Who Would've Stayed Cool Had They Not Died Before Their Time

I could only go for two that I believe would have genuinely stayed cool; Buckley and Curtis. But it's a loaded question as some of the artists listed were NEVER 'cool' to start with. That doesn't equate to them being rubbish. Far from it. Some major talent included. Well, they were ALL talented except Sid V (but I guess he made the list as a 'joke' inclusion).

But Otis Redding was never cool. Neither was Marc, Amy Winehouse, Nick Drake or Gram Parsons. Bloody marvellous entertainers, sure. But cool? No.

One that most definitely should have made the list and would still have been a stylish guitar-slinger now would have been the late Steve Clark. Coolest of the Leppards.

 

Disagree if you like, but I'll stick with my choice. I've always considered him cool for the amazing music he created, and he's currently second in this poll to boot.

 

that was exactly my first thought!

 

Jim Croce

 

I suppose...

 

That is a grossly unfair take on the Airplane. They were NOT the Airplane in the 80's. Jorma, Jack and Spencer had literally nothing to do with the Starship (Blows Against the Empire was really a Kantner solo album with "friends", not a real group - Starship formed later, and anyway Blows was actually a good to very good record), and by 78 Marty was gone, too. Grace only performed on one song during the 80's, and even Paul left by 84.

Meanwhile Hot Tuna and what Jack and Jorma did over the decades since Airplane WERE cool. Very much so. I know you were being snarky, but in doing so were also being unfair.

 

Upside down. Now is not a cool time.

 

we should bear in mind that nothing BOOSTS a career like death !

we can 'squee' over a much loved much missed long gone FAV artist now BUT remember some on that list were either struggling career wise or never made any BIG breakthrough in their lifetimes....and being 'The Late Great' has probably added to their legendary status and later sales considerably

sadly Buddy Holly was on that ill fated flight and tour as he badly needed the money and at the time his career wasn't going as well in terms of sales to enable him not to have to do that tour - more major iconic fame, acclaim, and star status came posthumously - in fact while he had sixties hits it was in the seventies Buddy really shot to even bigger fame

Nick Drake was told by his record company his now acclaimed albums at the time had not sold that well - poor Nick despite his talent was never in the Cat Stevens, Ralph McTell league back in the seventies

more was made in the music press when Jim Croce died than Gram Parsons...years later the status was reversed

did Jimi Hendrix ever fully recapture the magic of his Experience
albums ? - his later line ups seemed to find him ever more frustrated as an artist...didn't he walk offstage in frustration at one gig I seem to remember reading

Marc Bolan's golden era of instant chart toppers with T. Rex seemed a thing of the past when he sadly died....

In 1980 when the returning John Lennon died 'Starting Over' was slipping DOWN the UK chart having failed to reach the top - few here in the media even noticed when John 'retired' in the mid seventies - but as JL put it;

'Everybody LOVES you when your six feet in the ground...'

and John himself was proved so right there - in the mid seventies circa 'Wings Over America' it was Paul being over hailed as the genius and little mention of John (who was then doing a covers album of R & R standards) ....John's death immediately totally reversed that BUT John's solo career despite some highs over 1970-75 was never that consistent with the overall music buying public and in the mid seventies Paul was getting the bigger media acclaim overall

and this later post death over praise thing is not just music stars - James Dean and Marilyn Monroe got far bigger as iconic figures post deaths becoming instant legends when at the actual time of demise both were not enjoying career highs - in fact Marilyn had been replaced in her latest movie

so we need to accept that some at least of those deceased musical stars might have not risen back to their former career glory or heights at all - they may well have gone downhill, ended up a parody of themselves or even quit the music business for all we know BUT as they are gone we like to assume that they obviously would have risen up like the proverbial phoenix and of course 'stayed cool' whatever that silly term really means !

....but as with some surviving figures who are no longer at the top of their game life is not all 'highs' or happy career endings is it...?

 

Before I get to my vote and why, I have to explain why I did not pick Hendrix, who several have, and I understand why.

