Squandering The Legacy: Worst Artists' Kids

I feel like Jakob is objectively the worst of the choices here, YMMV

I have seen Caspar and Seun live and they both totally ruled, btw

I saw Caspar live once too (opening for Helmet) and he was amazing.

I would guess Kim Wilde is better than Marty Wilde but I've never really heard anything he did and I'm sure I read that some of his 60s stuff was pretty good.

jay weinberg is a better drummer than max weinberg

He's definitely in a better band, at any rate.

Can't vote for Sean and Julian L. because "Too Late for Goodbyes" is for real a good track.

I would guess Kim Wilde is better than Marty Wilde

he wrote most of her 80s stuff!

I used to have a concern with artists who did wildly ambitious work that sought to redefine entire paradigms of music...and then their children performed relatively straightforward "genre" music. A lot of that has to do with my own preoccupations with "advancement" in music, parental legacies, what children owe their parents, etc.
Also, if you don't know the musicians' work in detail, you're just dealing with stereotypes. For instance, there may be old-school Tim Buckley fans that consider Jeff's work run-of-the-mill "grunge".
Voted the Lennons, but this poll made me remember Christgau's review of Hank Williams Jr's Family Tradition:

Since "To Love Somebody" isn't exactly Hank's kind of song, I guess he disavowed the Ray Ruff-produced side of this. On the other hand, "Family Tradition" (guess who that's about) leads off the other side, and it is exactly Hank's kind of song. Exactly. That's not so great either. C

This is something James Redd, Sr. would often harp on and so, even though I haven't heard him do it recently, I am somewhat reluctant to pass judgement. Maybe will have a look-see anyway.

Think I see a clear winner here anyway.

I was curious about Emma Townshend's record when I read a review in 1998, still haven't heard it and it looks like she never made another.

Are there any musical offspring that are arguably better than their parents? The Wainwrights maybe?

Albert Hammond, Jr.?

George Formby

Kelly is the only even halfway reasonable choice here (and even she isn't totally indefensible)

Second round should include Willow, Shooter Jennings, Promise of the Real, Dweezil and Ahmet, Adam Cohen, and Miley Cyrus, for starters

Miley Cyrus is more talented than her old man.

Granted, that's not a huge accomplishment. Still, not much of a legacy to squander.

I only considered Kelly Osbourne briefly before concluding that she is inoffensive at worst.

The Wallflowers were terrible, milquetoast crap but Hank Jr is abominable in every possible way.

Never heard him, to be honest, but I would hazard a guess Ross McManus was somewhat outshone by Elvis Costello.

Thread needs more Wilson Phillips

Hank Jr is abominable in every possible way

as a human being, almost definitely, but as I recall there are a handful of great Hank Jr tunes

OTM

Charlotte Gainsbourg is the clear winner of the "kid that works in the same field as their parents but in an interesting non-competitive way"

are a handful of great Hank Jr tunes

― Paul Ponzi, Friday, December 31, 2021 6:39 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

This.

what is wrong with Caspar Brotzmann apart from sartorial choices?
Massaker were a great unit, I think they still are.

I am getting the strange feeling maybe I should start listening to Wolfgang Van Halen.

Missing option for Ravi Shankar-Norah Jones

Missing option for Ravi Shankar-Norah Jones

Also Miley,
Nancy & Frank Jr
Shooter Jennings
Arlo Guthrie
Natalie Cole

Norah doesn’t bear her father’s “name” (which is apparently a key criterion here)

Also – rude

Some musician who I can't remember expressed their Adam Cohen outrage: "Your father is Leonard Cohen...but your favourite artist is Sting?!?"

Not to be all captain save a Bocephus and no defense to his opinions at all, but it is probably not unsurprising he ended up being such a bitter hateful human in that he was pretty much exploited as a child and pushed out on stage at like age 8 as the family breadwinner after his dad died.

Miley Cyrus is more talented than her old man.

Granted, that's not a huge accomplishment. Still, not much of a legacy to squander.

― jimbeaux, Friday, December 31, 2021 4:27 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Thought it was hilarious when Old Town Road got huge and Billy Ray was more popular than his daughter for a brief moment

Sean or Hank would surely be the two most annoying to be stuck in a room with

I feel a little bad grouping Julian with Sean. John's older son had at least three passable songs and seems more sympathetic than risible. But Sean I've disliked since his first video where he was walking parallel to the sidewalk. Don't do that!

