Music POD's.

[Reggie Bartlett]

Do you have any good ones in mind?

Like what if Elvis never died, or Hank Williams made it to West Virginia.

What kind of alternate music does this create?

 

[Spelf]

I'm not sure Elvis dying has really any effect on music. I'd say the bigger Elvis POD is "what if he isn't drafted"?

Hank Williams might have an interesting influence on rockabilly music and the other proto-rock genres, considering he could potentially grow country on the pop market.

 

[Lemon flavoured]

There's loads of "what if musicians had died / lived?" ones.

I've always thought that reversing the fates of Courtney love and Kurt Cobain might be interesting.

Also, what if Johnny Cash died in that cave when he attempted suicide?

And for a really obscure one that probably wouldn't do much at all for a while, what if Katie Melua drowned in 2009?

Michael Jackson surviving, at least long enough to complete his This Is It tour might make a good POD.

 

[Coyote Knight]

I've always wondered if Kurt Cobain hadn't committed suicide, what would've happened post-Nirvana. I've always imagined that Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, and Josh Homme would've started some kind of band. Perhaps an alternate Queens of the Stone Age that would have a more grunge-y feel to it.

 

[Kalvan]

1: Elvis is sent to the Marine Corps, and meets a very unsympathetic R. Lee Emery.

2: Mossad manages a snatch of "Colonel Parker" before he gets involved with Elvis.

3: Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis get involved in a public knock-down drag-out fight (with each other) while touring together in Britain.

4: The plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper touches down safely.

5: Either Artista or Island Records signed the Beatles the first chance they got, leaving Parlourphone out in the cold.

6: John Lennon never meets Yoko Ono.

7: Ringo Starr never becomes the Beatles' drummer.

8: The Kinks never have their hiatus.

9: The Bee Gees become famous about the same time the Rolling Stones do.

10: The Who breaks up after their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show when the explosion during the performance there causes one or more serious casualties among the band.

11: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, or someone else from the original cadre of Rock and Roll plays at Woodstock or Altamont.

12: Black Sabbath, MC 5, Blue Cheer, or Spooky Tooth plays at Woodstock or Altamont.

13: Jimi Hendrix and/or Janis Joplin got off of heroin before it kills them.

14: Syd Barrett died of an overdose or doing something stupid while high just after quitting Pink Floyd.

15: Bruce Springsteen became famous before "Born to Run."

16: The Runaways were given full reign over their sound and look, and booking agents looked the other way at their age and gender.

17: Malcolm McLaren never discovered the New York Dolls, but someone more like Brian Epstein in personality and temperament did.

18: The Go-Gos were never forcibly made-over.

19: Quiet Riot broke up before Metal Health.

20: More acts than just The Bangles from the Paisley Underground break into the mainstream.

21: The J. Giels Band stayed together into the Nineties, or reunited during the Nineties.

22: Eddie van Halen joins KISS, and Alex van Halen's side project Starfleet becomes a full time gig, effectively ending Van Halen as a band as of 1984.

23: After firing David Lee Roth, Van Halen hires Ted Nugent instead of Sammy Haggar, and create a dueling guitars sound a-la Dragonforce for their next few albums. (I know Nugent's a bigot and a gunbunny, but I think they could have made it work for at least two albums).

24: Pat Benatar doesn't go on hiatus for eight years after Tropico.

25: The San Diego/Chicago/Louisville sound of Math Rock had been the sound to supplant Hair Metal instead of the Seattle sound of Grunge.

 

[Blurgle]

1: Elvis is sent to the Marine Corps, and meets a very unsympathetic R. Lee Emery.

R. Lee Ermey was fourteen years old when Elvis was drafted.

2: Mossad manages a snatch of "Colonel Parker" before he gets involved with Elvis.

Why not just have him deported to the Netherlands as an illegal alien? Not sure why Mossad would care...

4: The plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper touches down safely.

Either Buddy doesn't hire a plane or the flying service sends out a pilot who knows it's unsafe to fly and isn't afraid to say no to Buddy. No small plane was getting out of there safely that night.

22: Eddie van Halen joins KISS, and Alex van Halen's side project Starfleet becomes a full time gig, effectively ending Van Halen as a band as of 1984.

And effectively impoverishing Alex after Paramount's lawyers get wind of it.

 

[John Fredrick Parker]

On subject of Kurt Cobain: What if he had killed the Nevermind album?

Another: What if Eminem scrapped "Just Lose It", both as a single and from the Encore album? Would it be enough to meet this challenge?

 

[Lemon flavoured]

Regarding Kurt Cobain, I quite like the idea of him as a more blues style singer (see the covers he did of various Lead Belly songs for what it might sound like). Maybe after an early breakup of Nirvana (say not long after Bleach, certainly before Nevermind is a hit) he releases a solo album of blues covers.

