Good question! I was way after you, but I don't know where...I think I posted once or twice many months before I figured out how to ever find the thread again...as I recall @ianuaditis was extremely helpful in helping me figure out how this forum works. It seems simple now but it's really baroque before you get it...I still don't know how to use most of the features like "Add quotes" or whatever the hell it is
I came in on page 14. Even then it was April 1971 on my mind. Some things do not change... And on April 11 this thread will turn five years old. I think it's housetrained by now.
Some googling about Ollin Arageed somehow led me to The Pump Song, I have never actually heard this before, or much Mickey Hart stuff...I like it but it could be done better, it's produced weird where the horns and stuff are loud and there's no real audible drums, I kind of like it this way though
In honor of page 3,000, here's a viddy our thread-starter, @JRM posted back in 2014. Hard to believe this was the night of Peggy-O as well: 7/19/74 might just smile, smile, smile at that.
6/22/73 might well be the most beautiful Dead show ever Stunning uber melty goody goodness. Repeating a whole bunch of the first set today / Row Jimmy is so sweet
Despite being a life-long Red Sox fan, Clemente is my favorite ballplayer of all time. Absolute howitzer of an arm. I also am a fan of poor taste, so you're fine by me.
I'm not of a fan of Mickey's solo stuff, but it's always interesting to hear stuff that transformed into Dead songs. Other examples being The Main Ten (also from Rolling Thunder) and Happiness is Drumming (from Diga Rhythym Band).
I'm on page 1 Think I'll play my favorite standalone Scarlet Begonias, from 10/9/76 Not to get all Archtop on y'all, but listen to Weir from 2:49-2:51, as he sends Garcia in to the guitar break before the last verse. Pure joy.
I was never a huge fan of Fire on the Mtn as a song (not much of a song) but have been into it at times due to excellent performances. This Egypt one is excellent, I love the way they sound on this show. Seriously underrated...maybe someday @usblues will understand that...
No of course that's what @usblues says himself, I don't know why I am compelled to rib him. But this Iko Iko is great too, I don't think I've ever fully understood the old, slow versions of this, but it's perfect like that here...
Fire On The Mountain: The original version, sometimes referred to as the "Mickey Rap Version," appears on a collection called "Area Code 415." It dates from maybe 1974 and it sounds like a rap song, arguably the first in history. The lyrics were written when a mountain near Mickey's ranch in Marin was on fire- literally. Hunter's lyrics eventually evolved as a mirror to/of the band, and in particular the song's singer: If mercy's in business I wish it for you, more than just ashes when your dreams come true! A few years ago I had the delight of seeing the Mickey Hart Band perform at the Info - Mishawaka theatre in Northern Colorado (24 August 2012) a year after a fire had burned through the forest surrounding the theater. The version of Fire On The Mountain performed that night was powerful, so much so it blew out Dave School's bass rig for an hour. There were maybe 200 people at that show, unreal!
Ollin Arageed appears on an album called Eclipse (we have a partial solar eclipse coming on Saturday). It was recorded by Mickey and Dan Healy at Mickey's barn in 1978, and re-mixed for CD release in 1988. Produced by Mickey Hart. It also contains a sweet version of Helalisa which Hamza el Din would perform solo in Egypt and also during his pre-Dead sets at Winterland.
Wow, I was always interested in USB's terroir idea but a little skeptical about how much it could be identified in any concrete way, but they sound totally different in Egypt here, especially considering some of the raging stuff from 1978...Truckin' is revelatory played this way...part of it is the sound, not just the tempo, I really like the sound of this recording...
Even though it's a Hamza El Din song, Ollin Arageed sounds like more "traditional" psychedelia or even krautrock than most Dead stuff does...
Of course if I say anything about sound quality there's a 90% chance that someone who actually has good ears will disagree with me...now I'm just waiting for @rbbert to tell me how much this sucks!
Jeff Norman did a magical job with that mix. The Plangent Process also struts it's stuff on this multitrack mix. When Phil went to Egypt to negotiate the shows, his whole conversation with the fellow who had the yay or nay vote was about how the GD play differently in different place and for different audiences. His sincerity was apparent (the fellow had run the Egyptian 'CIA' and was not easily fooled), and the band got to play for the Sphinx. My understanding of terroir in this case comes directly from Professor Lesh.
That's right, I had forgotten that story (it's reported in every book, pretty much) I was going to skip Stella Blue just because I didn't want to give it my full attention, not because I don't love it (it could be my favorite Dead song)....but this is mesmerizing, marvelous. I hope he doesn't mess up the words, but there's about a 75% chance he will...this is the most underrated release in history, this has changed my head. I *#^&ing love this...