My 2nd cousin's husband is an entertainment lawyer on the east coast. In the mid-late 1960s, he negotiated many contracts for the Who and Janis Joplin. His stories are incredible, especially the one about the Who almost bowing out of Woodstock because the promoters, after the festival began, suddenly wanted all of the acts to play for free.
The best Who story from Woodstock is Pete Townsend smashing Abbie Hoffman over the head with his guitar and saying "Get Off my ****ing stage!"
Part of the reason he was pissed is that they played a gig on the east coast the night before, drove all night to get to Woodstock, and then had to deal with the traffic, security issues, etc. The whole band was working on about 2-3 hours of sleep when they did their show at Woodstock.
60's- Soul and R&B 70's- brought The Funk. Enough said. 80's- The Police, U2, REM, Rush, these super-bands were all in their prime IMO. Although The Police were more late 70's early 80's. 90's- Lot's of good music 2000's- a lot of crap
Devil's Advocate time: The 70's were better. The 70's are more influential to today's music by far and much more diverse. Roll call: Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, James Brown, Parliament Funkadelic, Big Star, Sex Pistols, Clash, Kraftwerk, Bee Gees, Big Star, the Who, Buzzcocks, Barry White, Donna Summer, Sugar Hill Gang, Queen, Elton John, Wings, The Ramones, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, The Philadelphia Sound of Gamble and Huff, Todd Rungrund, Elvis Costello, Abba, The Jam, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, the Undertones, Joe Jackson, Graham Parker, Can, Neu, Carol King, Joni Mitchell, Bill Whithers, Earth, Wind & Fire, the Rolling Stones (I'll take "Sticky Fingers," "Exile on Main St." and "Some Girls" over any three Stones albums from the 60's, thank you), Randy Newman, Neil Young and T-Rex made most of their best music in the decade of the pet rock, pop rocks and orange countertops. Electronic, dance, singer-songwriter, heavy metal, hip-hop, punk, new wave, funk and "classic rock" all flourished in the 1970's. And Dylan did his best record during that time ("Blood on the Tracks," beyotch!). Bow down to the seventies... ... make a little love..... ...... get down tonight.
Great list BMoney but you left out one important band who I always felt did their best stuff in the '70s and that was Pink Floyd. Dark Side of the Moon + Wish You Were Here + Animals + The Wall = some of the best albums, not only of the '70s, but ever. Nonetheless, I went with the '60s mainly because I felt that disco ruined the '70s. So, I rank them like this: 1) '60s 2) '70s 3) '80s 4) '90s 5) '00s
Codell you blew it by not including the greatest era of Rock-N-Roll Music in history, The 1950's. Umm Hello...Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Gene Vincent to name but a few. And that's not even including the incredible Blues Artists, Muddy Waters, Magic Sam, Howlin Wolf, B.B. King, Albert King...etc, that influenced the 60's bands and guitarists. Without the 50's music there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin..etc.
I like the production in the music right now. Far superior. I don't like any songs. My frame-of-reference "songs" are all 70s, with some 60's.
I'm not sure it is superior so much as it is different. IMO, the 60's weren't great because technology was so incredibly limited, but well-produced records in the 70's easily stack up against CD's today. The 80's was weird because of the influx of digital technology and the over-use of it when it really wasn't ready. There is outstanding production today, but a really good record in the 70's was VERY strong. Aja by Steely Dan is still considered one of the most well-produced records, sonically, of any ever made in pop music. Production today is also not as creative. The limitations of technology made producers get creative like when George Martin took reel-to-reel recordings of calliope music, cut them up into 1 foot sections, threw them in the air, spliced them back together and played it backwards to get the weird sounds behind Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite. Now, THAT is innovative.
Ditto. The 80s finished weak, The 90s until today has been bleak. The 60s started weak but finished strong and gave us the entire decade of strong music in the 70s.
what exactly does any of this have to do with good songs or bands? Some of the best records ever sound liek complete crap. Robert Johnson records sound terrible, but it's the songs that carry them. Supercharger and the Mummies, both 90's bands, are two of my favorite bands ever and their records sound like they recorded over old Madonna tapes on a fischer price boom box.
