If you could have been present during any period in musical history what would it be?

Early 1970s for me I think. The bands I could have seen......

 

I would have liked to experience Beatlemania first hand, but I also think being around when Beethoven and Mozart were alive would have been cool as well.

 

The 60's for me and i was present,an amazing time in music for all genres.It seemed every style of music was influencing the other.

 

The birth of rock and roll in the 50's.

 

Around 1957 — I would be sure to see Coltrane playing with Monk. I was in NYC then but I missed out. Been regretting it ever since.

 

Well if I could go back in a time machine I would want to be in Memphis when Sam Phillips was just getting started. Maybe I could have been his go-for and heard Howlin Wolf and the other blues artists he recorded pre-Elvis, then the rock and roll artists he developed and then the Stax start up with the Staple Singers, Booker T and the MGs and all the other soul artists. The Boxtops, Big Star. I'd also want to make regular trips to Muscle Shoals, meet Duane Allman doing sessions with all those great artists!

 

Between 1966 and 1976 - all those great bands and album releases..

 

Do I get to bring a digital recorder along...?

 

The late 50s, to see Miles, Monk and Trane. Early rock n roll I could have catched on a whim, not obligatory.
The late 60s...well, no explanation necessary. Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Velvet Underground, Stones...

 

Right now...cause I can listen to everything basically made...up till...now.

 

around 1969/1970

I would encourage The Turtles Guitarist Al Nichol to make a solo record

 

I was born in 1955. I have lived the some of the best years in music imo. I think the music scene today is pretty good too.

 

Late in the evening of Dec 8th, 1980 in NYC in front of the Dakota.
I would find a cop and say, "That guy over there with the glasses holding an autographed 'John Lennon' record under his arm, I saw he was carrying a gun....."

 

Too many to cho0se from.

I would love to roam the Jazz clubs of New York in the late 50s and early 60s. Likewise the Fillmore and Avalon during the late 60s. Or CBGBs and Max's Kansas City of the late 70s.

As for individual concerts, good grief, how to pick? Beatles in Hamburg or on the Rooftop. Bowie doing Ziggy. Doors at the Whiskey. Dead 5/8/77.

And to be fair, I would not mind seeing some of the concerts I have seen yet again. I have seen some gems.

 

1965 to 1995. And, I would go to every single Grateful Dead show! I would also try to catch as many R.E.M. shows as possible as well!

 

I would take $1000 back to the late 50s and early 60s and buy as many Blue Notes as I could wheelbarrow back to my time machine.

 

In 1938 in Mississippi. At the crossroads.

 

I was "around" in the early 60s in England, but a little young (born 1951) and a bit too far from London. I would have loved to be 5 years older and living in London to be part of that R&B scene - Stones, Yardbirds, Pretty Things, Kinks John Mayall, Art Woods, early David Bowie, The Who, Fleetwood Mac, Cream, Hendrix... And the folk scene - Donovan, Bert Jansch, Davey Graham.... And the visiting Americans and the provincial bands (Family, Spencer Davis, Them...). Great days, but experienced from a distance.

 

early 90's just before the CD take over and with a wad of epic cash. I would buy out all the vinyl in every damn sam goody and peaches in site.

as far as witnessing actual music history.... hmm Standing on the roof with the Beatles during the Let It Be "free concert"

 

wow that's a good one, with Robert Johnson.

 

Hamburg, Germany....The Star Club and others.

 

First half of the 70s.

 

I used to work near Hamburg with a bloke who saw them at the Star Club and he said he couldn't hear a single note due to the screaming!

 

I was born in 1970. I'd pick 1967-1969, for the ability to go to the Fillmore, Avalon, Winterland, the Monterey Pop Festival, Woodstock.....etc etc

 

I was born in 1969. I would like to have been born in 1959 so I could have experienced Beatlemania and the whole British invasion, Memphis soul, and then the beginning of punk rock. Probably my top 3 genres of music and I was just born a little too late to experience them first hand.