3/28/73 Springfield Civic Center (DaP 16), specifically: Weather Report Suite Prelude > Dark Star > Eyes Of The World > Playing In The Band Great sequence! I was just thinking someone here must have put it in my head to revisit it with a recent mention, probably because it’s around the time of its anniversary. Then I realized today is 3/28.
That's... pretty much exactly what I would do if I were trying to introduce a non-head to the band. Not to say that smoking a joint is a requirement for enjoying their music, but it sure doesn't hurt. "I've got a fresh bag of weed right here, but I think I'm going to leave it at home, so I can focus on the music," said no Deadhead ever. Again, he refers to specific musical techniques that they use, indicating that he is actually paying close attention to the music they're playing.
I’m finishing up some early 90’s shows/releases today as my ‘76 box is expected tomorrow, hurray! First up this morning it’s 17/06/91 from the Giants Stadium box, also released as standalone Saint Of Circumstance — a really great show with an excellent Eyes Of The World opener and the cool, but cruel Dark Star teases scattered throughout, it’s easy to see why this one was the “breakout” show of the box . . . 1991/2019 Rhino Entertainment Company – R2 584633
3:54-4:12 in this Ren & Stimpy episode. I definitely have a like/not like relationship with professional rock critics. Mostly not like. I think someone started a thread on the Forum about "best rock critics," and I wrote "none of them." Or something like that.
Y’all know you be shaking your head like the guy in the Grateful Dead Movie when you hear U.S. Blues.
Ok the train is a rollin’ now and I’m heading for another sequence, this one featuring the “ @notesofachord Other One” from 5/24/72 Lyceum Theatre: Truckin’> Drums > The Other One > Sing Me Back Home
Now listening to 3/28/69[Modesto California]on TIGDH on SiriusXM's Grateful Dead channel via the webstream now playing Dark Star.
5/24/72 The Other One update: I felt like I was emerging from an experience when I realized I was only a little over 9 minutes in with 20 more to go...
There’s less than a minute left in the 29:45 The Other One when they come back for the second verse and then suddenly they’ve downshifted and we’re in Sing Me Back Home. Soft and gentle and beautiful before picking up for an emotive solo from Jerry, then it settles back down to its mellow, swaying feel. Jerry’s voice is a little more weary after the solo which fits the song well. The vocals intensify heading to the finish with Donna now more prominent. Nice version.
The Deadessays site has a post about Other One Timings. Of the 25 longest versions, all but 5 are from 1972. Also of interest (to me anyway) is that the four longest time out within 1o seconds of each other. Grateful Dead Guide: The Other One Timings (Guest Post) THE TOP 25 LONGEST OTHER ONES 12-31-72 The Other One [6:57] > Drums > The Other One [29:31] = 36:28 4-26-72 The Other One [36:27] 5-10-72 The Other One [34:21] > Bobby McGee > The Other One [2:04] = 36:25 9-17-72 The Other One Jam [3:44] > Drums > The Other One [32:35] = 36:19 3-26-72 Other One Jam [6:49] > Drums > The Other One [23:34] > Me & My Uncle > The Other One [5:19] = 35:42 9-9-72 The Other One [33:50] 9-28-72 The Other One [28:18] > Bobby McGee > The Other One [3:32] = 31:50 9-3-72 The Other One [30:53] 5-7-72 The Other One [30:34] 8-22-72 The Other One [29:56] 5-24-72 The Other One [29:45] 5-26-72 The Other One Jam [10:44] > Drums > The Other One [12:19] > Morning Dew > The Other One [5:47] = 28:50 5-13-72 The Other One [28:41] 12-8-73 The Other One [28:37] 3-28-72 The Other One [28:14] 8-25-72 The Other One [28:03] 4-7-72 The Other One [19:36] > El Paso > The Other One [8:20] = 27:56 5-3-72 The Other One [11:48] > Drums > The Other One Jam [12:52] > Bobby McGee > The Other One [2:46] = 27:36 7-25-72 The Other One Jam [1:12] > Drums > The Other One [27:#11] = 27:#23 4-11-72 The Other One [25:47] 11-14-73 The Other One [15:15] > Big River > The Other One [6:08] > Eyes > The Other One [4:20] = 25:43 10-17-74 The Other One [23:12] > Spanish Jam > MLB Jam > The Other One [2:28] = 25:40 10-20-89 The Other One Jam [14:41] > Drums > Space > Take You Home > The Other One [10:57] = 25:38 10-24-72 The Other One [23:17] > He's Gone > The Other One [1:20] = 24:37 12-10-72 The Other One [24:#35] 6-26-73 The Other One [6:34] > Bobby McGee > The Other One [17:59] = 24:33
I grew up in Portland near the I-5 corridor. I don't need to see a list of Dead Bootlegs. All I had to do was go outside my door, look at the freeway headed south to Eugene and know when the concert was. Should have just put notches in a tree.
