# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Cherry2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cherry2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cherry2000)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/21 "2005-06-28T04:24:58Z")
Stevie Ray Vaughn ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/22 "2005-06-28T05:25:16Z")
Pink Floyd doing The Wall. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/23 "2005-06-28T06:16:35Z")
Led Zepplin. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/24 "2005-06-28T06:19:28Z")
Simon and Garfunkel’s concert in Central Park. Dylan Thomas reading his own poetry. ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/25 "2005-06-28T08:40:32Z")
I’d have liked have been at the premiere of Starvinsky’s “The Firebird”. There was apparently a ding-dong riot. I like a good riot, me. Or, does Brazil’s 1970 World Cup side count? 'Coz they were pretty nifty, too mm ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/26 "2005-06-28T08:57:56Z")
Instead of seeing specific bands, I’d like to visit specific scenes. Swinging London in the mid-60s, New York and London punk in 1976-79, maybe San Francisco/LA in the late 60s. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/27 "2005-06-28T09:27:50Z")
Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall. Noel Coward in Las Vegas. The Cockettes in San Francisco, preferably a night Divine was there. Marlene Dietrich wherever. And I’d go back to that Twisted Sister concert MTV sent me to in London in 1986 and convince my younger self to get into some trouble and have some fun. ---
**Author:** ![Liz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/liz/32/17737_2.png) [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/28 "2005-06-28T11:16:05Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > 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) It’s a very unusual sound. I have that CD recording – it’s a haunting bit of music. As for the OP: Black Sabbath circa 1975 Ozzy circa 1982 The Ramones Janis Joplin ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/29 "2005-06-28T11:38:52Z")
I’d go for Howlin’ Wolf. > [@Loopus](#): > > Not sure if he counts as an “artist” as per the OP, but I’d love to hear Mark Twain lecture. This might be what you are referring to, but just in case: I was told that Twain was recorded when giving lectures. So it should be possible to _hear_ him speaking. ---
**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, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/30 "2005-06-28T12:18:43Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > 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) It’s a very unusual sound. I have, and it’s very eerie. But by most accounts (including your link), he wasn’t a very good castrato, nor did he sing in the traditional style, so the actual sound could have been quite different. I’m guessing still unusual, though. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/31 "2005-06-28T12:25:24Z")
Townes van Zandt. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/32 "2005-06-28T12:34:38Z")
**The Rat Pack** doing the Sands during the Oceans 11 filming. \*\*My grandfather \*\* and his mariachi band. When he died in the late 80’s, the obits credited him as being the man whose mariachi’s brought and popularized mariachi music in Chicago. The Beatles. Robert Johnson. Johnny Cash The Sex Pistols Any Shakespeare at the Globe ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/33 "2005-06-28T12:40:44Z")
**Mozart** , conducting Don Giovanni **Billie Holiday** **Jascha Heifetz** **Vladimir Horowitz** , doing Rach 3 **Ella Fitzgerald** **Louis Armstrong** and ohhhh, sooo many more. ---
**Author:** ![Liz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/liz/32/17737_2.png) [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/34 "2005-06-28T12:41:07Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > I have, and it’s very eerie. But by most accounts (including your link), he wasn’t a very good castrato, nor did he sing in the traditional style, so the actual sound could have been quite different. I’m guessing still unusual, though. Right. Alessandro wasn’t the most talented castrato and he was past his prime at the time of that recording, along with the recording being so old. I think its value lies in the fact that it’s the only recording we have of a castrato, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/35 "2005-06-28T12:46:09Z")
If lecturers count, I’d go with the Sermon on the Mount. I’d also like to see Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and the Marx Brothers. ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/36 "2005-06-28T13:12:15Z")
**Buffalo Springfield** , circa 1967. **Jefferson Starship** , maybe 1968. **Jimi** , circa 1970. **Led Zeppelin** , mid-1970’s. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/37 "2005-06-28T13:42:36Z")
I would begin by going back to 1997 and making myself get tickets to see Julie Andrews doing _Victor, Victoria_. I am **still** kicking myself for not doing that. Then I’d go on a whirlwind tour, including Le Petmaine, some opening nights at various Gilbert and Sullivan operettas (especially the original version of Ruddygore), a Sam Clemens lecture, P.T. Barnum’s circus before the death of Jumbo. I’d want to see the Lincoln Douglas debates, and see some lectures of the same era by Frederick Douglass. I’d also love to see if Nathan Hale actual said what he’s said to have said, or if he just had a good bit of post-mortem publicity. (Gah, that sounds awfully confusing, but I think you’ll know what I mean.) I’d want to see the Great Sphinx, after it was painted by the ancients. And before Napoleon used the nose for target practice. I’d especially love to see if it had orginally been lion-faced as some people believe, or if it was meant to be human faced all the time. I’d like to see the original showing of the Tiny Toons movie. All eight hours of it, with the questionaires, too. I want to be at a theatre when the WB short with Bugs and Elmer spoofing Wagner was first shown to an unsuspecting audience. I want to listen to Ben Franklin inventing the Glass Harmonica. Then, I’d end I think by trying to listen to Bach performing _Ode to Joy_. A fitting closure, I think. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/38 "2005-06-28T13:55:36Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > * * * > > Then, I’d end I think by trying to listen to Bach performing _Ode to Joy_. A fitting closure, I think. That’d be cool - Bach died in 1782 and Beethoven first released his 9th symphony (Ode to Joy) on May 7, 1824. (sorry for the nitpick. 😉 ) For me it’s Benny Goodman - Carnegie Hall - January 16, 1938 or Eva Cassidy. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/39 "2005-06-28T13:58:52Z")
> [@DeVena](#): > > That’d be cool - Bach died in 1782 and Beethoven first released his 9th symphony (Ode to Joy) on May 7, 1824. (sorry for the nitpick. 😉 ) D’oh! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119/40 "2005-06-28T14:01:47Z")
John Lennon Billie Holiday Janis Joplin …amongst others I suppose [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-you-could-turn-back-time-what-artist-would-you-see/310119.md?page=3)