How many of us have felt like they were born in the wrong era? There is a mystique that the past holds; imagining what different lives we would have lived from our parents. I can’t tell you how many times as a youth that I reflected on the fact that my parents could have seen Black Sabbath’s original lineup, but didn’t. That if I had been born just 10 years earlier, I could have experienced punk in its heyday. Now that I’m older, and I’ve realized how to be happy with my own life experiences, it doesn’t bother me as much, but as a teenager I thought that someone had fucked up by releasing my soul into the world in 1980 and not 1950, ’60 or ’70. Many people who inspired me as a young woman were long dead by the time I was able to truly appreciate their contribution to music and the world. As a newly disgruntled 14-year-old, I had only just professed my undying love for Nirvana a few months before Kurt Cobain went and died, ensuring I would never, ever get to see them live. Now Sachs Media Group has commissioned photo restoration/manipulation company Phojoe to breathe life back into some of the world’s favorite dead musicians. The results are kind of hilarious, and actually make me reflect that although some of these men and women died very young, they were meant to – they had completed their mission and made a massive impact on the culture of music, and maybe if they had lived, that legacy would have gotten all fucked up. Janis Joplin cds sold at Starbucks, John Lennon cds at Whole Foods, both of them living off their massive royalties in the Hollywood Hills? Not a world I would want to live in. Check out nine notorious musicians if they had been alive today…
Jimi Hendrix
Widely hailed as rock’s greatest guitarist
Died: 1970 Age: 27
Jimi Hendrix (November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) Widely hailed as rock’s greatest electric guitarist, Jimi Hendrix had an impact on the music industry this is still felt today. His first album, Are You Experienced, featured songs that would come to define a generation, including “Purple Haze,” “The Wind Cries Mary” and “Foxey Lady.” The left-handed guitarist built his own recording studio, Electric Lady Studios, in the late 1960s, and closed the legendary Woodstock Music and Art Festival in August 1969. Sadly, Hendrix succumbed to drugs, dying of an overdose in 1971 at the age of 27. Jimi Hendrix was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the Jimi Hendrix Experience in 1992.
Insights by Dr. Reebee Garofalo and Elijah Wald: “At the time of his death, Hendrix had become frustrated with the limitations of rock and was discussing a duet project with Miles Davis. This would have opened up new worlds to both artists, and could have been the defining masterpiece of jazz-rock fusion. He would also undoubtedly have continued his innovative explorations of new sound technologies, and created increasingly complex and ambitious long-form compositions. Though in the process he would have moved further from the hit-focused rock-pop mainstream, he would have provided a bridge between the funk-jazz of Parliament and the growing experimental rock movement, and could now be reigning as the pioneer, father figure and supreme master of the jam-band scene.”
Bob Marley
Reggae music’s most influential artist
Died: 1981 Age: 36
Bob Marley (February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981) Coming out of Kingston, Jamaica’s Trench Town ghetto, Marley became reggae music’s most influential artist. Marley founded the Wailers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, and the group produced some of the genre’s most recognized songs, including “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot the Sheriff.” After Tosh and Wailer left the group, Marley continued producing such hits as “Exodus,” “One Love” and “Three Little Birds.” Marley was hugely influential in Jamaica in the mid 1970s, described by Time Magazine as rivaling the government as a political force. Marley died of cancer in Miami in 1981 at the age of 36, and was buried in Jamaica with full state honors. Marley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
Insights by Dr. Reebee Garofalo and Elijah Wald: “Marley’s success was globally inspirational in a way no previous superstar had been. Had he lived, he would undoubtedly have gone beyond his collaborations with Jamaican, American and British musicians, becoming the central figure in the ‘world music’ explosion and forging new fusions with artists from Africa, Latin America and Asia. Given his international stature and his devotion to the varied styles of the African diaspora, he would have been a dream partner for stars like the Fugees and Kanye West. It is also likely he would have also attempted to use his influence beyond the musical domain, challenging the ongoing dominance of the old colonial powers and serving as a spokesman for people of color around the world.”
‘Mama’ Cass Elliot
Singer with the Mamas and the Papas
Died: 1974 Age: 33
‘Mama’ Cass Elliot (September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974) Born Ellen Naomi Cohen, the Baltimore native made a name for herself – “Mama” – as the booming-voiced singer with the superstar ‘60s quartet the Mamas and the Papas. From 1965 to 1968, the group recorded a series of top ten hits including “Monday, Monday,” “California Dreaming” and “I Saw Her Again.” The group’s last hit, “Dream A Little Dream of Me,” launched her into a brief but successful solo singing career, as well as acting roles. Mama Cass succumbed to a heart attack in 1974, at age 33. Cass Elliot was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Mamas and the Papas in 1998.
