Before money. Before power. There was great music. - by Joseph Aquino

Before commercial real estate. Before forty years of negotiating luxury retail deals across Manhattan. Before the boardrooms, the headlines, and the business world...there was music.

I grew up during what many believe was the greatest era in rock and soul history.

Long before Spotify and YouTube, you had to earn your music. You stood in line for tickets. You listened to WNEW-FM hoping your favorite song would come on. Every Friday from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., Scott Muni would play the newest hits from London. That’s when I heard Mark Bolan’s T-Rex play “Get It On,” which was retitled in the U.S. as “Bang a Gong - (Get It On)” for the first time...Albums were treasured possessions. Every concert was an event, and every ticket stub became part of your life story. I still have most of mine, with my friends’ names scribbled on the back.

My journey began with Grand Funk Railroad at Shea Stadium in the summer of 1971.

Not quite yet 16 years old.

I had no idea where life would take me.

Five years later, I would be living in Manhattan’s gritty George Washington Hotel while selling pots and pans and later watches door-to-door. My boss a former heroin addict on a city methadone program who became one of the greatest sales teachers I would ever know. Every day was an education in survival.

Just a few blocks away stood the legendary Chelsea Hotel. CBGB and Max’s Kansas City were launching musicians who would redefine rock forever. Robert De Niro was filming Taxi Driver. Al Pacino had just completed Dog Day Afternoon. Keith Haring was attending the School of Visual Arts. Dee Dee Ramone would eventually call my hotel home.

I didn’t realize it then...

I was living in the middle of one of the greatest cultural explosions in New York City’s history.

Music wasn’t background noise.

It was everywhere.

It became the soundtrack of my life.

Recently, I sat down and made a list of nearly every concert I could remember attending over the past five decades. Yes, I must have missed a few.

Looking at it brought back a flood of memories.

The Soundtrack of my life. Here are most of the groups I enjoyed. 

Gaelic Park (last stop on the 4 or 5 train to the Bronx, huge ball field): Allman Brothers Band (with Jerry Garcia performing “Whipping Post”), Argent, Blue Öyster Cult, Deep Purple, Flash, Jeff Beck, and Rush.

Shea Stadium: Grand Funk Railroad, and Paul McCartney.

Madison Square Garden & Felt Forum: Barry White, Billy Joel (three times), Carole King and James Taylor, Cream, Dire Straits, Edgar Winter, Elton John, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Eric Clapton, Hot Tuna, Humble Pie, J. Geils Band, Jethro Tull, Leon Russell, Moody Blues, Poco, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Sting, The Who, U2, and Yes (four times).

Beacon Theatre: Allman Brothers Band, and Squeeze.

Radio City Music Hall: Al Green, Doobie Brothers, Marvin Gaye (twice), Sarah Brightman, and Stevie Wonder.

Roseland Ballroom: Blondie, and David Bowie.

B.B. King’s Blues Club: B.B. King.

Academy of Music: Alice Cooper, and Black Sabbath.

Schaefer Concerts – Central Park (tickets: $2.50 a piece): Mandrill, Mountain, and Procol Harum.

Central Park Bandshell: Jefferson Starship, Richie Havens, and Sha Na Na.

City Winery: The Yardbirds.

Las Vegas: Barry Manilow, Celine Dion, Cher, Elton John, and Rod Stewart.

Brooklyn – Barclays Center: Katy Perry, Madonna, and Rod Stewart.

Nassau Coliseum Nassau: (No one had a car; we took the L.I. Railroad): Jethro Tull, and Moody Blues 

Looking back, I realize these concerts were much more than entertainment. They marked different chapters of my life. The songs changed. The venues changed. New York changed. And somewhere along the way...so did I.

Those experiences eventually became part of Memoirs of a Watch Salesman: A New York Real Estate Story. While many people think it’s a business memoir, it’s really the story of growing up in New York during one of the city’s most unforgettable eras — a time when music, neighborhoods, entrepreneurs, dreamers, artists, and hustlers all collided to create something magical.

I’d love to hear from you. What was your very first concert? Maybe together we can recreate the soundtrack of an entire generation.

Joseph Aquino is president of JAACRES, Manhattan, N.Y.