I really like the War on Drugs version of "touch of grey"
― van smack, Sunday, 27 March 2016 22:52 (eight years ago) link
it works and it's fine, like p much everything they put out
― human life won't become a cat (man alive), Monday, 28 March 2016 02:28 (eight years ago) link
highest recommendation for this new book http://images.perseusbooks.com/image/pbg/week/classic/260x/72/liquid/center/color/ffffff/99/9780306822551.jpghttp://dacapopress.com/book/hardcover/heads/9780306822551goes much deeper than just the Dead (but it also has plenty about the Dead)
― tylerw, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 14:28 (eight years ago) link
rad
― marcos, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 14:36 (eight years ago) link
This thread being in SNA a lot has gotten me to revisit Blues for Allah, which I think is my new favorite Dead studio record.
― human life won't become a cat (man alive), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:14 (eight years ago) link
I was telling a friend about how I hated Franklin's Tower in college because it always seemed like some interminable and sloppy live version of it or Fire on the Mountain or Franklin's Tower into Fire on the Mountain was playing through a haze of pot smoke at the end of every single house party that took place in the three years I lived with ag school hippies. Yet now I actually enjoy it partly because of my nostalgia for those smoky wee hours, even my nostalgia for disliking the song.
― human life won't become a cat (man alive), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:17 (eight years ago) link
also studio version is tite
It's Scarlet Begonias>Fire on the Mountain
and Help on the Way>Slipknot>Franklin's Tower
― Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:37 (eight years ago) link
xxp haha totally, kind of the way i feel about bad fan recordings of phish shows bc of how often i heard them w/ a few kids i hung out w/ in college
interminable & sloppy dead shows are better than phish always though
― marcos, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:43 (eight years ago) link
The answer to the thread question is of course yes.
The dead notes series (12 parts up to now with live jams in excellent quality) over at the aquarium drunkard is highly recommended.
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:49 (eight years ago) link
― Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, March 30, 2016 10:37 AM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Oh, that totally makes sense now. Franklin's Tower and Fire just sound kind of superficially similar to me. And I definitely remember Scarlet Begonias being one of those end of party songs -- that little instrumental line that plays in between every line of the verse makes me instantly picture a certain girl's goofy dancing face and swinging floppy arms.
― human life won't become a cat (man alive), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:52 (eight years ago) link
i love that hippie dance, my wife does it very well
― marcos, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:54 (eight years ago) link
it's funny, i must've gone to college during the lowest ebb of grateful dead college fandom (late 90s/early 00s). no one was into the Dead! not even the on campus communal living situation.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:55 (eight years ago) link
The one where they kind of look like a zombie trying to keep balance on a wobble board? xp
― human life won't become a cat (man alive), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:56 (eight years ago) link
― tylerw, Wednesday, March 30, 2016 10:55 AM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
No that's when I went to college too, and fandom was alive and well. Maybe it was an NJ thing, there seemed to be a much bigger hippie/jam band culture in NJ than where I grew up.
― human life won't become a cat (man alive), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:57 (eight years ago) link
― human life won't become a cat (man alive), Wednesday, March 30, 2016 11:56 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
haha yup
― marcos, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 15:59 (eight years ago) link
I never had the college Deadhead experience at all, so belatedly those two medleys (Help>Slip>Frank and Scarlet>Fire) are pretty much my favorite Dead music these days. I was looking for a show that contained both of those plus another favorite, Estimated Prophet, and it turns out they only put all of those in a show twice.
― Retro novelty punk (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 30 March 2016 17:07 (eight years ago) link
highest recommendation for this new book
http://dacapopress.com/book/hardcover/heads/9780306822551goes much deeper than just the Dead (but it also has plenty about the Dead)
― tylerw, Wednesday, March 30, 2016 3:28 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I just read a review of that Heads book yesterday in the latest Mojo and wondered how good it was. Might just need to grab a copy.
