From: "Mark Eichelberger" <markeichelberger@verizon.net>
> All of which is nice...but my question was really directed at those who 
> were not old enough to have experienced Beatlemania as it was happening. 
> I was really trying to get an idea of a band or artist from the 70's, 80's 
> or later that had as strong an impact as the Beatles, the Kinks, or the 
> Who, etc. obviously had on you.

Damn, and I had a great answer. I'll be hangin' with Marty in the bummer 
tent until a less discriminating question comes along. :)

b

ps - but if you really want to know about the 70s, and you won't count the 
Kinks because they started too early, I'd have to say John Hiatt by a nose 
over Graham Parker and Elvis Costello. But as much as I still like all three 
of those, I think youth is usually when music gobsmacks you the hardest. I 
lived vicariously through the words of Ray Davies, and still do - as much as 
I loved the Beatles (and the Stones even more so), The Kinks were the real 
soundtrack in my life. And I'm glad to say that I can still get walloped by 
something like Ian Hunter's "Read Em And Weep" even at my (and his) age.