That Dark Star>Other One is definitely worth a listen. It's not the best version of either song from the E72 tour, but the whole thing together is something else.
This one? The setlist looks pretty standard but it sounds like it's worth checking out. I was supposed to watch Star Wars Episode 2 with my kid tonight, but I dodged that bullet, so maybe I'll put this second set on...
Same Dark Star > Drums > TOO featured on Europe '72 Volume 2 Never heard the entire show before today, though. Was a fun listen.
I haven't read this yet, but it looks pretty interesting: The Musical Imagination of Phil Lesh: The Grateful Dead's Difference Engine Brent Wood PMO - Brent Wood-musical imagination Friend who took me to my first show (8/28/82) sent it to me.
Probably also because of problems with the tapes--dropouts, cuts, poor mix balance, and such technical difficulties. Even the tracks chosen for the Wall of Sound RT release don't really sound great. But the highlights are so good, and the shows are so popular, they had to come out.
Continuing on with the last part of 12/2/73, currently in the Jam out of Playing. This will be an interesting finish with Blue and Dew. Bobby won't leave them rocking, Jerry will leave them contemplating DOOM. I've heard these shows several times, and I always remember the mood, but none of the details. Oh wow, Phil is getting experimental. Pretty sure that's Phil. The madness started around 5:50 of the Jam. While the significance of the Grateful Dead as an American cultural phenomenon has been explored in great detail, the very musical textures and unusual compositions at the heart of it, in large part the product of the musical imagination of bassist Phil Lesh, have rarely been the focus of analysis, even among the band’s devoted audience. Yeah, I'm pretty sure @Archtop doesn't agree with this statement. And I analyze Phil constantly. "Rhythm without repetition," is a good way to put it though. (This is all in reference to the article @tdcrjeff posted.) I'm not trained in music though, and my analysis tends to be at least half visceral. The musical “magic” the Grateful Dead were able to create regularly in live performance resulted from the band’s emphasis on true polyphony, a texture heard only rarely in contemporary popular music. Seldom do rhythm guitar, keyboard or drum parts vary at the same time as the bass and lead guitar; even less frequently are there two kit drummers interacting at the same time; and still more infrequently are all six parts being improvised. While listeners with well-developed ears will be able to hear three parts simultaneously, few will fully appreciate four-part polyphony in an arranged piece of music, let alone six-part polyphony in an improvised piece. Archtop has described the above as "collective improvisation." But "true polyphony" is a good synonym. At the heart of the chaos was a “difference engine” stoked by the imagination of bassist Lesh, continually challenging his upper-register partner and the rest of the band to take the music “further." Yes. Well put. But, you know, credit to Garcia for enlisting the difference engine stoker in a pizza parlor.
I started the China>Rider tourney right after New Year’s 2021. Someone needs to be ready next week with our new extravaganza
All Jerry did with the Dead was bring bluegrass to rock during the dawn of the psychedelic era and blow minds. Simple.
What's funny is that Phil dropped out of the University of California, Berkeley after a semester because it was "a school for musicologists, not musicians."
What does a Musicologist do? Musicologists are scholars of music who consider the relationship between music and various subjects including geography, aesthetics, politics, race theory, gender theory, neuropsychology, and more. While most work as music professors at conservatories or universities, musicologists lack the technique-based approach most commonly associated with teaching music, instead preferring to view music through the lens of a social science. That's from Berklee in Boston. Didn't Greg Hawkes go there? Anyway, if even I can be a musicologist, and I think I can, does it merit a degree program? It's not that lawyers know how to do everything, we just know how to fake it. Unless it's required that a musicologist actually be able to play music.
I think that many do, but also many don't. I think this was the very nub of Phil's gist. Even if they did play it, they didn't play it all that well or in a way that was in any way inspiring to Phil.
Yessir. And to his credit (and submitted as exhibit 1), Phil said yes to Jerry without knowing the first thing about how to play a bass. As it turns out, his hardcore nature coupled with the challenge at hand was exactly the elixir that was needed. Well, that and a small set of stairs, of course.
I personally wouldn’t categorize this as “standard” because there’s no frivolous filler of any sort, however as you know, it’s not just about the songs but how they’re played. Not being there is tough though as it may be difficult to get the somberness and raw emotion & reflection so evident being present. If you do listen, try to tune in to the mood. They aren’t having fun. Something else entirely is going on, which is having to perform while knowing Steve’s wife & kid we’re just killed. Samson & Delilah Terrapin Station Playing In The Band Drums Space Truckin' Stella Blue Not Fade Away Brokedown Palace Peace, Zafu
Finally made it to the last show of the St Louis box. 10/30/73 is living up to everything I would expect from Fall ‘73. Phenomenal Dark Star. Somehow I’ve never heard these Kiel ‘73 shows before, but this box is going to get many more spins in the future. (I was, however, familiar with the ‘72 shows and had been hoping for a Fox Box of them for quite some time, so this box is an embarrassment of riches both expected and not).
It's really incredible. Everyone clamored for a Fox Box for years and years, and then it comes with Kiel 73 and two 71 shows (which I've never heard). (Actually, I still haven't heard a note of this box itself, but just based on the contents it is one of the best GD releases.)
It’s all great stuff, even 12/9/71 which is lacking in big jams but is a fine saloon band rock ‘n’ roll show, although really an appetizer in comparison to the following 6 shows.
Every once in a while, a stupid, lizard part of my brain wonders if ‘73 isn’t really my favorite GD year. Luckily, without fail, and before too long, I hear something like this 10/30/73 Eyes and that lizard gets put back in its place under the rock where it belongs. Which is to say, this is some primo, err, Grateful Dead recorded music.
I have to revisit that. Dick was full of praise for that Eyes also, and a few people here have singled it out. Last time I listened to those shows, it was overshadowed for me by the one from the 29th....perhaps the (inevitable) comparison clouded my view, or perhaps I had it twisted.... Overall my memory is that the 29th is stronger overall, although the Dark Star is fantastic on the 30th. Anyway, in my next Vince phase I need to listen to the box, so we shall see.