I can't say for sure what he meant by the first part, which is a sign of sloppy writing, but I find it hard to believe that "a panel of open-minded jazz and folk professionals" in 1977 could not have found anything worthy on Workingman's Dead, American Beauty, or Europe '72, if not Live/Dead, for the purpose of validating that the band was competent enough to play concerts in Japan without embarrassing the US of A. If so, the panel wasn't really open-minded, or much expert on music, at all. But it sounds like he'd just been doubting his "former fanaticism," himself, possibly because "most of my acquaintances remain decidedly unconverted." After all, "it should go without saying that the group inspires (and attracts) enlightened hipness rather than analytic acumen or musical savvy." I'm not sure what that means, either, but I guess that he's trying to justify his loss of enthusiasm for the Dead. The savvy critic who knows music, man, will see through their BS (which he tries to illustrate later), while the dedicated fan is just cultivating an air of hipness... Doesn't this seem like crap? Btw, I once asked David Gans why the Dead never toured Japan like practically everyone else did in the '70s. I suspected that they were afraid of getting busted by Customs agents; he didn't know. Funny that the answer may be that a supposedly friendly critic was asked to help them get their paperwork stamped, but he couldn't do it because he'd come to doubt that any of his old favorite records were really any good. Later in his review, circling back to the vocals, he offers this howler: "But insofar as they are incompetent, it is not as singers, but as lead singers — they project voice but not character. They do add the appropriate emotional color to the words and notes, of course — weary plaintiveness, happy energy, whatever — but the color is there for musical rather than dramatic reasons...." They project voice but not character. Imagine writing that about Jerry Garcia. He even goes on to say that Jerry's vocals typically have a "deadpan quality." Jerry Garcia, you know him: detached, deadpan singer. No character at all. Of course, what appropriate emotional color he does manage to add, it's just there for musical rather than dramatic reasons... I'm sorry, how did he come up with this crap? And, "By instinct or design the Dead refuse to provide the easy psychological referents that most people (including me) seek in vocal music. What’s left is the music itself. Performing personas — Weir’s callowness, which becomes ever harder to tolerate as he passes 30, or Garcia’s beneficence — are inescapable for musicians on view for dozens and even hundreds of individual spectator-hours. But even these tend to merge into the Dead’s version of the ultimate reality." I'm not sure what he means by that, either, but he does that a lot. Strings a lot of words together that are designed to sound smart, but really don't mean anything. He tries to analyze, but mostly comes up with some strange, muddled conclusions. Like, early in the piece he says that the unnamed Help>Slip>Frank's "was predictably desultory," but although "I was aware... that I was being subjected to the Dead’s basic tension-and-release trick, that didn’t make me enjoy it less." Later, he wants you to be aware that he's onto Jerry's tricks again: "I noticed with some disapproval, for instance, that the ripple effect I’d always admired in Garcia’s playing was achieved, at least this time, by an improvisationally elementary device...." He's savvy, see. Not so sharp that he can recognize how Garcia's technique actually had a dramatic impact on the audience, and it's not clear whether he disapproves or not, because he goes on to describe the craft of the solo with some admiration, and concludes, "We’d been set up, and we loved it." But he's savvy, he has musical acumen, I guess is the point. And in the end, after mostly ragging on his old faves, he finally decides that the Dead's "modesty" and Jerry's "technical virtuosity, but always in service to the larger pattern," is not only good, but possibly relevant to contemporary artists like The Ramones, Television, and Eno. "To me, such connections are instinctively right. They add an enlightening dimension to the Dead’s status as musty avatars of the counterculture." You know, I'm no Dean of Rock Criticism or anything, but that sounds like a thesis statement. Maybe he should have worked from that point of view from the beginning? I don't really mind if Christgau didn't enjoy a Dead show, or did enjoy himself but not so much as he had at some shows in the past. I think Lester Bangs attended the same show, and mostly poked fun at the Dead, but in an entertaining way that seemed fair enough. I don't even mind if the critic wants to go on about his personal experience, for contextual color. Lester did that all the time. I dislike Christgau's review because it's poorly written, confused, and loaded with nonsense. It's crap.
On Dick's Picks 23 the timing is 39:07, but that includes Drums while the timing from that list does not.
Enjoying 6/11/76 Boston Music Hall for the first time tonight. It starts off slow (literally). However, the slow tempo feels right on something like “Candyman”, which is always a treat to hear live. Things start heating up on “Big River” and I’m now on “Scarlet Begonias” which is awesome. A fantastic stand-alone rendition with Mickey tearing it up on the cowbell!
Enjoying for the first time that beast of Playing with the Band on the Pacific Northwest 73/74 comp! Oh my, what a trip!
