mountain bed

 

1989-07-15__Foolish~Victim~Crazy Fingers~Truckin'~Smokestack~Jam__gd_sbd_noblesville_edited97307

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQufVFL3bGQ&list=PLSKpDoMF_Zxb9hHnMo9d0Xl_7Xr52kX7y&index=30&t=0s

 

This was my first "hometown" show (I live 20 min. from Deer Creek, 40 min. from downtown Indy) in 5 years. I had just seen a Dylan/Steve Earle show there for my first Creek show (it opened 2 months before this) and to be honest Earle blew Bob off the stage that night. That was a nice evening out, the Dead show was another matter...

The level of fear surrounding the area (rural, 98% conservative) was off the charts. The Indy Star had huge front page articles about our little hamlet being raped and pillaged by the mongrel hordes. By 1991 it was all "Welcome Deadheads" when the locals saw this was like the 4th of July or Memorial Day in terms of an economic boon. Once again proving that money talks.

The show itself, while generally solid, was a bit boring in my view. The next show at Alpine was one the best I ever saw. Foolish Victim was starting to really gain some footing in the rotation at that point, but Crazy Fingers was a train wreck, easily the worst of the ones I saw. It was all in all a GOOD show fromSummer '89 but not a GREAT one. YMMV.

That sure was a weird game at Wrigley today. 15 innings, 5+ hours, it never stopped drizzling rain  but never enough to roll the tarps out. I guess you could call it a pitchers duel but not in the classic sense of the word. Both teams had A LOT of chances to win all through the last 6 innings - bases loaded, guys on third with 1 out, etc. It was like nobody WANTED to win the game. The Mrs. was yelling to just hit a HR and win the damn game. The last time she said it was when Contreras came up in the 15th and I was like, "Nobody's going yard at this point, dear. It's so wet and cold out there it's like the Dead Ball Era". I swear to God 30 seconds later Willie hit the ball out to the street. So don't EVER listen to me. LOL.

Resurrection from 10.5 years ago!

I stumbled across this. It's only part 1 (of 4!), but here's someone who did some serious homework giving his argument. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xSGIx-kwYU

I've been here 13+ years, and a fan for nearly 20. This is one of the coolest things EVER here. 

If the trajectory of the Brewers follows that of the Cubs then it's their turn for a ring. Which I wouldn't pissed about. There's a rivalry which keeps getting better but I don't hate 'em like I do the Cards. 

I'm gonna resurrect this thread. 

One of my very best tour buddies from my Dead show days used to call me up (on my landline at the time, no less!) whenever he was on the road following bands - Phish in particular- "Hey it's set break, I just wanted you to know they did Bowie and it WENT places" . He loved all genres of music but he was an extreme Dead/Phish guy. Anyway...he passed away at the age of 42 from a tragic accident when he went in for a routine gall bladder surgery and he flatlined during anaesthesia The last time I spoke to him he called from the UIC Pavillion in Chicago to tell me he was getting ready to see SG, not long after they had reunited. "Hey, I'm up at the UIC and I'm seeing Soundgarden". "I fucking HATE you". He knew I loved those guys haha. But that was one of the last things I ever said to him. Sigh.

Fast-forward to May 2017. SG is playing near me at a place I've been to many many times (including Wilco a couple of times). I plan on going but there's a crazy weather event going on - severe t-storms, tornadic activity, etc. - so I blow the show off. You know, "They're back now, I'll catch the next time around...". A week later at 3 AM I'm online and read the news. I knew it was huge. I start crying to the point my old lady wakes up and asks what's wrong. Unlike Bowie or Squire this one took me by complete surprise.  The dude was younger than me by 2 years. 

Since that time I've revisited the records a LOT, and fell down a YT rabbit hole many times. There is a treasure trove of really good interviews with Chris and/or the whole band. Ben in particular is one of those dudes you would like to have a beer with. And a decent amount of stunning live HD/SBD stuff. For a full show that has a nice reunion era retrospective of their career I really cannot recommend London July 2012 enough. It's on of my favorite things on YT.

RIP, CC. 

 I could never get sick of some of the lyrics, like "my dog turned to me, and he said..." 

I love what Garcia does right after the line "kicked my dog" then he "chicken-picks" those harmonics on the guitar. That always makes me smile.

Do any of you Dead freaks have certain popular, well-loved tunes that you'd just as soon skip when they come up in a show? I'm not talking about a Wave to the Wind or a Money Money...I'm talking something that other Heads would say, "Whaaaaaat?"

