Jeff Buckley
Wilfred Owen
So basically, Duane vs Gregg Allman = John vs Jim Belushi?
I don’t think Hank Williams has been mentioned. He died in 1953 at the age of 29. It would have been interesting to see how he would have responded to the changes in popular music that were just beginning at the time of his death.
Bob Marley seems like a good choice for the list, and Peter Tosh was only 43
Oh yes, how could I, how could anyone forget Bob Marley?
And what rhymes with Bob Marley?
Chris Farley.
I’ll add in Mitch Hedberg, 37. One of the best comedians ever. A hippie Steven Wright.
Slightly outside, but I also have to add in Divine at 42. He had just appeared in Hairspray and was receiving great reviews for the first time. I had just passed up a chance to meet him at the “hip” video store because it was a hour and a half drive and I…can’t remember why I didn’t. Of course he is gone a few months later.
That’s who I first considered for actor before checking his DOB. It would have been interesting to see how he navigated recent trans awareness.
Damn, I can’t believe I forgot Bob Marley.
He was 40, but Howard Ashman. Such a gifted lyricist.
A good suggestion.
And I would add C.M. Kornbluth, who died at the age of 34 in 1958.
Yeah, I think so.
I’d never heard of Morphine, but a friend of mine was a fan and wanted to see them at a street fair in Cambridge, MA, so we went together. Sandman died only a few weeks later.
David Foster Wallace, perhaps. He was 46.
Canadian singer-songwriter Stan Rogers was only 33 years old when he died.
Eh, his was the voice of the band. As a blues-rock vocalist I think he was pretty solid. After Duane I’d argue he was more central to the band than any other member. Well below his brother as a musician? Sure. But still competent and distinctive in his own right.
I’d draw the comparison just a little closer to Phil Alvin vs. Dave Alvin than the Belushis. Just a little.
The jazz world has had a lot of musicians and composers who died young. Here are some:
Bix Beiderbecke, 28, DTs
Charlie Christian, 25, tuberculosis
Charlie Parker, 34, drug and alcohol related lobar pneumonia
Clifford Brown, 25 car crash
Eddie Lang, 30, botched tonsillectomy
George Gershwin, 39, brain tumor
Jimmy Blanton, 23, tuberculosis
And Eric Dolphy, 36.
Jane Austen barely misses the cutoff, at 41.
Dude wrote Whipping Post, among other great songs, and was an amazing vocalist.
He was hardly “very little more” than Duane’s little brother.
Karen Carpenter, Patsy Cline, Andy Gibb