Also had a review of the new David Hepworth book 1971 though not sure if that has any Dead content and it wasa bad year for them or at least not so good one for the most part. Pigpen getting seriously ill. Mickey Hart retiring on finding out his dad had ripped the band off. Meant the band were less exploratory for the most part and songs that reached 1/2 and hour and upwards in the years either side of that shortened a lot. But otherwise it was a decent year for music I think.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 17:19 (eight years ago) link
yeah, i really loved Heads (and it's the kinda book that'll be great to just pick up and flip to any random page too)here's my little write-up http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2016/03/30/heads-a-biography-of-psychedelic-america/
― tylerw, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 17:54 (eight years ago) link
here is a book that mojo told me was good but it sux
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Jthvc8ooL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
― kurt schwitterz, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 20:04 (eight years ago) link
yeah... that oral history that came out last year is good though.
― tylerw, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 20:09 (eight years ago) link
conversations w/ the dead is pretty good too
― marcos, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 20:16 (eight years ago) link
(another gans related book)
― marcos, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 20:17 (eight years ago) link
Frustrated by Courtney Barnett's semi-performance of "New Speedway Boogie" on Fallon: started okay, added keyboardist and her regulars looked ready to go, but she fumbled the words, finally started to solo, also promising---but then oops out of time. Damn! She's on that charity comp, Day of the Dead, right? Maybe the one yall are muttering about upthread?
― dow, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 19:03 (eight years ago) link
It was no 5/14/70, that's for sure... :D Not bad though. Just that it's a pretty straight reading. I like it better than some of her original material. Haven't heard the comp yet.
― how's life, Wednesday, 1 June 2016 19:20 (eight years ago) link
alright i'm admittedly in a fledgling dead listening stage but what are some good dark stars? my favorites are the one from live/dead and 2/28/1969... the latter one is real good
― global tetrahedron, Thursday, 2 June 2016 23:16 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLMuRuwAWts
― lute bro (brimstead), Thursday, 2 June 2016 23:32 (eight years ago) link
sorry, couldn't help myself. blame it on the stills revive.
so many of the 68-69 dark stars are amazing, my favorite period of the dead
― marcos, Friday, 3 June 2016 00:27 (eight years ago) link
Barnett said she wasn't even familiar with the song before she was approached to add a track to the compilation. Not really sure what she's doing on there anyway. They could have at least approached artists with some knowledge and appreciation, no?
― calstars, Friday, 3 June 2016 00:34 (eight years ago) link
headyversion.com has massive lists of great versions of Dead songs...as has been pointed out on the Dick's Picks thread here
― calstars, Friday, 3 June 2016 00:35 (eight years ago) link
I've got nothing against Barnett, she's fine, but her reading seems uninspired and rote
― calstars, Friday, 3 June 2016 00:36 (eight years ago) link
They could have at least approached artists with some knowledge and appreciation, no?
― calstars, Thursday, June 2, 2016 8:34 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
^^^^ My problem with about 90% of that shitty comp
Because when I think "spacey psychedelic mind-melting improvisational jams," I think "Courtney Barnett."
My favorite "Dark Star" is the version from Sunshine Daydream (Veneta Oregon, '72). If that don't convert you, nothing will.
― Wimmels, Friday, 3 June 2016 00:37 (eight years ago) link
Somehow hearing The UMO version of Shakedown Street now has changed my reading of the song and makes me think the Dead covered an UMO song 40 years ago
― calstars, Friday, 3 June 2016 01:24 (eight years ago) link
But the song she picked isn't a space jam
― a (waterface), Friday, 3 June 2016 13:07 (eight years ago) link
what a limited interpretive lens to impose on the dead too
― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Friday, 3 June 2016 13:17 (eight years ago) link
I was quite excited about the Courtney prospect. the result was a bit of a letdown against expectations, but it's very her and and very much the song, and isn't that the goal?
― normcore strengthening exercises (benbbag), Friday, 3 June 2016 13:18 (eight years ago) link
Not really sure what she's doing on there anyway. They could have at least approached artists with some knowledge and appreciation, no?
― calstars, Thursday, June 2, 2016 8:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
How do you know she doesn't and why did you pick on a solo female artist (who's one of the best of the group) to complain about?
