The ground rules are there are two categories:

Your assessment of music's most devastating loss from a historical perspective.

Your same assessment from a personal taste perspective.

While of course, they could very well be the same answer. It would be more "fun" to have varied responses.

Oh yeah - No votes for Prince in either category please, lest this thread be utterly redundant!!!

For me, historically, while John Lennon and Freddie Mercury are strongly in my thoughts, I just can't justify anyone other than Jimi Hendrix. Three albums into his career, (one being a double). All three were absolute master class works, (especially Axis). So influential. So many places to go and grow. So varied and dedicated to his craft. I'm just not sure music has seen a more important loss so early into a monumental career.

Accounting for my personal taste, Jeff Buckley gets my vote. And it's not even close.

I am most decidedly stuck in the 60's, 70's and 80's when it comes to my personal musical tastes. A few newer things catch my ear now and again for sure. But those three decades are where I spend most of my musical journeys.



But Jeff Buckley....

Ugh.....

The Grace album is such a musical tour de force. His voice was straight from the heavens. His compositions and approach were so singular and unique. He was going to be my guy. Forever.

And then he went for a swim and never came back; leaving us with one masterpiece, and scatterlings of what was to come.

I'm interested to hear some of your thoughts.

[Edited 7/14/18 20:14pm]

Other than the ones mentioned; Amy Winehouse

She had so much more to give

tump said:

Elvis Presley. I would love to see how he evolved into the 80s and beyond. He could make any song his own. He hardly wrote any songs, which makes it all the more remarkable how famous he got (and still is). Michael Jackson. On the verge of becoming a 'free agent' and breaking away from Sony. I'd do unspeakable things to hear his output as an independent. Another who can hardly play an instrument. Sananda Maitreya Still breathing but dead to my ears since Wildcard, despite his absolute 'freedom' to do what he wants with zero record company restrictions. I couldn't have imagined how much he would end up boring me. Rest in Peace.

Harsh

Jeff Buckley, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix - versatile geniuses who were just getting started and never reached their full potential, who were probably still two to four years away from their ultimate masterpieces/statements. We will never hear them.

Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson - sad over the hill pill poppers long past their primes.

Prince - potentially in that last category, but sadly it looks like he was getting ready for a creative renaissance; working with MonoNeon - a genius in his own right... - releasing his most inspired single in decades ('Free Urself'), etc.

[Edited 7/15/18 9:45am]

One more: Janis Joplin...I'm forever wandering what she could be doing in the 80s if she survived

LightOfArt said:

Empress said:

LightOfArt said:

Other than the ones mentioned; Amy Winehouse

She had so much more to give

My first thought was Amy. Such a true artist. She could've given the world years of real music. It's a sad shame that she is gone.

God yes, I was so sad when my mother called me to tell me she died.

Sam Cooke
Minnie Riperton
Patsy Cline
Dinah Washington

Johnny Ace

Charlie Christian

Tammi Terrell
Selena
Aaliyah

Karen Carpenter
Marvin Gaye

Jim Croce

At the risk of this thread being utterly redundant......Prince.

I like how posters have already mentioned somone who's still alive (!) and Prince (twice), despite the OP's telling us specifically not to mention Prince.

Anyway...

I think Sam Cooke and Jimi Hendrix are good choices. Cooke was 33 when he died, and maybe he had peaked, but it was late 1964 and he missed out on almost the entire era of soul music.

Hendrix was too young and, as mentioned, had recorded only three studio albums, all classics. Even though rock music in general kind of went downhill after 1971, you have to assume Jimi would have eventually recorded a great deal more great music, in some form or another (although maybe I should be glad we never got the 'Hendrix Disco' LP).

John Lennon is my favorite of those who died too young, but it's really hard to say where he was going, musically. He hadn't made a really good record for 9 years when he died. I think probably he would have continued spending much of the 80s as a semi-recluse (like George), but I think in the late-80s or early-90s, when college-rock/alt.rock was getting big, he would have had a comeback of sorts and we would have had lots of great stuff.

It's really early in the morning so I'm sure I'm going to miss some from a historical perspective.

Biggest Losses Historically:

Nippy

Michael

Elvis

Billie

Personally:

Phyllis Hyman

Vesta Williams

Those are the only two I can think of who's deaths affectly me more deeply than any others.

