So, look.

We know the songs that came out when we were teenagers aren’t the only songs that matter. When we were children, we listened to our parents’ music, and the radio stations. When we started discovering music on our own, we reached for currently popular rock music, but back to older music as well, delving deeper into some of the artists our parents had introduced us to, and greedily exploring everything they had kept from us.

We listened to oldies and classic rock radio stations, and we knew which artists would merit their own dedicated chapter, or at least chapter section, in the history books of twentieth-century music. We wondered if our teachers, our parents and their friends had ever seen the Doors, or Joni Mitchell, or the Beatles, and if they had, whether they had known that they were witnessing the history of rock being written. We burned with envy when we heard older relatives, or older colleagues, or older friends, tell stories of seeing these songs performed live in their youth. We’ve watched footage from the concerts and festivals, and listened to the live recordings, and fantasized about what it must have been like to stand in front of mythical figures playing legendary songs with their own hands.

We can’t help but wonder if any of the bands that we have loved, bands that we have seen playing in tiny clubs or on famous festival stages, will make Kieran wish he were there and want to hear the stories over and over.

We wonder if he’ll hear us mention seeing some band or other perform live, and wonder if we knew that we were watching history happen, like we would if someone told us they had seen Hendrix at Woodstock or the Ramones at CBGB.

(You know what? Sometimes, yes, we absolutely did know.)

These are some of the songs that came before our time and paved the way for the rock scene as we came to know it. Maybe you’ll go down rabbit holes and follow obsessions with some of these artists like your parents did, listening to their full catalogues before digesting the lore behind them along with every band member’s life story. Whatever the depth of your engagement, though, we hope that you enjoy and appreciate them.