As a musician, Hendrix is at the top of my list of influences, and even though he only made it nine months into the 70s, I'm picking him first, because his influence was felt throughout the decade and to this day. After that, I think I would have to go Stevie Wonder, as I think his work through that decade was the best he ever did, just transcendent hit after hit, all while pushing the boundaries of music from multiple angles. Third is very tough. I could easily pick Zep or Sabbath, as they were important influences to many of the bands in the nineties that made me want to make music as a teen, and while I love both bands, I think I have to go with Pink Floyd because their songs mean more to me personally.

Skynyrd
Allman Brothers

Rush, aerosmith, heart, journey, skynard, zep, jimi, the doobies, VH, the who and Floyd. Great great decade for rock music. Still the majority of what i listen to today.

So many...The Who, Bruce, The Stones, Kiss, Seger....

Love the Eagles and Skynyrd. The older I get, the more I think Steely Dan were musical geniuses.

I would play the first two Boston albums and the first two Cars albums on my 8-track player over and over.

Some great rock-n-roll in the "70's for sure.

Van Halen. Zeppelin. The Who.

Not sure who I'd put as the fourth.
Edit: What was I thinking? The Stones

Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Allman Brother, Early Chicago stuff, Boston, Lenard Skynard, Bad Company, Rush, Pink Floyd, The Who...

Neil Young, Grateful Dead, Talking Heads

The man asked for top 2 or 3, not top 50.

That's the challenge.

Led Zepp and CCR for me. I'm sneaking CCR in under the wire even though they bridged late 60's/early 70's.

Marshall Tucker Band

Allman Brothers

The Dead, Hot Tuna (Jorma), Zep, Neil Young, and Allman Bros.

No AC/DC, or are they considered more on the 80's side?

Steve Williams said:

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Steve Videtich said:

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No AC/DC, or are they considered more on the 80's side?

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I thought about them but if I were including them, in my mind it would've been in the 80's.

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They were known, but didn't hit it big until Back in Black, which was 1980.

Pacfanweb said:

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Steve Williams said:

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Steve Videtich said:

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No AC/DC, or are they considered more on the 80's side?

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I thought about them but if I were including them, in my mind it would've been in the 80's.

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They were known, but didn't hit it big until Back in Black, which was 1980.

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The Bon Scott years were all in the '70's. Then Brian Johnson when Back in Black was released in August of '80. They put out some really good albums in the '70's. Powerage , Let There be Rock, H to H, other studio albums, and the live album If You Want Blood, You Got it.

Back in the '70's when I was in high school , when we had PE out on one of the ball fields, the teacher would let one of us pull our car around , open the trunk, and blast Highway To H on the 8 track player and those Jenson speakers, during outside PE class. Good times!

Eagles, Steve Miller Band, Heart, & Lynyrd Skynyrd

The way I see as when I was listening....of course times mix

Early 70's - CCR, Hollies, 3 Dog Night, Grand Funk Railroad, Steppenwolf, Rolling Stones

Early mid-70's - Bachman Turner Overdrive, Allman Brothers, Bad Company, Marshall Tucker, Foghat, Outlaws, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Eagles, Doobie Brothers, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd,

Mid-late 70's - Aerosmith, Kansas, Styx, Boston, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin (when I was listening to those earlier songs), Peter Framton, Steve Miller

Late 70's - Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, Nantucket

The Boss....I didn't really know his many great 70's songs well until the 80's....the same with Bob Seger; +many others....I can't do 2-3

ciscopack said:

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The way I see as when I was listening....of course times mix

Early 70's - CCR, Hollies, 3 Dog Night, Grand Funk Railroad, Steppenwolf, Rolling Stones

Early mid-70's - Bachman Turner Overdrive, Allman Brothers, Bad Company, Marshall Tucker, Foghat, Outlaws, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Eagles, Doobie Brothers, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd,

Mid-late 70's - Aerosmith, Kansas, Styx, Boston, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin (when I was listening to those earlier songs), Peter Framton, Steve Miller

Late 70's - Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, Nantucket

The Boss....I didn't really know his many great 70's songs well until the 80's....the same with Bob Seger; +many others....I can't do 2-3

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Damn dude, do I know you? I resemble the majority of that

Skynyrd
Zep
Bruce

Cisco, I was with you rocking some Nantucket. Saw them many, many times.

Eagles, Fleetwood Mac

If only 3, and what I was listening to at that time?

Stones, Kiss and probably Foreigner... Van Halen would definitely be in there (my personal favorite band of all time - not even close) but they didn't hit my radar screen until summer of 1979 when I "thought" I was going to a Boston concert at a little place in the State Capital called Carter Stadium - and VH ended up stealing the whole damn show... VH II had just come out and then I had to go backwards to buy VH (I) and then that was it. So I consider them more 80's...

