Keira WitherKay wrote:
come on guys the people that die young do so cos they live their lives so much quicker than the rest of us......... and if you notice ..all the influencial people die young... jimi/buddy holly/elvis/ ritchie valens / janis joplin / charlie parker/ eva cassidy /charlie christian/ john coltrane/marvin gaye/ george gershwin /billie holiday / glenn miller / jaco pastorious/ django reinhardt /fats waller / kurt cobain/ john bonham / duane allman / marc bolan / karen carpenter /eddie cochran / cass eliot / tom foggerty / jerry garcia / michael hutchins / brian jones / john lennon / bob marley /freddie mercury / jeff pocarro / bon scott / ian steward / stu stutcliff/ frank zappa
Zappa didn't die that young, nor did Jerry Garcia.
I'm cynical, and I think that sometimes legend and reputed "influence" come about because of an early death.
It's not cast in stone. Jimi Hendrix had a huge reputation before his death and had radically upped the ante when it came to rock guitar playing.
I don't see a correlation between influence and life span. BB King is still going strong. So is John Mayall. So is Chuck Berry. Brian Wilson. Paul McCartney . Bob Dylan. Clapton. Keith Richards somehow manages to keep going. John Martyn got in 61 years.
There will always be questions about how good an early death was for particular careers. And there are cases when the recognition comes to late to do the artist any good (Van Gogh being the classic example).
Two songs that deal with posthumous fame are Mark Knopfler's "In the Gallery" and John French's hilarious "Now That I am Dead."
Now that I am dead
My agent finally said
He wanted to have lunch with me.
Now that I’m deceased,
My record sales increased,
I’m making lots of royalties.
I’m a composer decomposing,
I made the rockers hall of fame,
My songs the critics they are praising,
Yes, they even learned to spell my name.
Etc. etc and there's a great line "The cheque was in the mail all of my life"
