The Bear bio was good enough, but very slight. There's a Dylan song Lo and Behold that has Moby-Dick in the lyric, it's on Deaddisc.com as it appears on the McGuinness Flint album of the same name. I can't seem to figure out the GD connection. I got that one when it came out as well, I'm pretty sure I got it for Christmas that year. The CD artwork is quite possibly the best of any post-Garcia release.
Yes, this! Jarnow is a great writer about pretty much any subject, but Heads is the best thing he's done yet. It's endlessly fascinating. I'd say the actual direct Dead content is less than 20% of the book, but what's more interesting (as always seems to be the case with the GOGD) are the numerous threads and connections that tie to other people, events and everything else. Heck, I'd recommend the book for anyone interested in a specific look at the psychedelic culture of the US in general.
Well, Ken Kesey was a huge fan of Melville and Moby-Dick. One of those books I began- and thought was quite good- but stopped reading after only a few chapters, and have yet to return to. Probably a good choice for my summer reading this year. I love Melville's thoroughness, and his introspection. He digs. If that's what "dated literary style" is, so be it. Helps explain why I'm a Robert Stone fan, perhaps. His books typically take a while to build the plot, too. As for Dylan connections to Moby-Dick: "113th Dream", yo.
I agree 100% from a compositional standpoint - especially regarding Thelonious Monk. Plus as far as an improvisor, I’m of the belief that he is the best of the three legendary figures. However his scope was also limited and he would not break out of his self-made box or boxes. By 1960, he would stick with a good tenor player in a quartet setting for 98% of his music for the rest of his musical life. And when Rouse left the band, he gravitated to lesser figures to fill his spot. His compositional well was pretty dry by the 1960’s although the tunes he did write were some of his greatest (Green Chimneys, Oska T, etc.) Mingus was certainly the most versatile of the three and who knows what he could done with more opportunities for large ensembles. I was once very heavily involved with Mingus’ music (early to late 90’s) so one of these days I need to revisit. Coltrane is Coltrane so not much needs to be said. He’s coloured/influences the history of the saxophone arguably more than Charlie Parker. HOWEVER I refuse to look/year at Jazz/improvisation in a purely historical way so I hear the “playing” of the more recent master musicians as comparable quality wise and in some cases creative wise or innovation wise. Doesn’t fit the “narrative” but usually the truth is more complicated than a simple story that most have done to believe as true. The late great Misha Mengelberg (VERY controversially) once said (paraphrasing) that Monk didn’t have great enough musicians to play his music as well as some today could. Few from the Tower of Knowing agree but I do. I’ve never heard any band play Monk like Misha and the good ol’ ICP
My favorite part of this lecture is how Dylan keeps referring to the whale as "Moby", like they're on a first-name basis.
Speaking of HYH: I discovered recently that I can edit the metadata on items in my Google Music library, even if they are only streaming subscription files. So I made a note on the bad track title, on what it should be.
It was my first Dead album too, same circumstances - in college, love the artwork. It made a lasting impression but it did take a long time for me to "get" the second disc.
I had already been a Deadhead for ~10 years when this came out... still mourning Garcia, of course. The only thing that took me a long time was to get around to listening to the second disc, because I wanted to be in a particularly exceptional, ah, frame of mind before I listened to it. Blew me right away the first time I heard it and still does but I can see how it could be a little opaque to a newbie.
It sounds like they made a good decision with the cover art. I bought mine at Sound Warehouse in Waco, TX.
One of my favorite Dark Stars. Forgive me while I attempt to do some inept "Archtopping" here, but I'd like to talk about one of my favorite minutes-and-a-half of Grateful Dead music in detail, which occurs in that very Dark Star... (referencing this recording btw: www.archive.org/details/gd73-09-11.sbd.lanum.184.sbeok.shnf/gd9-11-73d3track03.wav.shn Shortly after the 9:30 mark, Jerry and Phil drop out and Kreutzmann hits an awesome Jaki Liebezeit-esque Kraut-funk groove, albeit with a lighter touch than the man from Can. Phil comes back in at 10:02, then from 10:14 to 10:24 he stays on E while Bobby plays what I believe is a descending arpeggio of a C#diminished chord (I had to pull my guitar out and do a bit of Googling to figure this out; my theory is rusty). Billy keeps the groove going while briefly interjecting with triplets on the bell of the ride cymbal. Meanwhile, Keith flutters about softly and tastefully on the Rhodes. An amazing 10 seconds of music. Then at 10:24 Phil resumes wandering the neck, and they all ride the groove until Phil initiates an "Elastic Ping-Pong" jam at 11:00. We don't hear from Jerry again until just before the 12-minute mark. So yeah. I wish they rode this particular groove out a bit longer, but I suppose if I want to hear that kind of thing I can always just listen to Can. With the Dead you're signing up for a restless, ostinato-free improvisational journey.
In other news, it seems there was a tribute event for John Perry Barlow at the Internet Archive, featuring Edward Snowden talking about Barlow's role as a pioneer of cyberspace: Highlights from the Tribute to Cyberspace Philosopher, John Perry Barlow | Internet Archive Blogs
When I'm doing busywork for short spells during the day, I often like to let iTunes shuffle my GD library. I find it's usually a nice way to break out of my '71-'77 comfort zone, although it's not been doing so good a job of that today. The 5-17-77 "Playin'," followed immediately by the last third of the 12-1-73 "Playin'">"UJB">"Playin'," followed by the breathtakingly stupid "France" -- I insulted it yesterday, so this was the universe getting back at me but not changing my mind -- and the studio "Unbroken Chain," and now the 5-19-77 "Peggy-O." There are worse ways to spend 40 minutes, I suppose.
Four men tracking down the great white sperm whale Three girls wait in a foreign dominion Ride in the whale belly Fade away in moonlight Sink beneath the waters to the coral sand below...
There we go! Funny, I always hear "high green chilly winds" as "high green chile winds," which only makes sense if you're always hungry.
Nice, that is fantastic. I would have been surprised if the Great American Band hadn't referenced the Great American Novel, looks like they got it out of the way early. It's not exactly a page turner, there are a lot of excursive passages, mostly about whales and whaling. But excursive passages should be no problem for a GD fan. That said, I'm getting stalled out on Heads at the moment as the focus has shifted to Phish, so I will probably pick up Moby-Dick again tonight. On the other hand, I have Heads on inter-library loan and can't renew anymore, but the local library has a few copies of Melville, so I might just keep going with Jarnow. I think about 20% specifically about the Grateful Dead sounds correct so far, but the band is referred to like every couple of pages even when they are talking about graffiti artists, or Phish, or what have you.
First set of 2/26/77: come for the debut of Terrapin Station, stay for the absolutely delightful Playing In The Band>The Wheel>Playing In The Band. A better 25 minutes to end a first set, I cannot think of right now (until the next classic GD show I listen to, I guess) On to set 2! This one needs to be officially released!
Disagree. The transition into "The Wheel" on 2/26/77 is one of the high points in the Dead's 70s discography.
I would respectfully disagree. First, Phil’s playing (and the band really) on PITB is of pre-hiatus quality and, secondly, the transition into The Wheel is utterly delightful. It may not be the best PITB, but it’s a contender and top 10 for sure.
