I was too young to catch Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, we can see them perform even now. Seeing a concert in those days was the cat's own, well, you know. Nobody was recording with cell phones, just the crowd, watching the show, occasionally holding our Bic lighters in the air.

And there's nothing better in a big, live concert venue than a slammin' guitar rock tune. So here are five of my favorites - and with the exception of Jimi Hendrix, all from acts I've seen live.

Kansas: Carry On Wayward Son.  The studio version of this song, incidentally (and irrelevantly) is the ringtone on my personal phone for my best buddy from high school because we really loved this tune back in the day when we were barnstorming around back roads in northeast Iowa, kicking up dust and blasting the car radio as loud as it would go. But it remains a great song and probably the best song Kansas did - and the one they are best known for. Here's a live performance from Canada Jam in 1978.

 Lynyrd Skynyrd: Freebird. This was, back in my day, the #1 most-requested song at wedding receptions, because that's what irreverent little jerks we were. And, yes, when I married my first wife - I was 19, she was 18 - we got married at the Cedar Falls, Iowa city hall, by a buddy of mine's dad who was a judge. We had no money, so no honeymoon and no reception - but when we left the city hall, my best man, the buddy mentioned above, ran out ahead of us, stuck an 8-track in his car stereo, and blasted this at us as we walked outside. This cut is from an Oakland Coliseum show in 1977 (can you imagine a band flying a Confederate battle flag in Oakland today?) And it's a little sad to think that all those pretty girls in the audience are old ladies now. But then, I've got a lot of white hair myself. ZZ Top: Gimme All Your Lovin'. These guys never lost their touch. I liked a lot of their older stuff, but this 2013 show is such a great illustration of how Billy, Disty, and Frank still had it together and could still jam, even as old guys. We saw them around about 1980, if memory serves, and they still rocked in 2013 just like they did thirty-odd years earlier.Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze. Jimi died when I was nine years old, so I never had the chance to see him live - but I was gifted with an older brother, in fact, 13 years older, who had been a hippie back when the thing was first thought up. He's 75 now, and if you look at him today I promise you the first words to come to mind will be "old hippie." But he turned me on to a lot of great music, including Bob Dylan - and Jimi Hendrix.

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See Related: 

Start Your Weekend Right With 5 Great Rock 'n Roll Instrumentals

Start Your Weekend Right With Five Great Rockers Taken From Us Too Soon

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Led Zeppelin: Immigrant Song. In 1969, Led Zeppelin played the only show they ever played in Iowa, in Iowa City at the University of Iowa Memorial Union. My buddies and I were a little too young to see them that go-around, but we did manage to catch them in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1977. But as I recall (my memory is a little hazy, for a variety of reasons,) they didn't do my favorite - the Immigrant Song. But they did put that one on in Australia in 1972 - and it rocked. Note: The video is from Australia, but the music for this track is actually from the Long Beach Arena show that same year. It rocks either way.

There's nothing like a good guitar jam to get the blood pumping, is there? Have any favorites of your own? The comments, as always, are yours!