Rock's Unanswerable Questions

[Reverend Rock]

Gosh...that's actually a pretty believable scenario...

 

[runtfan]

I think this is the great unanswerable question of the rock era. Personally, I think Hendrix would have been incredible in the 70s, and I agree with Zombeels that he would have done jazz; in fact, at the time of his death he was already heading into a jazz period. I think the entire jazz-fusion movement of the early 70s owes a heck of a lot to Hendrix anyway, and he would have been a leader in it. But I don't agree that he would have ever rested on his laurels. I don't think Hendrix was even capable of that. I think he would have emerged from jazz-fusion a much more refined musician with a lot of artistic ambition. It's my opinion that Hendrix was the one artist from the late 60s who had it in him to go beyond rock into other realms, and completely reinvent the musical landscape of the late 20th century. The loss of his early death is impossible to overstate.

Totally agree on this. Of all the big time rockers that died too young, Hendrix is the main one of really only a very few that still had alot to offer.
Sure, it's a shame when someone dies too young, but for the most part it's usually not any major loss to the music world.

 

[chick draper]

WOW, A A G, that sounds totally plausible! I could really see that happening! And Kurt wearing his trademark ***** sweaters the whole time. Ooops, did I say *****?

And I'm in complete agreement with everyone concerning Jimi. I think he could have really contributed a lot more and changed things even more. I wonder how jazz would be viewed today in light of his contributions?

 

[AboutAGirl]

Thanks chick! And I LOVE your avatar! Colbert is my idol.

I think Kurt Cobain had the most left to give to me personally. Jimi Hendrix was incredibly prolific and he made a pretty large output despite his short time. I mean, I've heard of as many as 10s of albums of previously unreleased Hendrix material, although some of it is out of print. I do agree that Hendrix probably would have made a big impact on jazz & ilk, but that's not my kind of music. Hendrix's later stuff for me was getting a little too technical, I long for the rock n roll abandon of his earlier stuff. My guess is that Hendrix would have been at least as prolific in output as Neil Young, but probably as idiosyncratic as well. Which, I guess isn't a bad thing for most people since after all Neil Young is my favorite artist ever...

As for Kurt Cobain, who knows how prolific he would have been. Some people say that he wasn't a very prolific artist since In Utero had at least a few songs which had been around since before Nevermind, implying that Kurt hadn't been writing very much. But I think he was just extremely selective. Nevermind itself had some pretty old songs on it, I think the follow-up to In Utero would have had some gems from pre-In Utero times as well. I think the biggest evidence of how selective Kurt was is the fact that he threw away at least a couple of albums of brilliant material... first of all there is the entire 13+ songs from Fecal Matter, the only one of which to get released officially is Spank Thru. Even more convincing is the material on the Nirvana box set With The Lights Out. Sure it has demos on it but I made 2 CDs out of the completely new songs on the set and they are my 2 favorite Nirvana albums of all-time. Those songs that Kurt threw away not only once (when they were originally made) but essentially twice (by not including them on Incesticide) is just ridiculous. Songs like Anorexorcist, Old Age, Verse Chorus Verse, Blandest & Clean Up Before She Comes are my favorite Nirvana songs and I think they would have held up to the rest of Nirvana's catologue if they had been used for albums. It's also said that he and Dave Grohl came up with scores of songs while living together in 1990 and they never got them on tape...

So who knows whether Kurt would have been a sporadic creator like I predicted. But absolutely whatever he did I'm sure I would have loved it. He clearly had some very different musical goals he wanted to accomplish, so I think if he had been around a little bit longer the general opinion about his music would have been altered somewhat. Kurt apparently wanted to do more stuff in the vein of YKYR and Milk It, which is my favorite #1 style of Nirvana's music. A lot of people who don't like Nirvana at least admit to liking or respecting Unplugged, and I think it's obvious Kurt would have done some more stuff of that sort, particularly with Michael Stipe who he literally had already arranged to meet up with. Also I'd be very interested to hear what Kurt thinks of music today and bands since then like Neutral Milk Hotel... And having him around might have kept Silverchair & Nickelback down a bit.... or not.

 

[TeleCat]

What if some stupid with a flare gun didn't burn the place to the ground? Would Machine Head have been as important and timeless if Deep Purple weren't forced to relocate to the Grand Hotel and record under dire conditions?

 

[eccentric man]

without 'smoke on the water'?

hell no.

 

[KISSFREAK]

What music would Janis Joplin have made if she was still alive today?

 

[eccentric man]

while joplin did die young i never got the impression that there was much more going on there than a serious blues voice. it's not like she was a joni mitchell type that obviously had more on her plate than just her voice. i really don't think joplin would have gone on to do much more than what she was already doing had she not died.

according to my dad (who toured with joplin on the festival express tour in 70) she was very smart if you could talk to her before she hit her bottle. so where she didn't really enjoy being controlled by guys in her bands early on and her influence on women in rock being more than bimbos i could see her sobering up and starting an independent riot grrl label in the 80s.

 

[AboutAGirl]

In line with the other stuffs I've been saying..... something I've always wondered is....

How come Neil Young never covered a grunge song? He did his album with Pearl Jam an 'at, but I think the ultimate nod to the movement would have been Neil covering a song from it. He seemed to think very highly of Kurt Cobain, and it's not like Neil's afraid of doing covers....

 

[eccentric man]

good question. although i figure it's something along the lines of a grunge cover would end up seeming tacky and forced. he's already credited as being the 'godfather' of grunge so for young to cover something he propagated would end up looking like a cash in more than a tribute i think. i could see it happening as a hidden track on a tribute album to kurt cobain or something though, but not as a typical cover to be released as a single.

sorry i never have any questions to add to this thread.