I was recently thinking about a couple concerts that I've been to where the key performers (Stevie Ray Vaughan, INXS) have now passed on.
That got me thinking about concerts that I'll unfortunately
never get to see due to a performer's death. Not just bands that are broken up (because reunions seem to
always be a possibility) but actually the ones where an individual is no longer with us.
I'm curious what "concert regrets" everyone has, but these are my key ones:
Nina Simone - My absolute number one, all-time favorite singer and pianist... who I unfortunately had never even heard of until 2007! I literally can't believe that a performer whose music has come to mean so much to me in the last few years was completely unknown to me until I was 33... four years after her passing.
Jeff Buckley - An absolutely amazing singer/songwriter with a tremendous vocal range and a life that was cut way too short by an accident, Buckley's only real tour - to support his only album," Grace" - happened to coincide with the period when I joined the army and was going through training. Arggh!
Queen - Lardy/Palladin was recently asking on FB who the best rock vocalist of all time was and - although I think if he had lived, Jeff Buckley
could have been the best - the fact of the matter is, given his body of work, Freddie Mercury
has to come near the top of any list. I have seen some Queen concerts on Youtube and - good lord - do I wish I could have been to one! If you have never seen footage of Queen's performance at Live Aid, you should totally check it out. The emotion running through the crowd literally comes through the screen as nothing short of legendary.
Joy Division - OK, this is probably an odd one, given the fact that lead singer Ian Curtis' suicide happened when I was only six years old. The remainder of the band continued on as New Order and has had a long and successful career but... man... listening to those two Joy Division albums... I only wish my parents had had the foresight to say, "Ah, you know what... sure little Ex probably won't appreciate this
now, but...
someday."
So those are the ones that top my "impossible" concert list... how about you?
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