 

[phx1138]

The plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper touches down safely.

The pilot wasn't instrument qualified... I'm not sure if Blurgle's right about no light plane getting out, tho.

Another option: they start the tour with a better promoter, so the bus isn't constantly breaking down (or at least the heat works). Or, it breaks down entirely someplace else: sooner, so they change buses. (Or fly out.)

Either Artista or Island Records signed the Beatles the first chance they got, leaving Parlourphone out in the cold.

John Lennon never meets Yoko Ono.

The Bee Gees become famous about the same time the Rolling Stones do.

Mine?

Stevie Ray Vaughan doesn't die in the helicopter crash.

The Remains don't break up & manage to have (at least) one hit.

Charlie Parker doesn't die.

Jim Reeves doesn't die.

Patsy Cline doesn't die. (Decides not to fly?)

The Beatles break up instead of taking a break (1967?).

The Stones break up when Jones quits. (Improbable, yes.)

The Guess Who break up when Chad Allen quits. (Or when Burton Cummings quits.)

Skylark doesn't break up. (I can't recall which, now, but IIRC, members of the band went on to another major group...)

Army never moves to BC & becomes Heart.

 

[Blurgle]

The pilot wasn't instrument qualified... I'm not sure if Blurgle's right about no light plane getting out, tho.

Visibility was low enough that I doubt a more experienced pilot would have flown even if he was IFR certified. I don't know what the regulations stated at the time if anything, but one weather report I've seen for a nearby station had visibility at 1/4 mile in blowing snow with variable, gusty winds.

It's true that Holly's pilot was not IFR certified yet, but I'm deeply skeptical that any pilot this side of Wop May could have flown that aircraft safely in that weather.

 

[phx1138]

Visibility was low enough that I doubt a more experienced pilot would have flown even if he was IFR certified. I don't know what the regulations stated at the time if anything, but one weather report I've seen for a nearby station had visibility at 1/4 mile in blowing snow with variable, gusty winds.

It's true that Holly's pilot was not IFR certified yet, but I'm deeply skeptical that any pilot this side of Wop May could have flown that aircraft safely in that weather.

I can't say I've ever seen what the conditions were. In that weather, I wouldn't even have taken off, myself.

 

[pieman97405]

Glenn Miller survives WW2. That could cause a few things to change.

 

[Glass Onion]

Neil Aspinall accepts the Beatles management offer, or someone who can fill that role and is acceptable to all is found to fill that role. The Klein vs. Eastman fight and the Long and Winding Road issue never happen, and McCartney never makes his "the band is over" legal and personal statement in 1970. Eventually without the lawsuit Lennon changes his mind about the finality of the split, and the Beatles record together sporadically in the 1970's.

Probably a fantasy situation but avoiding the management issue would at least make a split smoother than it was and the McCartney vs. everyone else dynamic would be lessened.

Conversely, George Harrison walks out right after Starkey did leading to a break in 1968.

 

[Heavy]

Another: What if Eminem scrapped "Just Lose It", both as a single and from the Encore album? Would it be enough to meet this challenge?

"Just Lose It" is a really bizarre thing. It's really mind-boggling that he just came off two of the best albums of the decade with... that. Kind of a mixture of and to be honest. And maybe a bit of as well.

Still, I guess some folks enjoy it.

Anyway, here's a few I've been thinking about:

1. Freddie Mercury does not contract HIV and consequently does not die in 1991. Would Innuendo still have been such an effective musical statement? What woud it have meant for the public profile of AIDS? He was among the first internationally recognised celebrities to die as a consequence of the disease. Would he have held true to his earlier suggestion that he might retire from active performance in favour of songwriting and production if he felt he was getting too old to go out on stage?

2. What would it have meant (if anything) if Iron Butterfly had played at Woodstock? They were one of several artists included in the promotional materials that ended up not performing, but apparently they were very close; their manager demanded special treatment and the organisers just never got back to him; I'm pretty sure Doug Ingle has suggested that the extra publicity might have kept the band (whose In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album was actually the best-seller for their company until the first Led Zeppelin record came out) together for longer.

3. Similarly, what if Woodstock 99 hadn't ended up as a bit of a fiasco? Would there have been further festivals? Could it have grown to match Glastonbury as an international event in popular music?

4. Finally, in 1970, Phil Collins had scheduled two auditions for two different bands on the same day. The earlier one was Genesis, and when he scored that gig he cancelled the second one. The other band looking for a drummer was Yes. What if Phil Collins had failed to secure the Genesis job (for whatever reason) and ended up drumming for Yes instead?

