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What if they survived

#22
I'm gonna be that guy.

Morrison was very heavily assisted by good PR, and a solid backing band. On stuff like The Soft Parade he did 50-60 vocal takes to get a single composite track completed and even then the result was not well received.

At best he would be doing casinos.

Hendrix, on the other hand, was on the verge of inventing either disco or 70s funk when he passed. Either would have been interesting. No idea what would have come after, but it would have been awesome.
 
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#23
tangentmusic said:
Had Jimi lived, I think we would have seen & heard jazz/funk/rock fusion several years sooner
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Jhengsman said:
By "we" do you mean rock audiences crossing over? Mahavishu Orchestra was up and running by 1971 and Bitches Brew was 1969
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Mahavishnu did funk? :D Miles did funk, but not so much rock ... interestingly, there was talk of a Miles/Jimi collaboration around the time that Jimi passed away - that could have been something cool. I really do think Hendrix still had gas left in the tank, could've done more had he lived. Many of the others, not so much. Morrison in particular had already shot his wad, near as I can tell.

Artists who did live, and evolved to matter after their early impact? Paul Simon, "Graceland". Certainly a departure from his Simon and Garfunkel years, and even from his earlier solo career. He may be a bit of a dick, but a darn talented one. If George Harrison had died as a Beatle, we would have missed out on his great solo work and the groundbreaking Concert for Bangladesh, as well as all those great films he helped to produce (including some of the Python catalog) ... and also The Traveling Wilburys!
 
#24
tbz said:
I'm gonna be that guy.

Morrison was very heavily assisted by good PR, and a solid backing band. On stuff like The Soft Parade he did 50-60 vocal takes to get a single composite track completed and even then the result was not well received.

At best he would be doing casinos.

Hendrix, on the other hand, was on the verge of inventing either disco or 70s funk when he passed. Either would have been interesting. No idea what would have come after, but it would have been awesome.
Click to expand...

I agree with this, except for the 'casinos' part for Morrison.
The Doors' music was predominantly the brainchild of Manzarek and Krieger, and Morrison's passion was poetry. I think he would have pursued poetry/writing.
The Doors music was his vehicle to expose that, and I think a brilliant strategy at that. Remember, they pretty much laid it to rest before he passed.
Which has always made me wonder why Manzarek and Krieger hadn't continued to contribute further to music post-Doors. I think they were creative, if not underrated.
 
#27
The guy I think definitely had more to give and had the creative and production chops to really be a force was Shorty Long ("Devil With a Blue Dress On", "Function at the Junction", and "Here Comes the Judge"—all still fun records). He wasn't just another Motown act. He had a degree in music and a distinct artistic persona. He was one of only two Motown artists in the 60s permitted to produce their own records (the other was Smokey Robinson).
 
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#30
tbz said:
I'm gonna be that guy.

Morrison was very heavily assisted by good PR, and a solid backing band. On stuff like The Soft Parade he did 50-60 vocal takes to get a single composite track completed and even then the result was not well received.

At best he would be doing casinos.

Hendrix, on the other hand, was on the verge of inventing either disco or 70s funk when he passed. Either would have been interesting. No idea what would have come after, but it would have been awesome.
Click to expand...

Morrison would have cleaned up and become a TV preacher, then gotten snared in a sex scandal after achieving far-reaching political influence. THAT would be his path to the casinos as well as conservative resort chapels.

Jimi Hendrix DID have extensive experience in dance music, so it is entirely plausible that he would've beaten Prince to the punch in synthesizing blues, rock, r&b, jazz, country, and gospel into something danceable that the world had never heard before, using both modern and traditional music-making technologies.
 
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#31
I think, Amy Winehouse would have eventually returned to her jazz roots, sans booze and drugs. Look at Gaga now. Maturation at last! As a matter of fact look at Tony Bennett. Over 7 decades of musical performance! Always true to his strengths and who he really is. Set a direction way in the beginning and never strayed much from it. As popular as ever too.
 
