Wowza; I finally got around to listening to this one. Phil is indeed master of the universe on this. No bass player ever even remotely considered the possibility of playing this way let alone actually having had pulled it off. A fine example of what Jerry once said: When Phil's on, the Grateful Dead is on. Testify.
100% accurate. When I was in college and got my first taste of "Eastern" Philosophy those overly wordy Europeans seemed so trivial and unimportant by comparison. Lao Tzu was speaking from inner experience, Descartes on the other hand, came before his horse.
I have three different translations of the Tao Te Ching (more properly the Daode Jing) that I've been devouring lately. And while I wouldn't consider Camus to be a philosopher (and while of French extraction, he was from Algeria, so I'm not sure what my point is), per se, but his terse, absurdist style works for me. Anyway back on topic, August 4, 1976 is a beast. Phil is in charge of all relevant matters. Currently just getting into the meat of Slipknot! and this one's a keeper. I've got to add that it's pretty cool that 36 years after first getting into a band they still possess the power to astound me.
Must. Not. Respond. Can't stop... but must because I know at least one other person on this site with whom I'm bound to end in an argument with no conclusion... (Methadological doubt and the cogito was far from putting the cart before the horse. I'm going to guess those wordy Europeans just didn't make sense to you.)
X you all will getting it in bits & pieces Driving into town look up and see a billboard wishing Phil a happy birthday Weird hearing the crowd cheering recognizing Throwing Stones when I have to wonder what this Ashes to Ashes all fall down song is... Wondering why but not upset why they are playing Sweet Jane & Tumblin’ Dice.... More later
I really like that we can all respectfully go off-topic (then again if, as Jerry said, Dark Star is always happening, then nothing is technically off-topic in a GoGD thread) and that the Mods are cognizant that we can handle that. I personally find it very interesting to read various member's areas of study, etc. We always manage to get back to the main topic in a sometimes convoluted way (sound familiar?). Throwing Stones was always a favorite of mine, particularly as the jam evolved into a less meandery, more focused chordal structure. Some of those '87-'91 versions really cook (the single occurrence of TS in the Porch Crusher (TM) from the '90 show is a good example - in other words, Phil's on his game with the Smith 6-banger tearing things up). Someone here long ago posted the date of a really hot version but I forget the date...
9 Not sure what you mean, and it might even be true. At the same time it reeks of a kind of hippie know-it-all condescension about "Western" culture etc. that I try to avoid...but that's an interpretation (and not necessarily based on your character as I perceive it but more on what a statement like that usually means). So put out the nag champa and hit the stacks, Ram Dass. Mostly Richard...
9 Not sure what you mean, and it might even be true. At the same time it reeks of a kind of hippie know-it-all condescension about "Western" culture etc. that I try to avoid...but that's an interpretation (and not necessarily based on your character as I perceive it but more on what a statement like that usually means). So put out the nag champa and hit the stacks, Ram Dass.* Mostly Richard... *EDIT: Ha! "When I was in college and got my first taste of "Eastern" Philosophy those overly wordy Europeans seemed so trivial and unimportant by comparison. Lao Tzu was speaking from inner experience, Descartes on the other hand, came before his horse. "
I saw something online where they were giving Phil the key to the city village. Growing up next door, I spent a lot of time in that town (NY is 'open' until 4AM, CT only until 2) I wish they had decided to embrace the Grateful Dead a few years earlier, the way that they have recently, but I'm glad they have done so anyway.
I'm not an expert by any means but I really enjoyed the show. The video has a nice blend of Audience/SBD audio sources, so in between songs you really get the excitement from the crowd. When the band drops into TOO it's legendary. As others have said, Phil is driving the ship on this one, and doing a great job might I add!
Have any of you on here seen a dead tribute band called "Terrapin Flyer"? They are playing a bar near by today and I was thinking of going to see them if they are worth seeing. The FB post says the band has a member of Phil Lesh & Friends in it.
I'd say check it out. I've never seen them, but they are a GD cover band of long standing, they've played shows backing Vince Welnick, Melvin Seals, Tom Constanten, etc. My bar for GD cover bands is fairly low; I've seen a few and never had a bad time. This sounds like one of the better ones.
Agreed. I just like hearing the music played and kept alive. One could listen to much worse with a drink in hand.
It has been said that late in his life Martin Heidegger was given a book on Zen written by D.T. Suzuki. After finishing the book Heidegger is said to have opined: "This is what I've been trying to say my entire life." My point, aside from the one crowning my head, is that Marty was writing within a tradition that had very clear boundaries and expectations regarding one's mode of expression in order to be taken "seriously." Look what happened at Harvard when Leary and the aforementioned Richard Alpert began to break the bounds of rigid academia, they got tossed. Plus, us hippies have been right about everything. Have you ever seen the thank you note that Steve Jobs wrote to Albert Hoffman for inventing LSD? We possibly wouldn't be having this conversation if not for technology freak acid heads. Also: see my avatar.
If you're deep in the Dao, I recommend putting the 6th poem into practice. Glad you listened to that Roosevelt Stadium show, a complete outlier in the Space-Time Continuum.
I just cannot get into this show, despite having tried several times over the years. In general I like '76, and don't mind the occasionally slower tempos because it often includes spacier jamming, but this show has always seemed to plod, and not just in tempo.
Heidegger's biggest problem was that he was a card-carrying member of the Nazi party, took his own teacher's chair in the university when he (Husserl) was ousted, and never renounced membership even after the war. That being said, I continue to believe he made significant contributions independent of his political affiliations, and that both "Dasein", "Being-in-the-world" and "Being-towards-death" are endlessly fascinating phenomenological and existential springboards for discussion. "Being and Time" also goes down as the single most difficult book I've ever read. Yes... it was harder than Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, namely because Heidegger invented so many words for which there are not adequate English translations...
I took Italian in grad school, and there was a course on Giambattista Vico, the tendrils of which touched on both Descartes and Heidegger. (I forget what work of Heidegger's we read in the course, (excerpted naturally,) but there is also an important scholar of Vico who wrote a book about the two (V and H I mean.) But even before that course I had picked up 'Poetry, Language, Thought,' a slim little volume that I figured I'd knock out in a night. 6 months later I still hadn't finished it. I said as much to the professor of that Vico class, and she had the same reaction. ( I still haven't read it all the way through...) I don't remember if I ever finished the post I was writing here about it, but Vico relates to the Grateful Dead as his New Science was used as a template for Joyce's Finnegans Wake, which in turn was inspirational to GD lyricists Hunter and Barlow. In particular, Vico's image of the sound of thunder arresting the consciousness of primitive man and invoking fear of the divine is a recurring theme in Joyce's novel that shows up in at least one GD song.
And since I'm thinking of it, has anyone read the back and forth between one GD scholar and Hunter about interpretation of his lyrics? I think it was on the Annotated GD lyrics site. (And maybe made it into the book?)