Grew up an hour west of Raleigh and believe it or not the Greensboro market did not have any real or Classic Rock stations at the time (Rock 92 wasn't created until the second half of the 80's)... there was a station out of Roanoke that you could pick up sporadically, and we were right on the absolute edge of WQDR range (faded in and out in the middle of songs nonstop) so groups like Zeppelin we didn't really get exposed to them until there were already split up, but they would have definitely been one of my favorites... we did finally get WKZL out of Winston as a Classic / Hard Rock station in the early 80's but I was already at State by then.

Loved early, early Dire Straits... The Waterline still gets my blood pumping whenever I hear that intro...and pretty sure that Telegraph Road was one of the last few songs ever played on QDR when I was at State.

Appreciate Steely Dan way more now than I did back then. Could listen to them for hours now.

Same thing with The Cars (first two albums are by far their best, neither one of which got played in our radio market - but I had a brother in college that had the first album on 8 Track and I got a hold of it when he came home that summer, so I was well aware and ready when Candy O was released) loved that edgy style that no one else had at that time... the way the bass throbbed with the drums... it was different than anything anybody else had in those days.

Got to throw the Doobies and Fleetwood Mac in there... those songs are still classics.

Got a good dose of Eagles, ELO, Styx, Kansas, Queen, Heart, etc. on the Top 40 type stations we had available to us growing up but they were probably more in my late middle school / early HS timeframe... and always had a soft spot for the handful of Todd Rundgren tunes that made it onto the mainstream stations back then. *I know that probably makes me kind of a sap, but it's true.

Man, great thread...

VH at Carter Stadium

The first 4 albums by Van Halen are untouchable. No hard rock band has ever had their first 4 records be of such quality. Greatest hard rock band ever. Yeah, AC/DC is right there, but VH gets the nod for their greater versatility and musicianship.
There's a reason that VH is the #2 most-played artist on Classic Rock radio behind only Zeppelin.

Sad that they've done such a poor job...really they've done nothing at all, of building and nurturing their legacy. They simply go away for long periods of time the last 20 years, and return occasionally, and never do a thing to keep the fires stoked like other bands do.

Eddie is the most influential guitarist ever, IMO. Yeah, Hendrix is up there, but you never see someone do a technique Hendrix pioneered and folks say "He's copying Jimi". Everyone copies Eddie. Still a rite of passage today among young (and old) players to try and play his material.
But his influence is far more than his playing. His equipment....hardly a studio out there that doesn't have his amps. So many artists use his amps and guitars now that it's just mind boggling.
Hell, even Jimmy Page used one of his amps on a record in the 90's and raved about it.

Then there's the vastly underrated Alex. One of the greatest drummers ever. On That Metal Show, they had Mike Portnoy on and they had a list on their board of greatest rock drummers. He came out and they asked him what he thought of the list, and he went over and put AVH at the top. Dude has swing like nobody else.

Roth is the greatest frontman of all time. Not the best "singer" but frontman. Yeah, I know the last 10 years folks want to say Freddie Mercury...and he was great. But I'll take Roth, although I would put Freddie right there.
Queen is the best example of a band that has nurtured their legacy...they are bigger now than they were back in the day. They were never bigger than Van Halen when both were active, but guaranteed they're considered that way now, without having put out an album or done anything new in 30 years with Freddie.

Michael Anthony is also criminally underrated. Absolutely unmistakable backing vocals. Critical to the VH sound. If you don't think so, listen to any VH performance with Wolfgang Van Halen on backing vocals. He's good, but clearly not Mikey. His playing is also under appreciated....partly because Eddie wouldn't let him rip on the records...but listen to him with Chickenfoot. Joe Satriani said "Why didn't I hear this playing on VH records?" Dude can play anything, along with those backing vocals.

Greatest hard rock band ever. Yeah, I love them, lol

Awesome walk down memory lane. Lots of great bands at CF over the years!

Your pics?

Great pictures !! VH and Boston at The Carter. Dang we're getting old.

Civilized said:

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Awesome walk down memory lane. Lots of great bands at CF over the years!

Your pics?

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No, I found them years back.

Tootie4Pack said:

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Great pictures !! VH and Boston at The Carter. Dang we're getting old.

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Yep, Boston was the headliner. VH, Poco, The Outlaws.

I couldn't go, was in middle school at the time.

People came back saying VH blew Boston away.

Plus Tom Scholtz ripped off EVH's solo and there was bad blood, so VH was likely on fire that tour.

Yes! VH was young and cocky and Diamond Dave had that swagger. They kicked butt compared to Boston. Dave had a great interview in the N&O, said that they were young and could be one of the best bands for many years and they played kick ass rock and roll. He was right about part of that.

Pacfanweb said:

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Tootie4Pack said:

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Great pictures !! VH and Boston at The Carter. Dang we're getting old.

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Yep, Boston was the headliner. VH, Poco, The Outlaws.

I couldn't go, was in middle school at the time.

People came back saying VH blew Boston away.

