I start this thread as I listen to The English Beat. Great band. One of the few universal bands that existed. Any other bands that split up before they should have. Any others except Rick Rigler Trio.
The Police If we're counting bands broken up by the Grim Reaper.... Nirvana (though I don't like all of their music)
When we say short careers, how long are talking here. I was thinking a year or two with maybe one or two CDs out, you know really leaving you wanting more. the Police, English Beat I don't think really count. They were both around more then 5 years and both put out more then 5 LP's. I'm thinking the La's, Material Issue, the Verve.
Well there was Cream, much as I hate to list a dino-rock outfit. They were together for what, a year? Or am I thinking of someone else. Could be, I know next to nothing about "classic" rock.
Thought that Missing Persons wasn't around long enough. As well as The Origin and Go West and one of my favorite bands The Railway Children.
Guns and Roses (original lineup, the only lineup that truly matters) Buckcherry (personal fave that bottomed out after two kick-arse albums) Also, to a previous poster ... you're right about cream. Fantastic band. they were together for 2-3 years I believe, but it was much too short.
You could also throw Blind Faith in there too. The original Allman Brothers Band lineup 2 1/2 studio records and one the best live albums ever!
Billy Pilgrim... Their first album (I think it was called "Billy Pilgrim") is just about perfect if you like that kind of thing. The second one was decent. After that I have no idea what happened to them, maybe they're still around.
I was going to say GNR but when I thought about it they were around for 7 years; 1986-1993. This is basically the original line up excluding the changes of Matt Sorum for Steven Adler and Gilby Clarke for Izzy Stradlin. With that criteria I could also say Van Halen MKI
Sublime was together for over ten years, had 3 "regular" studio albums, many self released singles and EP's and one live album. Now Longbeach Dub All-Stars on the other hand only did 2 albums before they selfdestructed.
Nirvana, Cream and Police are the big ones. Personally, I'll put in At The Drive-In, as they broke up after their best album. I just picked up The Mars Volta EP today, though, and can't wait for the full length.