orchiddoctor

Trying to blow fire--or at least hot air--into a fading thread. Favorite show? Favorite attended show? Objective on the first, subjective on the second.. My favorite: Damn, I had to ask that! 3-01-69 or 2-14-70 come to mind. Wonderful abandon, flying by the seats of their pants. The gigs are about a year apart, but reflect the growth of the band from psychedellic cowboys to melow tunesmiths with monster, slightly more controlled jams. Favorite show attended. I was at 2-14-70 (and yes, Owsley, there were two shows), and it was a scortcher. Everyone--I mean everyone, band included, was blown away. But my first show is my best memory. 1967 at the Cafe Au Go Go in New York. I had been exposed to the burgeoning counter culture by a few misfit friends, but listening to records and going into the belly of the beast were two different things. The Village was vibrant with discovery, ripe with potential, ready to ignite. And ignite it did. While Frank Zappa held court upstairs as the house band at the Garrick Theater, the grimy, scroffy Dead, led by the Pig, were something to behold. The Cafe itself was down a flight of stairs that were painted Jackson Pollack style with day glo. Oh, I had smoked marijuana for the second or third time (I was 15), so this was like entering some sort of new dimension. Then the amps cranked up and the boys took out their artillery and bombarded us with a noise that seemed as if it were some sort of alien blessing. I remember Viola Lee Blues in particular--seemed to go one well past the usual 2 minute 59 mark--and everyone dancing frantically in a tribal stomp. The room was relatively samll--Lesh describes it in his book. We actually--literally--felt the music slam into us like waves. Talk about yer epiphanies. I know that I was not alone in walking down the stairs, a curious middle class Manhattanite, and floating back up the stairs a few sets later, a born again hippie. Born again not just because of the music but because Captain Trips hung outside between sets smoking various substances and pontificating on the meaning of it all. And don't think that we didn't listen up.

Amen to that, bro.

To one and all: Have a happy and a safe Thanksgiving.

Agreed. Plus that bs cut in the Truckin'------Morning Dew where the let Phil hit a few bass notes to "end" the first part. To think that the whole piece is Truckin--The Other One--drums--Other One--Morning Dew--Other One--Sing Me Back Home. Obviously, that would have filled all six sides!! If any of en't heard the whole thing, by all means do so. Other songs/dates 4-08 Cumberland Blues 4-14 Brown Eyed Women 5-03 China cat--Rider, Tennessee Jed, Jack Straw 5-04 Sugar Magnolia 5-24 It Hurts Me Too, You Win Again From www.deadbase.com Lon, now they've got you where they want you. You are doomed to spend the rest of your days downloading endlessly! Nyah, nyah!

Interesting. Can't say as I've noticed the speed issue, but I've been listening to it since Fall of 1972! You can find out what shows the basic tunes came from and compare. If I find the time (ha!), I will look in Dwork's book and see if I can list some of them. Meanwhile, they are pretty much all available at speedingarrow.net, albeit in MP3. Like it matters to my older ears, I've found many of them--some recently upgraded on shnflac.net, gdlive.com, bt.etree.org, and dimeadozen.org. Are there any really bad shows from that run? But I would still jump on a box set.

Based on your enthusiasm, I gave this a listen over the weekend. Pretty spectacular, indeed! I had never heard a Brent show quite like this one. Looks like I am going to have to give post-78 a bit more attention. As much as I admire the post '73 years as having moments of excellent playing, I, too, could never get behind Brent. Like Dan, I was at that show; but unlike Dan, I was highly disappointed. Go to Heaven had just been released (if memory serves me well); I didn't like it all that much--except Althea. Mind you, I hadn't seen the band in seven years to boot. I went out of curiosity and because the fabulous Fox Theater is such a great venue--a restored histrorical theater--gorgeous. I think it holds only a few thousand people. Anyway, I had heard about the acoustic sets and hoped they would do one here. No such luck. They opened with Feel Like a Stranger--uggh. Disco Dead. I couldn't get into it. Still, the other 4,999 people did, so it must have been me! That was my last Dead show. I wish I could have enjoyed it more. Dan--was that you in the pit twirling? Okay: confession. I downloaded the tape a few years ago (I like to have the shows I went to), and it does have some fine moments. Yes, that SB---FOTM is great.

Look down a few clips for Hard to Handle--check Pig's shirt--and New Speedway Boogie, etc. Jerry looks so stoned on the HtoH as he picks up the lead and searches for the sound.

And now for some snappy breakfast reading: http://www.gratefuldeadmusic.com/ This be the new Rhino/Dead page with all sorts of useless stuff and sales pitches. Stay tuned. . . .

Vintage Piggers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz1okjsw560

Interesting, too, how Jerry used him in the JGB quite often. As for me, I got off the bus on 12-06-73, Cleveland Public Hall, with a 45 minute Dark Star that scared the f'''ck out of me. Just seemed to drift away at that point into all that "free" jazz. Coltrane, the AEC, especially Roscoe Mitchell. I guess that by that time, the Dead were playing arenas and the initmacy was fading for me. Probably my loss. Also---the release of "Steal Your Face" made me think the band really sucked by then.

