This is a cocaine fueled party. Great drums/space. I enjoyed Jerry steamrolling the ending of "I Need A Miracle" into a blowfest hyperspeed Bertha that rocks. Cool jam into China Doll. I really liked the 80's CC/Rider. Different animal from those amazing early 70's versions but some great moments. Really enjoyed this show. Maybe a sleeper in the set. Not perfect. Some sloppy moments. Ragged human voice. Real. Passionate. Fun. I'm out!
Try a tribute record, Deadicated still being the best of the lot. If he can't hack the vocals by the boys, see if he at least likes the songs. The one-two punch of Los Lobos' take on "Bertha" and Bruce Hornsby's version of "Jack Straw" is about as a good a record opener as I know of. The songcraft really is baseline on this. If people like the hit cover version of a song enough, it's possible that they'll eventually open their minds enough to appreciate the original. If he's at all a Bob Dylan fan, eventually he may eventually come around on the singing. But if he isn't a Dylan fan, he may inhabit that bland-o Pop Snob zone- people who prefer Barry Manilow and Pat Boone to singers who don't meet their conditioned standards of vocal purity. We speak here of the majority of the "public", aka "the market."
As with Anthem, the 50th of Aoxomoxoa has both mixes, which I believe is the first-ever digital release of the '69 mix. That would be essential if you prefer that album to be weirder and trippier. Unlike Anthem, I prefer the '71 remix of Aoxomoxoa, so I haven't yet gotten the anniversary edition, but it might happen eventually.
A Greek box set would either be 82-84 or 87-89. David Lemieux hates everything 85, and the 86 shows would cause a huge revolt. (86 was my first Greek and first Bay Area shows, so I enjoy listening to them).
9/15/73 (Providence) first set seems to only circulate as an aud, but it's nice and clear and the Bird Song and PITB are definitely worth a listen. The second set features the horns and I can see why they dropped them. The LIG horn jam is interesting but otherwise they seem to hinder the jams instead of adding to it, especially on Eyes. This certainly isn't 3/29/90.
With all these musicians selling rights to their music what is the dead studio catalogue and dead live catalogue worth to someone who wanted to own the rights ? $500 million ? $1 billion? unlike most artists, they've got such an enormous catalogue and a fervent fan following. Every year there are tens of thousands future deadheads being generated that will want to own this music
For the record, I don't particularly care for the singing either, and yet I own some $5,000 of GD CDs, continue to subscribe and consider them my favorite rock band. To me, the important question lies in how one feels about intrepid improvisation that not only wasn't brilliantly executed by any other rock band; it wasn't even attempted. At their best, GoGD are so far out there, asymptotically approaching madness, that they have no comparables, let alone equals.
9/17/73 (Syracuse) Truckin' is lots of fun, best horn track of the three horn shows I've heard so far. Sounds like it took them a couple shows to figure it out, but this is a sweet jam.
I'm more interested in the fate of all of the songwriters currently being ripped off by outfits like Spotify.
Not outright……..but occasionally here and there, I’ve seen (not by me) reply requests on his Twitter posts about 1985…..and he responded along the lines of “Really? There’s interest in 85?” like he was shrugging it off and not interested.
That sucks! Still, if we wait long enough, one day even David will have to sing those praises of those shows as the well I’d depleted for the more popular years.
One of my favorite logos. You have an instant front cover and Twenty Years So Far title for a Summer 85 box set.
Their vocals suit the music and I find them all very charming. Not the best technically at all but could convey feeling that was very real.
I don't know if it's a must-have, but I like 7-2-71 from the Skull & Roses anniversary edition. Great version of "Sing Me Back Home," among others.
