Led Zeppelin before Bonzo passed.
Something that I thought about when the other thread came up–when I was in college, they had a free Dizzy Gillespie concert. All I needed to do was walk across campus from my room to the auditorium, but I didn’t bother. He died a couple of years later. I don’t particularly regret misding it, but acknowledge that there were plenty of others who would have loved to have had the opportunity.
Reaching too far back cause I could never have had the chance, but Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Hendrix, Morrison, Sinatra, Presley
My mother.
I saw Jimmy Page with the Black Crowes, it was up there with some of my favorite concerts. Jimmy is still great and Chris did an amazing job embodying Robert.
I’ve seen Tom Petty 9 or 10 times and would have gladly continued to buy tickets.
The one that really bugs me is Prince. I’ve mentioned this in plenty of other threads, but I never paid attention to him. I was born in 1980, and (IMO) around the time he was really getting huge, I was only about 10-15. This was around the same time a lot of comedians used him as a punching bag.
Anyway, when George Harrison died, Prince along with a number of others did While My Guitar Gently weeps for George’s R&R inductiin and, as I know you know where I’m going with this, his solo is what made me realize how good of a guitar player he was. He was more than just a someone that could sing and/or put on a show.
When he died, XM had a Prince station, listening to almost exclusively his music for a month straight is what really made me understand what everyone else had known for 30+ years.
FWIW, when Prince died, this is what I posted on my facebook page
To this day, it’s still seems so bizarre to me how much bigger of a loss it feels like Prince was than Bowie (at the time), considering I never listened to prince beyond knowing a handful of songs on the radio and I loved Bowie pretty much since I first heard him.
Michael Jackson
George Michael
Queen w/ Freddie Mercury
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
Lots of great calls so far.
But for me, miles ahead of the others and just in front of Keith Moon, is Lux Interior.
Fascinating guy on paper and on videos, but I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be in the presence of such a ball of energy.
Growing up in Las Vegas there were always strip casinos that had Ray Charles on the marquee. I always meant to go, and it seemed that he always played Vegas. But then it was too late. Damn.
A migrating herd of Brontosaurs.
Johnny Winter
Monty Python… with Graham Chapman and Terry Jones. (Yes, Terry Jones is still alive, but he has some form of dementia, I believe.)
In 1995 (or was it 1994?), I could have seen James Brown perform in Barcelona, but it would have meant altering our trip schedule (I was with my mother and girlfriend) by a coupe of days.
Nowadays with internet hotel reservations and such it would be pretty easy, but at the time we decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. Mistake!
Bob Marley. My university was on his scheduled tour and I was looking forward to seeing him when the tour was canceled due to his fatal illness.
(I was fortunate enough to see Hendrix, Joplin, Morrison, George Harrison, and Keith Moon (with the Who) before they died.)
Honor, honesty, chivalry … things like that.
Eva Cassidy
George Carlin. I’ve seen every standup show that’s made it onto Netflix and I so wish I’d gone to see him live.
Aw, they’re not dead, they’re just resting.
Duane Allman. I saw everyone else I ever wanted to, including the Beatles.
George Carlin.
Maybe the original Nirvana lineup.