Like many people I suppose, my early teens were not the happiest of times. Only when you're old enough to earn some money at the weekends and have a social life do you get to escape the watchful eye of your parents and enjoy yourself.
I was brought up in a fairly strict, not particularly happy, but stable family in Hounslow, West London. And having an older brother (by 2 years) meant that I was always jealous of what he was getting up to. It also meant that I was expected to follow in his footsteps, which caused quite a bit of rebellion over the years.
Anyway, I was born in 1958, so The Beatles were the soundtrack to my early youth - I never was much of a Stones fan - but I've told that story in another thread. The early 70's were a time of experimentation for me musically. At 13 I was into Pink Floyd, Yes, and King Crimson. I was never a Bowie fan then, for some reason. The whol glam rock thing never really got to me (except for T-Rex's Electric Warrior album).
Then I moved onto more 'intelligent' stuff! Caravan, Gong, and Hatfield And The North. And I'm still a big fan of all three today. Other groups such as Can, Nue, and Faust occasionally punctuated that.
It was a good time musically. New sounds were coming all the time, as I suppose 'rock' music was still fairly young at the time. I guess that's the reason why many of us 'old 'uns' are so eclectic in our tastes.
Then when I was 18 along came punk to blow the cobwebs away (as they like to tell us). I remember going to see bands like The Jam, Elvis Costello, The Stranglers, and The Damned for practically nothing at seedy little venues across London. One day you'd see a band you'd never heard of, and the next they'd be in the charts. Now we have MySpace for that. Where's the fun?
They were good times, mostly, and I miss them. Not because I miss being 18, but that kind of scene doesn't exist now. And somehow, watching bands on the Internet just doesn't float my boat!