Courtesy of the lovely Doctor Martina, I learned of the 27 Club; musical artists who died at the tender age of 27 years.
Well, shit, that’s pretty damn young to die, I will admit. And the list is sad — there’s no other way to describe it. Sad.
But, let’s say that if we all clap loudly and wish wish wish (and fling pixie dust out into the netherworld) we might bring ONE of them back. And not just those who donned the shroud of death in their youth — but others who died too early.
What musician would you vote to bring back from the dead — to live another 20 years (at least)?
- Michael Jackson
- Jim Morrison
- Freddie Mercury
- Janice Joplin
- Amy Winehouse
- The King – Elvis Presley
- Kurt Cobain
- Buddy Holly
- Prince
- David Bowie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Bob Marley
- [In the comments?]
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 
Shannon Hoon, Blind Melon. No brainer.
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Jeff Beck is my rock star hero, and I don’t play guitar. Because he doesn’t sit still, and I think he can play anything. His work with and for women is admirable. His musical vocabulary is vast, his style often humorous, and when you drop the needle on his work you never know what the hell is going to come out of the speaker. On the other hand we have Styx and Steppenwolf playing casinos and cruises with Huey Lewis and Gary Lewis, and last week’s country hit. Nancy Wilson and Grace Slick ought to be out beating the walls down for women’s rights until they keelover. So 20 more years of pushing the envelope? Hell yeah. Living off the catalog, touring to shore up the reitrement account? Nah. I heard them the first time. Show me something new or stay home.
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Morrison. He wasn’t living off the catalog yet. Hendrix didn’t make the list. Shame on you. In truth the shooting stars come along, change the musical vocabulary, and either flame out or outlive their ability to make a difference, which leads to geezer band billboards selling tickets to wheelchair bound oxygen tanks. Checking out early, if you were to ask Keith Emerson, would have been a blessing. Make a difference, gone. I think Morrison and Hendrix had more to say. However their disruptions rippled through the last half of the 20th century. Most of that list was a mockery of who they’d been. If the question had been 20 more years of making a difference, all of them. 20 more years of Fat Elvis in Vegas?
The 27 club. Let us not forget John Keats. Who understood the muse of art on the cosmic debris level. “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.”
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I’d meant to include Hendrix… FIXED.
And Lord Byron (what a crazy, eclectic, masterful fuck he was.)
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Byron and Shelley and Keats, oh my! Byron and Shelley and Keats. The romantics, each with a different viewpoint. Keats was cosmic, Byron was whimsical and lusty, Shelley a bit Gothic. But all of their stuff dripped with word goo.
Of course people will cite Hendrix’s influences, but Jimi played guitar, the amp the electricity and the air in between.
I quote Byron, or rather a character does, in THG. He was the first to call out the name of the Bridge of Sighs in English. How he found the time for all his adventures, and writing, is testament to the in touch mind.
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