Agreed. What I meant by Pig's psychedelia can be heard on songs like Viola Lee Blues--the really early workouts aroud 1966. That wild 60's organ riffing. And it is very pronouced on the early stuff. If you listen to old psychedellic bands like Country Joe and the Fish (listen to David Cohen on "Section 43", "Bass Strings"), you'll get that same sort of mysterious sound on their longer tunes. I guess that why they called it the San Francisco Sound. Of course on songs like "Empty Pages," you just want to cry with him. Either waya, that "Dark Star" riff was just plain annoying. Yes, Keith's downfall was heroin--that and his insecurities (like Brent). By mid 78, he was a stone around the band's neck.

I would probably be a lot more interested in the Brent years if there weren't so many great Keith shows available. I think that one of the most overlooked element in analyzing the Dead by period or style is the keyboardists. The proto-dead (65-68) is fueled by Pig's often minimalist organ work, a style that often lent itself more to psychedelia than blues. Constanten's work was definately trippy--kind of a churchlike sound that helped float the guitarists along; not a lead so much as a color fill. Still, nice, and it fit the early Dark Star format. Keith--well, now you're into a major change. Obviously jazzier, and the switch is from organ to acoustic piano. The man could play several styles, which was perfect, as the Dead were playing all sorts of stuff. His only negative side was, of course, Donna. The 72-74 Keith-dead and the 76-78 Keith-dead are also different as he changed his textures to meet the new format. Brent--well, Brent seemed to me to be more pop oriented, more into the melody than the previous keyboardists. Like Lon, I just don't like that sound. Sorry! Bruce added a beauty and texture to the melodics of the tunes and jams. Vince---beats me. But if you slice up their career, it seems to fall into segments which are governed by the given keyboardists.

Yeah, I remember seeing you there. Isn't the Fox a great place for music? I never did care for the Omni.

Dan: Download RealPlayer and choose the option to avoid the gap. On MP3, you will always have a split second gap--but that ain't bad. That Atlanta show you refer to--the last one I went to. It was at the fabulous Fox--Atlanta's premier place for music. Initimate, beautiful, great sound.

Yeah, man!!!!! Add the Chicago show from which the Phil Zone Viola Lee comes--the one where Owsley plays "What's Become of the Baby" over the feedback (4-26--I think it still streams on SugarMegs?--4-25 is on Zephyr). And the April Avalons . . . . . . and the . . . . . . . . . .

Ah, the days when the odor of cheap wine and piss filled the evening air, inviting you to float on down to CBGB. It's location was one of the seediest in town that was still, at the same time, safe. Just around the corner was Sam Rivers' great Studio Rivbea, the Tin Palace, The Ladies' Fort, and other centers of the new wave in jazz in the seventies. What a mix of people. Mohawks and late night sunglasses, a peaceful clash of cultures, if ever there was one. Patti Smith listening to Sunny Murray, David Murray trying not to get caught with his ear in the CBGB doorway. Ah, the energy. No--all gone, replaced by boarded up buildings, the light replaced with darkness. And Rivbea, I undestand, is now an S&M club. Oy!

Remember what slick Mick said: "It's only rock and roll, but I like it." I don't care much for some of these groups, but in the context of r and r, many of them are quite influential, and they certainly filled arenas with hungry audiences. Eddie VH. set the mark for lead guitar in his day--much as David Lee Roth set the mark for ass revealing spandex. Michael Stipe led the way for confessional rock, seminal in the eighties, and so on. Rock is a huge, multiheaded hydra of a monster. Groups you hadn' t heard of last week are suddenly superstars. Then you're only as good as your last hit--or next one. Remember, "it's better to burn out than to fade away." Or in Eddie's case, get hip replacement surgery. Every new Stones cd is their best in years. Rock is often a flash in the pan genre, one more easily manipulated by corporate interests and band interests in bucks, booze, and broads. The hall of fame is really just another self-serving device, much as the MTV awards or, as has been pointed out, the oscars. Don't get me wrong: I love all sorts of rock from the last 50 years. Elvis, Little Richard, The Beatles, the Stones, the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, the Clash, and, currently, Pearl Jam. But there's so much fluff. Anyone here gonna watch it?

I like the thrill of the chase. That, however, has been stifled somewhat by Google. It's all too easy to go to Gemm or Amazon or Ebay and look for sweet deals or used copies or for rarities. You could order fifty Coltrane cds in a half hour. Face it: an internet source doesn't have the same overhead issues as a brick and morter store and can special order through their own network. Anyone can list on Ebay. Still, I've had fun searching and waiting to find certains cds on line. But when I get home to New York, I can't wait to take the IRT down to Bleeker Street and hit the half dozen or so Indie stores. Touching all those plastic covered circles, fondling the wrappers, licking the labels, and knowing that this is acceptable is much more enticing than surfing for por--er, I mean cds.

Yes. he felt that it was the best thing he had done as a solo artist. Certainly better than Run for the Money--I mean Roses. It brings out the sweet side of Jerry. 1978--probably keith's last studio stand as well.

Palm Sunday

Reuben and Cherise!!!!

Snotty opinion seconded. "Mission in the Rain"?

What PigPen fans? This is a Vince board. Go on home, your mama's calling you.

BTW--is there a link for this?

At least it's a start . . . . And it's not a BAD concert . . . .