Posted by Fleabit Peanut Monkey on December 22, 1999 at 18:22:31:
In Reply to: Very hypothetic question! posted by Lone Crap Shooter on December 22, 1999 at 16:15:39:
: Any opinions?
Brian would not have aged well. He wouldn't have sidestepped encroaching age like Mick, or grappled with it head-on like Keith, or worn it majestically like Charlie. He would have lost his hair & gotten paunchy...not a pretty sight. The Stones' appearance has always been crucial, now that they're craggy just as much as when they were pretty.
Brian wasn't meant to get old. The fact that he died young & pretty is a key element in the Stones' alchemy. The romantic appeal of the doomed young genius beset on all sides is downright Shakespearean. So it's kind of hard to predict what the 70's would've been like. I'll go out on a limb and say the whole "Bump & Grind with Billy Preston" phase of 1975-76 would never have happened. Instead, Brian would pioneer the use of electric bagpipes. His bagpipe solo in "Brown Sugar" would be the stuff of legend.