# Pick an artist (writer, singer, musician, actor) to give an extra twenty years of life. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2013, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952 "2013-03-25T21:30:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/61 "2013-03-28T09:41:11Z")
**Henri Dutilleux** is 97 and still writing music but, although he’s been active for 70 years, he hasn’t really written much: about 30 works (many of them modern masterpieces). He’s extremely self-critical, works very slowly and has abandoned many projects, most famously an opera and a concertante piece for clarinet. He is in very frail health nowadays ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krhI5M2EWPs](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krhI5M2EWPs)), so it is unlikely the he will add much to his work list which is unfortunate. **Tchaikovsky** was planning to write a _cello concerto_ after his _6th symphony_. He may even have started working on it ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello\_Concerto\_%28Tchaikovsky%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_Concerto_%28Tchaikovsky%29)). Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to complete it. Now, that’s something I would have loved to hear! It seems that he also intended to write a _flute concerto_. That would have been the only concerto for a wind instrument by a major romantic composer… ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/62 "2013-03-28T11:03:48Z")
> [@D18](#): > > Half-ass, indeed! 😉 Most of those quotations are by composers and others in the later 19th century. JSB in WAM and LvB’s day was certainly well respected, but they probably only knew a small amount of his keyboard music. It wasn’t until the late 1820s that JSB was truly venerated. JSB was the third choice for the job he held in Leipzig for the last few decades of his life. One of the people on the “search committee” said something like “since the best men aren’t available, Bach will have to do.” Baron von Swieten did keep the flame alive and introduced Mozart to JS Bach’s music, but I doubt 20 years more would have done much for Bach himself who was hopelessly out of style by the 1730s. CPE and JC were the two famous Bach composers; Bach senior was mostly known, if at all, for his mad organ-playing skilz. If we’re looking at DWEM composers I’d much rather gift the extra years to [Giovanni Battista Pergolesi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Pergolesi), one of the greatest unsung composers of the 18th century. His comic intermezzo _La Serva Padrona_ was the most influential precursor to comic opera, while his _Stabat Mater_ utterly changed the form of the sacred music for the rest of the century. And he died of TB at just age **26**. Maybe his career was a fluke and he would have spent the next 20 years going out of fashion too but who knows? As for living people, I think we’ve got to go with Terry Pratchett. Twenty more years of books, with a fully functioning brain? Hells yes. ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/63 "2013-03-28T13:15:28Z")
> [@D18](#): > > Half-ass, indeed! 😉 Most of those quotations are by composers and others in the later 19th century. JSB in WAM and LvB’s day was certainly well respected, but they probably only knew a small amount of his keyboard music. It wasn’t until the late 1820s that JSB was truly venerated. JSB was the third choice for the job he held in Leipzig for the last few decades of his life. One of the people on the “search committee” said something like “since the best men aren’t available, Bach will have to do.” > > You might find [this](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200156436/default.html) of interest. I hadn’t realized he was one of _those guys_ - one of those people who wasn’t recognized for his greatness until after his death (even though, as it turns out, that’s in the opening blurb of his Wiki page. :smack:) It took me a while to get past pop music and into other genres, especially orchestral/chamber/classical music, but Bach was always easy. Maybe it was because I knew what it was, but when I first heard Erbarme Dich from the St. Matthew Passion, it seemed obvious that it was something…awesome. In the old sense of the word, you know? The contents of the link are new to me (obviously) and utterly fascinating. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/64 "2013-03-28T14:03:16Z")
Lindsay Lohan. Oh wait, that would be 20 years to life. ---
**Author:** ![James\_Otto\_Sweet\_Heart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@James\_Otto\_Sweet\_Heart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Otto_Sweet_Heart)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/65 "2013-03-28T14:37:14Z")
^^^ I don’t know if I would be that harsh, but she is definitely in some serious need of help. God bless you and her always!!! Holly ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/66 "2013-03-28T14:52:45Z")
Y’all are forgetting the “No dead people” rule. This is for turning someone who is still alive 20 years younger. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/67 "2013-03-28T15:19:58Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > OJ Simpson. He may need it for parole appeals. That should give him some more time to find the killers as well, right? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/68 "2013-03-28T19:41:23Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Indeed, like **Qin Shi Huangdi** , I am going to be cruel…and nominate H.P. Lovecraft. I do the cruelty around here. It’s in the RhymerFaq. The only reason I have not dispatched a team back in time to castrate his father before his birth is that I prefer to think of him hanging from a gibbet while crows peck out his eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/69 "2013-03-29T13:27:54Z")
Children’s book author. Beverly Cleary. She was born on April 12, 1916 and is still alive. Image twenty years more! ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2013, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/70 "2013-03-29T13:31:10Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > That should give him some more time to find the killers as well, right? There would be a good chance. I have this vague feeling that he knows who the killer is. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2013, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/71 "2013-03-29T23:31:29Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I do the cruelty around here. It’s in the RhymerFaq. The only reason I have not dispatched a team back in time to castrate his father before his birth is that I prefer to think of him hanging from a gibbet while crows peck out his eyes. Bah, why subcontract out to crows when you can get the man _himself_ to do it, in a desperate attempt to claw out his own brains? (Which, admittedly, knowing him, might be after Hattie McDaniel wins an Oscar rather than Crossroads Baker. :smack: ) ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2013, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/72 "2013-03-30T00:10:15Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Y’all are forgetting the “No dead people” rule. This is for turning someone who is still alive 20 years younger. Another vote for Leonard Cohen. This long time fan will see him for the first time, from the 4th row Radio City next week. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2013, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/73 "2013-03-30T00:57:10Z")
If we’re ignoring the dead rule, I’d say Phil Hartman. Adhering to the living, I’d have to nominate Helen Mirren just see how old she can retain her beauty. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/74 "2013-03-31T10:39:36Z")
Definitely Pratchett. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/75 "2013-03-31T11:34:15Z")
Freddy Mercury, of course. Also Robert Jordan, but only if we get to keep the Sanderson books around as a backup. I’d want to compare the two versions. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/76 "2013-03-31T12:58:13Z")
If we could bring back the dead, it would be H. Beam Piper, the sci-fi author. Hopefully he’d get the help he needed for depression. For the living I would second the motion for Judi Dench. P.S. Skald, have you ever hired out the continua craft for sight seeing? I’d love to go back in time, the the early part of the 20th century, to see my maternal grandparents in their youth. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2013, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/77 "2013-03-31T16:21:10Z")
N/M, joke ruled out by OP. ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/78 "2013-04-01T00:45:31Z")
Not my final answer but one suggestion would be Richard Harris so he could finish the Harry Potter series. Or Charles Dickens so he could finish Edwin Drood. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/79 "2013-04-01T06:36:55Z")
Phil Hartman was a great guy with a lot of comedy yet to give. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2013, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952/80 "2013-04-01T06:47:54Z")
My vote goes to David Bowie who is still making interesting music all these many years after Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pick-an-artist-writer-singer-musician-actor-to-give-an-extra-twenty-years-of-life/653952.md?page=5)