Same thing happened with Midnight Oil when they were approached for Deadicated. They didn't understand why they were approached for the project, and said they had little-to-no interest in/knowledge of the Dead.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 3 June 2016 13:28 (eight years ago) link
What was frustrating about Barnett's live fumble was that I knew she *could* play it well---and did, as far as she got, which wasn't far----she's got the chops and the sensibility. She's mentioned the "stabby bits" (guitar breaks, partial release from neurotic POV in verses) as based on Television, who always seemed to know their Dead---to the extent that I used to hear muttering from "true," pre-hardcore punks back in the day (and Creem eventually called them "an ill-natured hippie band." Also, if I go back to, say, '67 GD performances of "Cream Puff War," or some of that recent Trad, Gras & Stenar box, I think of some live Television ten years (or less) later. So I could imagine Barnett absorbing some Deadness indirectly, or something compatible, and I could imagine some of Hunter's lyrics ringing a bell, although by temperment she seems more isolated, a diarist or blogger---a comparitively rare one, conscientious about intelligibility---rather than passing around philosophical raps 'n' doobies, leading a conversation, like Hunter often does, especially in this song.
― dow, Friday, 3 June 2016 15:21 (eight years ago) link
the *stylistic*, sonic sensibility, I meant, even if convivial lyrics make her a little uncomfortable (so why do that song)
― dow, Friday, 3 June 2016 15:23 (eight years ago) link
(I've never seen Verlaine or Lloyd crediting Garcia or live VU or Creedence jams, but think V did mention John Cippolina, and Blues Project-era Danny Kalb's sick solos---whatever; it's more a matter of great mynds rising to converge)
― dow, Friday, 3 June 2016 15:29 (eight years ago) link
yeah would be shocking if verlaine liked the Dead (don't know about the rest of the guys in the band), but he did like Quicksilver (and Moby Grape) so there's definitely some west coast psych influence there. occasionally on some "other one"s I get a tightly wound Television vibe. think it was greil marcus who derisively called Television the Dead of the CBGB scene.
― tylerw, Friday, 3 June 2016 15:31 (eight years ago) link
1972.08.27 and 1970.02.13 are my standbys. i also like 1972.05.11 and anything else from '72 as well as 1970.05.08, but the latter is a truly abysmal audience recording and therefore i wouldn't recommend it to anyone. never got into the '68/'69 ones.
― Sgt. Coldy Bimore (rushomancy), Friday, 3 June 2016 15:32 (eight years ago) link
Ha, I think that might've been Dave Marsh -- he likened Verlaine's playing to Garcia's in the RS Record Guide.
xp
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 3 June 2016 15:33 (eight years ago) link
maybe marcus borrowed it from marsh -- http://www.furious.com/perfect/marcus.htmli think lester bangs said something to that effect too. they must've all had a conference call about it.
― tylerw, Friday, 3 June 2016 15:35 (eight years ago) link
Maybe that was part of their appeal for xgau, since he liked the Dead (and dig into his site's archives for late 60s discussions of the Dead, incl. when they finally started playing the East Coast, and supposedly wanted to put Pigpen and Weir into a subsidiary band...also early LP reviews etc---he covers some shows I found on archive.org)
― dow, Friday, 3 June 2016 15:42 (eight years ago) link
yeah i think christgau says those fillmore east shows in the early 70s were the best shows he's ever been to?
― tylerw, Friday, 3 June 2016 15:43 (eight years ago) link
I know I've read Verlaine extol Lifetime and have seen QMS cited by Television. Wasn't there something about the timing of them splitting tied into QMS's timing.
As to truly stunning Dead sets May 70 and August 68 are both great periods. I think there must be a stretch in 69 but can't think. Possibly February.
& Veneta 72 is pretty outstanding.
― Stevolende, Friday, 3 June 2016 15:57 (eight years ago) link
For some older rock listeners (and I guess younger too, if you count *self-proclaimed* punks, who didn't come along 'til the mid-70s, and subsequent s-p and other ATDD, caffeinated, phonehead, and/or just-plain-antsy individuals), the whole idea of songs getting long was disconcerting. As a kiddie who was still starting to really (kind of) pay attention to hits on the radio, I was startled to discover the *long* version of "Light My Fire," even before I got to "The End." And being expected to write about this long-ass jam compared to that long-ass jam, impressionistic and/or technical descriptions of approximately infinite guitar solos? Even much later, more wide-ranging editors have been known to ditch such things, lemmetellya. So can see why Marcus and Marsh and Bangs (who did like his Horrible Noise jazz) could get put off (never saw those guys in Musician or 90s guitar mags,) though young xgau worked it in (tended to summarize though, I think).
― dow, Friday, 3 June 2016 16:08 (eight years ago) link