When 1985's album Don't Stand Me Down, still considered by many his masterpiece, flopped, his career nosedived, dramatically leading to bankruptcy and a spell in rehab.
Too Rye Ay's follow-up, Don't Stand Me Down, was an astonishingly personal and beautiful record, but it became Dexys' equivalent of Dazzle Ships.
Dexys' fourth album, last year's One Day I'm Going To Soar, somewhat tardily followed up 1985's misunderstood masterpiece Don't Stand Me Down, and describes a lifetime of broken self-esteem, giddy hubris and failed grasps for love.
Don't Stand Me Down, the followup to Too-Rye-Ay, featured lengthy songs exploring Rowland's feelings about Irish identity and the cultural homogeneity of the Radio 1 playlist.
Other artists not exactly notable for their constant work ethic include The New York Dolls, Magazine, The Eagles and Dexys, whose One Day I'm Going to Soar came 27 years after the genius of Don't Stand Me Down and was almost bonkers enough to stand comparison.
There were also some extraordinarily personal artistic statements such as the band's third album Don't Stand Me Down, or My Beauty, Rowland's 1999 album of covers that nursed him back from a cocaine-addled breakdown (the cover of which saw him wearing a blue velvet dress and stockings).
The album follows a proud tradition: Kevin Rowland from Dexy's Midnight Runners who scored his biggest hit with Come on Eileen and then followed it up with Don't Stand Me Down, Neil Young reinvented himself with Tonight's the Night, and Lou Reed eviscerated his pop persona when he released Metal Machine Music.
Yes, and so were Blondie after Plastic Letters – and then they put out Parallel Lines... Some bands' third albums are their third masterpiece on the trot: Public Enemy's Fear Of A Black Planet, Big Star's Sister Lovers, Dexys Midnight Runners' Don't Stand Me Down, Wire's 154, The Stooges' Raw Power, Roxy Music's Stranded and Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland spring to mind here.
Searching for the Young Soul Rebels Too-Rye-Ay Don't Stand Me Down.
They [the label] went with Don't Stand Me Down for about a fortnight.
He shouted at the judge: "You're not going to stand me down.
