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  • here are the Beatles.

  • Welcome to watch Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 most iconic music concerts.

  • Does it feel mhm?

  • How does it feel?

  • Take a load off Fanny.

  • Hell, I do, for this list will be ranking the most influential or otherwise stacked concerts and music festival lineups.

  • Did we miss any iconic moments in live music?

  • Sound off in the comments with a memorable concert moment of your own Number 10.

  • The US Festival.

  • September 3rd to 5th, 1982.

  • Apple co founder Steve Wozniak didn't just focus his energies on computers, as evidenced by his involvement bringing this three day music festival to San Bernardino, California in 1982.

  • Mhm, the US festival was presented in part as a reaction to what Wozniak saw as a period of self obsession during the 19 seventies.

  • The the lineup for the inaugural edition was brought together with the idea of promoting community activism and international relations during the Cold War and featured bands as diverse as the Ramones, Pat Benatar, Fleetwood Mac, Any Money and the Grateful Dead.

  • The US festival was a success, despite reports of violence and drug overdoses among some audience members, with a sequel featuring genre theme days of new wave, heavy metal rock and country being booked a year later, I look forward to the rest of the eighties.

  • Number nine.

  • Johnny Cash at San Quentin, February 4th 1969 Call this next concert, one that you'd love to see just not under the same circumstances.

  • That's because the audience in question for Johnny Cash on this record just happened to be prisoners at San Quentin Penitentiary, San Quentin Hate every inch of you.

  • The country icon was no stranger to performing in front of an incarcerated audience, as evidenced by Cash's other hit live album at Folsom Prison.

  • And the energy the prisoners give back to Cash is palpable.

  • Songs like a boy named Sue I Walk the Line and Folsom Prison Blues feed off the give and take between the audience and the performer.

  • Just like good live album should.

  • While the track San Quentin is actually performed twice at the crowds request Oh, to be a fly on the wall at this gig, I'd like to say a special hello to all the men here.

  • It's a prison that are not with us tonight that they couldn't couldn't get find a key to the door or something.

  • They couldn't let a bunch of them out here.

  • I wish every one of you could have been out here with us.

  • All you guys understand they're piping the show into you.

  • Number eight James Brown Saves Boston April 4th 1968 The week following Martin Luther King Junior's assassination was marked by historic riots and unrest in major cities such as Chicago and Washington, D C.

  • Boston was another major hub marked by civil unrest.

  • Yet this powder keg of potential violence was quelled by the godfather of soul himself.

  • James Brown.

  • You got to change your mind.

  • His show at the Boston Garden was broadcast on a local television station in an attempt to keep people in their homes while Brown himself got personally involved when fans and police clashed in front of the stage.

  • Wait a minute, wait a minute.

  • Let me finish.

  • Wait a minute, Everybody else.

  • Alright show was not only dynamite from a musical and performance perspective, but its cultural significance as a snapshot of American history cannot be overstated.

  • Number seven.

  • The concert in Central Park September 19th 1981.

  • Benefit shows are usually a great way to promote awareness or raise money for a good cause, but they're even more special.

  • When you managed to reunite a major recording artist for the event, my words like silent raindrops fell.

  • The concert in Central Park did just that with Simon and Garfunkel, who were booked to play a set of hits from their solo careers as well as their iconic 19 sixties collaboration.

  • The performance did not disappoint, either, despite the pears, old tensions rising almost from the get go.

  • Sometimes the most combustible relationships can create some truly affecting music, as evidenced by Art Garfunkel's definitive delivery of Bridge Over Troubled Water or Paul Simon's reworking of the classic Kodachrome.

  • For a live rock audience, it's pure performance.

  • Magic Number six Freddie Mercury Tribute show April 20th 1992.

  • The void left by Freddie Mercury's death in 1991 was immense.

  • For fans of rock icons, Queen life had just begun.

  • However, this tribute show, held a year later, did a great job at promoting AIDS awareness during a time where a lot of misinformation still existed in the public consciousness.

  • Yeah, I know that the lineup boasted an impressive mix of acts who offered up musical tribute to Queens work, including Metallica and Def Leppard, while Queen themselves headlined with a virtual Who's Who of guest vocalists The state Go on, I didn't cry Mhm, Axl Rose, Elton John, Robert Plant, Seal, Annie, Lennox, George, Michael and more all joined the band for a set that not only paid respect to Queen's music, but to Mercury's legacy as Rocks.

  • Undisputed master showman Anybody Number five Altamont Speedway Free Festival, December 6th 1969 Hey, man, I'd like to mention that the Hells Angels just a smashed Marty Ballon in the face and knocked him out for a bit.

  • I'd like to thank you for that.

  • Sometimes an iconic part of the rock festival experience, for better or worse, is an element of danger.

  • That frightening thrill of what could go wrong.

  • Mhm.

  • Yeah, Yeah.

