What Past Performer Would You Like to See in Their Prime? [VIDEOS]

If you could go back in musical time to see any performer, who would it be?

Imagine you have a time machine, and you can go see anyone, anytime, throughout the history of music. Who would it be? What band or singer do you wish you had been alive to witness? Or, if you were alive but didn't make it happen, who do you wish you could have seen?

There are so many on my list, I would honestly have a lot of trouble picking just one.

I do have a pretty solid short list, though.

1
The Beatles
It could have been cool to see them working on their chops in Hamburg, Germany in the early 60's. Those were the Pete Best days, and they did mostly covers.
The ultimate shows would have been as they were maturing into the band that would create the revolutionary sounds that would come from Revolver, Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper's and the eponymous or White Album. If I had to pick one moment in Beatles history for which to use my imaginary time machine, it would either be the 1964 Ed Sullivan show, or one of their late Cavern Club midday shows, that they quickly became to big for.
2
Queen
Autotune was invented to make everyone sound like Freddy Mercury and Michael Jackson. The vocal quality this man brought was beyond anything just about anyone has been able to accomplish since.
3
Michael Jackson
He was the world's greatest performer. No one could sing as well. No one could dance as well. Yeah, Prince was great. Lionel sang great songs. But Michael gave his soul to music since he was 5 years old. He wanted everything he did to be bigger than the last. That meant that by the time he was in his 20's, he could do it all, and he could do it better than anyone ever had.
4
Nirvana
Mutt Lange, who produced Nirvana's album Nevermind, said that Kurt Cobain was a pop artist. I was the generation that loved Nirvana, and their dirty, grungy sound was anything but pop to me and my friends. However, that's the beauty. They were making pop songs, it just so happens that we needed our pop songs to be much filthier than the clean neon, frosted tips and makeup of the 80's. I'd love to go to a dark, dank, basement show that Nirvana played in 1991 or 1992.
5
Woodstock
It's not an artist. It's a moment. It is the moment. In a time when things were sideways, the country turned to a small hamlet in New York state and tried to affect change through music. It was a muddy, mucky mess of hippies, hair, free love and psychedelia. If you listen to the recordings, some of the music doesn't sound that great, but if I had a time machine, I'd be right there.

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