There's been a slew of aged artist deaths lately, but when was the last time someone died in their prime? It's been a while.

Elliot Smith?

Grant McLennan was still going pretty strong as well...

Don Knotts

Hard to say if he was still "in his prime"... don't have a cite, but I remember hearing that he was so hooked on heroin as to have become completely useless and a disaster during live performances.

Jeff Buckley might still be the most recent example... hell, it'd be pretty easy to argue he hadn't even HIT his prime yet.

Those reports are from the Figure 8 tour, mostly. According to "Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing" (unauthorized bio), he had been clean (or seemed to) for several months before his death, though he was perhaps not entirely himself.

Not dead, mortally, but professionally, anyway, but Bo Jackson.

The entire Cubs pitching staff.

I wanted to start a series of polls pairing up musicians who died young or "in their prime", asking who would you rather still have around, making music. It would gradually be narrowed down like a tournament.

The point? I don't know. It seemed a little callous so I never did it, but I still kind of want to.

Even though it's not generally my kind of music, Aaliyah probably would have gone on to be a huge movie star and her music would have gotten more complex. I think.

A true tragedy, I think, is Kirsty MacColl, for a number of reasons. True, she was over 40, but she was a fantastic singer-songwriter with one of the most striking singing voices in several generations.

Sad because she's mostly unknown in North America and sad because, even though she was decapitated by a speedboat while saving her kid's life, the incident has never been prosecuted and the wealthy/important speedboat operator never brought to justice.

I didn't know the second part of the Kirsty MacColl story (ie. the saving her kid's life part). Learn something new everyday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentar ... coll.shtml

And from what I read, he not only was clean, but he had tried to quit cold turkey pretty much everything that he had been prescribed (psychotropics included) to things he just used in excess (caffeine) contributing to the "not entirely himself bit".

Arthur Russell 1951-1992
died from AIDS at the age of 40 (which I consider "in his prime")

Nick Drake 1948-1974
died at the age of 26? overdose of anti-depressants and/or suicide

Mary Hansen (Stereolab)
1966-2002 - was hit by a truck while riding her bicycle
died at the age of 36

Tim Taylor of Brainiac

duh, yeah. have you heard the nice boys. it's terry six's new group.

DING.

i just rediscovered that album like 2 days ago.

"Album out August 28!"

Awesome. I'll be buying this.

R.I.P. Tim Taylor

Darcy Clay

sometimes a call for help is just that

josh clayton-felt