  • While everything seemed to go wrong for the Altamont Speedway Free Festival in 1969 a perfect storm events that made the concert a turning point in American pop culture.

  • You're talking to me.

  • I'm gonna talk to I'm talking to you, man.

  • I'm talking to the people that hit my lead singer and talking to my people.

  • Many point to the shows, half hazard organization and violent clashes between audience members and Hells Angels security as the unofficial death of the sixties hippie ideal.

  • One member of the crowd, MEREDITH Hunter, was even attacked by Hells Angel Alan Passaro after drawing a gun during the headlining set by the Rolling Stones.

  • There's so many of you Just be cool down the front and don't push around.

  • The incident was caught on camera and released as part of the Stones documentary Gimme Shelter Were Splitting Manifest Cats Don't stop beating everybody up inside.

  • I want them out of the way, man, right?

  • I don't like you guys got a gun out and shoot one day.

  • Number four.

  • The Monterey Pop Festival, June 16th to 18th, 1967.

  • Speaking of the hippie ideal, a comparatively more optimistic tone is struck by the next festival on our list, a three day precursor to another famous rock concert will be getting to later.

  • You made my Monterey Pop was a hub where both fans and artists alike were exposed to exciting new musical voices, often for the very first time groups as diverse as the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Otis Redding, Ravi Shankar, Jefferson Airplane and Laura Nyro all brought their folk soul and psychedelic rock to a receptive audience, while Janis Joplin's performance of Ball and Chain went on to become the stuff of legend.

  • Whoa, whoa, whoa!

  • Is that if you're looking for a true document of the peace, love and music era of the 19 sixties, this is a great place to start the rollout and the trouble.

  • I tried the whole Number three Live Aid July 13th 1985.

  • It doesn't matter whether or not you view large scale fundraising festivals as a vehicle for social change or an excuse to get out there in rock.

  • No one could ignore Live Aid back in 1985 any young.

  • The festival's lineup was just too damn impressive, with performances from Queen U two and David Bowie being simple cast all over the world.

  • Mhm, mhm.

  • Sure, there was that impromptu Led Zeppelin reunion with Genesis drummer Phil Collins sitting in that's become somewhat, let's say, infamous.

  • Still, there's no denying that live Aid wasn't just a rock concert.

  • It was a moment in time when Bob Geldof's global jukebox for Ethiopian Famine Relief made just about everyone.

  • Sit up and take notice.

  • Mhm Number two Woodstock, August 15th to 18th, 1969 It's the de facto example of an outdoor rock festival.

  • The first thing that comes to the mind of many when they think of the sixties hippies and psychedelic rock Woodstock went beyond a mere three days of peace, love and music.

  • It became a definitive statement for a generation, a group of young people who were excited to break away from the traditions of Old and blaze, a trail for personal freedoms for music, sexuality and community.

  • And they couldn't have asked for a better soundtrack, with performances from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jimi Hendrix, Santana and Joe Cocker setting the stage for what would become one of the most famous concert experiences of all time.

  • No, no, no.

  • Before we name our number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

  • Pink Floyd, The Wall Tour Conceptual prog rock at its most grandiose Yeah, Elvis Presley is 68 Comeback special.

  • The king can still kill it.

  • I used to smoke, drink, and I used to smoke and drink.

  • Smoking, drinking, dancing.

  • Who?

  • Jake Led Zeppelin's first American tour, infamous for the debauchery as well as the music.

  • Mhm Led Zeppelin showed up, did an opening set that reportedly wild the crowd and set them on their path to stardom.

  • Monsters of Rock 1991.

  • Heavy metal Goes behind the Iron Curtain.

  • Mm, yeah, yeah Mm mhm.

  • Michael Jackson's bad tour The King of Pop dominates worldwide, I think.

  • Would you want I can make what more mojo sound?

  • Mojo brings you music from new and emerging artists in all genres from across the globe, from interviews to live shows and deep dives into music culture Sound Mojo has you covered.

  • Be sure to check out Sound Mojo to find your new favorite artists.

  • That's it, Yeah.

  • Number one.

  • Beatlemania at Shea Stadium, August 15th, 1965.

  • Here are the Beetle.

  • Beatlemania was officially here to stay during this landmark concert at Shea Stadium.

  • The band were on their second American tour and capitalizing on the momentum afforded to them by their iconic performance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

  • A Woman, a Woman.

  • This show was a landmark for the British invasions influence on American culture, and the excitement present here by the throngs of screaming fans is feverish to the point of madness.

  • Sure, the Beatles hadn't yet begun their experiments into psychedelic and progressive recordings, but it didn't matter.

  • Songs like Can't Buy Me Love, Hard Day's Night and Ticket to Ride might as well have been throbbing tribal dances for the rapturous Beetle faithful.

  • In this case, the old adage remains true.

  • You just had to be there.

  • Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  • Do you agree with our picks?

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here are the Beatles.

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