17 Years Ago...

Brent Mydland passed away.

As I have said before, he was my favorite keyboardist for the Grateful Dead(all due respect to Pig, Keith,TC, Bruce, and Vince).

I can remember hearing that he died and my heart kind of breaking. I remember listening to "I Will Take You Home" and crying a bit. It was just so sad.It did break my heart.

I don't want to go on and on and get all maudlin, i just wanted to acknowledge the anniversary of this very sad day.

Here's a link to Brent's final show with the band.

http://www.archive.org/details/gd90-07-23.sbd.oconner.7612.sbeok.shnf

R.I.P. Brent, I hope you found some peace, brother. I do miss you.

Happy Birthday, Keith !!

I'm a day late, but better late than never, I have always heard.

Keith Godchaux would have been 59 on Thursday(He died on July 23rd, 1980). He was the piano player for the Grateful Dead from 1971 until 1979.

I think there are people that love his playing, people that hate it.

I'm sort of in the middle. I definitely dig the sound of the piano, but it is a bit limited as well. I love his playing on U.S Blues(one of my favorite Dead tunes- Sorry, Jen), and I love a lot of his live playing. However, I am a big Brent fan, and I do like the versatility he brought when he joined the band. I often think it would be great to have been able to have PigPen, Keith and Brent all play together- that would be a hoot. Perhaps that's going on upstairs somewhere.

I would also like to add that I kinda like Keith's one vocal contribution to the band "Let Me Sing Your Blues Away" from Wake Of The Flood.

Happy birthday, Keith.

Happy Birthday, Anthem Of the Sun !!

Anthem Of The Sun was released on this date, 39 years ago.

Track List for the 2003 Reissue

1."That's It for the Other One" – 7:40:
"Cryptical Envelopment (Garcia)
"Quadlibet for Tender Feet (Garcia, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, Weir)
"The Faster We Go, The Rounder We Get" (Kreutzmann, Weir)
"We Leave the Castle" (Constanten)
2. "New Potato Caboose" (Lesh, Petersen) – 8:26
3. "Born Cross-Eyed" (Weir) – 2:04
4. "Alligator" (Lesh, McKernan, Hunter) – 11:20
5. "Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)" (Garcia, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, Weir) – 9:37

Bonus Tracks
6. "Alligator" (live) (Lesh, McKernan, Hunter) – 18:43
7. "Caution (Do Not Stop on Tracks)" (live) (Garcia, Kreutzmann, Lesh, McKernan, Weir)-11:38
8. "Feedback" (live) (Grateful Dead) – 4:01
9. "Born Cross-Eyed" (single version) (Weir) – 2:55

Again, this is not one of my favorite Dead records. It's kinda cool, and the fact that they melded studio and live material together is groovy, for sure, but it's not a disc I give a lot of spins. Which is not so much a knock on it, but more a personal taste thing, I think.

It is the first record with Tom Consanten on it, and it is the recording session that produced the somewhat legendary request for the sound of "thick air" by Bobby, which I believe is mentioned in Phil's book(Searching For the Sound).

I'm not going to pretend that I know a lot about the recording techniques or anything else, so I will keep this fairly brief. I just wanted something to write about, and I wanted to wish Anthem of The Sun a very happy birthday !!

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today...

This is a rerun of a post I wrote on this day LAST year, on my other blog, Sandwich Flats.

I hope you enjoy it.

07-12-87: "Once In Awhile You Can Get Shown The Light In The Strangest Of Places If You Look At It Right..."*

*"Scarlet Begonias"-Hunter/Garcia

19 years ago today...My very first Grateful Dead concert...A day that changed my life...A day that told me that maybe I wouldn't always be so alone in this world...72,000 is a lot of people...That's around how many people were at this show... July 12, 1987: Giants Stadium, East Rutherford, New Jersey:Bob Dylan and The Grateful Dead...Dylan and The Dead...Dylan got top billing, and probably deserved it, but this day was all about the good ole Grateful Dead for me...

Set List:

Set 1: Hell In A Bucket>
West L.A. Fadeaway
Greatest Story Ever Told
Loser
Tons Of Steel
"Take A Step Back" rap
Ramble On Rose
When I Paint My Masterpiece
When Push Comes To Shove
Promised Land>
Bertha


Set2: 'Take A Step Back" rap
Addams Family
Morning Dew
Playin' In The Band>
Drums>
Space>
The Other One>
Stella Blue>
Throwing Stones>
Not Fade Away


Set 3:W/ Bob Dylan:
Slow Train Coming
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Tomorrow Is A Long Time*
Highway 61 Revisited
It's All Over Now Baby Blue
Ballad Of A Thin Man
John Brown
Wicked Messenger
Queen Jane Approximately
Chimes Of Freedom
Joey
All Along The Watchtower
The Times They Are A Changin'

E:(Dylan & The Dead) Touch Of Grey>Knockin' On Heaven's Door



* Garcia on pedal steel

I had heard their music growing up, one of my brothers and one of my sisters(My sister was also at this show with me, though she and her boyfriend were there more for Mr. Dylan) were casual fans(I'm the youngest of 6), so I knew of Workingman's Dead and American Beauty...(I remember buying my sister a copy of "For The Faithful..", a bastardized version(what did I know ? I was maybe 13 at the time) of "Reckoning" for her birthday one year.)...And Shakedown Street and Terrapin Station...But no one was a huge fan...

