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The three people you most wish weren’t dead.

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Yes a morbid post but fuck it, needs must. I found myself, tonight, reading “Modern Nature” by Derek Jarman whilst listening to Kirsty MacColl. And I began to wonder who are the three people I’d resurrect from the dead?

I put this on twitter and said Jarman, MacColl and Henson. I’ve changed my mind. It would be

– Derek Jarman
– Kirsty MacColl
– Martyn Bennett

All three were either at their peak or approaching a peak. We had a lot of good stuff to come from all of them and they were snatched from us. Sorry Jim Henson, I love your stuff dearly, but I would love to have heard what Martyn Bennett would have done more than I love you.

What about you lot?

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Comments

  1. I know strictly not what you were looking for but the first would have to be my dad. 2 and half years and I miss him all the time.

    If I am restricted only to musicians then:
    Bobby Charles
    Jackie Leven
    Leonard Cohen

    Knocking on the door waiting to get in – Warren Zevon

    • Certainly not restricted to musicians, hell Derek Jarman was at the top of my list. Just people who you think had a fuck load of stuff still to offer…

      All three of them still did. Even Len. His last album was ace. It was like he learned how to do keyboards finally, and then bloody died.

    • I think Cohen and Zevon would be in my three. The third would be Bill Hicks. I know his routines are dated now, but they are decades old. I would have loved to here him on what has happened since – Clinton/Lewinski, Trump and so on.

  4. John Lennon & George Harrison, so we could have had a Beatles reunion for Live Aid and tons more music

    And either Elvis, so he could have recorded a series of American Recordings albums with Rick Rubin, or Buddy Holly, because who knows how much great music he had left in him. Or maybe Princess Diana, so we wouldn’t have had Elton turn a perfectly good song into that ghastly one.

    I think I’ll go with Buddy Holly,

    Or Prince. Oh, I don’t know…

  5. Nice to see an appreciator of Derek Jarman, gangleythingy sir. I thought he was such an interesting character and artist. Rather like some of my musical heroes (especially David Sylvian) his art followed such an uncompromisingly personal path that it was hit and miss for me; his choices sometimes seemed too bonkers, but never, ever boring. His garden in Dungeness was a fascinating work of art in itself (is it still there?). An Italian friend of mine had a part in Caravaggio (which I thought was a great film) after meeting him in Bar Italia in Soho and was so inspired he went on to become quite a successful film director himself.

    My choices (musical):
    I’d like to have seen how my childhood hero Marc Bolan would have aged. I reckon his music would have got interesting again once he was past trying to appeal to young’uns. Then I’d have to go for the rather obvious choices of Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. I wasn’t a fan of the former’s music at all, but they were both such interesting public figures who managed to make the whole world a little more colourful and there aren’t many people of whom that can be said.

  6. Personally, my dad, who died at the age of 56, and my cousin aged 21. Plus Pencil’s Donna. Great people, taken far too young.

    Musically, continuing the taken too young theme: John Lennon, I’m sure would still be making waves, Otis Redding and Clifford Brown.

    • Good shouts all.

      Judging from his last recordings , I think Otis would have gone down the Sly Stone route musically, rather than staying where he was like Solomon and Wilson .

      Clifford in the 60s doing soul jazz or even going electric in the 70s? The mind boggles.

      Lennon would have done what most of his contemporaries did – made shit in the 80s before having a renaissance in the mid-90s. He’d be long dead from the fags by now sadly, but at least we’d have had the Beatles at Live Aid.

      • Last year’s Dock Of The Bay Sessions is a revelation, not because of the musical style but because of the subtlety and nuance in a lot of the vocals. Plus, Otis co-writes every song bar the traditional Amen. I suspect Isaac Hayes style long jams might have been the direction he went in.

  11. Oh easy. Lowell George, Jimi Hendrix and my Dad. The first two for all the music we didn’t get, and it would have been great to see where they went next. My Dad never met Twang Jr which makes me (and him) very sad, though he was very poorly at the end so can I have a cancer cure thrown in please?

  12. Avoiding the family stuff and sticking to music otherwise where do you stop. …that Da Vinci coulda come up with a few more inventions.

    Hendrix as I think he still had a lot more to give. Not sure I can say that about 2 major heroes – Miles and Frank Z had drifted off into other areas of less interest.

    Prince as I expected he could have done some really interesting stuff a bit like Hendrix.

    Rory Gallagher coz I’m still pissed off at not seeing him live.

  13. There’s many musicians who would fall in to this category for me. Otis Redding would be my top choice, but seeing as he’s already been mentioned twice, I’ll go with:

    Lowell George – agree with @Twang.I’d love to have heard how he would have progressed.
    Amy Winehouse – can’t believe she wouldn’t have gone on to do more fine stuff.
    Phil Lynott – he’d probably left his creative peak far behind him, but he was always pretty bloody cool so I’ll have him for that reason alone.

  14. For me:

    – David Bowie. Some may say I’m being a tad over-dramatic but the world really has gone to hell in a handcart since he left us. No matter what turds life strew in my path a Bowie album would lift the mood
    – Rik Mayall. ‘Comic genius’ status has been given to so many people but he was the one I only had to look at and I’d be gone!
    – Nick Drake. I’d love to have seen which direction he’d have taken had he not died so young. His 3 albums have taken up a huge part of my listening time

  17. Iain Banks. I’m sure he had plenty more good books in him, given the opportunity.
    Esbjörn Svensson. I’m sure he had loads more music left to compose and play.
    John Smith. Just imagine how different UK politics would be if he’d survived.

