Outside of serial killers, the Religious Right and military dictators, I'd just assume nobody bit the dust. Most performers can barely make one decent album but it's really a tragedy when someone creates some vital, prime music for a short time and then they're gone all of a sudden. We're all the poorer when this happens and all you can do is wonder 'what else could they have done if they were still around or if they lived a little longer?' It's a parlor game at best but still, here's a toast to some of the great ones who bowed out much too early.

There are some people who's early ill-timed early bow-out should be obvious to everyone but let me say a toast to them again: Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, John Coltrane, Buddy Holly, Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, Brian Jones, Muddy Waters, John Cage, Janis Joplin.

Seeing how easily Depeche Mode fill up stadiums and how many hits New Order have chalked up, it would have been amazing if Joy Division DIDN'T make it big once they hit the States. Already legends back home in Britain, they were poised for world conquest just as Curtis hung himself. Thanks to this gruesome bit of history and the fact that his songs bore out this hopeless side of him, he's a legend, not unjustified considering how strong (in a depressing way) the JD albums are and have continued to be.

Some people might have dispared over how Project Mersh and Three Way Tie For Last were signs that he and the Minutemen were 'going commercial' but I think it stands up with their best stuff - it was still crammed with good tunes, politics and experiments. Almost seemed like they were ready for a break-through like label-mates (rivals?) Husker Du. Just about the whole catalog of the band is pretty damn seminal and they looked like they were ready to be in it for the long haul (just look how committed Watt still is) so here's another big loss for all of us. Bet that his inevitable solo album would have been a hoot too.

After spending a good part of his life on the street and in jail, he was just about to make his big-time move, with a major label no less. Fate however back-handed him and robbed us. Listen to The Ted Hawkins Story: Trouble No More and see why this is such a sad story. His committment, his honest cries of pain and injustice should've been some kind of beacon that would show up the legion of phony idiots who dominate R&B now and shored up some good folk and blues support. Oh well.

Just as with Hawkins, the timing of his death was pretty cruel. After a long career, he was just starting to get some major recognition in the '90's, thanks to stints with Eddie Vedder, Peter Gabriel and others. This incredible singer was surely ready to become another Ravi Shankar (which isn't an insult - I've seen him live and it was AMAZING). It would have been pretty fascinating to see what kind of influence he would have had after his break-through: not just with his fellow countrymen but also here in the West. That wind-bag Pavorati certainly could have learned a thing or three from him.

The original remixer would have been in his element in the '80's and a living god by the time that the '90's rolled around. Shot down just as he was starting some ambitious production and label projects, he would have surely turned electronica / techno on its head had he lived. It's wasn't just Kraftwerk, it was also Tubby that spawned that entire music.

One of the master minds behind one of my favorite great-knowns (The Insect Trust), he went on jam with Ornette and the Master Musicians of Joujouka but that's not what made him a legend. His writing was so inspired and varied that he was the perfect person to make a series on the history of rock shortly before his death. This is a guy who wrote beautiful stories about great bluesmen as well as chronicling the later work of La Monte Young. He had a damn broad palette in other words and should be a model for any writer in that regard. Also, the Fat Possom label that he started up and did production work in his last years was becoming (and still is) a great chronicler of blues and rock deserving wider recognition. Worst of all, I had just gotten in contact with him to get his story just before he went into the hospital for liver problems- a few months later, he was gone.

After seeing him live four of five times and lapping up everything that he did after Bill Laswell helped revive his career in the '80's, I was majorly saddened to see him leave us. Even before that, his work with Miles and Pharoah Sanders were amazing things to behold. His guitar playing was furious and soulful and gentle at the same time (a rare combination) - not a Hendrix clone by any means, the man has style and flair but wasn't a showboating smug-head. Not suprisingly, a tribute CD is in the works.

Not a newcomer when he died in 1997 - he'd been an international sensation since the early '70's thanks to a Ginger Baker collaboration. Kind of strange that the whole 'world music' interest didn't snatch him up (though he did get on a bill of some Amnesty International tour packages). He's always been pretty untamable (jail was a familar home to him) and that's what made him so great - a pioneer of 'Afro-Beat' as he molded funk and jazz into the music of Africa. Given the right push and timing, he could have easily broken into the West, as he did in Europe and his Nigerian home. Our loss...

This absurdist fop would have definitely been in his element in the '60's. His career started WAY back (he performed for Al Capone!) and was embraced by the Beat movement. The man could shuck and jive and spew out enough insanity to make him the envy of Richard Pryor (George Carlin loves the guy). Not only would the hippies have been all over his Lordship but he would have paved the way for rap (which he was already doing) and certainly made all people think twice before throwing that 'poet' tag at all their favorite rock stars.

Scant information is available about his work and the only way I know about him is from David Toop's Ocean Of Sound and a listening party at LaMonte Young's Dream House. Maxfield came to some notice during the early '60s as Young, Terry Riley and other composers just getting recognition were holding loft parties (where Yoko Ono served as host many times) in downtown New York to present their music. As it is, because of his obscurity, we'll probably never know if he could have been a pioneer of minimalism (just starting at that time) or maybe just a footnote in its history (as he is now).

Yet another cruel victim of fate. Hunter had been a singer since the '30's and took a long time off to work as a nurse before she came back as the '80's rolled around - now that's what a call a comeback. She put out three impressive albums (especially the wonderful Amtrack Blues), was just starting to hit her stride and then she was gone, for good this time. Her spirit and the fact that she was still so strong in her 80's were remarkable.

The legendary piano wizard of New Orleans (they have a club named after him and a statue of him there) had a long and hard career. Recording for a rash of small labels around the middle of the century, he was finally getting some due respect in the '70's. Paul McCartney hired him out for a boat party (which was released later as a live album) and the guys from Led Zepplin snuggled up to him when they came to the Big Easy. Only in the last two decades did we start to hear all the recordings he was doing then (including a reissue by George Winston). He finally found a supportive record company, Alligator, and recorded the classic Crawfish Fiesta for them. A documentary pairing him with other local legends Tuts Washington and Allen Toussaint was in the works. Topping it all was an opening spot for the Clash's upcoming tour. With everything finally coming together and Fess just about to get his just due, he passed away in 1980. Now go ahead and tell me that life's fair.

Before he was the teacher of rap, KRS-ONE was a street kid who found guidance through Scott. The two of them were the original Boogie Down Productions and Scott was around long enough to record their first album. La Rock was WAY ahead of his time, pulling out samples from James Brown and AC/DC, which was pretty visionary then as no one else had had the idea yet. So, after that impressive start, he was gunned down. KRS has respectfully included his name in the credits for all BDP records after that.

Download legal mp3s by Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn, King Tubby, Fela Kuti and Alberta Hunter over at E Music.

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