Music Buffs

[alby]

I was driving through the DFW metroplex today listening to the Ticket and at around 5:30pm (The Hardline with Mike and Corby), there was a segment about the recycling of music, especially rock from the 60s and 70s. If you guys had the chance to listen to this, you know what I'm talking about.

Anyways, they went on to play a few songs that they felt greatly affected their lives, and these songs were special because they were each released many, many years before their time (Mike and Corby grew up in the 80s but the songs were from the 60s). References to Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and others were being discussed.

So, this got me to thinking about the different phases of music that I've gone through so far in my life.
From 0-12:
I just listened to whatever that my parents played in the car. I was too young to really love music or decipher between the different types of music, I just knew that my dad loved listening to stuff from where he came from and he enjoyed Santana because he played the guitar.
From 12-17:
I just went with whatever was "cool" at the time, as a teenager the main thing everyone was worried about in school was trying to fit in with the crowd. This should be considered the MTV era for me, I listened to pop music and alternative rock.
From 18-20:
As I grew older, and moved out of the house to start college life... I got into R&B, rap, and hip hop. This included West Coast rap, East Coast rap, Southern rap, pretty much the music that the clubs were playing at the time. Pretty normal for people this age.
From 21-today:
After two years of college in Texas, I trasnferred to a school in California to finish out my bachelor's degree. I honestly do not know what started it but I'm sure a huge part of it was because I missed Texas and all things Texans, but I started to get into country music... I know I know, what a drastic change from rap. Country was the only thing I listened to when I first moved to California, new stuff, old stuff, everything. I'm still a huge country fan today but I'm also a fan of every type of music. I don't like it when people answer to the question "what type of music do you listen to?" with "everything, except country." I was one of these people for the first 21 years of my life, until I gave it a chance and I quickly fell in love with the genre.

I am starting this thread for all the classic rock buffs out there: I dabbed into Journey and Hendrix for a little bit a few years back, but it never caught on like with the other musical phases that I went through... mainly because I was getting into country at the same time, so it was just too much to handle haha. However, I'm wanting to give the genre another chance to win me over. I mean, I love the classics and the hits that are common to everyone, I know those melodies and lyrics. But, I want to dive deeper into the music type.

So, if you have any suggestions of songs that I should listen to, please feel free to share them. I'm talking about stuff from Hendrix, The Beatles, The Doors, Clapton, etc. These can include all of the big hits like "Stairway to Heaven" or the hidden gems that aren't that well known, I just want to immerse myself into the rock music that was so prominent during this time period.

Thank you in advance!