# If you could turn back time, what artist would you see? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119 "2005-06-28T00:31:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/1 "2005-06-28T00:31:36Z")
Is that title too long? Does this belong in MPSIMS? I dunno. šŸ†’ Anyway, today on the way home I heard Janis doing _Summertime_, and as usual my eyes got a little wet. I never saw her in person, and I regret that to this day. Got me to wondering; What artist (singer, band, musician etc) would you make it a point to see in person, now that itā€™s not possible, if you could? Even if it really cost you? Far and away _Janis Joplin_ would be #1 on my short list, with _Nirvana_ coming in second back there somewhere. Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/2 "2005-06-28T00:34:47Z")
Iā€™d love to hear Virgil reciting some of his own poetry. ---
**Author:** ![buns3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@buns3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buns3000)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/3 "2005-06-28T00:35:25Z")
_sigh_ How long have you got? Just off the top of my head - **Jimi Soft Machine** circa 1970 **New York Dolls Velvet Underground Iggy & the Stooges** etc ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/4 "2005-06-28T00:39:23Z")
Iā€™ll just take two tickets to Woodstock (the real one) and a time machine, please! Also, a castrati (whatā€™s the singular on that?), if you have one handy. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/5 "2005-06-28T00:42:27Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > Iā€™d love to hear Virgil reciting some of his own poetry. Thatā€™s the spirit! šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/6 "2005-06-28T00:46:20Z")
**The Beatles** or **Beethoven** conducting his **9th Symphony** ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/7 "2005-06-28T00:53:32Z")
[Charley Patton (1891-1934)](http://users.rcn.com/mumbles.lefty/Music%20of%20Charley%20Patton.htm), the greatest of the Mississippi blues singers. ---
**Author:** ![hanna\_the\_curious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/34f0e0/32.png) [@hanna\_the\_curious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hanna_the_curious)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/8 "2005-06-28T00:56:02Z")
Iā€™ve seen The Byrds and the Monkees live (not together )ā€¦Paul McCartney & Wings ā€¦ John Denver in the Mitchel Trio ā€¦The Stones live on Brit TV ā€¦ Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band, Joni Mitchell, Phil Ochs, Dave Van Ronk (wow), Arlo Guthrie and Tom Paxton BUT I want to see Pete Seegar, Noel Coward, The Benny Goodman Quartet, Judy Garland, Blind Lemon Jeferson and J.S. Bach live and unplugged. (Oh, and Groucho Marx in Concert) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/9 "2005-06-28T00:59:42Z")
Iā€™m so old that when I think ā€œartistā€ I think ā€œpainterā€. Peter Paul Rubens for me. I loved his models, they never heard the term ā€œreducing dietā€ in their lives. Sigh, if I only lived 300+ years ago Iā€™d be a supermodel. šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/10 "2005-06-28T01:12:13Z")
Deliberately picking people that no one else hasā€¦ \*\* George Gershwin \*\* \*\* Bert Williams \*\* \*\* The NBC Symphony Orchestra \*\* \*\* Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra\*\* \*\* Miles Davisā€™ ā€œBirth of the Coolā€ Nonet \*\* \*\* Woody Herman and His Thundering Herd \*\* \*\* Art Tatum \*\* And, for a non-musical choice, **Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne** ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/11 "2005-06-28T01:29:45Z")
Iā€™d go for broke and get front-row seats for the [Ziegfeld Follies of 1918](http://ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=8313). ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/12 "2005-06-28T01:41:10Z")
Iā€™d love to see W. C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, et. al. do their live vaudeville acts. Iā€™d love to see/hear Michael Hedges play Aerial Boundaries one more time. Absolutely incredible guitar wizardry. Iā€™d like to see Michaelangelo painting the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel, and Leonardo painting the Mona Lisa. And last, but not least - the artist(s) who painted in the Cave of Lascaux. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/13 "2005-06-28T01:44:10Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Also, a castrati (whatā€™s the singular on that?), if you have one handy. One castrat_o_, two castrat_i_. Have you heard the recording of Alessandro Moreschi, called [the Last Castrato?](http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/opa9823.htm) Itā€™s a very unusual sound. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/14 "2005-06-28T01:55:32Z")
Tori Amos, when she was a hotel lounge singer. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/15 "2005-06-28T03:44:20Z")
Mozart Gershwin Rachmaninoff A young Ella Fitzgerald Fanny Brice Al Jolson Judy Garland Nat ā€œKingā€ Cole Josephine Baker ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/16 "2005-06-28T03:49:53Z")
[Le Petomane, of course](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_394) ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/17 "2005-06-28T03:53:22Z")
The Marx Brothers, definatly. Though I wouldnā€™t mind seeing all the Original members of THE WHO in concert(before they got old). ---
**Author:** ![Loopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loopus/32/15343_2.png) [@Loopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopus)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/18 "2005-06-28T03:57:55Z")
Not sure if he counts as an ā€œartistā€ as per the OP, but Iā€™d love to hear Mark Twain lecture. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/19 "2005-06-28T04:00:58Z")
Shakespeareā€™s plays performed at the globe. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/20 "2005-06-28T04:06:59Z")
Elvis Presley The Ramones George Best circa 1968. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119.md?page=2)