 

[Richard E. Nixon]

4. Finally, in 1970, Phil Collins had scheduled two auditions for two different bands on the same day. The earlier one was Genesis, and when he scored that gig he cancelled the second one. The other band looking for a drummer was Yes. What if Phil Collins had failed to secure the Genesis job (for whatever reason) and ended up drumming for Yes instead?

Collins' audition for Yes was before he had ever heard of Genesis. He didn't show up because he "chickened out." At least that's how Phil explained it.

Bu had Phil joined Yes, I don't think he would have remained in the band for long. Although a fan of Yes at the time, Phil grew to dislike the direction they took. He probably would have left after Fragile. Besides, Bruford ended up staying in the band until Close To The Edge. I will say that Phil's voice would have gone well with Anderson's and Squire's, and Phil may have brought a harder edge to Yes.

But I'm more fascinated in what would become of Genesis had Phil not joined in 1970. I think Peter Gabriel still leaves in 1975 and the band tries to replace him with a new, unknown singer. Although the band's songwriting would remain stellar, the fans still leave in large numbers. They may continue on for several albums but would never have the same success. After Steve Hackett departs in 1977, Rutherford and Banks may try to continue, but there would be no chart success in the 1980s and '90s.

Phil Collins career would go differently and he would stay married to his first wife. Collins solo career would consist of being a well-respected session drummer but there would be no Face Value or In The Air Tonight

 

[ramones1986]

The English pop group Right Said Fred became more popular outside Britain by releasing more international hits.

 

[dilbert719]

Let's switch up the Cobain ones: Kurt Cobain first tried heroin in 1986. Nirvana released Bleach in 1989.

What if Cobain overdosed on heroin in 1988, and there was no Nirvana?

 

[Reggie Bartlett]

"Just Lose It" is a really bizarre thing. It's really mind-boggling that he just came off two of the best albums of the decade with... that. Kind of a mixture of and to be honest. And maybe a bit of as well.

Still, I guess some folks enjoy it.

Anyway, here's a few I've been thinking about:

1. Freddie Mercury does not contract HIV and consequently does not die in 1991. Would Innuendo still have been such an effective musical statement? What woud it have meant for the public profile of AIDS? He was among the first internationally recognised celebrities to die as a consequence of the disease. Would he have held true to his earlier suggestion that he might retire from active performance in favour of songwriting and production if he felt he was getting too old to go out on stage?

2. What would it have meant (if anything) if Iron Butterfly had played at Woodstock? They were one of several artists included in the promotional materials that ended up not performing, but apparently they were very close; their manager demanded special treatment and the organisers just never got back to him; I'm pretty sure Doug Ingle has suggested that the extra publicity might have kept the band (whose In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album was actually the best-seller for their company until the first Led Zeppelin record came out) together for longer.

3. Similarly, what if Woodstock 99 hadn't ended up as a bit of a fiasco? Would there have been further festivals? Could it have grown to match Glastonbury as an international event in popular music?

4. Finally, in 1970, Phil Collins had scheduled two auditions for two different bands on the same day. The earlier one was Genesis, and when he scored that gig he cancelled the second one. The other band looking for a drummer was Yes. What if Phil Collins had failed to secure the Genesis job (for whatever reason) and ended up drumming for Yes instead?

The reason Woodstock 99 flopped was in fact several reasons. Reason was #1: Many of the businesses sponsoring it, and the services there were nowhere near adequate enough for the turnout (like 200,000 ). And because they had the concert on the concrete/asphalt runway of a decommissioned Air Force Base in the middle of July.

#2: Said services were overpriced, and in short quantity. Causing short tempers.

#3: Said short tempers, added with heat and a lot of rockin' music led to sporadic violence that spread into bonfires, breaking waterlines, overflowing toilets, looting, moshpits and wanton destruction.

One way to really get Woodstock 99 to not flop is to find a flatter, or at least more sustainable area, a field, not sitting on concrete and finding better means to get supplies to the party.

 

[flippikat]

Here's a few of mine..

* Pink Floyd fire Roger Waters in 1968, and bring in Kevin Ayers to either replace Syd or supplement the band if Syd can be rehabilitated.

* The Velvet Underground sign with a English manager and move to London after splitting with Andy Warhol.

* The Yardbirds never get involved with Mickie Most, and they release a hard rocking album in 1967 that stands up next-to what Jimi Hendrix & Cream were doing.

* The Jeff Beck Group play at Woodstock (They were on the bill, but broke up before the festival)

 

[arrowiv]

My favorite POD-Elvis finally fires the Colonel and gets another and more better manager who helps out in reorganizing his finances and gets him into rehab. Elvis finally tours the UK and Europe in triumph and even makes higher-quality films.