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Musicians who died young (Read 734 times)
Dec 5th, 2011 at 10:59pm

Webb   Offline
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Here is an extensive list of Famous Musicians Who Died Too Young (Dead Before Their Time).

I didn't even know that some of them were dead,

Laura Branigan 47
Tom Fogerty 48
Laura Nyro 49

or others, that they died so young

Richie Valens 17
Eddie Cochran 21
Sid Vicious 21

The list seems pretty 20th century centric and omits:

Franz Schubert 31
Wolfgang Mozart 35
Felix Mendelssohn 38
Frédéric Chopin 39
 

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Reply #1 - Dec 6th, 2011 at 2:34pm

Apex   Offline
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Having lived the life of a rock group player for 7 years 1967-1973, I'd say that list, and its excellent presentation, is pretty sobering.

I did not see these two very important musicians there:

Great American blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield, drug overdose, 1981.  Bloomfield played behind Bob Dylan in some concerts and recorded with Dylan on some albums.  He was on 'Like a Rolling Stone', others at that time, and also recorded and performed with the Electric Flag.  His performace on EF's 'A Long Time Comin' is exemplary.

Felix Papparlardi, bassist and cellist, produced Cream's Disraeli Gears, co-wrote some of the tunes along with girlfriend Gail Collins, and played on several Cream 'Wheels of Fire' tracks.  After his association with Cream ended, he went on to play bass for Mountain, who performed at Woodstock in 1969. His life ended tragically in April 1983 when, during a domestic argument in New York City, Collins shot and killed him.  Collins, who by then was his wife, claimed it was accidental.  She was later aquitted of murder but found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and sentenced to a maximum of four years in jail.

Sources for the above:
Bloomfield, general knowledge.

Pappalardi, culled from a 1983 article in a ewsmagazine, Time or Newsweek or US News, I forget which.
 
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Reply #2 - Dec 8th, 2011 at 4:34pm

garryrussell   Offline
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In the case of Schubert and friends, that was not particually young

In those days the average age of a labourer was 25, not that there were no a lot over that age, just that the mortality rate was very very high in those days briging the average down

A lot of the modern ones are self inflicted by act or chosen lifestyle, not all but a large proprtion of them Undecided


 
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Reply #3 - Dec 10th, 2011 at 5:24pm

Apex   Offline
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The list is also rock-pop centric and thereby omits the great, great, classical pianist Glenn Gould, who died on Sept 25, 1982, age 50, from a stroke.  Gould was a hypocondriac and a Rx pill popper, that may have contributed to his untimely demise.

By then, Gould had recorded, on piano, along with a huge amount of other stuff, every single piece of Bach's compositions for harpsichord.

 
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Reply #4 - Dec 11th, 2011 at 2:40am

Webb   Offline
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I didn't know that.

What a genius.

I have his Well-Tempered Clavier.
 

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Jim
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Reply #5 - Dec 11th, 2011 at 10:26am

Apex   Offline
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Gould died on Oct 04, 1982, not Sept 25 as I originally said.

Gould's genius was not only reflected in his recordings, but, according to biographer Friedrich, Otto (1989) in 'Glenn Gould: A Life and Variations': 

Gould had the ability to look through a piece of music for the first time, then go over to the piano without the music and play it perfectly. 

Friedrich also said that Gould could do this:  I'm paraphrasing:

"Play a Beethoven sonata that was not written by Beethoven."
"Play a fugue that was not written by Bach."

In other words, Gould could improvise in the style of different great composers.  Unfortunately, no recordings were ever made of this.

Gould was able to store huge amounts of music in his head and
just play it spontaneously.  He preferred Bach over other composers.   His piano technique, at least when playing Bach, was kind of harpsichord-like and true to what would have been accepted performance parameters of Bach's time. 

There is an American Masters documentary about Gould, it has been shown only once on PBS, this past summer.   An interesting comment in this doc was "Gould just doesn't know what making a playing mistake is about.  Everything he plays is perfect."

Gould was Canadian.   There is a statue of him in outside the Glenn Gould studios in downtown Toronto.
 
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Reply #6 - Dec 29th, 2011 at 2:21pm

CaptainCub   Offline
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How about Wallace Hartley, leader of the band aboard the TITANIC?  He was only in his late twenties as I understand it. Sad
 

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