This one never got its claws into me. However, it has been about eight years as well. Will have to revisit.
I have this album in FLAC. It is quite good as I'm SURE you all know I was deciding whether to get this one on vinyl or the Fillmore West. I did end up getting the West, which is awesome, BTW, but it was a close choice.
My first guitar MANY moons ago was a Gibson SG. And, I don't know if his was modified in some way, it was likely a WAY better model than mine, but for me until now, it was by FAR the hardest to play. Ebony fretboard, IIRC, and the action was atrocious. Nice sound of course, but super hard to play...
DING DING DING! (and, no, that is not the sound of Archtop on a questionable site...) Good job mate! Sorry, I couldn't resist right after that comment about there only being one woman here on this thread It was from Monty Python's Life of Brian, one of their greatest works! Although this bit was far from my favourite, but there are MANY really funny bits throughout. FWIW, I am a devout Christian person, but I didn't find the movie offensive at all. Many religious people missed the point that they were NOT making fun of God or Jesus, but the people and their superstitions and expectations at the time. The one bit about a guy being stoned (NO, not in that way me dear DeadHeads!) for using God's name is sublime, because that was very much a man-made superstition at the time. Damn funny movie!
Nice, where did you find that? Grateful Dead Guide is where I got the notion that the review was lost to time, but evidently not.
Sure, but what have the Romans ever done for us? Has anyone checked to see if latheodheaven and warewolf95 are related? They bring a similar gestalt to the proceedings here.
Grateful Dead Guide: Buzz-Saw Music: Fillmore East, June 14, 1968 (Guest Post) This has a footnote mentioning this: However, going to the rockprosography link I find a mention that there is no known review of the Saturday shows (not that there is no review of any of the shows). The writer on that blog also mentions this:
That was also a great bit! No, I'm afraid that we are a singular identity... Uh... I mean all of us... er, wait... I'm a bit confused... let me just take a moment and listen to an early Dark Star, that should straighten me out... WHOOPS, wrong artist... But, I do feel better now...
"The story about the Jeff Beck Group "blowing away" the Grateful Dead at their mutual Fillmore East debuts has been repeated so many times that I don't know the original source of it (I myself read it first in review of a Rod Stewart album in Rolling Stone in the early 1970s)." And the Jeff Beck Group sure did better in the long run than the GD, a long and storied career playing 1000's of concerts that were assiduously bootlegged and collected for posterity, selling out shows for years, and reaping the accolades that only time can buy true artists. Oh wait, that was the Grateful Dead who accomplished all that.
Beck and Stewart have done their best to reinforce the legend through the years... “...the success of the two nights with the Grateful Dead [at the Fillmore East] was so overwhelming. We got really rave reviews and blew everybody away.” Beck, 2014 “Blowing away the Grateful Dead in New York was an unimaginably good result...” Stewart, 2012
It's worth mentioning that comments on both GD guide and that rockprosposoibhosihig site say things more like 'Beck's group was also (very) good' and do not give the 'blew the Grateful Dead away' impression by any means. One commenter at rockpenguinshoes does note that the Beck Group got the first spontaneous standing ovation he'd witnessed in 3 months of regular attendance at the Fillmore. Jeff Beck Group must have been pretty impressive if there's even any notion of blowing that Grateful Dead performance off the stage.
Built to last till time itself Falls tumbling from the wall Built to last till sunshine fails And darkness moves on all Built to last while years roll past Like cloudscapes in the sky Show me something built to last Or something built to try...
Rave review from across the pond: “The greatest thing happened in New York last Friday. On his first performance in this country, Jeff Beck became a star. Even in his Yardbird heyday, when Jeff toured America with a few hits under his belt, he didn't get the standing ovation he and his present group received in the MIDDLE of their performance at the Fillmore East! America has never seen a team like Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart. The only possible description of their twofold dynamite would be to suggest it's like watching the brilliance of Jim Morrison teamed with Eric Clapton.” New Musical Express, 29 June 1968
I don't doubt that they gave a good performance, and that band's impact would have been quite similar to Led Zeppelin which was also incredibly well received. I believe it was Beck's first experience with the NYC head audience, the Yardbirds with Beck had played the ballrooms in SF, but before that it had been 'Cavalcade of Stars' type tours for them, hardly the same crowd expectations at those shows. As I said above, undoubtedly a 1968 Grateful Dead audience would have been among the most 'well-lubricated' that Beck had ever played for.