I feel like shortly before he died, he was unsure what direction he wanted to go in. His music was still, compared to others, excellent. But compared to his own earlier work, he had lost the same focus and direction that animated him before. He may well have found a way forward. But despite his great talent, I think he was as likely not to. And if he didn't, would he have been able to maintain being cool? By rehashing his old stuff? By not being in the game at all? Or by having a career something like Clapton's?

My vote instead went to Gram Parsons. First of all unlike most on that list in that he was right in the middle of a new way forward when he died. A way that had much promise, that being part of a great male female harmony effort with Emmylou Harris, and very talented musicians backing them up. They would have fit right in and added something to the more new traditionalist part of country, a subgenre that people like Dwight Yoakam continued to mine, in a very cool way by the way, up to the near present. I also think his own integrity was such that he would not have gotten waylaid by any of the 80's cul de sacs that made so many others uncool.

Gram Parsons. That's my vote.

 

I think mid 80's Live Aid & Wembley 'tache Freddie was cool!

 

I went with Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Kurt Cobain. Jimi Hendrix is the obvious one; All you have to do is listen to the music he was making around the time he died to know that he was just getting started. Grunge may have died shortly after Kurt Cobain, but people he knew say he was going to completely overhaul his style on the next album. That, combined with Nirvana’s enduring appeal to this day, makes me think Kurt Cobain would have remained popular for the foreseeable future. I picked Jim Morrison for the third, but I’m really not so sure about him or any of the other acts. LA Woman was a good album, but it did show signs of creative and vocal strain. I could see The Doors (or maybe even a solo Jim Morrison) continuing to make good music, but I can also envision burnout.

 

How cool do the following seem now: Steve Winwood, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin?

Not how great are they musically, or whether they can still perform well. How "cool" are they, to the average person, or the average music fan?

Not very. That is how music artists age. So I wonder if anyone on the list would still be cool. I think that Bob Marley could have been an exception.

 

Prince and David Bowie

 

Got to be Hendrix. He might stumble a bit and do some disco stuff, but you still have that guitar playing.

 

Jimi for sure, seems like the easiest choice of all them. I'd say Bob Marley and Amy Winehouse as well. Buddy Holly also, but calling him "cool" is kind of funny haha, cool in his own way.

 

Some people aged very well. Jerry Garcia. To some extent Dylan. Dave Brock is still pretty cool, in his uncool way. But they do seem to be more exceptions, people probably mostly drop out or turn uncoolish.

 

The way I see it, if he was singing that good when he was dying of AIDS, his voice probably would've held up fairly well under the more usual circumstances of getting older. I don't think grunge / indie would've dented them. It was more the american hair metal groups that had cause for concern.

 

The Ship of Theseus problem. I wasn't ragging on Starship or Jefferson Starship by the way. I love both. Jefferson Starship i like even more than I like Jefferson Airplane, and "just Starship" I like at least as much as I like Airplane. But they certainly weren't considered cool as time went on, and there's no reason to believe that the Doors and other artists might not have taken similar tracks, Ship of Theseus problems and all.

Throughout my comments in this thread, I've been saying nothing about whether I like anyone, by the way. That's a very different issue than whether someone is considered cool.

What demographic would you say has considered Hot Tuna cool throughout the years?

 

Today, it would be assisted living centers and retirement homes.

 

I can tell you from painful personal experience that Bob Dylan does not seem cool now to virtually anyone under the age of 60. "Old coot", "that weird old guy who can't sing," "why do you like that geezer?"--those are the comments I have heard recently.

 

I have to chuckle at the concept of a forum full of (mostly) older gentlemen debating the coolness factor of other conceptually imagined older dudes. The answer is - none of these long dead people would still be cool. None of them.

 

That’s a good “cool list”. I can totally picture most of the artists on the list being still cool in a Neil Young and Keith Richards kind of way. Not neccesarily super popular sales wise but, well cool. Amy would most likely still be huge. I not so sure about Stevie Ray though. I’m sure he would still be fantastic but I can’t see him reinventing himself in the new milllennium and thus would probably be operating on the blues scene. All for the better if you ask me, but I’m not shure about the coolness factor in that.

 

Tommy Bolin & Randy Rhoads, among those not on the list.

 

It's my opinion everybody stays cool after they die. Nobody is 98.6 any longer or am I wrong?

 

Chris Cornell 100%