "gone," although "gone" in her case means her career continued somewhat off the grid, includinga tenure with Phil Lesh & Friends:
He didn't really flame out, but was killed by a drunk driver while riding his motorcycle. Though he did several albums, most acclaimed is his first, "Isle of View," which produced these two gems:
"For I am the Mercury, light of the morning,
Looking for shelter in this thunder and this rain...."
"The Nest"
AWESOME talent. Gone FAR too soon, like so many others!
"Voices Of Babylon" was one of those songs that screamed "Eighties" to me:
I knew all of the Big Country hits, but my favorite had to be "Where The Rose Is Sown."
One more band that I think needs to be mentioned in the same context is The Alarm...they were a little too close to U2 for some, but they had some solid songs, especially this one (which really, really, really sounds like U2):
The last words Johnny Rotten said as he left the stage were "Ever feel like you've been cheated?"
I was a big fan...at the time, there were a couple of tiny, hole-in-the-wall record stores in Palo Alto CA which regularly got in import singles. Each of the Pistols' singles had an unreleased B-side. I made it my mission to collect them all, and I did.
...it has a song on the "B" side called "Did You No Wrong." I was / am a big Mott The Hoople and Ian Hunter fan. When I first heard it on the radio I thought it was Hunter.
Unless you want the actual vinyl 45s. the B-sides ended up on the 2012 2-CD release of "Bollocks."
13. "No Feeling" (B-Side of A&M God Save the Queen)
14. "Did You No Wrong" (B-Side of Virgin God Save the Queen)
15. "No Fun" (B-Side of Pretty Vacant)
16. "Satellite" (B-Side of Holidays in the Sun)
Disc 2 features live tracks from 1977 (Happy House, Stockholm, Sweden, 28 July 28, 1977 and Penzance, Winter Gardens, Cornwall, 1 September 1, 1977)
but yeah, I do collect vinyl so now I have a new quest lol. 
on WKRP. 