Insights by Dr. Reebee Garofalo and Elijah Wald: “Unlike most 1960s rockers, Cass was completely at home with cabaret and theater performance styles. At the time of her death she was already appearing in prestigious venues such as the London Palladium, and with her powerful voice might have built an enduring career as a solo concert diva on the order of Bette Midler or Barbra Streisand. As one of the rock world’s great ensemble singers, it seems likely that she would also have continued to work in group settings, perhaps adding her soulful harmony to superstar collaborations like the Linda Ronstadt-Dolly Parton-Emmylou Harris trio.”
Elvis Presley
The King of Rock and Roll
Died: 1977 Age: 42
Elvis Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) Universally hailed as the King of Rock and Roll, Presley exploded onto the music scene in the mid 1950s. Presley was a truck driver when he was discovered in 1953 by producer Sam Phillips. He came into Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, to record a song for his mother, and Philips was struck by Presley’s voice and signed the singer. Inspired by gospel, country and western, and rhythm and blues, Presley and his band (guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black) recorded a number of songs for Sun, including “That’s Alright, Mama” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky.” Presley signed with RCA in 1955 and subsequently released a succession of hit records, including “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock” and the title track from his first movie, “Love Me Tender.” Presley was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1958; after two years in the service, he returned and focused primarily on making movies and recording soundtracks. Presley starred in 33 movies in his career and returned to making music in 1968 with his famed televised comeback special. That was followed by music he recorded in Memphis, including “Suspicious Minds,” “In the Ghetto” and “Kentucky Rain.” Presley was 42 when he died of a heart attack at Graceland, his Memphis mansion, on August 16, 1977. He continues to hold the record for most Top 40 hits (104), most Top 10 hits (38) and most weeks at Number One (80). Presley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
Insights by Dr. Reebee Garofalo and Elijah Wald: “As long as Colonel Parker remained his manager, Presley would have been unlikely to make any dramatic changes of artistic direction – but it is not hard to imagine the Colonel opening an Elvis Grand Casino in Las Vegas where the ‘King of Rock and Roll’ could have held court throughout the years. After Parker’s death in 1997, Elvis might have branched out. Like his old Sun labelmate Johnny Cash, he might have put himself in the hands of young rock producers and revisited his blues and country roots, making stripped-down albums that would have won him a new following of young hipsters. Given his command of older pop styles, he would also have been an obvious first choice for the Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett superstar duet projects.”
Janis Joplin
Extraordinary rock-blues singer
Died: 1970 Age: 27
Janis Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) Janis Joplin was an extraordinary blues singer whose influence on the music industry can still be felt today. Emerging from her East Texas home of Port Arthur, she moved to San Francisco and gained nationwide acclaim as the lead singer for Big Brother and the Holding Company. The band burst on the national scene with its landmark second album Cheap Thrills. Joplin performed solo at the Woodstock Music and Art Festival in 1969 and with the Full Tilt Boogie Band in the spring of 1970. Later that year, the hard-living singer was found dead of a drug overdose at the age of 27. Her final studio album, Pearl, was released posthumously and attained quadruple-platinum status. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
Insights by Dr. Reebee Garofalo and Elijah Wald: “The pace and intensity of Joplin’s lifestyle and singing were unsustainable, and she would almost certainly have experienced a collapse of some kind in the early 1970s. However, by the 1980s she could have returned with the wisdom and depth of that experience, re-emerging like similarly troubled peers such as Joe Cocker and Tina Turner. Her voice would undoubtedly have lost much of its screaming power, but gained control. She could have surrounded herself with the best sidemen available and created music that – while it would have been less raw and wild than her youthful work – would have been surer, deeper and just as passionately soulful.”
Jim Morrison
Ethereal “Lizard King” singer and songwriter for the Doors
Died: 1971 Age: 27
Jim Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) Morrison, the charismatic lead singer and lyricist for the Doors, joined with keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger and drummer John Densmore to form the Doors. The band exploded onto the national music scene in the mid 1960s with the hit song “Light My Fire” and went on to create some of the most poetic, intense and revolutionary rock ‘n’ roll music ever produced. At 11 minutes, the band’s song, “The End” was one of rock’s first long-form pieces and exemplifies the sound of mid-‘60s “acid rock.” Backed by Manzarek’s calliope style of organ playing, Morrison wrote image-rich lyrics that revolutionized the rock genre. The band ventured across musical styles, with hits ranging from the blues-infused “Roadhouse Blues” to the horn-rich pop of “Touch Me” to the ethereal “Riders on the Storm.” Morrison frequently clashed with authority, including memorable incidents in which he was banned from the Ed Sullivan Show after ignoring demands to change certain lyrics and his controversial arrest in Miami for alleged indecent behavior. He died in the bathtub of a Paris apartment at the age of 27 and is buried a short distance away. Morrison was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Doors in 1993.