 

I've got a couple I'll share. Now, I've always been much more of a Jerry guy than a Bobby guy, so I won't even target him. Too easy. I'll start with Jerry tunes I've heard too much or just never got that into in the first place.

 

1) Tennessee Jed - This is kind of a silly song, IMHO, so it's fun, right? Well, yeah, maybe pre-hiatus. Even some of those are pretty tedious to me. In later years, I found it just about intolerable. I like the fastest earlier versions, probably because it's over sooner.

 

2) Deal - Again, the earlier versions are okay, and Jer obviously loved the song. He'd open with it. But when it gets toward the end, and the repetition of the refrain, I'm ready to check out. Especially after Jerry's decline. Some folks love those late versions - "Jerry shreds on Deal!" - but come on, man. It's a mid-tempo shuffle, it should be a mid-tempo shuffle. Not a shred-fest.

 

3) Dark Star - Most controversial one, right? Hear me out, though. First off, this was the first song Hunter sent them. So, from a lyrical standpoint, it's not exactly his strongest song. Read it and compare it to a classic story like Dire Wolf, Terrapin, or Reuben and Cherise, or just a masterful lyric like those in Uncle John's, Loser, or Ripple. I'll take any of those over a Dark Star most days of the week.

 

There are exceptions to my Dark Star block - I love some of the best versions from '69-'70 - but most of those are 11-12 minutes long. When they go way out, like 30-40 minutes, they almost never hold my attention. The Feedback-like dissonance thing aggravates my tinnitus, too, so that can make it even less enjoyable.

 

What about you guys? Any Touch of Grey or Black Peter haters?

I'll bite!

I'm ambivalent about Deal - it's really hit/miss for me. The post-coma Deals are much less satisfying in general for me. I do find some from the coke-fueled early '80s to be enjoyable.  I love T. Jed. I love all periods of Dark Stars, with the MIDI-era the least. 

Now for my choices (Jerry):

#1 - Built To Last. Guess what - it didn't LOL. 18 versions in total, 16 from '89. It never took off and did anything for me. Just a boring song from Hunter/Garcia, one of the rare ones.

#2 - Crazy Fingers. There are some I like, A LOT(6/14/76 is my fave), but it's not anywhere near a favorite. Many people love it, more power to 'em.

#3 - Fire. This song is COMPLETELY  dependent on how inspired Garcia was at that moment. When he was ON it was inspiring, when he wasn't it felt repetitive - I mean there's no bridge, no key change - and God it could drag like a motherfucker. 

#4 - Doin' That Rag. I'll use Garcia's own words here - "A lot of the Aoxomoxoa songs are overwritten and cumbersome to perform.They're packed with lyrics or musical changes that aren't worth it for what finally happens with the song. When you write a song that's a chore to play the performances never sound anything but strained". That describes how I feel about Rag perfectly.

I would add something like If I Had The World To Give but that one almost doesn't count. They only played it 2 or 3 times, and I'm sure there was a good reason for that.

I started out on Heineken but soon hit the harder stuff...

I actually drank Heineken almost exclusively (except for Old Style during baseball season) from about 85-00. Then craft became available and I've never looked back.

Happy 79th to a hero of us all. 

I would argue that Eternity is not a GREAT tune, but it never really gelled into a good one. There's one from Spring '93 (Dean Dome) that's as good as I ever heard it be performed. They finished off that set with Liberty - a MUCH better place for it in a set. But I digress!

Really, other than the Hunter/Garcia tunes - all of which I thought were pretty solid - I think all the rest could have/should have been better. There are kernels of stuff in Wave that needed to be worked out. Childhood's End the same. 

And in unrelated new, please file under Philco.... Phil Lesh and his band played Thalia Hall  in Chicago Thursday night. They played some great relics from China Cat Sunflower, Dark Star, Uncle Johns Band, Cassidy and Scarlet Begonias. And the encore, of course was Misunderstood. Say wha? Yup Wilco gets covered by Phil Lesh and the Terrapin Family Band. It was a very good cover, all things considered with somewhere around 20 "nothings" Many Deadheads were confused. There were seven of us who were jumping out of our skulls.

OMFG, 

That's as cool as it gets. Gewee - who sang Misunderstood? The song itself would seem to be something in Phil's wheelhouse - a bit of alt-country mixed in with some noise. I'll be scouring Archive in the next few days!

Happy 50th Anniversary Live Dead Dark Star!       

The St. Stephen jam from 15 October 1977 still blows my mind....

 

any other similarly exceptional jams on par with that from 1977?