It's kinda funny, because what changed that for me was hearing an album that just about everybody hates..."Steal Your Face"(I believe it was Lester bangs who said "Steal Your face ? Ha ! Steal your money is more like it."), but my friend John had a copy of it on vinyl(it was relatively rare, as it was produced on United Artists records, which no longer exists-the album has since become more readily available), and I remember loving everything about it. The cover, the old skull and lightning bolt design...And the songs....Okay, the production is murky, but I still love the versions of "Sugaree" and "El Paso" and "Must Have Been the Roses" on that record...And it set me on that very important path...

Shortly after a few listens to "Steal Your Face", I decided to do some investigating into this Grateful Dead thing(This was all in 1986)...My friend John owned Blues For Allah as well, so I borrowed that. Then I took the records my brother had(American Beauty, Workingman's Dead, Aoxomoxoa, Europe '72, Shakedown Street, Terrapin Station and Anthem Of the Sun) and listened to them all. I went out and I bought "From The Mars Hotel", which quickly became my favorite(U.S. Blues, Scarlet Begonias, Ship Of Fools, Unbroken Chain, etc.)...

1986, of course, was also when Garcia got sick the first time. He slipped into a diabetic coma. Of course, he did come out of it, and that led to a renewed interest in the Grateful Dead in 1987. And then, they announced they would release their first album of new material in 7 years. Whoo-Hoo !!!

Naive Conversation from late March, 1987

"Hey, they're gonna be at the Meadowlands next week !!"

"Dude, we should go !"

"Yeah"

Um, no. No tickets, fellas. Shows have been sold out for months. Awww...BUT, it did give us insight into how to go about getting tickets- MAIL ORDER from Grateful Dead Productions !! So we vowed to call the HOTLINE everyday until they announced the next tour, and we would get tickets.And guess what ? It worked.

We did all the special handling..Only a number 10 sized envelope, write the venue and the dates and what tickets you wanted on the outside, only a postal or American Express money order, cannot be postmarked before a certain date. We would have problems with those specifics later on, but not for these shows !!"DUDE,WE GOT TICKETS FOR THE DEAD AND DYLAN !!! WE'RE FUCKIN" GOIN !!!!!!"

"In The Dark" was released in April, I think. It was a surprise hit. They had a top ten single with "Touch Of Grey"( A song that a lot of people feel ruined everything- scenewise, maybe it did, but I must admit I still dig it as a song-it's catchy-sorry.) The Dead were EVERYWHERE !!!

We could not wait for July 12th, man. And boy was it worth it. That day had a lot of firsts for me...Drank my first beer, smoked my first joint, saw my first Dead show. Gooooooood fuckin' day, I'll tell you what.

The show was HOT. They opened with "Hell In A Bucket" into "West L.A, Fadeaway" two new tunes. They played "Bertha" and "Morning Dew" and "Playin' In The Band" and "Stella Blue" and "Loser"...One of the more vivid memories I have, is when they played "Ramble On Rose", someone down on the floor threw up, and you could see all these people dancing in a big circle around it in order to avoid stepping in it, it was hilarious.

They played two sets, and then Dylan came out, and the Dead backed him for a third set.I can't really accurately describe how I felt. My body and my mind were buzzing(and not just from weed and Coors, a few years later, when I would go to shows sober, I had just as good a time, if not better), there was an energy I felt from the music, from the crowd. It took me a while to figure it out, but it did eventually hit me(and you might want to get your air-sickness bags, because here it comes)...I belonged there. I know, it's corny, it's stupid, it's hippie-dippy, but that is how I felt, man. This was the place for me. And not the concert, per se. I mean, I saw them a bunch of times, but I never toured or anything. But the music, the "scene", the community. I felt like I could be myself, and that I could like who that person was, because here I wasn't going to be constantly told that I was weird. May sound ridiculous, but it's true. I guess you could say that The Grateful Dead set me free. And for that, my friends, I will forever be GRATEFUL.

July 9th, 1995...

22 years ago today(edit:oops, 12 years ago today...thanks aka), The Grateful Dead(Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart,Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh. Bob Weir and Vince Welnick) played their final show at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.

