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

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...

Our generation had Aretha Franklin, Etta James, James Brown, Beatles, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Jimi Hendrix, Donna Summer, Earth Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, The Kinks, The Stones, The Doors, Elton John, Velvet Underground and loads more

Hey Chuckles,

Out of all the performers you've mentioned in you post, how many of their shows have you been to?

Okay boomer.  Gen x created more genres of music than any generation before it, and it appears that continues to be the case today.
All that matters is that we love music, regardless of when it was created.