  18. My Dad and my mate Shain’s mum, obvs. And my Nan, bless her. I’d give a good portion of everything I own for 10 more minutes with any of them.

    Non-family, Kirsty MacColl, Douglas Adams and William Dunlop.

  19. Novelist J. G. Farrell, who drowned at 44 – he would have been a giant in literature had he lived longer.

    Tempted to put Patrick O’Brian on there so I could have more Aubrey/Maturin novels, but as he was well into his 90s, I think that’s a fair run.

    Same reasoning excludes David Bowie, sure he had more to give, but the European (musical) Canon was already in place

    Jimi Hendrix. Possibly the early-leaver with the most left to give.

    Chaucer. Died with perhaps 96 Canterbury Tales unwritten – each pilgrim was supposed to tell two on the way out and two on the way back. If you ever need evidence that people haven’t changed in 1000 years or so, it’s all to be found here.

        • “Coming up later, Geoff recounts the story of the 7,652nd pilgrim, whose journey to Canterbury takes a strange turn during a contraflow between Junctions 7 and 8 just west of Rochester, in The Call Centre Deputy Manager’s Tale. That’s Whilom with Geoffrey Chaucer, 3,00pm BBC Radio 4, after You and Yours.”

          • Ha! Up!
            But if the Call Centre Deputy Manager’s Tale is as filthy as the Miller’s Tale, it couldn’t be on at 3 p.m. It would have to be on after the 9 p.m. watershed….

  20. I’m thinking of people taken too soon, who still had some promise.
    Jim Morrison may not have sobered up, but, had he, I like to think he could have matured and become a vocal elder statesman.
    Carl Wilson: golden voiced Carl, could he have prevented the chasm forming between bro’ Brian and cousin Mike? And protected his brother.
    Davy Steele, a favourite singer too, of Ceolbeg, amongst others and the inspiration behind Kate Rusby’s ‘Who will sing Me Lullabies’

    https://youtu.be/No5FkAmTaJY

      • Slow motion since about 1978.
        I don’t think he ever accepted Dudley Moore’s success and the end of their partnership, and he just seemed to retreat into anger and alcohol.
        Still capable of turning it on when the mood took him (the multi character interviews with Clive Anderson being an example)

  22. Rik Mayall – madly brilliant, always entertaining. It took me 3 goes to get through his autobiography (or massive ego trip), before I cracked the Rik-speak

    John Peel – never a regular listener, but utmost respect to the man for his singular vision and downbeat self-deprecation and humour

    Keith Moon – The’Oo never sounded the same again, and the Rock world needs some proper madness in it (although one wonders how much longer he could’ve kept going)

  25. Sticking to music I would say…

    Chris Squire. Yes is just not the same without him.

    Paul Hester. I hate seeing people beaten by depression and loved his work with Crowded House. The rapport in the band was amazing.

    Rick Wright. Another missing piece that prevents a reunion I would relish.

    • Fuck I forgot Elmore Leonard. No one writes Crime Thrillers like he did. I used to look forward to a new Elmore novel every year but that has all gone now.

  28. Sandy Denny. It would barely matter what direction she’d gone in; that voice would always have engaged me.

    Another shout for Nick Drake.

    No third person springs to mind, so, while I know the car crash didn’t kill him, the English folk world knows it is poorer for the early end to Nic Jones’ career.

  31. Olof Palme. Anna Lindh. Two good politicians murdered long before their time was up.
    And my friend Therese who died completely unexpectedly, on the dancefloor, leaving her young son to grow up without a mother.

  32. Christopher Hitchens – always entertaining. Would have loved to let him loose on Trump.
    Eh – Lennon and Harrison I suppose. I think the music was over but would have loved just to see all four hang out and be mates again.

    • Hitchens was a funny old cove. His views on Islam were pretty much identical to those of Tommy Robinson and his support for the Iraq war undiminished unto to his death. Yet he gets a free pass. Why that?

      • Hitchens was scathing of all religions but regarded as Islam as being the most problematic present day. At different times in history he regarded other different religions as being most prominent in respect of their negative effect. He was a scholar who had studied religious texts and travelled extensively to gain insight into the workings of different religions in different parts of the world. His beef was with religion and how, in his opinion, it has had an insidious effect upon human progress. It might well be that this perspective did not sit well with many people, but it was something that he appeared to have thought deeply about. Tommy Robinson is just a clueless bigot

  34. Oh gawd, so many. I’ll stick to thise taken far too young…

    Mentioned many times above, but Buddy Holly has to be on my list. I’m convinced he would have changed the course of music history even more than he has in death.

    Again not very original, but John Lennon. He was about to come back to the UK to visit, and I’m sure he and Paul would have worked together in the coming years.

    Jimi Hendrix – the stuff he was recording just before his death was astonishing and that would have continued.

  35. Linda Smith
    Victoria Wood
    Because in these days of heated division I could really do with a laugh.
    And maybe Oscar Wilde because his life had such a sad end after the prison ordeal and I’d like him to see how far the social climate on being gay has changed, and that his works have endured. Of course he can make a lot of witty remarks too.

    • I love Oscar for his flamboyance, aestheticism and literary prowess, and his demise is indeed desperately sad (though somewhat self-inflicted), but although we can rightly celebrate the huge advances towards queer equality that exist now, I think we would find his particularly pederastic predilections (you’re all impressed with that, I can sense it) rather troubling, to say the least.

  37. Jeff Buckley
    Kirsty MacColl
    Rob Gretton, so he could knock Barney’s and Hooky’s heads together.

    And my cousin Simon. I went to his hometown of Falmouth last year and, for the first time, didn’t go to the Pirate Inn to see a band and talk bollocks.

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