In the 70s:
NEU!
Miles Davis
Can
Willie Nelson
Emmylou Harris
- Like Smapti and EinsteinsHund, The Who - Live at Leeds (1970)
- Stones 1969 tour (let’s go with one of the MSG shows that comprise most of Ya-Yas) Whack-a-Mole included a show from this tour.
- Jethro Tull – a show from the 1978 tour (Bursting Out)
- Keith Jarrett Trio at the Village Vanguard, 1977 (Nude Ants)
- Sam Cooke at the Apollo (eponymous album - 1960, maybe?)
Honorable mentions include Grateful Dead (Europe '72), and any performance from the wonderful Fox Hollow folk music gatherings in upstate New York (two miles from the Massachusetts border) in the mid 70s – my fondest childhood memories. In the case of Fox Hollow, I’d be going back in time to a concert I did attend. If I had to pick one act, maybe go with Sukay, or else Gordon Bok.
The first pop music concert I ever attended! I was eleven. Thanks, Mom!
Nobody’s interested in me the premiere performance of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring?
Or The Playboy of the Western World?
Or Tennessee Williams’s The Rose Tattoo?
It might be interesting to see what upset the audiences so much that they felt the need to riot.
Laurette Taylor in the Glass Menagerie
Edmund Kean as Shylock
Richard Burbage as King Lear
Babe Ruth’s called shot
5th still open
That was fast!
Benny Goodman’s Carnegie Hall Concert in 1938
The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, when Bunny Berigan was his trumpet player, on a night when they performed “Marie” (Berrigan’s solo begins at 1:43, and will make your jaw drop!)
King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band, circa 1923, when Louis Armstrong was playing second cornet.
I’ll think about the others.
Good choices. With the Last Waltz concert you get a turkey dinner!
I would add May 7, 1824 - the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth
The piano duel between Franz Liszt and Sigismond Thalberg in 1837 at the Paris salon of Princess Belgiojoso. The two were considered the top pianists of their day. After the intense performance, the princess delivered her famous verdict: “Thalberg is the greatest pianist in the world, but Liszt is the only one.”
The premiere of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony took place on May 7, 1824, in Vienna’s Theater am Kärntnertor. It was Beethoven’s first public concert in 12 years, and although he was completely deaf by this time, he conducted the orchestra. It was a profound moment in music history.
Mozart’s performance on March 23, 1783, at the Burgtheater in Vienna. Mozart stunned audiences by premiering two of his piano concertos (No. 13 and No. 14 ) while conducting from the piano. This performance showcased Mozart’s incredible genius and ability to blend precision with playful brilliance. It was an astonishing display of his unmatched genius that left the audience in awe.
Pink Floyd’s performance at their 1990 concert at the Berlin Wall , known as The Wall – Live in Berlin . Floyd performed in front of hundreds of thousands, transforming the once-symbolic wall of oppression into a celebration of freedom.
The premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey took on April 2, 1968, at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C. The film’s groundbreaking special effects, minimalist dialogue, and philosophical depth left audiences awestruck.
#1
Can’t argue with you there.
#2 - Dr Feelgood in their pomp. This one would do fine.
#3 - Oasis, first Glastonbury appearance. That morning they were an interesting prospect; the following morning, arguably the hottest property on the planet.
#4 - Lenny Bruce in his pomp
#5 - Dusty hosting the Ready Steady Go! The Sound Of Motown TV Special, 1965 TV recording
j
With Playboy at least, I think we know what we would have seen and heard – there are multiple eyewitness accounts of the performance, and we know which line sparked the rioting. The real question is “why the heck were people so triggered by hearing a character talk about underwear in a comedy?” and I don’t know that seeing it happen would help to answer that question, especially since they themselves might not have known why. (Most of the explanations given at the time were along the lines of “this is coarse and an insult to Irish womanhood” but there was clearly something way more complicated going on that involved the intersection of nationalism, social class, and gender, and lots of competing theories about exactly what that “something” was.)
YouTube has several videos of dancers performing The Rite of Spring with what they claim is something pretty close to the original costumes and choreography. I don’t think I would have rioted, but I do think it would have been the last time I ever paid good money to see a Stravinsky work.
Sheesh, I phrased that poorly. I meant that three years later she married him.
And if I could only make one time travel trip, it would be to see those two in their youth. Christmas Eve, 1923, McFarland Kansas, the Lutheran Church. It was her first visit to church, when she was nineteen. Grandma told me she didn’t understand anything because it was all in German. When they married it was secret for almost a year, as she wanted to keep her job as a school teacher. Grandma could visit him in Topeka and they would go to a hotel. She once said “I stilll remember the way those desk clerks would look at us.” She was baptized and confirmed after the marriage became public.
The Doors when they were just starting out.
If we are including sporting events I would love to go back to March 2, 1962 in Hershey Pennsylvania to watch the basketball game where Wilt Chamberlain set a record by scoring 100 points–it was NOT televised and there is NO video of the event.
- I join you gladly over at the University of Leeds for a SD-cluster (and watch me go crazy on Magic Bus)
- I also invite you over in august 72 for the for the Made in Japan Concerts
- Keith Jarrett playing piano in Köln in 75
- Stan Getz/Astrud Gilberto Live at Carnegie Hall in 64
- Early May 45 at the Führerbunker
plays? id love to see an original performance of Julius Caesar at the Globe and maybe one of his comedies
any night at Max’s Kansas city or cbgb from about 75-80 …
The Guns n roses/Metallica concert in SD I didn’t get to go to …seeing ice-t/body count as an opener would of been nice too
heck I could add tons more
Some good choices here. I’m not sure what mine would be but they would probably involve Bach and Ella Fitzgerald.
I do feel kinda like one of the choices I would make I actually did get to see! That being Arlo Guthrie performing Alice’s Restaurant in the early days.
Wikipedia tells me that the song debuted in 1967. Guthrie performed it on behalf of Fred Harris back in the 1972 election. I got to sit in the front row of a tiny theatre (or maybe it was a church or town hall, I can’t remember now) in Manchester, NH.
I don’t think anyone in the audience (which was, surprise surprise, modest in size) had heard the song before - I certainly hadn’t. And there was Arlo Guthrie, still a young man, just a few feet in front of me, singing that he didn’t want a pickle! Captivating.
Dylan goes electric at Newport
Robert Johnson in West Helena
Woody Guthrie playing for the Okies in California
The Who at Leeds
Captain Beefheart when Ry Cooder was part of the Magic Band
I note that a lot of these live performances were recorded on vinyl, so we can get an impression of what the concert sounded like. I’d like to see the Live Stiffs Live tour from 1977, and Frank Zappa’s tour from the Roxy and Elsewhere double album. A complication is that these recordings were made at several different venues, but I’m sure any of the performances would be pretty good.
Another live performance I’d like to see would be Soft Machine playing Facelift from 1970.
And on a completely different note, the Rite of Spring would have been an entertaining ride back in 1913, although maybe @mbh has a point.