HollywoodBQ said:

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Know Your Enemy said:

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Can Jagger still hit the high notes?

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It's easier on a singer if you could never hit them or never wrote them in the first place.

Compare Jagger on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Start Me Up" or "Brown Sugar" to Plant on just about anything but maybe - "The Immigrant Song" or "Rock and Roll" would be some good examples.

After all, the Maroon 5 song isn't called "Screams like Jagger", it's "Moves Like Jagger".

As far as aging vocalists who could still do it, Ronnie James Dio was the gold standard.

You gotta respect Robert Plant for not wanting to go out and deliver a performance he's not happy with. If all that he and the other members of Led Zep cared about was money, I'm sure they would have a long running Las Vegas residency.

Here's a 1973 live performance of "Rock and Roll" with Plant leaving out all the high notes.

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Bruce Dickinson(Iron Maiden), Mike Reno(Loverboy), Jeff Keith(Tesla), Black Crowes I've all seen in the last few years and sound great. It just takes a routine and discipline with throat health.

Buddy Holly
Jimi
Cobain
SRV
Mozart

You guys have never heard of her, but Ofra Haza had probably one of the most amazing voices of the last 3 decades.

because she came from a religious family, she was too embarrassed to tell the public that she had gotten AIDS from her cheating husband. so she died "suddenly" because no one knew she was ill back in 2000.

I'm biased but I think even non-Israelis can appreciate her vocal talent

SRV
Hendrix
Terry Kath - Hendrix called him the best guitar player he'd ever heard
Ronnie Van Zandt
Buddy Holly

Steven Tyler can still hit SOME of the high notes, but mostly allows the keyboard player to take care of them.

Even Axl Rose has toned it down a bit.

Interesting discussion/debate over Bonham as a pick… He made my list with the mention of all the Zeppelin music we could have had… but he is on my list regardless of his status in that band. He was in fact one of the greatest rock drummers ever… definitely up until his passing. He wasn't just "Led Zeppelin's drummer," even though that's a significant perch! Even if Page and Plant screwed up Led Zeppelin beyond repair (or Plant, his vocal cords) I'd STILL like to have Bonham around just for his drumming. Imagine something like The Firm with Page/Bonham/Paul Rodgers in it. Or, since Plant was (I believe) his best friend in the band, some other combination with the two of them plus other musicians. I really like Plant's first 5 or 6 solo albums, so he and Bonzo definitely could have done something(s) worthwhile for the ages. Or, Bonzo with an ENTIRELY NEW group! I just love listening to his drumming and wish there was more to enjoy! Arguing the current status of Plant's upper register doesn't really have any relevance to Bonham's placement on MY list!

I almost set up this thread a little differently, saying whoever you picked would be magically "cured" of their proximate cause of death. For plane/helo crashes, that would just have meant they didn't get on that particular flight. But for diseases, the disease would have been cured (e.g. Warren Zevon returns without mesothelioma). For addictions, the addiction would be cured for some significant period of time. (No point putting Belushi on the list if he would just have killed himself with another speedball the following night, etc.) I guess suicides would be free of the specific "suicidal funk" that caused them to check out at that particular time… but you'd have to let those chosen still have free will, so use your list slots with all that considered.

Some great suggestions in here!

I considered quite a few who were named later on in the thread. All of the ones I included I weighted heavily because I believed their return would add so much great music/art to the world that we're sorely missing. We have no idea what might have come, but I wagered that the five I picked would have contributed the MOST stuff that I would have loved.

Duane Allman was hard to leave off. Morrison, Cline, Candy, Farley and a couple others were, too.

I sadly didn't even think of Randy Rhoads, Terry Kath, Bon Scott, Mitch Hedberg and maybe a couple others listed here that made me think "doh!"

Enjoying this one!

Darrell Abbott
SRV
Cornell
Cliff Burton
Randy Rhoads