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

Being around as a sound technician for the rehearsals, soundchecks and concerts for the complete two legs of the Rolling Thunder Revue 75 - 76.

 

Paris in the teens with the Ballet Russe debuting all that stuff by Stravinsky, Ravel, Debussy -- Firebird, Petruchka, Rite of Spring, Bolero, Daphnis & Chloe, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Jeux, etc. (all while over in Vienna Schoenberg and the second Viennese school were re-writing the rules for western music.

 

England, late 70s.

I'd probably see a band every single week without fail.

 

I'd wanna be around in the south in the 1950s, swinging the old Caddy round to a club to see; Hank, George, Elvis, Jerry Lee, Fats, Chuck, Carl, Little Richard et al...

 

London 63-69

 

UK, late 60s-early 70s

 

Before concert tickets were a whopping 100+ dollars each.

I guess I was, technically...I saw my first show (CSN/Gregg Allman Band) in 1985...I think that ticket was about $12.50.

 

London 1966-71. The chance to walk into places like Klooks Kleek or the Farx club, just annexes to pubs, and see Hendrix, Cream, Zeppelin, Jeff Beck etc. And all for what amounts to about £12 entrance in today's money!

 

Vienna, late 1780's.
Stax Records in Memphis, 1961 through the early '70's.

 

...my lifetime so far. Also, I would have needed Hilton type money and driving ability.

 

1957 to 1964, for EVERYTHING. And then I'd want an endless bank account to hit every Thrifty, Woolworth, Newberry, Grant's, White Front, Drug & Grocery that sold records. The ads I've seen in old newspaper library files make me start blubbering like a baby. Ahh, fantasy......

 

1959 to 2959

 

If I could choose an entire decade, it would be 1946 to 1955.

For live shows, I could see Charlie Parker and all the great postwar jazz and Latin jazz artists in New York, Yma Sumac with Les Baxter at the Hollywood Bowl, and cap it off with Louis and Keely live at the Sahara. Plus, I could buy all the early LPs that were released during this time. And then I would duck out right before Elvis hit.

 

The 1960s. And I was present, I just didn't have as much time to listen to the radio as I would have liked, in retrospect.

 

The 1960s. I WAS around then and it was the best.

 

In New York during the creation of the Great American Songbook. Irving Berlin, The Gershwins, Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, and others all writing in the same city at the same time.

 

Europe 1810 to 1880 so that could hear the likes of Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, Schumann in person. I'd have to travel a bit but Vienna would be a good start.

 

Probably would be to go to some cool jazz clubs in the 1950s to hear miles and others do their bebop thing.

 

San Francisco 1966-1972





I'd get to re-watch the two best concerts I ever saw:

The "Thick as a Brick" tour show
and
The "Who's Next" tour show


Earlier in the era I'd hop on this bus and go to the Monterrey Pop Festival:

 

Europe...the time between World War I and World War II....working for Cook’s Wagon Lit (railroad sleeper wagons) that would have taken me to places and experience the music scene in London, Paris, Berlin,Rome, Moscow etc...a dream job with great perks.

 

I've fantasized about that many, many times

.

 

The Beatles recording at EMI .. anytime, any song!

 

Bob Dylan recording ''LARS'' or ''Positively 4th Street'' at Columbia.

 

Most of the concerts I wish I could have attended would be between 1966 - 1975. I was alive then. The problem is that I didn't have that much money and I didn't live near any big city where I could have attended all the great concerts I would have wanted to attend. The lack of money meant I couldn't buy that many records so I wasn't always even aware of the existence of many artists.

For example, I would love to have seen King Crimson in 1973-74, but I didn't buy my first KC album until 1977. Back then there was no Internet or streaming. So the first music by KC I heard was when I bought their first album in 1977. It was a complete "blind buy" which I bought because I was a big ELP fan.

 

I was around for the times that matter most to me.
1958 - 1972 - Chicago, for The Buckinghams, The Cryan Shames, New Colony Six. The Shadows Of Knight, my older sister went out to the local joints to see, and dance to these local bands as the scene was exploding, and she shared her stories, and records with me.

1972-present - Nashville, for the birth of "Southern Rock." A great FM station in WKDA-FM, which became WKDF. Playing albums in their entirety, sometimes before their release.
Began attending concerts Feb.1974, The Marshall Tucker Band, The Charlie Daniels Band, Black Oak Arkansas, Grinderswitch, Wet Willie, The Outlaws, meeting, and becoming friends with The Winters Brothers Band, and of course...The Allman Brothers Band.
John Prine, Jimmy Buffet, Dan Fogelberg, all at the beginnings of their careers.
Working with, and making friends with Kenny Buttrey's daughter, and her stories of waking up in the middle of the night as a little girl, going into the kitchen for a glass of water, and finding Bob Dylan at the kitchen table !?!?!