Decline and Breakup
Though they had achieved stardom, the group members of Labelle were never satisfied with their music. This dissatisfaction slowly led to the group's implosion as they could no longer agree on a musical sound. For years, Patti LaBelle had longed to return to the ballads she had enjoyed singing while the group was the Bluebelles. Nona Hendryx, who was in favor of the glam rock image and style, wanted to record more music of that caliber but often found herself in conflict with the label and even her own band mates. Sarah Dash wanted the group to record more disco, a genre neither LaBelle nor Hendryx took favorably, despite the fact that "Lady Marmalade" helped to pioneer that particular genre.
The group was actually recording another album, Shaman, when the group finally came unglued during their U.S. tour. Despite trying to keep an image of unity and sisterhood that had often been the message of Labelle, tensions between the band mates grew. Finally during a show in Baltimore on December 13, 1976, according to Patti LaBelle in her memoirs, Don't Block The Blessings, Hendryx snapped. Before going into their famous number, "(Can I Speak To You Before You Go To) Hollywood", the singer suddenly left the stage. When LaBelle and Dash found Hendryx, she had suffered a nervous breakdown, tearing up her dressing room. Hendryx was later taken to a hospital for mental evaluation. Feeling the group had reached the end of its rope, LaBelle advised Hendryx and Dash to disband the group, ending it as long as their friendship remained intact. Eventually the group agreed to go their separate ways, announcing their split in early 1977, repairing their friendship. All three members, shortly afterwards, embarked on solo careers.
Famous quotes containing the words decline and and/or decline:
“We have our little theory on all human and divine things. Poetry, the workings of genius itself, which, in all times, with one or another meaning, has been called Inspiration, and held to be mysterious and inscrutable, is no longer without its scientific exposition. The building of the lofty rhyme is like any other masonry or bricklaying: we have theories of its rise, height, decline and fall—which latter, it would seem, is now near, among all people.”
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