Comment is free .

Commenter Jabsco, in the thread below, raises a really interesting prospect:

That night would likely be my first period on the "If I had a time machine concert tour."

The "that" he refers to is the Roy Orbison Black and White night, which is a good choice. But if we had such a wayback machine, wouldn't we desire to see the big bands at their young, protean, muscular zenith?

I would.

My first choices would be, well, predictably predictable. You get to begin with the Beatles. But which Beatles? Shea Stadium.Maybe, just to learn what it was like. How about Hamburg or the Cavern: young, hungry, hopped-up rock'n'rollers?

Both are alluring but if I had to go with one, I'd probably need to see late 1963 dates in ABC ballrooms and Odeon cinemas across England, in towns like Stockton-on-Tees and Huddersfield. After Beatlemania first hit, in England, and before they were still known in the US. Here FYI is a complete listing of Beatles tour dates. They were busy lads (and, Jabsco, they toured with Orbison in '63). Following that November '63 tour would likely be my first choice, even if their set list did typically consist of only a few songs.

Second, I think I'd equally predictably pick the Stones in their youthful days. Sometime the next year, somewhere on the continent in Europe, when their gigs regularly produced rioting after about the fourth song and they couldn't work any more. I greatly look ahead to seeing what old Keith remembers of those years in his upcoming memoir.

There was apparently one night in the flow of 1963 when the Beatles and the Stones shared the card at Royal Albert Hall. Anyone know anything almost that? None of you was.you know.there, were you?

Third, I will markedly less predictably say that I'd love to have been present at the premier performance of Rhapsody in Blue at a long-gone concert hall in Manhattan in 1924, conducted by Paul Whitehead. The Whitehead recordings of Rhapsody are less to my taste than some others, actually; he did it as if wired on cocaine, and I choose the somewhat slower versions. Still, what a moment. That was one instance, I've read, where the interview just knew they were witnessing history and erupted in transport as the man ended.

A certain vicious compadre and I once visited a pharmacy in the tiny village of (I think) Rosedale, Mississippi, on whose porch Robert Johnson was reputed to get played many a time. I'd spin the car to one of those sultry summer nights. And yep, I like classical music too. The 9th and Fifth are more famous, but I especially love Beethoven's Sixth, so seeing that support in the day in Berlin or wherever would be up there.

This should give up a great thread, eh? Let's see what you got.