WOW, i agree 100% tonight i was playing a tribute to ac/dc and was loving every minute of it! i love music in general but rap ( well i do nont like)

Nostalgia holds a warm spot in my heart as well.  I first came of age back when the "Hippies/Freaks/Woodstock Nation" scene was only just starting to hit the small southeastern Oklahoma that I'm originally from.  Back then, young people in that area were slow to adopt it because this was a very re-necked and cowboyish environment.  But myself, my two brothers, a handful of cousins and some close friends from school were the first to embrace it.  We were persecuted to no end by law enforcement because they blamed us for "bringing that disease" into the fair city.  Truth be told, it was happening everywhere across the nation, and even the world.  And if it hadn't have been us, then it would have been somebody else, LOL!

But oh the music scene back then!  Damn!  I remember it the most.  It was like a Golden Age that appeared for awhile and then vanished.  It's hard for me to even fathom it now.  I recall myself and a couple of my buddies used to wander the downtown area with guitars strapped to our backs.  We would occasionally stop on a street corner and just play and sing until we got arrested.  It was truly something which had never happened in our sleepy little town before, and it has never happened again since that time period.  I just can't even imagine the same thing happening there again, even though the people today are far more tolerable and far less prejudicial than they were in those days.

In the early 70's, even a genuine Hippy commune sprung up southeast of town.  I never lived there myself, but I loved to hang out.  The guy that owned the land and founded the commune also ran a truck farming business.  He had a nice stand along the highway where he sold his fruits and vegetables.  I'd come by there occassionally, and I'd play and sing a couple of "veggie jingles" that I wrote for the guy.  Strangely enough, this had a very weird way of attracting customer's, because Hippies were still quite the novelty for most of the local people in those days (and I've never been able to attract anyone with my singing voice since then, LOL!).  I was offered a cut of the take for my "services" but I always flat refused it.  For one thing, there were so many other "fringe benefits" associated with just having this guy as a friend. 

Our truck farmer/commune founder friend had a few old camping trailers plus several hand-built wooden picnic tables staioned at one end of a very big watermelon patch he had.  I have the fondest memory of hanging out by that melon patch all night long with a bunch a great people and some beautiful lady friends.  There were be a whole lot of good singing, guitar strumming, flute playing, banjo plunkin', bongo thumpin', fiddle playin', tambourine shakin', and whatever.  Everyone was good at something.  Somebody hauled in an old broken down upright piano.  The keyboard was removed exposing the piano's harp and string structure.  People would play it more like a percussion instrument by banging on the exposed strings with wooden spoons.  I fondly remember many a magical and "chemically enhanced" nights down in the watermelon patch.  And during full moons, it was soooo surreal looking out over all those big bald melons and listening to all the laughter and weird music that was being played.  And not all of it was quite so "experimental" either.  We all played some very good songs together that kept getting better and better with time.  Plus, there were a few guys and several young ladies with very good singing voices.  What I would give to have a recording of some of these weird jam sessions.  Mmm, Mmmm.

I really do have many fond memories of those times.  It was always so polite and so peacable initially.  There weren't any fights or auguments....I'm serious!  Just true and natural and unhypocritical Love and Peace.  But sadly, this didn't last long enough.  When some of the local rednecks (that used to hate us, BTW) finally got their own taste of the homegrown weed and other herbal delights, they decided they liked it very much.  And so they gradually started infiltrating our ranks.  Well, the more the merrier is what I've always said.  But problem with these guys is that they were all still just plain Oklahoma rednecks at heart.    So eventually, we did start to see the occasional fist-fight and then the sucker punchin', and then the tire slashin'.  Eventually, all this bad karma and negativety had the tendency to attract the local law enforcement.  So faster than you could say "Good-bye watermelon patch!" our little Aquarian dream vanished into the hot, humid Oklahoma night air.  Well, true to the legend, all things indeed must pass.  Sad as that may sound.  But I'm glad that I was young and spirited during the very peak of that very time period, AND I got to enjoy it along with many very dear friends for at least a little while.  And I still treasure these Golden nostalgic memories, of which nothing but passing on can take away from me....  

Maybe it's just my age (born in 1960), but rock music (for me) peaked out in the 70's & the 80's.  There hasn't been a whole lot of great rock music produced in the last 10 years compared to 60's to through the 90's.

Man I might get a bunch of Shite for this but I hit my teens in the '80's. That was my Generation. I grew up with 2 older brothers so I got quite a bit of exposure to Skynyrd, Zepplin, Floyd, Hendrix, Sabbath, even early Priest etc.,etc;

But when i was about 11 in '79 my brother took me to a show with an opening act named The White which was Michael Whites band who had another band in '75 or so that were called The Boyz featuring a guy named George Lynch...that was '75 so Lynch has been around along time.(But I was only 7 in '75 so I never a saw The Boyz).

Anyway the band they opened for were Van Halen. So needless to say with 2 older guitar playing brothers & My 1st show seeing VH & the White I knew regardless of the outcome I wanted to be a musician.

Then the next show I saw was a couple years later @ Veteran's Memorial Coliseum here in Phoenix. Deep Purple opening for Uncle Ted! This is when the Iran Hostage crisis was going on so Nugent was not at a loss for words this evening. Once again I was blown out fo my shorts.

But then all these bands from L.A. & other places starting hittin hard! I was like a sponge & to this day have alot of useless trivia floatin around my my brain about this decade.

My brother brought home an album in April of '80 that sealed the deal. 'British Steel'!! compared to 'Sad Wings of Destiny' etc; it was night & day & that brought the '80's in with a face blistering a$$ stomp!  As we all know now they're not real technically hard songs to learn but, The shear power within that LP sealed the deal.

Sorry I'm rambling but I this is one forum that I feel I can

I'm going to say it now...I loved all kinds of METAL throughout the decade from Glam to Thrash & still do to this day!! there I said it. Yes I know there was a boatload of cheesey corndawg bands. But as a musician talking to fellow musicians if we could get past all the eyeliner, spandex & Aqua-Net, there really was some good quality & heart felt guitar playing hidden under there. I could give you a list of hundreds of bands but don't feel that is needed. I know Eddie VH opened the door with his technique & all respect to him for it. But imagine where Rhoads might be if he hadn't passed so very early or Hendrix for that matter. Anyway when it comes to music I'm relatively open minded except rap or any derivative of that. But Rock 'n Roll in what ever form is where my loyalty lays. Chuck Berry to Jimmy Hendrix, Jeff Beck to John Petrucci, Billy Gibbons to Uli John Roth, Alex Lifeson to Kirk Hammett. It goes on & on & I hope it never stops.

RAWK ON & Up The Irons brothers & sisters,

Bobby "DesertDweller" Locke

P.S. Below is a sample of the Time Warp I'm caught in.I call it the "Dungeon" This is The 3rd bedroom in our house that My lovely wife gave to me no questions asked knowing full well what I would do to it. The paint colors I chose are 'Music Note' &  ' Ink Blot' she bought the guitar border that wasn't cheap by any means, she got me the Motley Crue lightswitch cover during a trip to New York & even made me Music Note Curtains from scratch. I don't know if I'm blessed or spoiled but I'll take either one. It takes a special woman to let her 41 year old husband do this to a room.