He or She never fulfilled their potential in your eyes..

Lee Morgan - Lee was in somewhat of a dry spell, in terms of composing, at the time of his tragic murder. His playing was up to his usual high standard, though, and he should’ve made a slew of jazz classics in the 70s.

Sam Cooke - was only beginning to tap into his massive talent and realize anything close to matching his massive ambition. “A Change Is Gonna Come” should have been one of a batch of Civil Rights anthems, not an epitaph. An incredible voice, silenced in a senseless manner.

Rod Stewart - pitched his strengths aside in favor of mass appeal. Chased an audience that had no interest in him making anything else like “Mandolin Wind.”

The Jayhawks - Tomorrow The Green Grass remains a wonderful record. The mid 90s bust-up of the Olson & Louris songwriting team eliminated the chance for more records of equal quality. Sound Of Lies is really good, but I’m always reminded of what could’ve been.

Brian Wilson may be the poster boy for this thread, though. So much greatness, weighted with so much heavy baggage. I’m a fan, but that’s a frustrating role sometimes.

 

Maybe not a favorite on these boards, but for me the clearest example of wasted talent is Snoop Dogg. He gained prominence through his raps on Dr. Dre's million-selling album The Chronic, then made a brilliant debut album (Doggystyle) , followed by 25 years of goofin' around (arrests, shooting porno movies , releasing one crap album after the other). I gotta give it to him, he has a talent for staying in the public eye, by doing tongue-in-cheek duets with Katy Perry and stuff, but it all has little to do with a serious music career.

 

I'd almost say that Chris Bell fits this bill better than Chilton. Bell had the abilities to write potential pop hits, probably more so than Chilton did. The failure of the first Big Star album seemed to hit Bell much harder than it did Chilton, who, as you said, seemed ambivalent, perhaps having already experienced fame with the Box Tops. After leaving the group, Bell never seemed to get his act together long enough to get something out to the marketplace, despite recording a clutch of top notch songs in the mid-70s. Most of his post-Big Star material remained unreleased until long after his death. I feel that he could have hit it big in the late 70s/early 80s with the right promotion and right production team during that relatively brief window when power pop acts (Cheap Trick, The Romantics, The Plimsouls, etc.) were able to make some inroads to the Top 40.

 

I totally agree.
A bunch of underachievers

 

Graham Parker makes a decent contribution to my cd collection. The count stands at 36 (no duplicates)

 

1972 You Don't Mess Around with Jim



1973 Life and Times



1973 I Got a Name

Jim Croce, with only his three major studio, good-to-great albums, he dies in a plane crash three months before the third album, I Got A Name, was finished and released. He was just hitting his stride. I thought Croce had the potential to be the best songwriter this side of Bob Dylan. Plus, Croce had more of a sense of humor in his songwriting that practically anyone you could name.

 

Sea Hags

 

Grant Lee Phillips comes to mind.

Two brilliant albums as one-third of Grant Lee Buffalo to start out, followed by a good third album and a somewhat compromised but still excellent fourth album. Then the band broke up and Phillips has issued 6 or 7 decent but largely unmemorable solo albums since that time, few of which display a fraction of the spark and spirit of the four GLB albums.

Great voice, excellent stage presence and charisma as a band leader....don't really know why Phillips seemed to back away from the spotlight just when he seemed poised to make the big leap forward. I suppose the loss of his two bandmates played a large role in everything. I feel like one big hit could have changed everything for him, but it never came....and then he seemingly lost interest in even trying for it.

 

but some decent songs: dalai lama, thing for you, junkyard... all great songs... i concur that he was not as prolific in the eighties (and nineties) as in the seventies, but who was ?

 

Actually, I always preferred The Nice of ELP as well

 

Can't say that I'm underwhelmed by many of the 20 albums (+4 Grin albums) of his that I have

 

How can you know what he would have done though? He died so young.

 

Paul Westerberg created some of the greatest music in rock history. How much more should he have done?

 

That jives with my take as well. Not having a vocalist/lyricist also gave him 100% of the publishing credit on original material... I'm sure he had it all worked out in his head. And he may be perfectly happy with his career path. Avoiding egos and hassles is a valid strategy.

 

That's part of it, but obviously anybody who dies young can't really fulfill their potential. I was mainly thinking that, even before his death, he seemed to be unsure what to do with his gifts and perhaps not confident enough to advocate for himself. If memory serves, he even worked at a fast-food place for a time. Given the brilliance of the first Big Star album, you would have thought that people within the music industry -- talented people -- would have wanted to work with him. I guess it took a lot longer for the word about Big Star to spread outside of Memphis back in those pre-internet and social media days. By the time it did, Bell was gone.

 

jonny greenwood

pablo honey -decent
the bends -signs of brilliance
ok computer -guitar god

and then

 

I'm no fan of this sort of music, however, when it comes to tragedy stopping a brilliant young musician from reaching his potential the story of Jason Becker is very hard to beat.

Jason Becker: the man who could have been king

 

I was referring specifically to his solo career. With his talent, he should have been huge.

 

Stephen Stills
Evan Dando

 

I can get on board with this. I'd even just go with Manassas -- if that band had been able to stay together (and healthy) and become less of a Stills-driven entity, it could have made some incredible music over the years.

 

Seriously. In Uncle Tupelo, Jeff's songs were the filler tracks to endure before getting to the next great Jay song. Who'd have predicted how their post-Tupelo career trajectories went?

 

I quite liked From the Choirgirl Hotel..

 

John Phillips. After the Mamas & Papas just one solid solo album. Then he seemed to find a way to mess up every opportunity afterwards.

 

I was going to say Kurt Cobain, among some of the other "27" club that weren't here long enough for us to hear their full potential.......perhaps.

 

After one of Chilton's very enjoyable club gigs in the 80s I sat on a couch with him at a small after-gig party. I was reading a magazine & he came & sat on the other end of the couch & started looking at a magazine off the coffee table. Just the two of us in the room & I wanted to say something to him but didn't. I don't think I could have asked about Bell, because at the time I wasn't really familiar with Big Star & had gone to the gig because friends said it would be fun. I had heard that he no longer drank, but he was sipping on a beer & I later heard him asking if any pot was available. I have since heard that he could occasionally be quite talkative with fans.