# You can revive one dead rock musician, with ONE condition... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 28, 2003, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276 "2003-09-28T10:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![aramis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@aramis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aramis)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/41 "2003-09-28T22:59:59Z")
I gotta go for Janis. ---
**Author:** ![Grousser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Grousser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grousser)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/42 "2003-09-28T23:14:28Z")
Glad I’ve stepped into the **Dead Rockers Society**. ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/43 "2003-09-28T23:27:34Z")
The rules of this game are why I didn’t say Buddy Holly, because of his age. But I would have liked to have seen what he would have done in the 1960s and 70s. He probably would have turned country like Jerry Lee Lewis did. But he might have thrown in with the country/blues/rock hybrid of guys like Doug Sahm, Freddie Fender, the Winter Bros., etc. Besides late on he might have made an excellent member of either the Travelling Wilburys or the Texas Tornados. Miles would have been old, but I would have liked to have seen what he would have thought of hip-hop and especially gangsta rap. He showed an interest with that _Doo-Bop_ album, which I don’t believe was complete when he died, despite what the liner notes said. Dreams of colaborations with Prince or Dr. Dre dance in my head. Jimi is too much of an unknown quantity for me, besides I’m not much of a fan. He could have continued to break new ground as a musician, but he might have become just as bad as some later guitar heroes like Robin Trower or Yngwie Malmsteen. The worst part is that even if we could get some of these performers back at any age, many of them would probably just proceed to destroy themselves with drugs all over again: Jim, Jimi, Lowell, Kurt, Marvin (shot by his dad I know, but he had huge cocaine problem, I shudder to think what he would be like in the days of crack), Elvis,etc. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/44 "2003-09-28T23:46:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rooves \* > \*\*Another vote for Mr Mojo Risin here. The best part is that two of the three remaining members are now touring and HE could make a surprise appearance. > > Speaking of which, AIRMAN, have you gone to see the 21st century Doors? \*\* Nope, and I won’t. Ray Manzarek is a sellout, making a living off a guy dead (maybe, that is ;)) 32 years. I find that to be particularly distasteful. ---
**Author:** ![hardygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@hardygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardygrrl)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/45 "2003-09-28T23:51:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by okielady \* > \*\*. > > I don’t think Kurt Cobain ever fully realized the scope of his fame. It would also be interesting to see if the grunge movement would have lasted as long if he hadn’t died and become an instant legend. \*\* Plus he was planning to branch out into different genres - he had planned a project with Michael Stipe at the time of his death. I second Darby Crash and add one - Tupac Shakur. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/46 "2003-09-29T00:49:50Z")
2 that haven’t been mentioned: have we forgotten Johnny Cash already? Brian Jones. Just finished a book on the Stones, and he seemed like such a talented musician, he seemed to give the Stones all those different sounds on their music. Sitar, marimbas, mellotron, etc… He played them all. Too bad he couldn’t handle the alcohol & drugs(and keep his fists off his women). And Jerry Garcia. They could have lost anyone in that band and it would have continued, but without Jerry, forget it. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/47 "2003-09-29T00:58:33Z")
My heart says Jerry Garcia, but my head says John Lennon. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/48 "2003-09-29T01:01:57Z")
Wesley Willis. Seeing as he just died, the condition’s not a big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/49 "2003-09-29T01:07:42Z")
> [@](#): > > Robert Johnson was my first thought when I read the OP (even though he’s blues), but he’d be 92 years old. Not exactly in his prime. True of course. I was thinking of what we could’ve gotten from him if he’d lived another thirty or fourty or fifty years. He probably wouldn’t be around now, but he would’ve had much more material and maybe been around to enjoy the blues reaching a wide audience in the 60s and 70s. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/50 "2003-09-29T01:20:25Z")
Yet another vote for Frank Zappa. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/51 "2003-09-29T01:20:27Z")
I will miss Faroukh Bulsara until the day I die. And Cobain…with the brilliance of ‘All Apologies’ I thought he was going someplace interesting soon. ---