Insights by Dr. Reebee Garofalo and Elijah Wald: “Of all the 1960s rockers who died young, Morrison is the most difficult to pin down in terms of where his artistic muse might have taken him, given his broad range of interests not only in music but also in poetry, film and theater. He undoubtedly would have been involved in the explosion of independent filmmaking in the 1970s, and was perhaps the only rock star of his generation who would have been completely at home in the punk rock movement of the 1970s and later alternative scenes. Alternatively, he might have abandoned music entirely, devoted himself to writing, moved to New York, Paris, Tokyo or Dakar, and by now be honored by a few cognoscenti as an experimental avant-gardist rather than revered by millions as a rock star.”
John Lennon
Founder of the Beatles and influential songwriter and pioneer for peace
Died: 1980 Age: 40
John Lennon (October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980) Lennon formed half of music’s most successful songwriting partnership, joining with Paul McCartney to compose dozens of Number 1 hits. Lennon founded the Quarrymen in the late 1950s in his hometown of Liverpool, England, eventually joined in the band by McCartney and guitarist George Harrison. Lennon changed the group’s name to the Beatles and, finally joined by drummer Ringo Starr, in 1962 the band began an eight-year run producing an unprecedented string of hit singles and such influential albums as Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road. After the band broke up in 1970, Lennon went on to have a successful solo career with hits like “Instant Karma,” “Imagine,” “Mind Games,” “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” and “Woman.” After a five-year break from recording to concentrate on raising his young son, Lennon made a successful return to the music scene in 1980. Shortly after the release of the album Double Fantasy, at the age of 40, Lennon was shot to death as he arrived home from a recording session. Lennon was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994.
Insights by Dr. Reebee Garofalo and Elijah Wald: “Having retired from the music business and devoted himself to fatherhood, Lennon returned with a new maturity and would have been likely to continue his social activism with more focus. He paved the way for such musical activists as Bob Geldof and Bono, but given his talent and fame could have accomplished even greater things. Given what he had done already, it is hard to put limits on what he might have attempted, and it seems safe to assume he would have continued to surprise even his most devoted followers. He might have been the first classic rocker to embrace the hip-hop revolution, composed avant-garde experimental music, gone back to his roots by forming a hard-rocking guitar quartet, or most likely would have experimented with all of those alternatives and more. (And yes, he almost certainly would have stayed with Yoko Ono.)”
Keith Moon
Notoriously wild drummer for the Who
Died: 1978 Age: 32
Keith Moon (August 23, 1946 – September 7, 1978) One of the greatest rock and roll drummers ever, Moon earned a reputation as “Moon the Loon” from the trail of destroyed drum kits and trashed hotel rooms left in his wake. He was known for his unique drumming style, playing zigzag across his elaborate drum kit with a wash of cymbals. His playing ushered in an era in which drums became far more than simply a means of keeping the beat. Moon’s unorthodox yet exciting style of drumming can be found on many of the Who’s greatest recordings, including “I Can See For Miles,” “Young Man Blues,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “Who Are You.” Moon died in 1978 at age 32 after overdosing on medicine he was taking to combat alcoholism. Moon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 as a member of the Who.
Insights by Dr. Reebee Garofalo and Elijah Wald: “Though he occasionally experimented with side projects, Keith Moon was always first and foremost the heartbeat, clown and spectacular lunatic of the Who, and his career would have continued to be wrapped up with his longtime bandmates. Had he lived, the Who would not have broken up in the 1980s and could have continued on a par with the Rolling Stones, making new albums and selling out stadiums around the world. The music would not have changed all that much, but new generations of fans would have a chance to see them with the magnificent madman Moon on drums.”
Kurt Cobain
Guitarist/songwriter with the breakthrough grunge band Nirvana
Died: 1994 Age: 27
Kurt Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 8, 1994) Considered by many to be the greatest rock artist of the 1990s, guitarist/songwriter Cobain led the Seattle-area band Nirvana to the top of the charts with “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” a hard-driving song from the band’s Nevermind album. The album produced a series of hits, including “In Bloom,” “Come As You Are” and “Polly,” and ushered in a new genre of rock called “grunge.” Cobain was hailed as the voice of a dissatisfied generation, but the acclaim proved too much for the young artist. A year after the release of the group’s follow-up album In Utero, the 27-year-old Cobain fatally shot himself. Cobain, as a part of Nirvana, was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.
Insights by Dr. Reebee Garofalo and Elijah Wald: “Given his aversion to celebrity, had Cobain lived he would likely have continued to work with Nirvana but also explored smaller, less commercial projects with other players, trying to recapture some of the anonymity and artistic freedom of his early years. He would probably have pursued artistic outlets offstage and behind the scenes, eschewing the limelight and using his fame to bring attention to young musicians on the cutting edge, as well as exploring his deep interest in Americana styles by producing and collaborating with older roots artists.”
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