Morbid? Sure but still a good idea. Vanity Fair ran an article asking if their readers could bring anybody back from the dead, who would it be. Princess Di came in first (You would have thought maybe Jesus, but “been there done that” I’m guessing).So always in the market to steal somebody elses idea, I thought I’d figure out the same concept for musicians. Now not rock musician, ALL MUSICIANS. Ready?
1. John Lennon – He was only 40 years old and easy to consider one of the greatest of all time. Also, because of his stuff with Yoko he would have remained very cutting edge and while Yoko didn’t crossover, with the help of Lennon’s pop sensibility, she very well could have. Of all the early dead superstars, Lennon is the most 21st century of them all. Plus, what a lousy way to go.
2. Jimi Hendrix – If ever there was a man who you just have no idea whatsoever what he could have done, that would have been Jimi. Jazz, funk, metal, rock, whatever way he felt like it. Let’s get him back.
3. George Gershwin – Sure, “Porgy And Bess” was enormous but where was the next one? What other operas might he write if we brought him back from the dead.
4. Patsy Cline – Countrypolitan is, for better or worse, the governing force in all country music today and though, sure, it was Owen Bradley’s baby, it was still Patsy Cline who performed it. How would this in the current marketplace, if we brought her back to 2013, I am not sure. But FOR SURE, she could take back the country and perform crossover with some edge to it.
5. Buddy Holly – I was reading the other day about the great fire in Alexandra during Cleopatra’s time, where the library was burnt down and all those great science and literature, was lost forever to the world. Today, we have surpassed them by far. And the worry with Holly is similar, he had so much to offer rock and roll but in 2013 we have moved passed it. Or maybe not.
6. Billie Holiday – Here is the thinking behind this one: a) she is the greatest blues singer of all time, b) she was so young she had decades more singing left in her.
7. Notorious BIG – If only to save us from Jay-z. Another guy just starting out but another guy, like Holly, who might have been surpassed by time. Nobody rapped like Biggie, he was the best and he was just 24 years old.
8. Amadeus Mozart – Mozart was only 35 years old when he died and even if re-jiiger for the lifespan then, it still wasn’t old. But Mozart was a true genius and whatever he did if he came back today would be major. It falls out of time.
9. John Coltrane – Another guy who you have no idea how far they’d go and where they’d end up. And also who would exist outside the music scene so much that where they’d go would be unaffected by it.
10. Elvis Presley – Perhaps the break would have refreshed him and absolutely if Elvis could come back from the movie soundtracks in 1968, he could come back from death in 2013.