Manny and MacBeth have succeeded in grasping the painfully obvious: 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, in that order. I mean, come on. Jeff, for you to be dismissive of music recorded relatively primatively sadly means that you are an irredeemable geek. I say that affectionately. Who wouldn't rather listen to a scratchy mono Decca side from the 50's or a Stax side from the 60's rather than today's Pro-Tooled alternacrap that's been compressed to bejeezus?
While I realize most of you are only taking mainstream acts into account, I would actually reverse the order 70's and 80's on that list since there was some AMAZING punk, and related, music in the early 80's that flew under the radar.
late 80s early 90s. i am a child of my time. and the time meant grunge. mother love bone, alice in chains, sound garden, pearl jam, screaming trees, green river, the smashing pumpkins
The '60's. Yes, you wouldn't have had the explosion of rock and soul without the '50's, but the '60's was when it blew up. There was nothing like it before, and sure as hell nothing like it since. Just a few... well, more than a few. Roy Orbison* Ray Charles Elvis Ricky Nelson* The Shirelles Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks* Jan & Dean Paul Butterfield Blues Band* The Ronettes The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band* Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett* The Beach Boys* The Beatles (saw them individually, except for John, but not together) The Kinks* Johnny Winter* The Animals* The Zombies* The Four Tops* The Four Seasons The Rolling Stones* Blood, Sweat and Tears* Mountain* Leon Russell* Joe Cocker* John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers* Chicago Transit Authority* Blind Faith* The Byrds* Bob Dylan* Supremes The McCoys James Brown* Simon & Garfunkel* The Young Rascals The Lovin' Spoonful* The Mama & Papas* Paul Revere & the Raiders* Aretha Franklin Spencer Davis Group Stevie Wonder Turtles* Doors* Van Morrison* Procol Harum* Gladys Knight & the Pips Jefferson Airplane* Sly & The Family Stone* Jimi Hendrix* Cream* Iron Butterfly* Steppenwolf* Otis Redding Marvin Gaye The Who* The Temptations Crosby, Stills & Nash* Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young* Youngbloods* Creedence Clearwater Revival* Led Zeppelin* Fifth Dimension* Mother Earth (with Tracy Nelson)* David Bowie* Mott the Hoople* Tyrannosaurus-Rex (T-Rex)* Alice Cooper* Strawberry Alarm Clock* Buffalo Springfield* Santana* Moody Blues* Spirit* Grateful Dead* 13th Floor Elevators* Deep Purple* Steve Miller Band* Poco* The Band* Jethro Tull* Fleetwood Mac w/ Peter Green* Vanilla Fudge* Humble Pie* Small Faces* Blue Cheer* Pink Floyd* Big Brother and the Holding Company* (w/Janis) B.B. King* Lightnin' Hopkins* Buddy Guy* Freddy King* Albert Collins* Traffic* King Crimson* Moving Sidewalks* (which became...) ZZ Top* Canned Heat* ...and a bunch of people I can't remember right now. The * is for people I saw perform live in concert. They used to have three, four and sometimes more groups in one show. Tickets were from $3 to $6, tops. I may have seen a couple of the ones listed and just can't remember. (you'd have to have been there to understand why) And a bunch, like I said, that have slipped my mind for the moment and I'll slap myself silly later when I figure it out. The '60's produced the greatest songs and music. It's not really a contest, imo. I was lucky enough to be there, especially for the last few years. The people I didn't see on my list were some I listened to on the radio or on LP. There were some great groups that I saw in 1970-71, who I consider groups from the late '60's. The Allman Brothers Band, with Duane, and Derek and the Dominos are 2 groups I saw in 1970. Early-mid '70's were fabulous! (sorry, but I had fun doing this... it's kinda long. ) EDIT: Jeff, you've got it wrong... the music in concert usually sounded incredible. The albums frequently didn't come close. The technology was better than you give credit for. And what they couldn't do, they made up for with genius. Hendrix, exhibit A. I saw him live four times and I would bet a million bucks that you wouldn't notice the lack of "modern equipment".
