Which artist that was taken away from us too soon do you wish was still here making music

Er... Mozart?

Oh, too many. JS Bach, the sort of musical hero of his day where the story goes they used to have organ playing competitions, when someone turned up and discovered he was facing Bach, he turned round and went home again. And then he wrote all of that great music as well

Mozart as said above.

John Bonham, what would Zep have done with 40 more years?

Sandy Denny, great singer, great songwriter.

Jimi Hendrix, where would he have gone next?

Otis Redding, he was as great as it gets, imagine 40 more years of Otis.

Duane Allman,what could the Brothers have done with more time?

And then obviously Ronnie van Zant, imagine more decades of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd.

And Janis Joplin...

I love this story about Bach: Bach once walked two hundred and thirteen miles to hear a performance by an organist whom he admired. Once he had heard the concert, he turned round and walked the same distance home again

Doppy1977 posted:

I love this story about Bach: Bach once walked two hundred and thirteen miles to hear a performance by an organist whom he admired. Once he had heard the concert, he turned round and walked the same distance home again

I heard a similar story about Jonny McBach, he walked 500 miles, then he walked 500 more. (Sorry)

Lowell George. Musically, still had it when he passed away.

As did Jim Croce.

Buddy Holly

Jeff Buckley.

Rory Gallagher.

tonyi posted:

Buddy Holly

Buddy would top my list followed by John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Jimi, and Warren Zevon.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

......and a second mention for Janis Joplin

Herbie Hancock still living, but no new album since several years. A bit sad.

Miles Davis would be my first wish, followed by a lot like Gil Scott Heron, Isaac Hayes, Jimmy Hendrix.....

Wow - too many to even begin listing for me...

Jaco Pastorius.

I'll leave out those that lived a long and natural life or who would be dead anyway today because of age.

Bob Marley

Marvin Gaye

Kurt Cobain

Amy Winehouse

I agree through history there have been hundreds if not thousands of artists whose lives ended prematurely... however the people who had the most affect on me in my lifetime are

Sandy Denny,

Freddie Mercury,

Syd  Barrett,

Amy Winehouse.

Joe Meek (revolutionary production engineer/artist... major influencer of the British popular music ‘sound’)

Eazy-E

Jim Morrison

Harry Chapin, lovely man. He used to meet the fans in the foyer in the interval. Saw him in London, a few days later he died in a Taxi crash in New York I think.

John Martyn

Rory Gallagher.

It still makes me sad that Rory passed away early.I always admired him for turning the Rolling Stones down when Mick Taylor left and his shunning of  the Rock Star lifestyle.He was supposed to be an absolute gent to fans,always happy to chat with them and was just so focused on his craft as a musician

RIP .Rory

Jerry Garcia for me every time.

PRINCE, but look out for the back catalogues when they are sorted

A real eye opener for me to read of so much musical talent and genius to have been taken too soon - paradoxically it’s been a good way to learn about some musicians to listen too - from the greatest classical musicians to modern day musicians that faced their own struggles - thank you all for the contributions - RIP to all of those mentioned that are sadly no longer with us.

When I first saw the thread title my immediate first thought was Jeff Buckley. I wonder whether Grace was just a one-off.  I suspect not, particularly on the evidence of the material that was put out on the posthumous release of Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk.

Recently I've been listening to a fair bit of John Lennon and Paul McCartney post-Beatles.  Paul has shown glimmers of genius amongst great inconsistency but in more recent years his music seems to have really hit a stride, which is impressive considering. So, how about the other half of what was possibly the finest songwriting team ever?  John's output was arguably just as inconsistent, but I do wonder just what musical delights we may have been denied through his untimely murder so long ago.  We have been without him for almost 38 years, which is a lot of time that potentially could have yielded a lot of music.

And lastly, I've been listening to the music of Mike Taylor.  He was still a young man when he drowned in the river Thames almost 50 years ago.  Three of his compositions were recorded by Cream on Wheels of Fire, and he released two albums of jazz for the Columbia Lansdowne Series produced by Denis Preston. Neither made much commercial impact and he died almost completely forgotten, except by the few who knew him as a friend or who recognised his musical genius.  In more recent years his legend has grown somewhat and thanks to a resurgence in interest in British jazz of the '60s and '70s (thanks Gilles Petersen et al.) his albums, Pendulum and Trio have been rediscovered and appreciated by a new audience.  Trio in particular is, in my opinion, up there with the very best jazz albums of all time.  I do wonder what more he had that was denied us so prematurely.

Jeff Buckley

Eva Cassidy.