I think as time passed it became clear that Lennon was the most talented of the two Beatles. I've never been a big Beatles fan but I have begun to appreciate their music more as I've gotten older. Lennon's solo work is far superior than the shallow, bland 5hite McCartney has released since 1970.
Regarding the original post, I think because of the music they were making some of the artists there were very mush of their time. Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran in particular were very much of their time, they would've have probably gone the same way as Elvis, and became fat and bloated.
Hendrix and Jim Morrison are the two people I think would've gone to bigger and better things, they both died not long after releasing their best work up to that point and I think both would have gone on to surpass what they did.

Cocaine use was a major part of some of these artists lives. I'm not talking about the bashed stuff that today's weekend users are on but real high quality stuff that they were taking every day. Some dealt with it and used the drug to expand their minds where others got hooked too quick and started to use other drugs. Many have died young.

Gram Parsons a musician who revolutionised his genre

My wife's orchids.

Add Janis Joplin to the list.

and Sandy Denny: especially with the eruption of folk again, her evolving ideas would be part of how we evaluate the newer artists.

You could add Robert Johnson, Daune Allman, Kurt Cobain, Woody Guthrie... There's too many to name.

Sadly there are far too "musicians" who didn't "die too young" and are still torturing our ears.

Add Ian Curtis to the list...

Ian Curtis

and now, go bare your arrse on 't Town hall steps

My goldfish, Eric

You need to stop p!ssing in the wife's orchids and get someone into feed your fish when you clear off for your lengthy French sojourns.

Odd you should mention that, the fish bowl water was very yellow.

Bought a pair of these, the missus posed for a photo.

You and the missus still enjoying them swingers conventions?

Looks like it.

Trivia note: Eddie Cochran died after a car smash about a mile from where I now live. My missus knows a woman who lived over the road and came out and put a blanket over him. Just to keep him warm, not as a shroud.

Why would you add a douchebag like Cobain with these illustrious musicians

Ronnie Van Zant
Steve Gaines
Allen Collins
Jesse Ed Davis
Berry Oakley
Terry Kath
Judee Sill
Tim Buckley
Shannon Hoon
Jim Croce
Ron "Pigpen" McKernan
Randy Rhoads
Hillel Slovak

I tend to be a bit contrary here, as I think some of those mentioned are only famous today BECAUSE they died young. You can't compare the output of Buddy Holly with Richie Valens for example. Not saying Valens wouldn't have done more if he'd lived, but had he not written another song and just got old and fat he'd be seen basically as a one-hit wonder except for afficianados of 50s music.

Anyway, why isn't the one out of Mel and Kim that died on anybody's list?

Have to agree with this, to use Buddy Holly as an example there is no reason to assume that he would still be producing cutting edge popular music through the 1960s or 70s if his plane hadn't crashed that night or that anyone would venerate his 1950s work in the way that they have since, who amongst the under 50s (for instance) know who Carl Perkins is, yet he lived to an old age and wrote at least one of the most influential songs of the 1950s - each generation has a similar example who's star rises and then fades, each contribute to the music but most are quickly discarded when the next fad comes along.

If you don't actually know, then there's little point in explaining

Please explain, if he hadn't took his own life he would be long forgotten by now just like April Wine, a mediocre Musician at best, very poor guitarist, the best thing about Nirvana was Dave Grohl

I often think that if Hendrix had not died he would be nowhere near as legendary as he is, but thats just me

Both Cobain and Hendrix did a similar thing. They smashed a great big fsckin hole in the existing walls of rock and dragged the astonished to places they hadn't been before. Cobain did that whilst he lived. It didn't happen after he died. Same with Hendrix. Both came up with something that blew your mind, and both were utterly compelling performers. Here's a snippet about Hendrix Quote There was also curiosity from the emergent powerhouse of British blues: Cream and Eric Clapton. There was a particular night when Cream allowed Jimi to join them for a jam at the Regent Street Polytechnic in central London. Meeting Clapton had been among the enticements Chandler had used to lure Hendrix to Britain: "Hendrix blew into a version of [Howlin' Wolf's 'Killing Floor'," recalls Garland, "and plays it at breakneck tempo, just like that – it stopped you in your tracks." Altham recalls Chandler going backstage after Clapton left in the middle of the song "which he had yet to master himself"; Clapton was furiously puffing on a cigarette and telling Chas: "You never told me he was that fzcking good." www.theguardian.com/music/2010/a ... sary-death '" You are of course perfectly entitled to say Clapton doesn't know what he's on about.

Both Cobain and Hendrix did a similar thing. They smashed a great big fsckin hole in the existing walls of rock and dragged the astonished to places they hadn't been before. Cobain did that whilst he lived. It didn't happen after he died. Same with Hendrix. Both came up with something that blew your mind, and both were utterly compelling performers. Here's a snippet about Hendrix Quote There was also curiosity from the emergent powerhouse of British blues: Cream and Eric Clapton. There was a particular night when Cream allowed Jimi to join them for a jam at the Regent Street Polytechnic in central London. Meeting Clapton had been among the enticements Chandler had used to lure Hendrix to Britain: "Hendrix blew into a version of [Howlin' Wolf's 'Killing Floor'," recalls Garland, "and plays it at breakneck tempo, just like that – it stopped you in your tracks." Altham recalls Chandler going backstage after Clapton left in the middle of the song "which he had yet to master himself"; Clapton was furiously puffing on a cigarette and telling Chas: "You never told me he was that fzcking good." www.theguardian.com/music/2010/a ... sary-death '" You are of course perfectly entitled to say Clapton doesn't know what he's on about.