Good morning.

Sometimes my friends and I will be talking about a particular artist, and I will spew out some hyperbolic madness like, "OOOOHHH I would cut off my arm to see them live!!!!" Lately, I've noticed myself saying it more often than not; usually it's over an artist that's decent, but probably not worth losing a limb (Eddie Vedder, really?). Still, I think that some are....I was making a list of artists I would lose a body part to see (because that's what I do when I am avoiding my thesis), and I came up with this. Fortunately, nothing on my body is in danger of being removed as all of these people are deceased or not in their performing hay day anymore (*cough, cough* The Who). For the record, Prince would be on this list, but I've already seen him (and it was worth, like, eight of my fingers). So the list goes (in order)...

1) Michael Jackson (Thriller tour)
2) The Who (circa '69)
3) Otis Redding
4) Jeff Buckley

I think that (1), (2) and (3) are pretty obvious choices because each of the artists had legendary stage acts in their prime (if Otis Redding had a prime--he died at age 26). I don't know if Jeff Buckley can be considered a "great" performer, however, he was a great vocalist, and I would have liked hear him hit some of those high notes in person.

Here's a clip of Otis Redding singing "Try a Little Tenderness" somewhere in Europe in '67 (someone over at Stax was kind enough to throw this YouTube). I think it does a good job of displaying what made Otis so unique...he didn't have the greatest voice, but he knew how to work is range and could tear up a stage. My favorite part of this clip is after he murders the song and sends the audience into a frenzy (check out the blond in the front row). He exits the stage, only to come back twice more to pound the song into ground some more--each time a little bit harder.

Best part : "TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESSS!!!!!!"