When you think about the late 1960's in America -- especially the ovaric Woodstock moment -- we are left with a desperate longing of what should have been instead of what never was.
Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Keith Moon are but a few of the performers who set the world afire only to find an early, ashen, grave.
Is it possible for talent to outlive promise?
Have Jimi and Janis and Keith left an everlasting impression with their young deaths; or would they have continued to set the challenge of thinking and living for us as they entered their golden years?
Is it ever preferable to leave behind a few songs and a beautiful corpse than suffer the changes in musical taste and suffer the weariness of time and tide always wearing you down and washing you away?
Is it possible for talent to outlive promise?
Have Jimi and Janis and Keith left an everlasting impression with their young deaths; or would they have continued to set the challenge of thinking and living for us as they entered their golden years?
Is it ever preferable to leave behind a few songs and a beautiful corpse than suffer the changes in musical taste and suffer the weariness of time and tide always wearing you down and washing you away?
Really difficult to say either way, David. I could imagine Jimmy Hendrix mellowing out and starting to put out cover albums later in life -- or finding newer and newer inspirations and making music that we could never imagine now.
I'm pretty sure that Keith Moon would have remained excellent with the help of The Who.
Janis -- I'm not sure. She seemed to have no future but implosion, so it's really a tough call.
It is fascinating conundrum, Gordon. Do we go out big or just hang on and last as long as we can and hope for the best?