SuperSoulFighter said:

Here is another thought: would there still be room for Prince if Jimi hadn't died and Sly had kept his mind together?
[Edited 4/30/13 2:49am]

This may sound weird but I'm kind of glad they didnt survive, for my own selfish reasons. I shudder to think of them with the 80s sound, singing shit like "We built this city on rock n roll!!!"

/

I had a similar conversation with my cousin once, discussing Bob Marley and where he would be had he survived cancer. Again...I shudder to think of him doing anything remotely close to Dancehall, or guesting with rappers, etc.

/

RIP Legends...

StonedImmaculate said:

This may sound weird but I'm kind of glad they didnt survive, for my own selfish reasons. I shudder to think of them with the 80s sound, singing shit like "We built this city on rock n roll!!!"

/

I had a similar conversation with my cousin once, discussing Bob Marley and where he would be had he survived cancer. Again...I shudder to think of him doing anything remotely close to Dancehall, or guesting with rappers, etc.

/

RIP Legends...

Good point! That's why Grace Slick retired. She was ashamed of participating in that shit...

Jimi would've probably continued on drugs, but would've made some great music into the 70s including funk. He would not have jumped on the disco bandwagon. I think he'd probably have gone a little adult-contemporary in the 80s, much like Elton John and Paul McCartney did. Great music, but not as groundbreaking as what they did in their early careers.

.

I kinda see Jim Morrison stopping performing music and becoming a producer of other young talents.

.

Janis, I think she would've really made her mark in the 70s, but again the 80s would not have been kind to her. She didn't have the looks and youth to hold up to Madonna and the like. I see her soft-retiring a la Tina Turner and only making headlines once in a while.

StonedImmaculate said:

I shudder to think of them with the 80s sound, singing shit like "We built this city on rock n roll!!!"

that is my song

Se7en said:

Jimi would've probably continued on drugs, but would've made some great music into the 70s including funk. He would not have jumped on the disco bandwagon. I think he'd probably have gone a little adult-contemporary in the 80s, much like Elton John and Paul McCartney did. Great music, but not as groundbreaking as what they did in their early careers.

.

I kinda see Jim Morrison stopping performing music and becoming a producer of other young talents.

.

Janis, I think she would've really made her mark in the 70s, but again the 80s would not have been kind to her. She didn't have the looks and youth to hold up to Madonna and the like. I see her soft-retiring a la Tina Turner and only making headlines once in a while.

The same week that Jimi died, Sly went to London to meet with Jimi about a colaboration of ideas and that would have been quite interesting to say the least. Im not sure if America would have been ready for a combination like that. Jim Morrison would have gone into production by the 80s and Janis Joplin would have gone the Tina Turner route during the 80s.

To turn it around, who are some music legends who have kinda fallen in the public eye, considered old and in the way now, that would have been considered absolute legends if they had died after doing their last good work?

I think history might look upon the following more favorably:

Steven Stills

Rod Stewart

Eddie Vedder

Perry Farrell

Axl Rose

I think Jim Morrison may well have become a lot like Morrisey is today in terms of trolling the media. No disrespect to the Doors, but I don't think if he was alive they would have the same reputation as they do today, probably on par with a band like "The Kinks".

I don't know much about Janis, but she might have cleaned up and be like a female version of Joe Cocker today.

Jimi Hendrix is an interesting one, judging off his performance style becoming less 'show-y' (compare the Monterey performance to Woodstock, and then Woodstock to Isle of Wight, he was still an explosive performer, one of the best, but he was focusing a lot more on his playing).

Judging from his posthumous release "Rays of the new rising dawn" or whatever it's called he was going to go the same route as Eric Clapton in the 70's and mellow out in his soloing, only focusing on Soul and Funk as opposed to Americana. The 'Blues' album was great, it would have been great to hear more acoustic work from him.

I think he'd probably be held in the same esteem as Carlos Santana or Jeff Beck, well respected guitar god, but not as commercially succesful as Clapton or Page. He really didn't care about sales at all from what I've heard/read.

bobzilla77 said:

To turn it around, who are some music legends who have kinda fallen in the public eye, considered old and in the way now, that would have been considered absolute legends if they had died after doing their last good work?

I think history might look upon the following more favorably:

Steven Stills

Rod Stewart

Eddie Vedder

Perry Farrell

Axl Rose

Axl was pretty consistently a massive asshole all the way through his career, so I don't think people would think of him better on a personal level.

In my opinion, Rod Stewart would definently be up there with Robert Plant in terms of great rock vocalists if he had have passed on before the "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" stuff, I like "Sailing', but take a look at his work with Jeff Beck and The Faces, the guy had one powerful rock voice.

Other people who I think would be held in higher esteem by the general public if they had of died young would be

Eric Clapton if he had of passed away before leaving Cream, or Derek and the Dominoes. His solo career focused more on his voice and songwriting which was pleasent, but not as notable as his playing. His playing in Cream, the Bluesbreakers and on The Dominoes Live at the Fillmore is some of the best, but he has been coasting on that relatively brief period of work for the past thirty years. He's still good live, but if he had of passed away in 1970 he would be far more respected

Jeff Beck, he's never gotten the recognition he deserves from the general public, it is kind of his fault though, he dissolved the Jeff Beck Group (with Rod Stewart on vocals, and Ron Wood of the Stones on bass) just before Woodstock which would have broken them onto the public eye in my opinion. If he had of died maybe the public would have taken notice of his excellent playing.

[Edited 5/9/13 19:33pm]

i think Janis' insecurities would have made her available to the worst trends of the 70's and 80's. Disco Janis, anyone?

I also think she wasn't taking care of her voice, and that would have been shot by the 80's.

So best case would have been a bob dylan route, embrace your shot voice, embrace organic sounds, and grow into a badass senior citizen.

When asked in 2001 what he thought Hendrix would be doing now if he were alive...

"Here's my take: He'd probably be the president of his own record label. He'd be directing movies. He'd have absorbed some of the hip-hop dance techniques, sampling. Since he was such a maverick and leader and well ahead of his time, he would have been ahead of the curve before hip-hop even occured! Certainly jazz and fusion were part of his vocabulary, but classical music and hearing his own music performed by a large orchestra were also possibilities."

~Eddie Kramer

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