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#32
After the murder of John Lennon, I often think that the death of John Bonham was the largest, single loss that Rock N Roll ever suffered. I really get the Jimi Love, and the Buddy Holly Love...less so the Elvis Love. Bonzo Changed Everything...much like Jimi Hendrix. The guy who died too way too young, and I miss him almost every day, is Steve Goodman. Please forget that horrible D.A.C. cover; Steve Goodman was one of the handful of singer / songwriters who stands shoulder to shoulder with Lennon/McCartney, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan (himself a really interesting case study of how things have gone since the height of his popularity!), and Neil Young.
 
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#33
Buddy Holly would become the American Southwest's version of Dick Clark, a major independent music and entertainment impresario, similar to modern guys like Diddy, Rick Rubin, Dr. Dre, and Russell Simmons, and would be credited with rescuing Elvis' career once he wrested The King away from Colonel Tom Parker—after getting the Colonel deported for being an illegal alien. He supposedly had a tremendous amount of energy.
 
#35
DinoRock said:
I've read on several threads something to the effect that music would have been different had some artist survived, such as Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Duane Allman, etc.

I've thought about this and think I fundamentally disagree. I believe that fans of these revolutionary artists would have liked some of the new material, not liked others of it, been indifferent/critical/etc. but that there would likely be no fundamental change in music had such artists survived.

So, for example, when I consider Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, Paul McCartney, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Grace Slick, Elvis Costello, Glyn Johns, George Martin, Gregg Allman, Paul Simon, Neil Young, etc., I believe that they made their initial enormous contributions and then maybe did some great work, some mediocre work, some interesting work, but nothing that rivaled what their initial contributions to the course of music.

Anyway, I'm interested in what others have to say. Obviously, this is all speculation, as there is currently no way to change history and see what would have happened if....
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well I think if most or all had survived , they would have been scratching at the coffin lid for a while

lol , I think most , if not all would have blended back into oldies revues, playing laughlin or Branson. Nirvana would have broken up and the Foo Fighters still would have come to fruition. even look at some of the influentials from back in the day , all either retired or dropped into obscurity or relegated to the roadside casino circuit. some like Elvis would have had years in Vegas and retired , Hendrix really didn't find much success in the states for quite a while , Woodstock helped that , but would have gone on to a decent career in the 70's , start waining in the 80's and pretty much nadda in the 90's. Death of a young star often put rose colored glasses on the actual view of them
 
#36
Okay, I have donned my fireproof underwear for this one. So before you start screaming at me, I've heard it all, but it has had no effect.
Most of the posts here I agree with, except Hendrix. Yes, he was an innovator and a showman, but he was not the musician he gets credit for being. I'm not saying he was bad. I'm saying he was a one trick pony who did a new trick better than anyone else. In his time he was hailed as the world's greatest guitarist. I think that is an over statement and then some. I think he was very skilled at what he did, but not all that versatile.
I believe, had he survived, he would be next week's act at the Backwash County Casino.
 
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#37
Gravedigger Dav said:
Okay, I have donned my fireproof underwear for this one. So before you start screaming at me, I've heard it all, but it has had no effect.
Most of the posts here I agree with, except Hendrix. Yes, he was an innovator and a showman, but he was not the musician he gets credit for being. I'm not saying he was bad. I'm saying he was a one trick pony who did a new trick better than anyone else. In his time he was hailed as the world's greatest guitarist. I think that is an over statement and then some. I think he was very skilled at what he did, but not all that versatile.
I believe, had he survived, he would be next week's act at the Backwash County Casino.
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Still, even to this day, you can hear him play chords that only HE plays.
 
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#38
"What if..."

To my mind, using this phrase is useless when discussing the past. What is done is done.

However, when discussing possibilities that we can begin implementing in the present, it can be quite useful.

I am with Frank Zappa on this type of thing. When asked a similar question about something in the musical past, he said "I don't miss anything." The guy was too busy creating in the present.

Just my take...
 
#39
I always think about, "what if Jerry Garcia never put down the banjo?"

He'd be this cool old guy at all the bluegrass festivals killing it with David Grisman, Sam Bush, Tim O'Brien and the rest of the greats. You know, probably just smokin' weed and never getting caught up in the whole heroin thing. That would be my dream.

But then he wouldn't have done so much for rock n roll and jam band music. But tough to listen to after the '80s. so you can see what their future may have been if the greats that the OP mentioned did live past 27.
 
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