If You Could Bring Just One Musician Back to Life...
 

Who would it be, and why? I'd have to go for Bowie, cos, you know, Bowie. Seriously though: the man had so much yet to give the world, it's a total tragedy that he was taken from us so young. What a terrible loss to music, and to art, and, well, to humanity I guess.

a lot of possibilities... hmmm

Nick Drake would be my first pick, deserved to see just how much people would go on to love his work.

Prince maybe, sad that he went out the way he did.

Biggie or Tupac would be nice too so I could make people realize they aren't even that good.

Elliott Smith, because... Elliott Smith.

ok i know you said 1 but

Michael Jackson, cuz he'd be all ****ed up for real like in Thriller. Pet Cemetery style.

Don't see why you'd bring Bowie back myself, tbh. Did he really have that much left?

His exit was perfect and he dropped one more classic when probably nobody thought he had it in him. I didn't think I'd ever get an album from him since becoming a fan (was too young to pay attention to Reality, knew the classics at that age but not really a big fan) and I thought he had given up music for good and would just get old and die away from the spotlight so I'm glad he did come back and we got the two albums.

I wouldn't bring him back, his death was perfect and he was never going to perform live again so I don't see the point.

It bothers me that I will never see him live.

this has always upset me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince...ness_and_death

he seemed to be fine up to the day before, and he still had a lot to offer, not just as a musician but as a member of his community. i know this kind of stuff happens to artists all the time, but he just never hit me as the type.

I just still find it odd to be living in a world without Bowie. When I got my first (and only) job, my boss was big into him and though I was never what you'd call a major fan, his music has always been part of my life. I bet, given the cancer being taken away, he would have surprised us in ways we can't even imagine. Damn I miss that guy. :(

Prince is a good one. Jackson can **** off, I never liked him. If I was to choose someone else, I wonder how Hendrix would have fared if he hadn't died so early? Or Morrison? Maybe Phil Lynott? Imagine a new Lizzy album with Phil!

Qwertyy already said my number one pick, Elliott Smith. Besides him, I think I'd revive either John Lennon or George Harrison so I could see him live.

EDIT: Bowie is my favourite musician. But I feel that his death was probably the greatest artistic work of his career, so I'd be hesitant to reanimate him.

****e. Forgot about Lennon. It's only when you make a thread like this you realise how many greats have passed beyond.

I knew about the plane having to be landed and the save shot, I didn't think it was that serious though and like you say he wasn't the type you'd think would have a drug problem so it was a shock tbh. They were trying to get help for him before he died to try and get off the drugs.

It's all a bit of a mess and very sad.

The only reason I'd bring him back would be so that he can finish the intended follow up to Blackstar. I wonder what he had planned for that.

But without the terminal illness I think he would have just made a couple more records ala The Next Day (which is fine but it's not Blackstar).

The thing about Lennon (and possibly Elliott Smith) is that he didn't bring his death on; however sad an overdose is, I feel more sympathy for someone who was murdered, and I feel that he deserved more time. Jim Croce and Buddy Holly are a couple more who died through no fault of their own.

Well they were working on a musical based on Lazarus, as reported in my thread, and I'd love to have seen how that would have turned out. Bowie was so unpredictable I think it would be impossible to say what new trends he might have inspired, or what new image he might have come up with. At the very least, we'd have had more music from him. Talk about the day the music died...

Have you heard the No Plan EP?

There are so many people I'd want to bring back and Lennon, Harrison, and Bowie would top the list.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Jimi Hendrix yet. It would have been interesting to see where he took his music in the seventies. It just proves that drugs really suck.

Actually, that was completed before he died! Enjoy checking it out :D

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_(musical)

The musical was finished? He attended the premier about a month before he died.

No. Addicts suck. Drugs rule.

Yeah, it was OK.

I want to know what would have been on that album though, and what the five tracks were that were recorded. Reckon we'll get to hear them?

I wouldn't "bring him back" in the sense of bringing him into the modern world, but I've spent a lot of time thinking what Eric Dolphy's trajectory would have been if he didn't die so young. This is true for Coltrane and Ayler too, but I feel like Dolphy didn't get enough of a chance to make his mark.

I did.
Oh well cool. I was sure the Wiki entry said something about it being unfinished. Weird. Lemme go check.

Nah, I just misread it. Cool then.

The way whoever's manning the helm now is going, I think so, although perhaps not for a while. All these box sets are rad. :cool:

Visconti, surely?

Blowfly.

Jun Seba, aka Nujabes, was the first name that came to mind, mostly because of his age, cause of death, and his small but important discography.

Chuck Schuldiner because I want some more Control Denied.

People have made some good points about who is most worthy of being rescusitated. I agree that someone near the end of their career or someone who burned out on drugs and died by their own hand don't particularly deserve to take that "only one musician" spot. I would not, for instance choose Nick Drake, who perhaps had already said most of what he had to say.

A more worthy candidate imo would be Ritchie Valens. He died in that Buddy Holly plane crash, and the guy was only seventeen years old ! His recording career as a 50s heartthrob had lasted exactly eight months, and yet in that time he took the brazen step of insisting that his record company release La Bamba. At a time when the music industry on both sides of the Atlantic were frantically downplaying any hint of ethnicity, he boldy declared his Mexican roots. Who knows what he might've done if he had made it out of his teens ?!

I haven’t read this thread but I think it would be cool to hear what Back In Black would sound like with Bon Scott singing. Plus he’s an ideal candidate for the Pet Sematary treatment. Plus, Joey Ramone just because he sang that song saying he didn’t want anyone to do that to his corpse. He’d be pissed!

I think this is a very good argument. He could have ended up having a huge cultural impact instead of just being "that guy with Donna and La Bamba." He could have been an Elvis. Except more Mexican.

Meh. Julio Iglesias was fine.

Did anyone mention Kurt Cobain yet?

Sky Saxon might have been interesting too though I think he was only doing live shows before his death.

I was going to but I don't really like Nirvana.

Ian Curtis might be a decent shout.

I haven’t thought about Yahowha13 in a while. Good one. If Father Yod came back that would really be a gas.

He would be our president.

I miss Stevie Ray Vaughan.

David Bowie.

Bowie all the way.