Haven't heard Sean much, but main Julian's main prob seems to be that his voice begs comparison with his old man's, in creepy, watery clone combination w the lite toons I've heard, back when he was having hits w the guy who produced Billy Joel Julian was no Billy Joel either: if he had half the gusto of Billy or John, might be less creepy, but at least he sounds kinda friendly, like Barney the Dinosaur--remember him, from the same era? Barney had more vocal prescence.
Rosanne (who can be too arty for me, but can be great) and Kaspar (judging by Massaker reissues, though they vary in quality) shouldn't be here; Jakob should.
If you're going to paste xgau on Junior, here's another:
Hank Williams Jr. and Friends [MGM, 1975]
Williams moved his country heritage toward rock and roll shortly after a confrontation with death on a mountain, and here the transformation conveys that kind of conviction. In fact, the authority of Williams' voice and persona, plus the good sense of his songwriting and selection, focuses an Allman and a Marshall Tucker and a Charlie Daniels into what I'm sure will stand as the best Southern-style rock of the year. No kidding--if you don't find Grinderswitch a suitable replacement for the Brothers, here's yours. A- (He means the roadies' band, not Garland J's Grinder Switch.)

Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound [Elektra, 1979]
At times his son-of-an-outlaw obsession is worse than shtick, but here he does justice to the formula. Two candid songs about women tell you more about his sexism than he knows himself, two others explain why he's in that mood, the covers from Gregg Allman and George Jones define his parameters, and "The Conversation"--with Waylon Guess Who, about Guess Who, Sr.--doesn't make you gag once. B+

Greatest Hits III [Warner Bros., 1989]
How embarrassing--when I let my guard down this flattering sampler catches me thinking that maybe the CMA has a point. The "Ain't Misbehavin'" isn't gratuitous, the miracle-of-science duet with his dad isn't dead, the star-studded "Mind Your Own Business" swings like a mother, the autobiography is good shtick, and the country songs are good country songs--"This Ain't Dallas" is a classic of the TV age. And though "Young Country" disses punks, I'll trade for r&b even up. B+
He mentions some others that are kinda-sorta, and that stupid-and-worse opinions can ruin others, but also I liked prob 70 percent of a box set, and about that much of several albums from the the 2000s, haven't heard any in recent years.

for some reason when I was a kid I thought the opening lyric of "Too Late for Goodbyes" was "What a difference an Arab makes"

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Jakob because tbf haven't heard Sean, otherwise maybe him and Julian, but Jakob is equally deserving, at least: just so nowhere, man.

Jakob has some songs that sound good on the radio, and at least he didn’t name his band DYLAN à la John Bonham’s son.

Thoughts in order

1. Paging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Philipp_Emanuel_Bach to thread

2. Wow tough crowd here

3. Yeah it was probably pretty easy for someone named Nancy Sinatra or Ziggy Marley or Jakob Dylan to get a record deal, vs. the same people surnamed Smith

4. But the Wallflowers were at least okay, and maybe would have had a few alt-rock / college radio hits even without the famous last name

5. Maybe not very much awareness of the 1990s folk scene hereabouts? Teddy Thompson is good. Eliza Carthy is very good. Kate Rusby is good. Watersons and Carthys and Thompsons are very much around and are doing stuff that I think is relevant.

6. Can we maybe discuss some of the Wainwrights because those folks also seem salient to the discussion at hand.

7. Thread is low on Zappa-related content

7(b). no dweezil, no justice

Don't know if they recorded---maybe live---but Dweezil's touring Zappa Plays Zappa orchestral celebration, with some Frank vets, even a couple Mothers, maybe? was anointed by Rolling Stone The World's Greatest Cover Band, or maybe it was just Best, but still. However, the last I read, he and Moon discovered, right after their mother's death, that Gail had left control of the Vault and all Frank matters in the hands of brother Ahmet and kid sister Diva---and Dweezil claimed that Ahmet wouldn't let him use his own name for the band, Ahmet said, all Dweezil had to do was---I don't remember, could look it up but what a drag; I've known families who came to that.

