Very random thought - the Beatles...
I was born in 1974 - too young to have been there when the Beatles were huge in the 60s. By the time I grew up to the point where we could understand who they were and what they did, they'd been broken up for 20 yrs and had reached this mythical status that few people ever do. They were a bunch of old guys that were huge a long time ago.
My point? I was listening to Sgt Pepper's tonight while working. Even if you're not a fan, you have to admit that it was an album of such significant impact that rock music was never the same again. So I read a little about it on Wikipedia... released in 1967... hmmmm... these guys were born in the early 40s... wait a sec...
Holy crap. They were (avg) 25 years old when they wrote this album. Twenty-f**king-five. For some reason I always had this sense that they were older than that during their prime. I have no idea why - I guess because they looked older (I think its the mustaches), and you just assume that achieving as much as they did just takes time. They just had to be in their 30s, maybe even pushing 40.
Nope. 25. Hell, when they broke up in 1970, none of them were even 30 yet. Now, think of where you were and what you were doing at 25, and compare. I bought house in the suburbs and a Toyota Camry. Paul and John wrote the greatest album of all time.