This is a question a local radio DJ mentioned pondering with her coworkers, and it seemed interesting…
You can bring any one deceased rock musician to life. BUT, that person will sound (and presumably look and perform) as they would have had they never died. So you can’t have the 1978 Jim Morrison back; it must be what he would have been like had he lived to 2003.
So with that in mind, who would you bring back? The DJ wanted Freddie Mercury. What about you?
Frank Zappa
John Lennon
Miles Davis
Warren Zevon
Duane Allman
Marvin Gaye
Stevie Ray Vaughan
George Harrison
Jim Croce
Brad Nowell
Gram Parsons
Clarence White
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins - since I never got to see him play live.
And special consideration for Skip Spence since he finally seemed to be getting control of his mental problems when he died of cancer. Plus I want to know what else besides “Land Of The Sun” he still had in him after all this time.
Taking the aging issue into account, only Duane Allman and Stevie Ray Vaughan would be likely to have kept their chops and licks in shape. Miles (if he can be R&R!) would be on the down side of too old to be making much great music by now, I think.
The singers would have lost their voices even more than Frank had by the time he was in his 80’s. So just the players would have a shot.
It would be great to see Lennon again, even if just to be here.
Cass Eliot. She’d be what, in her early 60s now? I’d love to see how her life played out, when the fitness craze struck and Richard Simmons got hold of her.
Miles Davis and Hendrix would still be making challenging (and possibly unlistenable) musuc. Lennon would be the weirdest old fart in the world. Jim Morrison had shot his creative load long, long before he died. And Freddie Mercury would have had his own (very good) chat show by now.