No, you said it well the first time around and I got your point. But still: any song can be a slog to get thru if the band playing it is on Molasses Ave, right? I just find it strange (or maybe not) that "Jimmy" often gets singled out as being boring, slow and really bad so often, mainly because I myself both get immense pleasure from the song and also cannot remember more crappy versions of it than most of the rest of the repertoire. "Lazy Lightning" being an exception, mind you If there is just one acceptable one out there of that...
I'll have to try to track that down at some point, for now I'm just trying to find something to tack on to an order for the GSTL box on dead.net. They don't seem to have a lot of video material listed currently, besides Sunshine Daydream and Fare Thee Well, both of which I already have, Rocking the Cradle seems to be the only one. Thanks. The only thing listed on dead.net currently for the Closing of Winterland looks to be the audio. Thanks I'm going to give the audio another listen today with headphones at work. I had it playing over the weekend while I was doing some work outside the house, what I heard sounded good to me, but there were large chunks where I was out of earshot. If I like what I hear well enough today I'll probably tack it on to my order; plus, how many concerts are recorded live at the Gizah Sound and Light Theater after all?
I'm empathizing with a few of you that seem to be getting a bit manic trying to buy up and listen to all kinds of things Grateful Dead as soon as possible. My experience is that when I slowed down just enough to take it all in a bit more slowly is when I *really* started savoring the music. I'm not obsessed with listening to whole shows as some are but I pretty much listen to the whole release the first time through and then delve deeper on follow-up listens to the portions/segments/songs that are most intriguing to me. So maybe it isn't wise to think one needs to have all of it all right away. One of the reasons I stick to official releases. If not I'd be scattered and unable to give the music the time it needs through initial concentrated listens along with hopefully many multiple listens over time. I am ALWAYS better off when I don't acquire too much new music too quickly. I've thankfully never developed a "pile" of unlistened to music - Dead or otherwise. I'm happy I'm going to be receiving multiple shows/releases over the next couple of weeks (some of the first shows outside of Dave's 23 since the Spring - only others I bought were RT 4.5, Dick's 11 & 2/11/69) so part of why I'm posting this is to remind myself to take it slow and easy. Even that is probably too much!! It's important for me to try to slow down further as I don't listen to huge volumes of music any longer. The frustrating part is worrying that the price on these almost affordable releases become out of reach. For example I've still not ordered 4/14/72 or 5/26/72 even though I know that when they are gone, they will double in price. My listening is concentrated in a couple/maybe 3 hours/day. Years ago I would listen to music for 8-12 hour stretches 3-5 days/week. Like Archtop, I do not nor have ever listened to music as a background so I savor the time have with music. Just some thoughts to possibly assist in what I hear/read as some panicked excitement which from my experience can lead to burnout and missing the subtle beauty of this and other music.
I don't think so. For me it's in the category of 'songs I am lukewarm towards but when I do listen, I can't manage to justify that assessment.' I was googling around and came across this article: "the May 14, 1974 “Dark Star” performed in Missoula, Montana sounds like “In A Silent Way” as interpreted by Sonic Youth but nearly every performance of “Lazy Lightnin’” sounds like coke-snorting yuppies getting funky in tie-dyed Izods."
While I wouldn't blame the horrors that is "Lazy Lightning" on something as (potentally) good as coke, I think this is rather close to the heart of the matter. I'm also really glad I do not understand why and how this song was written. Not too hot on "Supplication" either, but at least it doesn't make me feel queasy. And the description of that "Dark Star" really hits the right spot. Mmm, electric Miles
I hope you find great things at the Pyramids, my friend. The version of "Bertha" on the DVD is just gruesome, IMO. Just checked it out... But I do love the cover concept of the original cd:
Doing quite a bit of GOGD today - I started with the 11/14/71 bonus disc, then decided to geg in on the Dark Star action. Went with 03/23/72's standalone, am going onto 04/08/72 next, but currently deep, deeeepppp into 04/24/72's. Gorgeous stuff. Anyway, I have a question on 04/24/72's Star: there's a repetitive riff that Jerry hits repeatedly between about 09:30 to 10:00 during part 2 that's naggingly familiar - sounds like a sitar riff, or something that the Incredible String Band might have played. Any ideas, anyone?
Well, I found that article linked in a different article about how the GD became so popular with hipsters circa 2005. Evidently the one with the quote I printed was what began the critical re-assessment among the indie crowd. The author, who starts the article describing behaviors familiar to most of us here, clearly felt the need to establish his hipster bona fides with a few sneering jabs, but I didn't think he was too far off on either assessment. (especially Lazy Lightning. ) The rest of the article I can take or leave though it does give me a chuckle that a lot of 90s high school punk rockers turned out to really like the GD when they bothered to stop acting cool and check out the music. I knew a lot of such people in my day, but I never bothered to proselytize. Also, I think the early GD had a lot in common with the early punks in terms of ethos and countercultural stance. Lesh in particular, he was the group's 'stick it to the man' spokesman in the early days.