**Author:** ![supervenusfreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@supervenusfreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/supervenusfreak)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/52 "2003-09-29T01:26:09Z")
Please forgive me but I could not simply narrow it down to one choice. Since alot of you already listed and have discussed several of my choices I thought I would add my two cents. So here goes! Maria Callas for her gift and her attitude. Sylvester for her faaaaaaaabulous funkiness. Ella, Dinah, Billie, Judy, Josephine, Carmen, Nina, and every beautiful soul who has sung jazz and blues from their core. And for an outside “I truly know that she was a rock girl” Gilda Radner. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/53 "2003-09-29T01:35:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Marley23 \* > \*\*True of course. I was thinking of what we could’ve gotten from him if he’d lived another thirty or fourty or fifty years. He probably wouldn’t be around now, but he would’ve had much more material and maybe been around to enjoy the blues reaching a wide audience in the 60s and 70s. \*\* That’s true, but I interpreted the OP as who you would resurrect now, in 2003. I assumed that would mean that Johnson would be dead for sixty-five years, then suddenly be brought back to life. That’s why I recommended Jeff Buckley or Kurt Cobain (though given Cobain’s suicidal tendencies, it would be best to go with Buckley, who died accidentally). ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/54 "2003-09-29T01:43:10Z")
These two have both already been mentioned but I just want to underscore their votes: I honestly believe that hip-hop and skapunkrastafunkwhatever would be in much better states than they are today if Tupac and Brad Nowell were still around to raise the bar in their respective genres. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/55 "2003-09-29T03:25:27Z")
Another vote for Jeff Buckley and a maybe-its-just-me vote for Michael Hutchence. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/56 "2003-09-29T05:08:48Z")
**Eddie Cochran** of the orgininal “Summertime Blues” might have done some fabulous things in the 60’s — at least he had the chops for it and **Johnny Horton** had an amazing voice. With halfway decent material, could have continued into the 60s **Brian Epstein** was only 33 when he died in 1967. Some see The Beatles ultimate dissolution stemming from his death. We sure could have used more original Beatles… [Here’s a great site](http://users.efortress.com/doc-rock/deadrock.html) to find out who died when. And, yes, I agree instrumentalists would have a better chance of remaining viable. **Stevie Ray Vaughn** would continue to put out killer blues, absolutely no doubt ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/57 "2003-09-29T11:20:55Z")
My immediate response would have been buddy holly, but since you added the rule that they would have to be at their age today, had they lived, hrm… I’d go with Kurt Cobain. I think if that jackass was still with us, he’d be capable of still churning out some great musical tracks. ---
**Author:** ![MrO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@MrO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrO)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/58 "2003-09-29T11:44:30Z")
Another vote for John Lennon, though as a bass player, I’m tempted to say Jaco Pastorius. It would be great to have Joplin, Marley, Zappa, Zevon, and others back too, of course. ---
**Author:** ![sublime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sublime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sublime)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/59 "2003-09-29T12:04:15Z")
Jeff Buckley or Bradley Nowell. Rather unexciting, but those are the two that had the most left in them imho. George Harrison was still putting out decent stuff in the 90s as well. If it weren’t for the condition, I’d have to say John Bonham, Nick Drake or Jimi Hendrix. Maybe someone could have saved Syd Barret’s mind before he tried to preserve it chemically? ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2003, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276/60 "2003-09-29T13:26:19Z")
I don’t know, Ike. Evidently Jerry had decided (yet again) to clean up, so maybe his stay at Serenity Knolls would have been just the ticket to a healthier Fat Man. That being said, we could only hope that once he came out of treatment he would have said “Ok, this is the deal. We suck. Bad. We need to take another hiatus and go our separate ways for a year or two and work some things out and see what we can produce independetly. If, after that time, we’ve still go the fire in the belly, we can get together again and see what the All New, Bigger and Improved Grateful Dead sound like.” Absent that, I think he’s better off resting in pieces. I would like to see George Harrison and John Lennon back but only so that they could take Lorne Michaels up on his offer and have the Beatles play on SNL for $3,000. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-can-revive-one-dead-rock-musician-with-one-condition/204276.md?page=4)