What do you think is the best album to come out from an artist that was 6 feet under? 
I recall Paul McCartney being quoted as saying - after John Lennon was already dead - something like, “I’m ready to have a Beatles reunion any time, any place. But how will you get John to appear? Without him, it isn’t The Beatles.” - Yet they did figure out how to revive him long enough to produce Free As A Bird.
Hmmm… Come to think of it, I’d have to put Natalie Cole’s duet with her dead father (Unforgettable) on an equally high pedestal.
(Mods! Send this to Cafe Society!)
Moving to Cafe Society from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Mine is Elliott Smith’s From a Basement on the Hill, which was released on October 19, 2004, almost a year to the day after Smith’s death from stab wounds to the chest (likely self-inflicted, though I don’t think that’s ever been officially determined).
Here’s a YouTube link to the first track, Coast to Coast.
Frank Zappa: Civilization Phaze III. A work of incredible complexity and dark beauty, and in some ways the accomplishment Zappa’s entire career was leading up to. A crowning masterpiece completed by Zappa under the shadow of his own mortality and released one year after his passing.
Roy Orbison’s Mystery Girl.
And Real Love, which I thought was a better song.
*Pearl * by Janis Joplin
Dreaming of You, I Could Fall in Love by Selena.
Voivod, “Katorz”
In 2005, guitarist Denis “Piggy” D’Amour passed away from cancer. His band had been experiencing a bit of a comeback and had just landed a multi-album deal. When he learned that he had terminal cancer, he knew he would not live long enough to be able to record another album. Within days of his death, Piggy told his life-long friend and drummer Michel “Away” Langevin that he had recorded several albums’ worth of guitar tracks using Pro Tools on his laptop. His last wish was to honor his band’s contract.
Last year, Voivod released “Infini”, the second album to be made from those recordings, fulfilling the contract.
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Sublime’s self-titled album.
Joy Division’s Closer
released two months after Ian Curits’ death.
Main Offender, by Keith Richards.
Wait…What??..never mind.
John Lennon (with Yoko Ono, not dead at time of release) - Milk And Honey
An American Prayer, released 7 years after Jim Morrison died.
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay, by Otis Redding, the first posthumous number-one single in U.S. chart history.
For the win, unfortunately.
I was going to say Warren Zevon’s “The Wind” but according to Wikipedia it was released about two weeks before he died, so never mind.
While it was never offically released, every musicals lover has a copy of Steve Barton’s recording of Dance of the Vampire. He was a star in the German production and should have gotten the English lead on Broadway.