I feel bad for GenX'ers that missed out on the 60s and 70s.

From Motown to the British invasion from booze to boo, from don't question authority to questioning authority,  from crew cut to long hair from bras to boobs, tight pants to bell bottoms. Are you kidding me there was never a better time for music or for growing up period amen!
It's 1966 I'm 18 living in Jersey I go visit my bohemian cousin living in Greenwich Village dead set on taking my first legal drink I fly up her 4 story walk-up on Cornelia St. Susan I excitedly say let's go drinking she smiles and hands me my first joint ( Flemington flash grown on her friend's farm in Ringos NJ) and says try this instead. Wooo I put smokey, the temps, and the tops back in the wooden fruit crate and went and bought the Stones, Beatles etc.to play on my Dual TT with a cheap shure cartridge, and AR speakers. Timothy Leary's dead no, no, no, no he's outside looking in...

You had to be there to experience it, and I was, magical time for sure. Unfortunately, I presume many weren't able to experience the live concert experience based on where they lived. I lived in Ann Arbor Mich. in these decades, really experienced the zeitgeist of the moment first hand. So, for me, I'd have to agree, the greatest time to be music fan. Quantity and quality of bands coming though in those days unsurpassed.

Still, I've had many a fantastic musical experiences in subsequent decades. The concert experience has certainly changed over the years, and younger generations can never live that 60's and 70's experience. I'm not sure I feel bad for them, its more like its sort of frustrating they can never understand my special feeling for that era.

As far as music per se, I won't argue about greatest eras of music.

I'm also born in '69. I hated all that New Wave/Punk Shyte that was on the Radio growing up Southwest of Toronto in Hamilton, Ontario.
I loved the Rock music of the 60's and 70's during the 1980's. Fortunately (in most cases), I saw a lot of the Bands I liked in the 1980' & 1990's and some are still worth seeing in the 2000's, 2010's, and now 2020's and some should just call it a day.

Many of my musical Hero's in Rock & Jazz have gone to "The Great Gig in the Sky", and I was fortunate to see many in and past their Prime.

What younger folks miss not being there to hear the albums in real time is how bands from The Beatles onward developed and grew musically as their careers progressed. From I Wanna Hold Your Hand to A Day In The Life was only a four year span calendar-wise but an immense jump musically - and that jump effected many artists from The Stones to Brian Wilson and many more. Look at bands such as Yes, ELP, The Moody Blues, Jethro Tull etc as they started out with a pretty high bar to begin with and then usually topped it, with technology and exceptional musicianship.

Someone looking back to those days that wasn't alive then has an understandably completely different viewpoint. Think of how Hendrix effected guitarists, how Steely Dan’s albums, with their addictive earworms and brilliant playing kept reaching higher with each successive release. Clapton’s path from blues with Mayall and the Yardbirds thru Cream and then into Layla, mellowing a bit into 461 Ocean Blvd etc holds more intrigue when witnessed as it happened. Think about how Woodstock changed music and society.

Another interesting event was how Sting/The Police, Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson all entered the business as ostensibly punk rockers but ended up writing symphonies (Joe), working with classical string quartets (Elvis) and writing Broadway musicals (Sting) and operas (Stewart Copeland).

An amazing journey and what a long strange trip it’s been!

@tim_p,

I was 10 years old and my oldest brother got stuck babysitting me. it was the best night of my life, July 29, 1969, Led Zepplin with Vanilla Fudge, Edmonton AB Kinsmen Field House, around $4 and I still have my ticket stub.

That’s exactly what I remember. Ticket prices were any where from $5 bucks to no higher than $15. Massively fantastic shows, in them days....If you were there...