re: Biggest loss to music (early deaths)

2 Pac is the only answer, good thing I am still balling!

Rape me wasn't even one of Nirvana's best songs and you put it against the only good song that Hendrix ever wrote.

For me it's Randy Rhoads. His ambition was to be a classical guitarist. His career and musical arc would have been fascinating to me since I like classical guitar.

The other would be Michael Hedges, steel string innovator.

Bob Marley
Hendrix
Bradley Nowell (personal fav)
Cobain

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Gram Parsons
Duane Allman
Janis Joplin
Pigpen

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Solid. I'd probably drop Pigpen and add Townes Van Zandt for the songs he could have written.

Parsons is a great choice. His musical brilliance was only realized by a few but appreciated by many. He had an influence on quite a number of musicians from other bands - but you had to be able to hold your drugs.

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Gram is buried at the Garden of Memories in NOLA...true story.

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Yeah, the remains that were torched at Joshua Tree. Awesome story behind that:

LINK

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When Phil Kaufman learned of the plan to bury his friend in New Orleans, he became distraught. He knew that Parsons had no connection whatsoever to that city. He knew that Parsons had little use for his stepfather, and would not have wanted any of his estate to pass to him. He knew that Parsons had not wanted a long, depressing, religious service with family and friends. Most of all he knew he had made a pact with Parsons, at the funeral of Clarence White: whoever died first, "the survivor would take the other guy's body out to Joshua Tree, have a few drinks and burn it."*After a day of vodka-enhanced self-recriminations, Kaufman decided he had to try to make good on his promise. Thus began one of the most unforgettable episodes of what hackers call "social engineering." For the full story, check out Kaufman's biography, Road Mangler Deluxe, which describes the whole episode in Kaufman's own inimitable fashion. What follows is only a taste of Kaufman's tale.
Kaufman called the funeral parlor in the town of Joshua Tree and managed to learn that the body would be driven to LAX and then flown on Continental to New Orleans. He called the airline's mortuary service and found out that the body would arrive that evening. Kaufman recruited Michael Martin, who knew about the pact, and commandeered a hearse of Dale McElroy's, which she and Martin used for camping trips. It had no license plates and several broken windows, but it would do. They tried on suits, but decided they looked so ridiculous that they changed into their tour clothes -- Levi's, cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and jackets with the legend "Sin City" stitched on the back. They loaded the hearse up with beer and Jack Daniels and headed for LAX.
Kaufman and Martin arrived at the loading dock just as a flatbed truck rolled up with the Parsons casket. A drunken Kaufman somehow persuaded an airline employee that the Parsons family had changed its plans and wanted to ship the body privately on a chartered flight.
While Kaufman was in the hangar office, signing the paperwork with a phony name, a policeman pulled up, blocking the hangar door. Kaufman was sure his operation would be shut down, but the officer didn't do anything -- he just sat there. So Kaufman walked out to him, waved his copies of the paperwork, and said, "Hey, can you move that car?" The officer apologized, moved the car, and then, remarkably, helped Kaufman load the casket onto a gurney and into the back of the unlicensed, liquor-filled hearse.
Martin, also liquor-filled, got in the hearse and headed out of the hangar, only to run into the wall on his way out. The officer observed all this, and commented ruefully, "I wouldn't want to be in your shoes now." Then he left, and the two drunk bodysnatchers departed the airport with the body of their friend. They stopped at a gas station and filled a gas can with high test ("I didn't want him to ping," Kaufman says.) Then they headed back for Joshua Tree.
They reached the Monument and drove until they were too drunk to drive any farther. There, near the Cap Rock, a landmark geological formation, they unloaded their friend's coffin. Then Kaufman saw car lights in the distance and concluded the police were coming. He quickly doused his friend with fuel and lit him. The two watched as a giant fireball rose from the coffin, sucking his ashes into the desert night. Then they abandoned the charred remains and headed for LA.

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I don't think people understand the difference in rock and country. We might need to put a spectrum chart on how this all works.

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Rape me wasn't even one of Nirvana's best songs and you put it against the only good song that Hendrix ever wrote.

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You gotta be trolling. Normal people aren't this obtuse.

Bradley Nowell
Amy Winehouse
Elliott Smith
Mozart
Buddy Holly
Christopher Wallace (aka Biggie Smalls)

ETA: Bob Marley
PS ETA: Ronnie Van Zandt

I think Cobain was a good songwriter but I think he may have been the John Mcenroe of songwriting in that he peaked high and early. I can't stand Janis Joplin. Morrison was getting fat and terrible like Elvis before him. Lennon wasn't even that young when he died, and neither was Freddie Mercury. Tupac wasn't in Biggie's stratosphere, and if you disagree with that then me and you can probably never be friends in real life.