I really disagree with that. Granted I am "only" 48, but I keep waiting
(and now I will never reach it) for this time when I will not be able to
hold up my end in a group (I've been hearing it said since I started playing
my bard).

I almost never had problems getting a group, I'd say bards have it third
easiest (behind clerics and enchanters). On Veeshan (at least) if you a
good bard, word gets around quickly. When I told a friend of mine I was
retiring, he let the Vox raid (which was getting ready) about it. I got more
tells than I could reply to asking me not to quit. (Anything from "Doh,
why?" to "Dammit now who are we going to get to die on plane runs?" There
are some advantages to be a very rarely played class.

What do you bring as a bard:
Downtime reduction. I think bards are probably the kings of this. Maybe
enchanters because of their greater crowd control. (which translates into
less wasted mana/health)

Crowd Control: Charm is still better than what everyone but enchanters (and
maybe necros) get. I can usually charm one mob, and have him attack mob 3,
thus essentially taking 2 mobs out of the fight for 90% of the time.

DOT's: Triple chants with your Nostrolo Tamborine/Naggy Drum is a LOT of
damage. If you're in a low damage output group, this can be a big help.

Healing: With only 2 heal songs, my ability to keep people healtyh was
pretty impressive. I had a all melle hybrid group in Karnor's. I sung the
2 regen songs (w mandolin) and Beserker (w/ Vox Horn). With one paladin, we
stayed together for about 2 hours, and everyone was happy with their xp and
how much FUN it was to make fun of casters. (FYI, we had warrior, ranger,
paladin, rogue, monk and me. Monk pulled, Ranger tagged and parked extras.
Warrior and Pally would taunt smartly, keeping the damage balanced among all
SIX of us)

Resists: For big raids, the organizers only seem to worry about how many
bards and how many clerics we have. I dont think any class is easier to get
invited onto big raids with than bard (since there are like 3 times as many
high lvl clerics as bards). Most commonly heard thing on a dragon run,
"Woohoo, we got a bard, we will all live!!!")

Problem solver: Being 2nd or 3rd best at everything has its moments:
People go linkdead. Real life makes people log without any warning. If you
have a bard in your party your chance of having to disband/sit their with
your tumb up your butt waiting when something happens is much lower.
Getting xp/loot half as fast is better than getting none.

Mana Pump: In a caster heavy group? Give your tired fingers a rest (well
till you get the other mana songs), pull out your crappy weapons, and swing
away while your melodies give the other 5 members of your group a 35% (is
that the boost?) increase in their ability.

Fear/Snaring: Got a snarer? Fine, who cares whats in your group? Go
outside and fear snare. The ranger and I got 5 Wurmslayers for our guild
doing this. Not to mention xp which was at least as good as what I normally
would get grouped in Karnors. We also got lots of cool stuff for the guild
doing the same in Frontier Mts (mostly wis caster stuff, we were trying to
get me those cool sleeves).

Track: Oh yea, we can track...

Solo: We are on of the best soloing chars in the game. Granted I hate
soloing, but I was able to solo for reasonable xp at lvl 45. Not many
people can do that.

Fun and Variety: How many classes have as many options available to them as
we do? I would say none.

A bards role is different then anyone else's in Norrath, because it is not
written in stone. Pretty much every other class can only do one or two
things. This makes bards have ahigher learning curve then other classes.
However a well played bard is definitly a wanted commodity (at least on
Veeshan)

Elfson Allegro lvl 48 bard forever