Return to site

At Seventeen...

· Music,Rock,Concerts,Teenager

At Seventeen… I’m not talking about the song by Janis Ian but this post is about music and being a life-long fan. I have a theory that even as our musical tastes develop and mature, most of us will retain a life-long affection for the music and bands that we loved when we were seventeen. I don’t know if it has to do with puberty or the senior year of high school or simple teenage spirit, but the bands I loved then will always spur an emotional reaction whenever I hear them, even decades later!

For me, it ranged from Aerosmith and Queen to Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead. I saw Aerosmith three times at Madison Square Garden. The first time, they were the opening band for Black Sabbath (OZZIE!) but after that, they were the headliner. Aerosmith just announced a residency in Las Vegas! I guess they’re young enough to still rock but old enough to not want to travel.

I saw Queen just once at the Beacon Theater in NYC and Led Zeppelin at Madison Square Garden in their 1977 North American tour. Finally, throw in Meatloaf and Billy Joel. Meatloaf’s iconic Bat out of Hell album was released in September 1977 when I was 16. I saw him less than a year later on August 26, 1978 when I was seventeen. For the record, that was 40 years ago. What song can possibly be more appropriate to a seventeen year old that Paradise by the Dashboard Light? Unless it’s Billy Joel’s Only the Good Die Young?

This was the music of my youth which I will always love.

What was yours?