A good friend of mine is absolutely convinced that, had he not died, Jimi 
Hendrix would have formed a hideous squawking jazz-rock fusion band with 
Miles Davis, and that it would have led to his untimely death at the hands 
of a disillusioned fan anyway.

As for Rod Stewart, he be dead from the neck up for the last 25 years.


Mike.


>From: Sam Smith <sam@lullabypit.com>
>Reply-To: audities@smoe.org
>To: Audities <audities@smoe.org>
>Subject: what-ifs
>Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2007 07:51:21 -0600
>
>   Flip the coin...how many people who DID die would we still revere if
>   they had lived. Assuming you don't believe McCartney is dead, what if
>   he, and not Lennon, was killed in 1980? No Macca latter day dilution
>   (from lukewarm albums to videos with jacko to Starbucks) and would
>   Lennon have continued to be iconic? Or would Yokoism have killed
>   through osmosis? Would Janis have been ruined by hip producers and
>   bad song selection? Would even Jimi have gotten bored, and (like
>   Clapton) dog-paddled for a while, searching for inspiration?
>
>I've always heard these what-ifs and regarded them suspiciously. Because
>we have too many examples of people who have gone to hell as their
>careers "matured." Elton John is the greatest, best example in the Oh How
>the Mighty Have Fallen pantheon.
>
>Let's look at an example. We always love to wonder what Hendrix would
>have done had he lived. So what if, the day Hendrix died he had lived and
>another artist had died instead. A brilliant young blues rock singer who
>had, at that point, released his second solo record - a 5-star wonder
>that followed a solid 4.5-star debut. These came after he'd fronted 4.5
>and 5 star efforts from The Jeff Beck Group and a fantastic 4-star (at
>least) debut for The Faces.
>
>That's something like five records in three years, and the worst in the
>pack was at least worth four stars.
>
>So, what if Jimi had lived but Rod Stewart had died that day? What kind
>of mythology would we have constructed around him? How many what-if
>debates would his legend dominate?
>
>For all we know Jimi would be doing duet records featuring Rob Thomas and
>Nelly or playing the pan flute in Celine Dion's band in Vegas right now.
>Probably not, but how many people predicted Rod's current 25 year-long
>Nonstop Frustrated Housewives Tour back in 1970?
>
>--
>
>_______________________
>
>Sam Smith
>
>[TABLE NOT SHOWN]
>
>