The jam in this 21 + min. Sugaree from Hartford '77 comes to mind:

https://archive.org/details/gd77-05-28.sbd.sacks.4983.sbefail.shnf/gd77-05-28d1t03.shn

I've always thought of '77 as being broken into two halves - pre-Mick accident and Post. The first half being "The Just Exactly Perfect Brothers Band" and from September on as being the Heavy Rock Dead. Really, from Labor Day '77 through Egypt that was a VERY different sounding band than from what came directly before and after. I'll try to give examples later at some point haha.

 

 

I always thought Ryan Adams was a self-important blowhard douche and disliked whatever amount of emo crap talent he brought to Phil & Friends years ago. The guy sure could slaughter a decent Garcia tune.

 

This is pretty much my view as well. I saw Whiskeytown open for Fogerty around 1997 and I thought that band had something happening for them but by and large what I heard from Adams after that left me less than impressed. But I'm not really well versed in the catalog - it's pretty fucking extensive.

His shows with Phil kind of bummed me out from what I've heard.

Dave's #29 arrived today (whew! I was getting uptight haha). Looking forward to the filler (which I have not heard, apparently there's very little that exists in the vault), and especially the Dew.

This is a very rare period for Dew - after the 10/18/74 show it was played 0 times in '75, '2 times in '76, 5 in '77, once in both '78 and '79. It really never was in anything like a regular spot until '87 (post-coma). 

Some interesting trivia for Dew freaks (like me).

I think the Zeppelin comparisons are not quite accurate. I don't hear the turn-on-a-dime fluidity and technical chops of The Mighty Zeppelin. A fairer comparison might be early Alice Cooper. A bit more blue collar. 

Zeppelin seems (to me) to be so much above any of the countless imitators and wanna be's - Purple at the height of their came came fairly close - but really, the standard they set can't be equaled. It's not fair for anything that has came since.

Bingo!

Look on the bright side - your percentage inched above 90%!

Both of those games were crazy-good. At least it was entertaining!

Did the whole fall tour and that Augusta show easily the best of the tour. On the rail right in front of Jerry both nights. Ah, memories...

DUDE! 

I HATE this week. This is the week where it's down to 4 teams. I try to pick the two teams I like the most. It ALWAYS, I mean 90% of the time, is the other two teams. 

This year it's Saints #1 - I'd like Drew to get another ring and then retire on top. That's always a nice ending.

#2 - Chiefs - because I remember Len & Podolak and Otis Taylor and Willie and Stenereud  and all those guys. It's been a LONG time.

So it'll be Rams/Pats. Write it down haha.

My very favorite set of the 5 nights is set 2 from the middle night (10/18). Phil & Ned > Jam > Dark Star > Dew. 

Sadly enough, that was the last time they ever did Star > Dew. 

 

Where there's a hot PITB, there will be mountain bed. Gottta re-check this out after work.....

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that 40 years ago yesterday was a REALLY hot set of music. It's one of the best of the last 6 weeks of the Keith & Donna Era. Yes, yes, I know. The Miracle > Shakedown opener. It's undeniably good. But I'm here to talk about the Playin into the Drums > Jam > Playin Reprise. 40+ minutes of Essential Dead. 

Following the lyrics Jerry goes right into some inspired extreme noodling, which goes on for nearly 15 minutes. Jerry doesn't want to stop! Eventually he does and The Devils immediately go with a Middle Eastern feel that reminds me of 12/30/78 with Hamza. Jerry and Bob dig it and come back out for a jam that is like a hash den in Morocco or somewhere similar. Finally the Reprise comes and it's good and celebratory. It always amazes me to read about how extremely dysfunctional and unhappy the band was at this time - you sure wouldn't know it from this example. This is the consecrated fucking noodling of the gods. 

https://archive.org/details/gd1979-01-15.111592.mtx.chappell.sb32.flac16/gd79-01-15s2t06.flac

I have never even heard of fleece-lined jeans. 

I have just sewn long johns directly into my legs for decades. Halloween > April Fools Day.

Damn. That was SUCH a good game last night. Both sides played really well, it was a nail-biter. But...ultimately I end up feeling like I just watched my dog get hit by a car. I'm heartbroken. Most fun I've had with Da Bears in 30 years.

When we got the ball back with 59 seconds left I just KNEW how it would play out. We're gonna have to kick a game winning FG. If it was Robbie I know I would have been completely confident. I was not confident. But the WAY it ended, hell that's a movie ending. Dude's nickname is "Doink" in the locker room. 5 times in 1 year. So why not up the ante and do a fucking double doink!

Jesus.