Over here in my neck of the woods there is funny fungi growing in the fields. Known to make the sky and other things turn purple. First time I heard Blues for Allah... Talk about being bummed out
Devils Tower is a very cool place. Wyoming is fantastic. Especially the northwest parts [/QUOTE] Glad you made it there. Wyoming is beautiful. A buddy and I stopped and hiked around Devil's Tower on the way from the west to the east coast for Dead tour back in the day.
That's definitely been a problem, I just got a bunch of shows off of LL in addition to the official releases I have - need to remind myself to slow it down!
The Spring shows are nice but this is where they turn the corner into the barnburner act in 1977...thanks in part to the Oakland A's.
Catching up on the last few pages of the thread. @dzhason I know you were looking for something to add to your Dead.net order, but when you get around to it the Shout Factory reissues of most of the videos are available cheap on Amazon. The packaging isn't as nice as the original versions (simple plastic case, the colors on the printed inserts are lighter). But I have both versions of several (because some of my original DVDs are a bit scratched up) and they seem to play the same (though I haven't ever done a real comparison). I've been meaning to get Rocking the Cradle for a while just because of the magnitude of the event, even if it's a mixed bag. It's $5 cheaper on Amazon (plus no shipping with Prime) but I'm hanging on to the slim hope that Dead.net still has some unadvertised bonus discs like they do for RT 1.1 and 1.2. Unlikely but you never know.
The Estimated Prophet > Eyes of the World on the bonus disc is must have material. The transition jam melts down hard, and Eyes has an otherworldly energy: "...sometimes we visit your country, and live in your home..."
Holy smokes! Digging the Aug '72 Berkeley run: 21 Aug: Dark Star > El Paso > Space > Deal 22 Aug: Truckin' > Other One > Stella Blue You'd be hard-pressed to find anything better in the GD catalogue. (In Hal 9000 voice): "Dave, we need a box set of this run, please. Dave, I am sure you understand the musical significance of this week, it would jeopardize the mission to leave these recordings in my memory banks. What are you doing, Dave? Those mid-80's cassette tapes make for terrible sounding releases, Dave! Why are you disconnecting my communications circuits, Dave? Daisy, daisy, give me your answer please..."
Picked out 10-22-83 to spin lately, I like the idea of really digging in to a random show (good or bad), just live with it for a while rather than picking at DPs or familiar runs. * I'm always intrigued by "Shakedown" opener shows, just seems like a guarantee for a special show. Funny funky ending to this one: "just gotta polka 'round!" * "Keep Your Day Job" is a bad song. I like how Hunter took precious time out of a rare interview to defend it: "But it has a good message." Yes we get the message, it's fine. It's just a bad song. It sounds like basic bar band boogie, what I thought the GD was before I Got Shown The Light many years ago. We can still forgive one bad song out of a lifetime of cosmic greatness. * Drama? I read a comment on the archive that Phil wanted to play "St Stephen" out of "The Wheel" but Bobby went into "Throwing Stones" and pissed him off. Wonder if this is true or if this happened often? * "Revolution" is such a perfect Dead song, message wise. Kind of a ragged version but it works and must have been a very cool outro for the live crowd. Overall this is not a great show but I'm alright with that. It doesn't always have to be "Wow this is the best show ever!" The drumming is kind of sloppy, "Bird Song" at 80s party tempo is starts out as a mess but it goes into a shambolic jam and still comes out pretty great on the other side. Still I'm gonna keep listening to this show like it's the only tape in my collection. Why? Why not?
This may be the best Dark Star ever. As much as I like 9/19/70 and 4/8/72, 4/24/72 has some of the most original improv I've ever heard by any band (I'm including all music - Coltrane, Mingus, Monk, Sun Ra, et alia). Themes that sound like long-standing melodies. I think this is what you've latched onto: the GoGD in the midst of their finest tour, firing on all cylinders and creating timeless melodies on the fly. In other words, it's like McCartney who carried Yesterday around for some three-four years, always thinking that he'd cribbed it from somewhere, but he hadn't. Such was the improvisational capability of the GoGD in 1972. Top shelf in any genre. Well spotted and good on yer. [EDIT:] Of course, I could be completely wrong, as I've not listened to the Incredible String Band, so there's that too. But this particular Dark Star hangs in the air, suspended by nothing other than it's own energy, like a creature that we've never identified. Beauty reincarnate as oddity. Maybe this isn't inconsistent with my previous posts (or perhaps it is), but the top 5 Dark Stars, for me, are: 9/19/70 3/23/72 4/8/72 4/24/72 9/21/72 1972 was the peak year of both Playing in the Band and Dark Star.
May 13, 1977: First set Hmmm, there's nothing special yet, IMO. So far, this one's not as good as the first two gigs in the May 1977 box. Then again, I haven't gotten to the Scarlet>Fire yet. We'll see if things get better. April 8, 1972 certainly did.
It sounds a bit like some of Mike Heron's sitar riffage between verses and/or post-chorus on the Incredible String Band's "Maya."
