Talkin' bout YOUR generation...


Hello.

A lightweight thread here, folks. Just want to see where we are all coming from - YOUR generation, that is.

We all had a defining band growing up. In your formative years, who was that band??? The only rules are that you have to pick a band from the time when you were somewhere between the ages of 11 and 17, and they have had to be current at the time - still together and vibrant. For example, at age 34, I can't pick The Beatles, Stones, Zeppelin, or The Who, even though I may have listened to them a great deal. As such, I doubt any of us will be able to choose Haydn or Vivaldi...

It would be that if CDs were in cars at the time, that would be blaring when you picked up your friends. It doesn't mean you have to still be listening to them today. Heck, you may even hate them now.

I think it will provide a little insight into our backgrounds and a special time of our lives. OK, so let's have some fun with this!

MY choice in my time period(1980 - 1986) would have to be Van Halen, and I don't even listen to them anymore
trelja
Beatles & Stones (of course)
Dylan
Dead
Cream
Jeff Airplane (before that Starship nonsense)
Yougbloods
Moody Blues
Jethro Tull
Allman Bros.
Quicksilver Messenger Service
The Band

I've been lucky enough to have heard most of them play at least once (w/exception of Beatles) and my ears are still ringing from some of them (although loudest by far was Mahavishnu Orchestra, w/Quicksilver a somewhat distant second)
When I was 11 in 1961 Elvis was singing "Little Sister" and "Marie's the Name of His latest Flame" along with the Everly Brothers and Neil Sedaka and Pat Boone. The British invasion had yet to happen and Dylan wasn't yet on the radar (at least not on mine). Six years later the world had changed forever: Dylan had had his motorcycle accident, America was mired in Vietnam, the Doors were singing "The End" and the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed were singing "I'm Waiting for My Man" and "Heroin". To quote the Grateful Dead (another of my favourite bands) "What a long, strange trip it's been".
Wow Smotyka, The Yardbirds!!! Now, that was a band. Reading that sent a chill through me. It must have been wild to see them first hand.

One of my best friends, who is no audiophile always points to Led Zeppelin as one of his. He said when they hit in the late 60s, they were like NOTHING else that ever came before them. That's the kind of thing that propels many of us into this hobby, the lust for music, and the eternal search for hearing it in perfection.

Ashra, are you still in the area? If so, maybe we can hook up? By the way, did you go to Northeast High? Reading The Inquirer article in yesterday's sports section comparing St. Joe's year with Delonte West and Jameer Nelson to Temple with Hal Lear and Guy Rodgers made me wish I was able to see them before. I always hear that when Guy was at Northeast, it was absolutely unreal how good he was.
I was 17 in 1984. It was Jazz. The big thing about the 80s for me was not the hair bands or Eruo-pop. It was Jazz, which experienced a HUGE renaissance. I'm thinking Wynton Marsalis, but my mates and I (we were all musicians) probably gravitated more to Branford. Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers probably had the best iteration of that group (Terrance Blanchard, Mulgrew Miller, Lonnie Plaxico, Donald Harrison). Weather Report was also big for my crew.