Bill Withers

George Michael. He could still sing, was still willing to perform in concert, and was not done writing and recording new music either.

Jimi Hendrix is the first to come to mind, as others here have already said. He was already one of the greatest rock and roll musicians of all time in his 20's and his sound seemed to constantly and effortlessly evolve.

John Coltrane was a blow as well. To consider where he would have led jazz and music as a whole in the decades to come is mind-boggling.

Perhaps Buddy Holly? I think it would have been fascinating to see what would have become of him as rock started to mature.

On the jazz front, it's said (most famously in Ken Burns' Jazz) that Clifford Brown was a huge blow; a young musician just entering his prime.

In terms of musicians who withdrew from the business as they were hitting their prime . . . Shuggie Otis. He was on track to be Prince before Prince.

ThatWhiteDude said:

Empress said:

LightOfArt said: My first thought was Amy. Such a true artist. She could've given the world years of real music. It's a sad shame that she is gone.

God yes, I was so sad when my mother called me to tell me she died.

She died on my birthday. It made me very sad and after watching the documentary Amy 3-4 times now, it makes me more sad. She could've been saved. She was so unique.

Cinny said:

George Michael. He could still sing, was still willing to perform in concert, and was not done writing and recording new music either.

This is very true. His voice was great and he had so much more to give his fans. His lyrics are some of the best.

thetimefan said:

Wow, too many sadly, in no particular order MJ Marvin Elvis Roger Troutman Sam Cooke Jimi Jim Morrison Janis Joplin George Michael John Lennon George Harrison Amy Winehouse Roy Orbison Buddy Holly Frankie Lymon Whitney Billie Holiday Millie Riperton Mama Cass Dennis Wilson Patsy Cline Johnny Ace Harry Nilsson Donny Hathaway Charlie Parker John Coltrane Tupac Biggie

These were particularly devastating given the size of their talent and the decades of great material they had ahead of them.

Otis

1contessa said:

At the risk of this thread being utterly redundant......Prince.

Jaco Pistorius was a notable loss in the industry.

namepeace said:

Jaco Pistorius was a notable loss in the industry.

Thanks everyone for the replies. This has been a very fun read thus far.


Fantastic call out on Jaco. From a musician standpoint, and not necessarily the front person, him and James Honeyman-Scott were real craftsmen who left us way too soon. (That list gets real long too).


From the lists thus far, I particularly like the Buddy Holly and Sam Cooke call outs. I'm not really a Buddy Holly guy, but it would have been interesting to see where he could/would have gone.


And Sam was such a pioneer. A crooner with a voice from the Gods who wrote his own material.


I condensed down my original OP because it was orignally a much larger post. It spoke about folks like David Bowie, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley etc..... I'll only address Bowie now.



While it was obviously tragic that he left us at 69, and he still had a lot left to say, he still had 45 years of album making. So it makes the historical aspect of the loss it a little less potent, (even though he was/is in my top ten all time). Versus someone like Sam Cooke or Jimi Hendirx, (or Amy Winehouse even though she isn't my flavor), who didn't really get to grow through years/decades of genres and experimentations. That was my mindset when creating this post anyway......


Probably the toughest other ones that have been brought up would be Marvin Gaye and George Michael. I absolutely worshipped both of them.

1contessa said:

At the risk of this thread being utterly redundant......Prince.

I was waiting and waiting for it..

MickyDolenz said:

Sam Cooke
Minnie Riperton
Patsy Cline
Dinah Washington

Johnny Ace

Charlie Christian

Tammi Terrell
Selena
Aaliyah

Karen Carpenter
Marvin Gaye

Jim Croce

Agree, that docuementary about him was so informative.

kitbradley said:

It's really early in the morning so I'm sure I'm going to miss some from a historical perspective.

Biggest Losses Historically:

Nippy

Michael

Elvis

Billie

Personally:

Phyllis Hyman

Vesta Williams

Those are the only two I can think of who's deaths affectly me more deeply than any others.

Awesome and so under-rated and under appreciated by the public.

Jimi Hendrix(#1 in my book), Jim Morrison, Tammi Terrell, Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson, Tupac, Jeff Buckley, Freddie Mercury, Minnie Riperton, and Otis Redding.

On a personal level i would also include Cliff Burton(former bassist of Metallica) and Randy Rhoads.

[Edited 7/17/18 15:00pm]