Ryan Adams is quitting music.....says Ryan Adams

According to his own blog and this Pitchfork article.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/148460--ryan-adams-is-quitting-music-says-ryan-adams

Is he serious, or is this just another moody chapter? Apparently he has some severe hearing loss.

 

This probably won't last... how could he possibly switch himself off?

*I* feel like I've already heard enough Ryan Adams for a lifetime... I have as many songs by him from the past decade on my iPod as I do from artists who have been making records for 40 years.

 

That's the problem. He put out so much material without even giving a thought to editing himself. What kind of mind thinks like that? To think everything you touch is worthy of release. Come on. He's gotta be so burnt out.

 

Exactly. He may take some time off, but the sheer volume of his output speaks to how much making music is a part of who he is. I can't see him giving it up for too long. Who knows, though. At the rate he's gone the past seven years or so, he deserves a break!

 

i'm sure it'll be like jay-z's retirement. whatever.

There are a handful of Ryan Adams songs I think are brilliant, but I just couldnt keep up with him after Demolition. Too many albums with 2 great songs and 12 that leave zero impression.

 

I take retirement notices from musicians with a grain of salt. Bowie retired a few times didn't he? He once even retired his old catalog from live performances. The Who retired in '82. None of those lasted...

 

its probably just a way to get people off your back for a while, no record companies or tour managers or interview requests, you can get off that cycle of write, record, tour

 

As someone who has all of his CDs, and thinks that, like Prince, he has released too much product in too short a time, I can't say this is disappointing news...

 

Quoth the writer of the article "Apparently, he's sick of being taken for granted"

 

I'm sure the world hasn't heard the last of Ryan Adams--at least I hope not (said the man with the Adams avatar).

Let's face it: Ryan wears his heart on his sleeve. If you go through several pages of his blog, you'll see him run the complete emotional gamut. One day, he's euphoric about making music with the Cardinals, the next he's apologizing for an on-stage tantrum.

So, I suspect this "retirement" isn't exactly news-worthy. If 2009 passes without a new Adams release, then I'll take notice.

 

Cardilogy is really growing on me...

Yeah, I doubt we've heard the last from him...

But, should it be true and lasting, he has surely left behind a long musical journey to sort through, many years worth of sonic and lyric pleasure, and his fair share of dreck, just like Dylan, and Neil, and...

cheers,

 

Agreed. As someone suggested above, the man has to be nearing burn-out. He's somehow managed to release a career's worth of music in about 10 years!

And I guess it's unrealistic to expect him to continue at this pace.

 

That would be a shame. I saw him with Oasis last month.
He hasn't made a great record in a long time, but in the ten years since Whiskeytown he has wrtitten more good songs, and has more incredible studio performances than just about anyone. The quantity of top shelf material if added together could make 4-5 top shelf 5 star records.


He's a tempremental SOB but so be it. I hope Phil Lesh can be of some solace to him, until then blame Mandy Moore I guess?

Clay

Check out "Love is Hell" ya'll

Thanks Gorts for removing the thread crap

 

His problem to me is that he's a terrible performer, at least from what I've seen. He seems to go out of his way to alienate the audience or at least keep them at arm's length. Most of the bad press he gets is a result of his shows -- and it sounds like the bad press is a big part of what he's upset about. And yet I read fans saying they went to his shows and loved them...?

 

Your avatar is the only Ryan CD I own, and I do love it.

I haven't explored enough to know if he's done any others as moving as this one, but I really cherish Love Is Hell.

 

I saw him last year and it was a strange show. he sure didn't seem to be enjoying it....He spent a lot of time talking into a mic at the back of the stage that it seemed only the other musicians could hear. Never seen that before.

 

From a less-than-objective perspective, I'd say that, yes, Adams has released albums as good. It's just that they're completely different, stylistically speaking. Heartbreaker, Gold, and Cold Roses are all every bit as strong as Love is Hell. It's just that all four records could be the work of different artists.

And I'm fine with that--but I know Adams' genre-shifts have left a lot of listeners behind.

 

One song for each of his Twenties...

And add my beloved and woefully misunderstood "29" to that list as a fifth Adams persona ~ perhaps his most personal, intimate album....the dark stuff...


cheers,

 

At least there will be no more confusing booking issues with Ryan and Bryan.

 

While I wouldn't put it in my personal Adams top-tier, I have warmed a bit to 29 over the past few months. Ironically, it wasn't the insistence of several SH Forum members that I give it another chance, it was hearing the song "Nightbirds" on the TV show Bones. It was a perfect "soundtrack moment" and, given the right (dark) mood, I can enjoy the entire album now.

 

I love Summer of 69 - that's a great song. Oh wait, this is a different guy.

Seriously, if you're a musician you don't "quit" music. I may not ever put out another cd but that doesn't mean I'm not making music in some way. It's somewhat like a chronic disease.

Bobby Sutliff

 

And I think that's half of why he wants to quit right there.

IMO he should have used the name "David Ryan Adams."

 

True--but quitting "the music" and quitting "the music industry" are two different things. Of course, I maintain that Adams will not quit either. But that's the beauty (or curse) of an online diary. Every emotional whim can reach thousands of people instantly. And, as a result, Adams can seem like a complete flake, whereas I suspect he's merely human. A very fragile human, admittedly, but human nevertheless.

 

I really enjoy a lot of his music but . . . sorry . . . he needs to grow a pair. He needs to meet up with two guys: Robert Pollard so he'll just feel fine being prolific, and Robert Fripp so he'll just feel fine being stand-offish and "artsy" which will allow him to pretty much do as he pleases - play this type of music or that, play concerts or not, whatever, and he will have a solid legion of fans that understand this. This is a guy who really needs to learn how to "be" himself - he seems tremendously needy and lost when I bother to read what he writes. Stop apologizing and just be yourself, Ryan.

 

If you look at the lastest version of his website, he does use that exact name.