i came across this article talking about greil marcus’ rock death in the 1970s essay. what’s the essay about? well marcus goes on to rate each rock great’s death in the 70s on three criteria, their past contribution, the possible future contribution, and the manner of their death. it’s a pretty good way to rate the musicians who have died.

the essay only talks about the 70s, but the houston press rated some of the more recent deaths using marcus’ formula. here’s a combined list of the two (past+future+manner):

elliott smith : 6+9+10=25
johnny cash : 10+6+1=17
jimi hendrix: 10+10+5=25
buddy holly: 10+8+8=26
janis joplin: 10+7+1=18

they’re still missing a bunch of names like tupac, biggie, selena, cobain, the guy from queen, etc. if i remembered more about how they died i would postulate some ratings for them. but i was thinking, what if the same formula was applied to musicians of the past? here’s what i would come up with:

mozart: 10+10+7=27 (death in 30s and current impact of unmarked grave)
beethoven: 9+5+3=17
tchaikovsky: 8+3+7=16 (suicide)
bach: 10+1+1=12
chopin: 8+8+5=21 (early death again)

who else can we apply this formula too (or does someone want to take a stab at the deaths from the 90s?

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: music