Im ordering a copy of Ham on Rye. I have only read his collections of stories, letters and poems. I love him. I dont have favorite writers like I do bands etc, but Joyce, Vonnegut and Buk are probably my favorite writers.
OK I am losing my mind. Again I am getting a worse and bassier sound on in-ear headphones, I listened tonight to 1978-01-10. I switched back to over-ear phones after my walk today, and the sound difference was night and day. I have been using both kinds for years and never had this problem. And, here's the kicker. The other day when I posted about this I was using Shure SE215-K earphones. These are decent, in the ~100 dollar range (as high as I'm willing to go). Tonight I dug out my 1MORE "triple driver" (whatever that means) phones. These are in a similar quality tier, looks like they go for around 80 dollars but they were rated really highly that year by whoever on the internet. Anyway, both kinds always sounded really good to me before recently. Now, everything is boomy and bassy on both, and when I switch to my over-ear headphones it sounds fine.
5/17/74 Playing in the Band is even more impressive this evening than it was late last night. It’s a stunning performance.
The short stories are him stretching reality; the poems are grounded in solid reality (although his style evolved from more verbose to more concise over time, but that's an oversimplification), the letters range from trivial to deeply insightful and his novels, other than Pulp, are quite hilarious at times. Enjoy; Factotum is my favorite of the novels. My choices would be Buk, Camus, Dostoevesky and Kafka. This is a disturbing development. Any more of these occurrences and there won't be anything left.
He melts my brain on a regular basis. You'd like him, he's all floaty bits. Gravity's Rainbow is the magnum opus, V or The Crying of Lot 49 good entry points.
I'm wondering if you missed my play on words, but no matter. I love GoGD floaty bits, but I'm less into that sort of thing in literature. Buk, Camus and Dos wield scalpels while Kafka constructs a labyrinth that doesn't actually exist but still entraps one. I will dig deeper on Pynchon, though. Now, we'd better get back on topic. I hear jack-booted thugs in the distance.
Thanks, actually, I love this one, more. Amazing acoustic version from Complete Live Rarities Collection.
I'm not familiar w/ The Complete Live Rarities Collection, but this is the alternate version on the 2-CD version of Reckoning and it's my second favorite version of all time. Bobby's rhythm part starting around 3:55 is spectacular, and the slashing chords he starts at 4:13 are a testament to just how great a musician he is. I remember very well the first time I listened to this version and I was groovin' on the improv and the water balloon undulated just perfectly in time and I counted 1,2,3,[hey]4 and they crashed back into the form. I was part of that; not just a listening participant. That's how transcendent that version is. It speaks without explaining but makes everything clear. Anyway, my favorite version is from 10/21/83 (Porch Crusher). I was front row and this is when I learned well that trying to figure out what Phil was doing by looking at his fingers was a worthless endeavor. One had to listen, file away and then try to reproduce from hazed memory. A flawed technique at best, but Phil isn't really of this plane; accept that and then maybe one can try to glean something from wherever it might be coming from:
So we’re into the second half of the year. I really hope Dave and Rhino have a CD-based box set to announce soon. Preferably that focuses on late 1972.
One of my favorites of all the Picks series, with a lively set, and to my ears the perfect matrix. From beginning to end this one mostly sizzles.
28 June 1974- Boston Finishing up Set 2 this morning. After the Big Jam Bobby is out of songs in his repertoire so we get The Promised Land, which Jerry takes immediately into Goin' Down The Road, Feeling Bad and we are back in the ZONE. Sunshine Daydream completes the set opening Sugar Mags, and a gentle Ship of Fools encore. As I advised @SJR above, don't skip the Springfield show tomorrow. The trifecta that ends the first set is worth the price of admission on its own. And Set 2 is bonkers.
