Which artist's legacy benefitted the most from their death?

I hear you, and I’m far from a Blind Melon fanboy, but they were a really great band in their day. Very different than what others were doing at the time.

I think that “hacks” assessment was a combination of the media’s reporting on Hoon’s antics, Soup’s poor sales AND Hoon’s death. It was really unfair too, and it’s unfortunate b/c Soup is a very, very good album (one that’s grown on me a lot over the years).

FWIW, I quite liked their record For My Friends. I wouldn’t have listened to it if it wasn’t Blind Melon, but it’s not really Blind Melon without Shannon’s voice.

 

Nonsense, the Doors were huge in the 1970s after Morrison's death. Doors songs were in regular daily rotation on FM radio right along with Zeppelin, Floyd, Tull, The Who, etc., for years after his death. Not a day would go by without hearing L.A. Woman, Riders on the Storm, Lover Her Madly, Light My Fire, Roadhouse Blues, People are Strange or Hello, I Love You. We listened to Doors right along with Sabbath, Zeppelin, The Beatles, Floyd, Bowie and all the rest throughout the 70s. The posthumous An American Prayer (1978) went platinum, and the compilation Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine (1972) was very popular. I still have my original copy.

 

Well i'd say their families have benefitted the most.

Hendrix, Lennon and Elvis records have earned more cash after they died.

 

I so want to agree with you on my Florida homeboy Gram and in no way do I want to diminish his importance, but nothing in his past said he would ever rein it in. He quit nearly every project he started, always midstream. To me, his career was one of almosts: moments of sheer brilliance countered by exponentially more moments of self-indulgence and tragedy.

As much as I don’t want it to be true, b/c Gram is an important artist in my musical DNA, I think we got all Gram Parsons had to give, the proverbial case of “it’s better to burn out than to fade away.”

 

I actually think he was the most talented guy on that plane

 

I never suggested that the Doors faded into obscurity during the 70's, but nevertheless they did experience a significant surge in popularity when No One Here Gets Out Alive was published. Rolling Stone didn't put Morrison on the cover with the headline "He's Hot, He's Sexy, and He's Dead" because they had put him on the cover every previous year. They did it because a whole new generation discovered his music.

 

Eva Cassidy for me.

 

John Lennon...

 

you are cracking me up here...very funny. The Walking Dead!

 

without a doubt!

 

ELVIS is still the KING!

 

Truly a lol post and all spot on….far more successful after his death despite being in early Beatles, lol.

 

Yep…fortunately saw him in concert in 76.

 

I as an American did know until getting online that Queen fell in popularity in America after the seventies …as I loved them in the seventies, bought all their seventies albums and saw them in 76.

 

I had this issue.

 

Truly the top of the list…as he said never did anything about the hoax as kept folks interested in him.

 

Yep that imposter william Campbell by far received the greatest death bump legacy and two folks I think mentioned him before you. Amazing that he’s still going too allegedly due to a series of subsequent of Billy shepherds, lol.

 

nice! that had to be great!

 

Obviously Paul McCartney. His replacement has been going strong for 55 years now.

 

How about Patsy Cline?

 

the label or label group always benefited the most. says captain obvious.

 

I find it a shame that Blind Melon is known for two things nowadays: No Rain and their singer dying. Not that No Rain isn't a fantastic song, which it is - but their debut is so solid and Soup has a lot of gems on it

 

I wish I could walk into a store by their albums on vinyl.

 

Still a massive difference in the "Townes van Zandt industry" between before and after his death - his records were effectively impossible to find in the 80s and 90s, whereas now you'd be hard-pressed to go into pretty much any record store and not find his records there. And the amount of covers that have exploded since his death among the 'americana/indie' crowd, and his songs being used in soundtracks, was not happening before - of course his songs were being covered, but only really by a close group of pure country friends.

 

I get the close group idea, but what a group: TVZ, Steve Earle , Rodney Crowell and Guy Clark. Pretty good group I rekon.