I've long felt that the best era for music was actually from around 1957 to 1967.
Buddy Holly, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Nat King Cole, Roy Orbison, Phil Spector, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Dylan, Donovan, the Who, the Velvet Underground, the Doors, Love, the Kinks, Hendrix, the Mamas and Papas, the Incredible String Band, the Byrds, the Hollies, the Moody Blues etc.
All within a period of 10 years or so!
I think it was the Beatles press officer Derek Taylor who once said that June 1st 1967, the release of Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club, may well have the high water mark of not only popular music, but western civilization itself.
Perhaps a touch of hyperbole there, but you can see where he's coming from. I can imagine that it could have been a very expensive business trying to buy all the worthwhile vinyl back in '67.
For sure the 1970s (Led Zeppelin, Bowie, Springsteen, Sex Pistols, Joy Divison etc) and even the 1980s (the Smiths, the Pogues, U2 etc) certainly had their moments, but the emergence of first Disco and then Rap seemed to have changed forever the direction of the music industry.
Buddy Holly, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Nat King Cole, Roy Orbison, Phil Spector, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Dylan, Donovan, the Who, the Velvet Underground, the Doors, Love, the Kinks, Hendrix, the Mamas and Papas, the Incredible String Band, the Byrds, the Hollies, the Moody Blues etc.
All within a period of 10 years or so!
I think it was the Beatles press officer Derek Taylor who once said that June 1st 1967, the release of Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club, may well have the high water mark of not only popular music, but western civilization itself.
Perhaps a touch of hyperbole there, but you can see where he's coming from. I can imagine that it could have been a very expensive business trying to buy all the worthwhile vinyl back in '67.
For sure the 1970s (Led Zeppelin, Bowie, Springsteen, Sex Pistols, Joy Divison etc) and even the 1980s (the Smiths, the Pogues, U2 etc) certainly had their moments, but the emergence of first Disco and then Rap seemed to have changed forever the direction of the music industry.