# Which musical performance would you travel back in time for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033 "2016-04-24T21:47:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Donegal\_Dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Donegal\_Dragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donegal_Dragon)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/21 "2016-04-25T13:54:13Z")
October 1951 Billie Holiday and Stan Getz at Storyville ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/22 "2016-04-25T13:57:46Z")
#1 would probably be a Beatles gig at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg in 1961, or their show at the Litherland Town Hall on Jan. 5, 1961 (first show in Liverpool after returning from their first stint in Hamburg). I would also be very interested in seeing the Mothers at the Garrick Theater, or the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, or one of Kesey’s Acid Tests. (What I might like best would be to be a fly on the wall in Sun Studios the day Elvis started playing “That’s All Right”… but that gets into a whole other category of event.) ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/23 "2016-04-25T14:11:23Z")
> [@cjepson](#): > > #1 would probably be a Beatles gig […] at the Litherland Town Hall on Jan. 5, 1961 (first show in Liverpool after returning from their first stint in Hamburg). I came to this thread to post the same thing (though the “homecoming” gig at Litherland was actually [December 27, 1960](http://www.beatlesbible.com/1960/12/27/live-litherland-town-hall-liverpool/).) Either that, or a show from Pink Floyd’s original (and very limited) tour of The Wall. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/24 "2016-04-25T14:36:09Z")
I would have liked to have seen Queen or, specifically, Freddie Mercury. Since I get to pick a whole concert, then I choose Live Aid because that means some other great acts get thrown is as well. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/25 "2016-04-25T15:43:17Z")
I’d love to learn what tune the Psalms were originally set to. So I guess I’d be listening to David and his lyre. I hope I can bring along a recording device, or at least a scholar of ancient Hebrew. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/26 "2016-04-25T15:55:00Z")
The first performance of Haendel’s _ **Music for the Royal Fireworks** _, where everything caught fire and burned to the ground. The first performance of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in Vienna. ---
**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/27 "2016-04-25T15:55:16Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > I would have liked to have seen Queen or, specifically, Freddie Mercury. Since I get to pick a whole concert, then I choose Live Aid because that means some other great acts get thrown is as well. Yes! Freddie Mercury/Queen at the Live Aid concert would be my first choice, too. Second would be one of those private spontaneous Prince concerts, and third would be the free concert by Simon and Garfunkel in Central Park. And I would like front row seating, of course. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/28 "2016-04-25T17:06:31Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > May 29, 1913 Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” debuts in Paris… This would be my pick as well. Easy choice, since I already did see the Beatles in August 1965. If the Time Travel LSDP were already sold out, I’d settle for any performance by one of these… - Duane Allman - Art Tatum - George Gershwin ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/29 "2016-04-25T17:50:37Z")
I might want to check out one of those few concerts where The Jimi Hendrix Experience opened for The Monkees. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/30 "2016-04-25T18:34:09Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > I came to this thread to post the same thing (though the “homecoming” gig at Litherland was actually [December 27, 1960](http://www.beatlesbible.com/1960/12/27/live-litherland-town-hall-liverpool/).) Thank you for the correction and the link! ---
**Author:** ![Barrett\_Bonden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5e9695/32.png) [@Barrett\_Bonden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barrett_Bonden)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/31 "2016-04-25T18:44:54Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I wouldn’t turn down a ticket to the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth either. This was my first thought. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/32 "2016-04-25T18:46:42Z")
The Doors, just before they hit it big. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/33 "2016-04-25T20:44:02Z")
[Duke Ellington at the Newport Jazz Festival, 1956](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellington_at_Newport). ---
**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:** [April 25, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/34 "2016-04-25T23:09:57Z")
Also . . . the premiere of Gershwin’s \*Rhapsody in Blue \*in 1924, especially since Gershwin improvised much of the piano solo, and didn’t write it down until after the concert. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/35 "2016-04-25T23:54:00Z")
Can I say the night the Beatles jammed with Elvis at Graceland? I know it wasn’t technically a “performance,” but what the hell. To be a fly on that wall! ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/36 "2016-04-26T00:28:33Z")
How far back do I have to go? Because I’d like to see **Hamilton** , along with everybody else, so tickets to its premiere. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/37 "2016-04-26T00:41:43Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. Although I probably couldn’t hear them over the sound of all those screaming teenage girls. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/brwmLjD-3Hw/maxresdefault.jpg "1963 TV Concert: 'It's The Beatles' Live") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brwmLjD-3Hw) LOL! I found it ! ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/38 "2016-04-26T01:10:52Z")
Any of King Crimson’s 1972 tour dates with the almost-psychotic Jamie Muir. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/39 "2016-04-26T02:18:38Z")
Alice Cooper on their 1973 Billion Dollar Babies tour. And I’d like to have been about 19, hot and with a front row ticket. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033/40 "2016-04-27T07:49:08Z")
It’s time travel. Time travel. I’d time travel back to any concert at all. I mean, time travel. I’d be so amazed by that that I likely wouldn’t notice the concert. anyway honestly. If I got a second trip I would likely see Pink Floyd on their original Wall tour. I wen’t to college with a guy who had been a roadie on that tour and that would be my chance to hangout backstage at a Floyd concert. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-musical-performance-would-you-travel-back-in-time-for/753033.md?page=3)