If Jimi didn't die

[famous beagle]

I would bet that wth the box sets and DVDs I have, I have more Hendrix recordings than nearly anyone on this board. I never said I didn't like him. The only way to truly be immortalized in rock is to die young. I didn't make the rules.

H2H

So McCartney isn't immortalized?

What about Bob Dylan?

What about B.B. King?

What about Johnny Cash?

Those are all LIVING legends (obviously Cash isn't anymore, but he was), just as immortalized as Hendrix. However, there are several who did exactly what you said (died young) who are CLEARLY not as important in terms of influence and "legend" status.

Janis
Buddy Holly
Randy Rhoads

Actually, I would say the only one I can think of that did die at the early stages of his career with that type of stature still today IS Hendrix. Can you name another that's more legendary than McCartney, B.B., or Dylan? Oh and there's also Brian Wilson. Turns out there's plenty of living legends.

 

[famous beagle]

You notice how aside from Tears in Heaven, Clapton hasn't made a single true hit song. ???

I mean, he may have recorded a few that music fans like, but Joe Public hasn't been impressed with anything since his stuff with Cream (aside from the previously mentioned tragedy inspired song). Infact, no one gets better with age. They all start to suck. Well, maybe Aerosmith has lasted, but even the Stones can't write a catchy NEW song if their careers depended on it...which luckily for them, it doesn't. This holds true for every musician of the 60's and 70's. Most can get a good 10 years if they truely are great, but after that its just done.


So Hendrix.....he would have just been another wash up.

I'm not saying that Clapton got better, but your statement is just plain false. To say that he didn't have any hits after Cream is ridiculous. He had a stream of hits in the 80s.

Forever Man, Pretending, In the Way That You Use It, umm .. maybe a song you might recall called "Layla."

His Journeyman album was huge.

And then there's "Lay Down Sally" and "Bell Bottom Blues." I'm sure there's plenty I'm forgetting as well. I don't know what you're talking about.

Like I said, I'm not saying he got better, but he certainly had hits.

 

[ez_willis]

I've heard Jimi enough.

I've heard Clapton enough.

I've heard Dylan enough.

Where is the next line of legends coming from? Brittney maybe? Christina Agulera perhaps? Our children are fucked in this dept.

 

[Outlaws]

I'm not saying that Clapton got better, but your statement is just plain false. To say that he didn't have any hits after Cream is ridiculous. He had a stream of hits in the 80s.

Forever Man, Pretending, In the Way That You Use It, umm .. maybe a song you might recall called "Layla."

His Journeyman album was huge.

And then there's "Lay Down Sally" and "Bell Bottom Blues." I'm sure there's plenty I'm forgetting as well. I don't know what you're talking about.

Like I said, I'm not saying he got better, but he certainly had hits.

Correct. But when was his last hit song aside from Tears in Heaven? '79 or '80?

I know he hasn't been very active lately the last few years, but 2 hits in 20 years doesn't equal what he was in the 60's and 70's.

My point is that the creative juices always see to run out after 10 years +/- for most artists.

Clapton has written more forgettable songs in the past 20 years than classics. The first few albums of legendary artists careers are always one hit after another for the whole album. Then they tail off to a hit single with some filler to fill up the extra space.

 

[post.aux.fader]

What if Bob Marley hadn't died?

 

[patlang12]

I think if hadn't died he might have gone on and done a lot more jazzer stuff. It was already said that Miles Davis had interest playing with him. Also he was going to do some stuff with Bill Evans right before he died. Actually Bill Evans did a Hendrix tribute record which is pretty cool.

 

[tkingen]

I was around Hendrix a bit outside the actual music scene and up close and personal, away from all the hoopla. He immediately impressed me as a guy who was just doomed. He was very, very unhappy and really uneasy in his own skin. A number of people who knew him felt the same way. It was just a matter of waiting for the other shoe to drop. His death was no surprise at all. I was on the road doing a European tour when he died and I remember thinking that it was surprising that he'd lasted as long as he did.

bongo,

Who were you touring with? Tell us a little about yourself!

Terry

 

[patlang12]

bongo,

Who were you touring with? Tell us a little about yourself!

Terry

Yeah really, I want to hear more about this too

 

[tkingen]

What would he be doing?

With the volumes he played at he'd probably be deaf.

 

[patlang12]

With the volumes he played at he'd probably be deaf.

Like Pete Townsend

 

[bongolation]

bongo,

Who were you touring with?

A crappy European band you never heard of. We were touring B-grade venues for two week stands between a reconstituted Uriah Heep and a Scandinavian lesbo group called the Ruby Rats.

Is that sad, or what?

Tell us a little about yourself!

I had enough brains to get out of playing and went into the biz instead, being the butcher instead of the meat for a change. Eventually, I was very influential and had my fifteen minutes. I also sold vintage gear (real vintage gear, not the faked-up trash they sell to suckers now) for a few years.

I got back into playing when I retired on disability a few years ago. I now live in an uptight, non-music California city with 250,000 paranoid musicians who never talk to each other or play together. I live alone in a house full of gear that gathers dust and the cat sleeps on. My ears are totally shot. My hands hurt. My singing voice has changed to a useless bass-baritone.

This is what happens when a musician doesn't die young.

 

[patlang12]

I think if hadn't died he might have gone on and done a lot more jazzer stuff. It was already said that Miles Davis had interest playing with him. Also he was going to do some stuff with Bill Evans right before he died. Actually Bill Evans did a Hendrix tribute record which is pretty cool.

opps I ment Gil Evans

 

[jalbert]

What he would have done is continue to be amazing. Would he have been as celebrated as he deserved is hard to say. It doesn't seem like anybody, no matter how incredible they are, has their popularity last for long. And once your popularity fades, the influence you've had also seems to be forgotten by the majority of the population. It's impossible to guess what decisions he would have made as far as adapting to the way music changed in the years following his death(changes which would have probably been vastly different had he lived) but I'm sure that whatever direction his music took it would have been excellent.

 

[whyseye]

Miles Davis had expressed interest in working with Hendrix shortly before Jimi died. Can you imagine what that would've been like?

"Kind of Purple"

 

[jfrog]

Correct. But when was his last hit song aside from Tears in Heaven? '79 or '80?

I know he hasn't been very active lately the last few years, but 2 hits in 20 years doesn't equal what he was in the 60's and 70's.

My point is that the creative juices always see to run out after 10 years +/- for most artists.

Clapton has written more forgettable songs in the past 20 years than classics. The first few albums of legendary artists careers are always one hit after another for the whole album. Then they tail off to a hit single with some filler to fill up the extra space.

Once again, "Huh?"

First of all, you've got to differentiate between "hits" and "good music". Many of Clapton's hits listed previously by Beagle were from the late 80's. His biggest hit ever, Layla (unplugged) (from '92), can be heard on any given the radio station almost daily.

But, of course, we all know that hits doesn't mean the music is better....otherwise we'd have to conclude that Britney & the Backstreet boys were some of the best musicians of the last decade.

That being the case, listen to EC's "Reptile" album - 2 hits, but numerous good songs, in a completely different direction than he's gone before. Me & Mr. Johnson - again, good music, at least one hit song.

While EC has certainly recorded some forgettable stuff, he's still making good music.

P.S. If he hadn't done anything else in the past years, organizing the "Concert for George" and the "Crossroads" festival would be great contributions to the music world.

 

[dragonworks]

Jimi, before he died had been talking with and thinking of linking up with ELP, they were going to call it HELP.