The first time I heard Anthem of the Sun, some of the vocal arrangements and production touches on Side 1 seriously reminded me of the Monkees and Sixties pop-rock groups. Experimental Monkees, but still, come on. I (and the rocker crowd in my school) was into Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad, Humble Pie, Hendrix, Cream, and the Doors for rock music- all heavy guitars and leather-lunged singing, all the time- and pop music had gone into a more "mature" phase- Carole King, James Taylor, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Curtis Mayfield, Isaac Hayes, Elton John, and like that. The Monkees sound was as dated as Nehru jackets and paisley. It was 1972, after all. A whole new era in music had dawned. So I'm wondering "am I supposed to be liking this?" (Also: musique concrete...uhhwut) I eventually made up my own mind about it. Took a while.
As of 20 minutes ago I’ve ordered every remaining 78 release not already in my physical collection. Glad most of them can still be found at very reasonable prices. The other day I listened to that Samson and Delilah chosen to represent 78 in the 30 Trips 4cd sampler, not for the first time, and finally just gave up. It’s my favorite lineup. I’m bound to dig it. Haven’t listened to the Long Strange Trip bonus disc yet, but the main release has been a fun running (well, mostly walking at the moment) soundtrack for the past couple days. The 2/14/70 Dark Star is outstanding. I was driving at the time, but Phil around 14:00 is doing some lovely stuff. Anyway, I may not agree with all the selections, but it’s an enjoyable collection. I might get my brother a copy for Christmas.
I love that show. A real "dark horse" for May of '77 but I like it better than the shows on either side that they released officially. I've done that with my own online reviews before. I was reading a review of a Richard Thompson show I saw in the 90s and thinking "This reviewer is extremely intelligent and quite perceptive..." and it turned out to be my own review that I posted the week of the show. Womp womp.
Listening to Hunter’s Jack O’ Roses. Nice album. Box Of Rain (Hunter/Lesh) Reuben And Cerise (Garcia/Hunter) Talkin' Money Tree (Hunter) Friend Of The Devil (Dawson/Garcia/Hunter) Delia DeLyon And Stagger Lee (Hunter) Lady Of Carlisle (Traditional) Book Of Daniel (Hunter / Freiberg) Terrapin Lady With A Fan (Garcia/Hunter) Terrapin Station (Garcia/Hunter) Ivory Wheels/Rosewood Track (Hunter) Jack O' Roses (Hunter) Prodigal Town (Hunter)
Yeah, beats the alternative - “What is this dreck? They really should not publish submissions from the semi-literate... Oh.”
I was coming out of the store earlier, and a car was pulling in, and I was watching the guy so I could cross in front of him, and as he got closer I could hear he was playing Mama Tried, what sounded like 76-77. So I waited for him to step out of the car and then made the Garcia signal with my hand, and I said 'if I was to show you this sign with my hand, would you get my meaning?' And he said yeah, and smiled, and I said right on and went on my way. And then just now, I'm sitting outside watching my son take the recycling down with his friend, a guy walking his dog had a dead & Company t-shirt on. Looked at least 10 years younger than me too.
Now listening to 9/7/90[Richfield Ohio part 2]on TIGDH on SiriusXM's Grateful Dead channel now playing China Cat Sunflower.
I drove out to those shows from Boston. Both shows well played, great setlist first night, 10 song first set to break in the new guy.
We were seeing the dead that night at the Nassau Coliseum. That was the better of the two nights. I recall the look on Garcia's face when I asked him if pig was going to appear the previous new years when i met him a few days earlier in December of 72. I think he already knew the inevitable.
There's a Grateful Dead program on WESU Middletown, which is the Wesleyan station. I hopped in the car and it happens to be one of my presets, they're playing smokestack lightning right now, sounds like from mid or late 1970.
I always liked Hunter's additional verse for Friend of the Devil "You can borrow from the devil, you can borrow from a friend..." Makes more sense than repeating the wife in Chino verse. I sing that verse whenever I perform it, which is infrequently since nearly all my infrequent performances are with better singers.
It has to be no later than 3/25/72 by my reckoning (see what I did there?). That was the last time they played it until a Smokestack jam on 4/9/83, and I was there for the proper bust-out on 10/9/84 at the Worcester Centrum (the crowd lost its collective you-know-what). I know you well enough to be confident that you can tell an '80s Smokestack from a '70s Smokestack.
I drove out from Boston, too. I remember hearing a rumor at one point that they were going to perform as a five-piece with no keyboardist, which would have been pretty wild IMO, but I was very happy with the music they put down as a six-piece. We had a great time. First set first night seemed to me to contain a lot of hidden (and not-so-hidden) farewells to Brent, ranging from the sympathetic ("Bird Song") to the callous ("I left his dead ass there by the side of the road") but maybe that was just me. Second night featured the debut (if I'm not mistaken) of the long, Phil-led jam that became a regular coda to "Terrapin" from that point on (the version from Richfield is on the So Many Roads boxset). Vince had a very strong debut, IMO. I thought then and I think now that he was a more rhythmically and harmonically-sophisticated player than Brent. It's kind of a shame that he never really achieved his full potential with the band (again IMO).
I'm fairly certain it was 2-13-70, they followed it with Hard to Handle from 2-14-70. And speaking of Bear's Choice, Wikipedia says it has not only the first appearance of the steal your face, and the dancing bears, but also 'good old Grateful Dead!,' which I see make up the border around the SYF.