Set1
Touch Of Grey
Little Red Rooster
Lazy River Road
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Childhood's End
Cumberland Blues
Promised Land

Set 2
Shakedown Street
Samson & Delilah
So Many Roads
Samba In The Rain
Corinna->
Drums->
Space->
Unbroken Chain->
Sugar Magnolia

Encore:
Black Muddy River->Box Of Rain

I really don't know what to say about it. I miss them terribly, and none of the post Jerry incarnations have come anywhere near what The Grateful Dead was, though they have their own charms. Now, this show is not very good, by a lot of standards, but the Boys on a bad night were still better than just about anything else.

A Double Dose Of Birthday Fun !!!

That's right!! Two, count 'em, TWO Grateful Dead albums were released on this date in history. On July 6th, 1973, the Grateful Dead released "History Of the Grateful Dead, Vol.1(Bear's Choice)", and then in 1987, they released "In The Dark".

"History Of the Grateful Dead, Vol.1 (Bear's Choice)
2003 reissue
1."Katie Mae" (Hopkins) – 4:44
2."Dark Hollow" (Browning) – 3:52
3."I've Been All Around This World" (traditional) – 4:18
4."Wake Up Little Susie" (Bryant, Bryant) – 2:31
5."Black Peter" (Garcia, Hunter) – 7:27
6."Smokestack Lightning" (Howlin' Wolf) – 17:59
7."Hard to Handle" (Isbell, Jones, Redding) – 6:29
Bonus Material
8."Good Lovin'" (Clark, Resnick) – 8:56
9."Big Boss Man" (Dixon, Smith) – 4:53
10."Smokestack Lightning"(Version2) (Howlin' Wolf) – 15:11
11."Sitting on Top of the World" (Chatmon, Vinson) – 3:20

I am listening to Bear's Choice right now. I like it, and I have listened to it a little more since it was re-issued on "The Golden Road" boxed set that came out in 2001, but it has honestly never been one of my favorites. No specific reason, really, I guess there has to be some things you listen to less than others. It was recorded live at Bill Graham's Fillmore East, New York, N.Y. on February13th and 14th 1970.
I do love the "wake Up, Little Susie" though, and it is of course always good to hear PigPen. of course, in the liner notes to the re-release, Bear( Bear, of course, is Owsley Stanley, who may be slightly more famous for his LSD production than for his Grateful Dead sound work) does say that he decided to make the album a tribute to PigPen, who died while they were preparing it. The "Katie Mae" alone does a fine job of that.
These shows are also chronicled on Dick's Picks Volume 4.



In The Dark-2004 reissue
1."Touch of Grey" (Garcia, Hunter) – 5:50
2."Hell in a Bucket" (Barlow, Weir) – 5:37
3."When Push Comes to Shove" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:08
4."West L.A. Fadeaway" (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:38
5."Tons of Steel" (Mydland) – 5:18
6."Throwing Stones" (Barlow, Weir) – 7:20
7."Black Muddy River" (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:07
Bonus Material
8."My Brother Esau" (single B-side) (Barlow, Weir) – 4:20
9."West L.A. Fadeaway" (alternate version) – 7:09
10."Black Muddy River" (studio outtake) – 5:41
11."When Push Comes to Shove" (studio outtake) – 4:22
12."Touch of Grey" (studio outtake) – 5:47
13."Throwing Stones" (live) – 9:36


"In The Dark"...This one is a wee bit trickier, isn't it ? A lot of people hate this record. it(and "Touch Of Grey" in particular) are largely blamed for the "destruction of the scene". It was the popularity of this album that increased the crowds, increased the negative energy, and led to the gate crashing and general ugliness that plagued the band in the late '80's early 90's.

I have never really known how to feel about that, as I came to really be a fan of the band just before this album came out. The summer tour with Bob Dylan in '87 was the first time I saw them.
I suppose that this might make me a "Touch-Head", which is the derogatory term used by some Deadheads to describe those that may have found the band through their new found popularity. I don't really know, all I do know is,I had respect for the scene. I was never harsh to anybody. I tried to go and have a good time, and not keep anyone else from having a good time as well. I tried to have a good time amongst a group of people where I felt I belonged. Sorry that I was a bit late to the "scene", but I did my best to respect it.

Now, about this album...I think it's a tad over produced, but I also must admit that I really dig a lot of the songs. For all of it's baggage, "Touch Of Grey" is a DAMN catchy song. It's fun to listen to and I think the lyrics are both clever and a bit wistful. I like "Black Muddy River" and "Throwing Stones" as well. "When Push Comes To Shove" is a bit slight, but it's bouncy and fun, and as I have said before, I even don't hate "Tons Of Steel".

I remember the day this album came out. My friend Chris and I went out early and bought it.We were driving around our little burgh in New Jersey, listening to the album when we came upon a guy from our high school. For some reason, Chris(who was driving) got out of the car, and this kid jumped in and drove off in Chris' car. we just drove around the block about six times, and each time Chris would be more resigned to believing that he was not getting his car back. By the last trip around, he was laying on the hood off the other kids car.And playing on the stereo the whole time ? "Hell In a Bucket"