Plus Tom Scholtz ripped off EVH's solo and there was bad blood, so VH was likely on fire that tour.

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Damn I had completely forgotten that The Outlaws were there... remember one-hit wonder Poco of course.

EVERYBODY came back saying VH blew Boston away.

*I still have that t-shirt tucked away up in a plastic bin (along with my Penthouse Carwash one from 1982 or so at State) in the attic somewhere. Went through some old college stuff during a house move in 1998 and made damn sure to keep those two (wife was trying to get me to throw as much stuff away as possible). They'll probably still be sitting in that bin whenever I finally die hopefully another 20-25 years from now. LOL.

Whoever it was who sang " Disco Duck".

There's been some good concerts at CF Stadium!

Tootie4 - I saw them maybe 8-10 times.

Went to an Eagles Concert probably 25 years ago at the Raleigh Amp and paid around $150/ticket for 4 tickets to sit at a table up front. We sat there for about 15 minutes and a police officer came up and wanted to see our tickets. We showed them and he said our tickets were forged. I asked him to show the difference in our tickets and the ones the people who were with him had and I looked at both carefully...there was no difference. He could see none either. I asked what makes our tickets forged and his not? No answer for that but he made us move to good seats in front of the crowd. I think it was an inside job by the other tickets holder or someone in ticket sales but I have no proof. Great concert however.

Just before going off to college at 18, my cousin called and said she had me a free ticket to the Elvis concert in Greensboro and I said sure. She had bought another cousin a ticket too....we had a group of around 12. We got there and I see they are high dollar tickets for 1976 (the year before Elvis died) at $18 each and they are on the 3rd row from the stage. Myself and my invited cousin are talking about 3rd row tickets and a man going in offered us $100 each. We turned to the cousin who gave us the tickets and she said, sell them if you want but you'll sit in the parking lot until we come our. It was really tempting for an 18 and 15 year old back then! We went in and we're glad we did....he still put on a show and when they say, Elvis has left the building, Elvis has left the building. 5th row in was roped off and we were with 3-4 nut female Elvis fans and I could talk none of them to go to the stage to get a kiss and an Elvis scarf....that's why the 1st 5 rows were roped off. I was not smart enough to save the stub and I bet those ladies wished they had listened to me today. My uncle wanted me to drive him and a rich dude home, so I got a free late night breakfast out of it too...well worth what I paid ($0); I enjoyed it.

Pacfanweb said:

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The first 4 albums by Van Halen are untouchable.

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Van Halen

Van Halen II

Women and Children First

Fair Warning

1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 - BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM - one right after the other, and released almost exactly one year apart.

Diver Down was pretty kickass as well, but you could start hearing the commercialization starting to creep in (but it finally got them plays on mainstream radio).

Saw that Fair Warning concert in the old Chrome Dome in Charlotte of all places... Then I saw their very first concert when David Lee Roth came back and Wolfgang's initial live appearance at the Cable Box in Charlotte, and man it was like they had never left!

I agree with every single thing you said in your post! Thanks for going into such detail, I really enjoyed reading it!

Pacfanweb said:

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Tootie4Pack said:

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Great pictures !! VH and Boston at The Carter. Dang we're getting old.

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Yep, Boston was the headliner. VH, Poco, The Outlaws.

I couldn't go, was in middle school at the time.

People came back saying VH blew Boston away.

Plus Tom Scholtz ripped off EVH's solo and there was bad blood, so VH was likely on fire that tour.

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They blew Boston away! Boston was a bunch of college grad musicians who liked playing and singing more than putting on a show....they didn't care for the show.

Scholz has remarked on the relationship with Boston's various record labels that "The [music] business would be a good thing, except that it's dominated by drug addicts and businessmen." In regard to the theme of Boston's Corporate America album, Scholz told the Sierra Club that "The thing that made me decide to break with previous albums and include an overtly political song was when I discovered that for the first time in American history big business owns the news media." He also stated that "The public has been sold a bill of goods about the free market being a panacea for mankind. Turning corporations loose and letting the profit motive run amok is not a prescription for a more livable world"

I'm going to lose my man card for this but in 1984 I took my ex wife to see the Bangles and Cyndi Lauper at Cameron indoor. Missed most of the bangles but Cyndi Lauper rocked from the minute she hit the stage till she left.

Saw VH at carter Finley and Reynolds in 1981.

Actually worked for Loverboy in 83. They had a band opening for them called Zebra. Fantastic group

Was never a huge VH fan, but went over to Reynolds in 84 to the VH concert with a group of students without tickets. We were outside on the student center side on the 2nd floor steps hanging out, hoping to sneak in. All of a sudden a girl on the inside opened the doors and about 6 or 7 of us ran in. Security was right there, on both sides. We were forced to run downstairs as that was the only escape valve. When I got downstairs, I was immediately escorted out of the building on the ground floor. 2 friends made it in, the rest of us were forced back out. So, I tell people I attended the concert, albeit for about 15 seconds.