Jam band fans were greeted with a miraculous prospect this week, when the four remaining members of legendary rockers the Grateful Dead—Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann—would be adding Phish frontman Trey Anastasio to perform a trio of concerts at Chicago's Soldier Field in celebration of the legendary band's 50th anniversary.
It truly is something to celebrate when a band, especially one as iconic as The Dead, can stick around to celebrate a 50th anniversary. This example is somewhat an exception because the members haven't played a show with founder Jerry Garcia since he died during 1995 (at Soldier Field as well, hence the decision to do this last trio away from the band's home in the Bay Area). Here are five acts that have persevered through 50 years of performances, and here's how they celebrated.
The Rolling Stones
One thing the Rolling Stones have in the argument between them and The Beatles as the greatest band of all time: longevity. The band kicked off a 50th anniversary tour during 2012 (marking the band 50 years since the band formed in Dartford during 1962). The first show of the tour was notable however, performed at the London O2 Arena and packing a legion of A-List guest stars for the 23-song set. Mary J. Blige took Merry Clayton's iconic vocal part during "Gimme Shelter," Jeff Beck starred during "I'm Going Down" (the first time it was ever performed live), not to mention appearances from former Stones Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor. The cherry on top was the London Youth Orchestra introducing "You Can't Always Get What You Want."
The Beatles
Obviously The Beatles as a band can hardly be considered among the most persevering, having disbanded after just a decade together. That didn't stop the world from celebrating the band's 50th anniversary with a big televised concert however. Four years too late. You see, America of course chose to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band's historic performance on The Ed Sullivan Show instead (since, you know, if it didn't happen in the U.S., it doesn't count). That said, organizers did a heck of a job: The last living members of the band, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, performed as did Katy Perry, Dave Grohl, Pharrell Williams and more. Even the Eurythmics reunited to celebrate the reunify of the remaining Beatles.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan never felt the need to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his 1962 self-titled debut album. After all, he had been on the "Neverending Tour" since 1988 and it's tough to go more than a month without some commemorative concert being held in your honor when you're Bob Dylan. He did celebrate the event in one way however: The release of an 86-track collection featuring just about everything the performer recorded during 1962, entirely with the purpose of preventing his catalogue from entering public domain in Europe. This isn't conjecture: The title was The 50th Anniversary Collection: The Copyright Extension Collection, Volume 1. Two more collections of similar purpose have emerged during 2013 and 2014.
Eric Clapton
Slowhand may have technically gone on a "50th Anniversary" tour during 2013 but he didn't treat it any differently than the tours prior: The guitarist played hits from across his huge discography...from Cream to Derek and The Dominoes to covers from his icon Robert Johnson. More noteworthy perhaps will come the this year, when Clapton celebrates the 50th anniversary of his first show at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Having played more than 200 concerts at the venue is across his career, Clapton has booked seven sell-out dates for May 2015. You can expect a decent turnout from guest musicians.
The Who
The Who have also come up with a anniversary tour to celebrate the 50th birthday of the band's debut album My Generation. Fans should take this tour more seriously perhaps than the 50th anniversary shows of other bands, as both remaining members of The Who's original lineup, Pete Doherty and Roger Daltrey, also plan on this being the last tour for the group. What this means has been debated in public between the two music icons—Daltrey wants to do a greatest hits package while Doherty would like to dig deep—but either way: It'll be worth seeing.
