Given a few of these folks are dead and most of the rest have one foot in the grave, this is a silly poll, unless you get to pick some point in each artist's career where they were actually worth the price of a ticket. So I'm playing under protest.
Jim Morrison vs.
Van Morrison. Van sounds like a miserable guy IRL, but going to this concert is more likely to get me laid.
Eddie Vedder vs.
Eddie Van Halen. Attending during peak DLR would make this an easy choice, but Eruption is nothing more than masturbating a guitar neck.
Jeff Beck vs. Beck. The only artist on this list who can still deliver.
Bob Dylan vs.
Bob Marley. Tough call. If it's not Dylan solo, let's remember he had great backing bands so you'd get a good show regardless of the mumbling. Marley is great, but you gotta be in a reggae mood on a humid night with spleefs abound. I'm calling it a tie until I get more details.
Stevie Ray Vaughn vs.
Stevie Nicks. Nicks was a strange little hottie. White guys playing blues just never did much for me, despite SRV's obvious talent. Lindsey was no slouch, so if we're talking late 70's Mac, I'm all in.
Jimmy Page vs.
Jimi Hendryx. From vids I've watched, Page never pulled off on stage what he did in the studio. I've long yearned for a four-guitar performance of "Ten Years Gone". And Jimi was unpredictable, so he gets the nod.
Elvis Presley vs.
Elvis Costello. I believe I was the first person on campus to actually buy "My Aim Is True" at the record shop that used to be where Sbux is now. Never got into Presley at any weight, and I'm confident that those who preferred Presley to the Beatles in the 60s eventually got bilked by Falwell, Bakker, Swaggert, et.al. in later life.
Smokey Robinson vs. Chris Robinson. I met Smokey at the Pittsburgh airport. I was shocked at how short he was, like Tom Cruise short. So I'll go with talent per ounce/inch here.
Deadheads vs. Parrotheads. Both would put me to sleep. So, I created a scenario where each band would play only Talking Heads songs in order to pick the winner.
Chicago vs. Kansas. I would pay to watch Terry Kath with a rythym section. If no Kath, I'd rather listen to Big Country play "
We're Not in Kansas".
Queen vs.
Prince. No question. If you never got to see Prince live, you lost. And I liked 3 of Queen's first four albums. But lots of camp and arena filler crap in their catalog.
Black Sabbath vs.
Pink Floyd. Easiest choice here. No choice actually.
