Weekly Survey: If you could go back in time to any musical scene, which scene would you choose?
Do you ever read music history and think that you were born too late? If you could go back to experience a musical scene firsthand as it was evolving, which would it be? For example:
- Elvis craziness
- Beatlemania
- The Summer of Love
- New York punk at CBGB
- The British punk scene with the Sex Pistols and the Clash
- Queen Street in Toronto c. 1984.
- Hair metal on Sunset Boulevard
- Peak grunge in 1993
- Britpop
- Etc.
And don’t feel constrained by any of the above. Maybe you wish could have been on Beale Street in Memphis in the 50s or park of some country crew somewhere.
You have Stewie Griffin’s time machine. When/where would you go?
It probably comes across as a little sad, but despite living through the grunge era, I’d love to go back and re-experience it again. Not just that but the whole alt-rock explosion of the late 80s-early 90s, If only to appreciate what a moment it was in music- the last great era of rock.
Madchester. Check out 24-Hour Party People
Glam scene in the UK in the early 70s…. Bowie, Queen, T-Rex, Sweet etc….
London 1971- 1973 So I could experience Marc Bolan and his band T. Rex during the madness that was known as T. Rextasy. Marc is still my Main Man.
CBGB’s!
The 90s. All of it. I was born in 93 so I have very little memory of the 90s, but I have enough to make want to have experienced more of it. I’d have loved to have been a teen or young adult in a decade where so many bands I love were in their prime and young people actually cared about them, and their music was played much more frequently on the radio. I’d have loved to have gone to shows where fans still moshed. I’d have loved to have seen Rage Against The Machine. I’d have loved to see Matthew Good Band when Good was playing all the MGB songs I love (he doesn’t play many of them anymore). I’d have loved to have gone to an Edgefest at Molson Park. Hell, I’d have loved to have gone to Woodstock 99. I’d have loved to have watched MuchMusic when they actually cared about music. As a musician, I’d have loved to be in a band in the 90s, since people cared a lot more about bands at the time.
I wouldn’t have liked spending 15 to 20 bucks for an album, but I’d deal with it because everything else was so awesome.
In the summer of 1974 I turned 18, and back then that was the legal drinking age, which was my key to the several rock clubs we had back then in Niagara Falls. Six nights a week, we had some of the best rock groups in the area playing at 3 clubs, and not just bar bands. There were several recording acts and many up-and-comers. If you didn’t like who was at one venue, you could quickly drive to another. Those were the days, and I really miss them! I got to enjoy that until disco began to rear its ugly head, but two of the clubs continued for many years to come, and rock and live music was in ample supply.
Sun Records, Memphis, Dec 4, ’56.
Cash, Lewis, Perkins, Presley.