Anti-Climacus

JOHNNY CASH, REVISITED: Whims being what they are, I listened to The Essential Johnny Cash on the way to school today; more specifically, the first disc, focusing on Cash's early career. As usual, I skipped about 70% of the tracks because, to be totally honest, they're not that good. "Orange Blossom Special" is a great song; "Ballad of a Teenage Queen" is not; "All Over Again" is respectable, but nothing special. The only period of his career represented that doesn't have notable mis-steps is the first set of collaborations with June Carter (not surprisingly). The highs are remarkable, but interspersed with so many songs of mediocre quality ("Ghost Riders in the Sky," anyone?), it has to affect one's final judgment a little.

This leads me to wonder: Cash appears to record without a lot of quality control over his career. Is there anyone else who has the same flaw? The potential candidates all seem to emerge from the 1950s:

Elvis: The gold standard of wasted talent, between the movies and the unfortunate 70s persona. But also has two periods of unmistakable genius, the first with Scotty Moore and Sun Records in the 50s, and the second after the '68 Comeback Special (oh, "Suspicious Minds," how I love you).

Chuck Berry (and a host of others: Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Little Richard): All had periods of initial creativity followed by long careers of writing no new material, or else music that is derivative of their previous efforts.

Other possibilities? U2? (Bold and daring in the 90s; now content to release variations on the exact same album) Anyone else?