The big news to me about the Thompson Family album was---Linda is back! She's done more good stuff since, but had been very slowly recovering from vocal problems. Teddy and all the other younger relations did okay, but way overshadowed by Richard and Linda.
The Lucy Wainwright Roche solo tracks I've heard were amazing, incl. lyrics and settings, but live solo sets w just her guitar seemed v. ingenue, shy. Much more impressive w her mother, Suzzy, and I linked some of their live performances on the Roches thread.
Haven't heard her on The Wainwright Sisters album, but Martha's always been powerful since I first heard her vs. lovely haze of The McGarrigles Hour w song about and directed at her father, I think. Later some tendency to oversing, like Rufus, but they both got it together eventually, and for inst I really liked her 2012 album:
Martha Wainwright---Come Home To Mama So, like Cat Power and Fiona Apple, very confidential-to-allusive-to-cryptic-to-let-it-blurt (and back), singer-songer Martha Wainwright now uses tuneful beat science to parse hot mess. Even further into the studio as self-expressive/referential protection and risk than the Power, less (eventually) tending to monotony than the tirelessly delving Apple, Come Home To Mama has more of a band feel than either, and knows from Prince, Stevie, Ziggy, Dolly, her parents and brother, while always being her own story. Good on drugstore headphones too.

Also--pasted from one of her threads to current Hype and Slander re EOY noms:
nother nom, Martha Wainwright, Love Will Be Reborn--thought I'd said more than this! She's learned from the great French balladeers, as well as her own life, incl. in American and Canadian music:

New album is wild, thematic and gooooing with the floooow, theme as raft, well-lashed, only comparable contemporary sonic experience coming to mynd is Maria McKee's Pre-Raphaelite shout out to Beatrice, La Vita Nuova.

good interview:https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/aug/07/this-much-i-know-martha-wainwright-my-divorce-has-given-me-wisdom
and concert review, w more quotes:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/04/first-live-concert-masks-martha-wainwright-pandemic

― dow, Monday, October 4, 2021

― dow, Friday, January 7, 2

Lucy Wainwright Roche solo *studio album* tracks, I meant to compare to her live etc.

For instance, in her rebroadcast solo set on Mountain Stage, which still has that, and her remarkable quarantine show w Suzzy, available online.

thanks, dow, for the solid Zappa- and Wainwright- and Thompson-adjacent content - looks like I misunderstood the intent of the thread however because I belatedly see we're supposed to be discussing BAD things, not good things

Tomorrow People is neither great nor a legacy-diminishing travesty. I think I saw Damian Marley (in maybe 2006? 2007?) opening for Bob Dylan and felt decidedly meh, but again - does it squander the legacy? Not sure.

I don't think I ever want to hear "sitting on a pebble by the river playing guitar" ever again, so maybe that. Cibo Matto is pretty cool tho

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-57864034

I have to assume this record is rubbish, though I've not heard it and only became aware of it when it was included on NME's best-of-2021 list.

I Blame Coco

Fiction Plane

Shame Mabel didn't feature in the poll to see how she'd do against her mum.

don't really know where to slot Caspar Brotzmann, he does his own thing but in that small niche world I'm sure his dad's name rang bells esp early on

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 15:05 (five hours ago) link

The family connection was def a thing when I first became aware of him in the mid-90s, but yeah not sure where to slot him since other than been "intense" and "loud" he really isn't anything like P Broztmann musically.

I think you could make the case he would be roughly the same level of renown if his name were Joe Bag'O'Doughnuts. I mean I'd probably buy a Bag'O'Doughnuts Massakar record

Personal story, untold until now...

Back when I was trying to start or join a band based on my freshly written songs, one guy told me that one of my songs was very similar to a demo tape he'd heard of Julian Lennon's. Five years later, I got to hear his tune in the chart. My song was called "Too Late". And yes, it does sound like one or other of us was copying.

Nor does Hank, Jr.

Ew, no

Sean Lennon's politics aren't necessarily better than Hank Jr's!

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, January 12, 2022 1:53 PM (yesterday)

not gonna defend sean who seems like a pretty annoying bitcoin bro but i dunno, hank seems significantly worse to me

Hank's decent as long as his rowdy friends stay at home.

well they have settled down

listening to Hank Jr, "OD'd in Denver" rules

yeah not to be corny indie dude but i heard the Oldham/Callahan cover of that in 2020 and it really made me rethink my opinions on Hank Jr, hell of a song.