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Shug

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Posts posted by Shug

  1. I forgot it’s the 2/5/78 Scarlet that I love: upbeat tempo, bright, and 5 choruses of Jerry soloing before “the wind in the willows” plus a fully developed transition jam. I just dig this one. 4/24/78 is not far behind. ‘78 had great Scarlets, slightly more developed than ‘77s and no Donna screech unlike the otherwise sweet standalones from ‘74

  2. I agree, we just saw Seattle and Portland and feel the live show is even better than the Lost In The Dream tour (we saw that one three times). More organic, more tight but loose ensemble interaction, slightly rootsier with more Dylanesque Pettyesque and Neilesque moments. Like A Hurricane fits that beautifully especially at Massey Hall. Lucky you!

  3. I think Long After Dark is so great and probably does not get the credit it deserves even from its creators. TP was a master of pop song craft . He’s always got a great bridge even in a heavy song like Straight Into Darkness or a dirty-toned rock blowout like Between Two Worlds

  4. I like the set list from Oct 7 with Let Me Roll It , Please Call Home, Sugaree, Angel From Montgomery, and Song For You. I’d LOVE to hear Susan’s soul power on my fave Gregg Allman ballad Please Call Home, wow! If it’s anything like she does Bird On A Wire it will be stunning

  5. It could be that there was a Betty recording and a separate Bear recording but I’m not sure. I have read that later in the 70s at least her recordings were done separate and distinct from the other soundboard recording. She used her own tape, tape machine and fed her own mix out of the board into her recorder and there was often a separate recording on a different machine with a different mix at many shows but I don’t know if it’s been documented show by show

  6. No doubt Dylan treated people badly in those years and he could be a mean asshole.  Its pretty well known, though, that it was all a protective mechanism, even if it was an immature one.  I find it hard to judge him too harshly because not many people can ever know what its like to be that famous at that young an age, let alone be saddled with the insane expectations of being labeled the "spokesman for your generation".  That kind of pressure is unfathomable to most folks, I think.

     

    As far as his ridiculous claims that he was not a protest singer, I don't believe he really meant that, I think he was just trying to deal with/ fuck with the clueless mainstream media and how they tried to put everyone and everything in a clearly labeled box, something that is the antithesis of what I believe were Dylan's artistic intentions.  "You know something is happening here but you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Jones?"

     

    But back to TP and the Heartbreakers, check out this audio of the last night of the 20 night Fillmore run in 1997 when I believe the Heartbreakers took the mantle of the world's greatest rock 'n' roll band from the Stones and a rock band that originated in the mid 70s attained the same status and level as their early 60s rock 'n' roll progenitor heroes.

     

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19G4L27gW1k

  7. I'm with you exactly Sid. I want to like new U2 but it just isn't up to par for me. I haven't cared about new U2 music since Atomic Bomb. Bono once said when asked when it will be time to quit and he said "3 shite albums in a row and were done ." I think we might be there with this new album

  8. Zevon's Accidentally Like A Martyr was awesome and a thrilling surprise in the KCRW show, thanks!!!!!

     

    Fantastic and a favorite song, perfect choice for this band!

     

    Dylan covered it live too and took the name of Time Out Of Mind from its lyrics furthering the WOD - Dylan connection via Zevon, so great!

  9. Pain is an immediate standout to me and I think Up All Night will be a killer show opener live.  Also digging on Thinking Of A Place and Clean Living after one full-on listening session last night hearing all the songs for the first time.  The arrangements sound tighter and more composition-oriented to me than Lost In The Dream but there is also more aggressive guitar jamming, too.  The high level recording craft is now joined by a new level of ensemble performance craft that is clearly the result of extensive touring for the previous album.  Granduciel's artistic intensions are clearly on display again.  I was doubtful that they could pull off a second brilliant album in a row, but it sounds like they've come really close on first listen.  I'm stoked for it and for the up coming tour!

  10. "I joined the 1972 tour of Europe to see Europe and to write songs (and because I always toured with the band) – endless European bus trips seemed like a God sent time to get the next album sketched out since Garcia was almost always otherwise occupied in the States - maybe a fourth album to follow the Workingman's Dead/American Beauty/Rambling Rose trilogy." Robert Hunter

     

     

    Rambling Rose, the "lost" follow up studio album to American Beauty:  What songs would have been on it?

     

    This post on Light Into Ashes' blog got me thinking about it, even though its not the main topic of the post

     http://deadessays.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-brotherhood-vs-dead-machine.html

     

    This thread is linked in the replies: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/compile-a-lost-grateful-dead-album-from-1971.324864/ 

     

    This is what I came up with.  I decided to stick to only stuff that came out or was recorded in 1972 (don't hold me to absolute accuracy in that statement), so Bertha and Wharf Rat were out.  Europe '72 original LP is half-studio with so many overdubs so I chose versions from there when I could.  I decided stuff from Garcia and Ace were also fair game.  I could not quite decide if the Ace stuff should only be the Weir-Hunter songs or if I could include the Weir-Barlow songs.  I also tried to mostly stick to the anachronistic Americana vibe in my song selection although that wasn't possible if I wanted more than one or two Weir songs on there.  I kicked around several versions with different songs (some had Black Throated Wind and Bertha and Next Time You See Me) and sequencing, but this is what I am liking best this week:

     

    Side A

    Ramble On Rose - Europe '72

    Mr. Charlie - Europe '72

    Jack Straw - Europe '72

    Brown Eyed Women - Europe '72

    Playing In The Band - Ace

     

    Side B

    He's Gone - Europe '72

    Chinatown Shuffle - Steppin' Out

    Loser - 4/14/72 Copenhagen

    Tennessee Jed - Europe '72

    One More Saturday Night - Ace

    Deal - Garcia

     

    Care to come up with your own creation of Rambling Rose?

  11. Maybe its just because I just listened to 122-78 but I thought I heard a bit of the Close Encounters theme in the outro jam of the Let It Grow from Augusta 9-2-79.  Nice one, I'd not heard that.  I gotta listen to more Fall '79 especially to look for more times Brent charged into the weirdness like on the Scarelt>Fire transitions and the Playin' jams.  Didn't know he ever did it on Let It Grow that tour, thanks for the tip!

     

    Nice Supplication jam>Estimated, too, from Providence 9-4-80!

  12. Well I did watch the film and I've read the interviews with the band where they say psychedelics gave them a certain foundation of an approach to playing together. I don't recall them saying it was psychedelics that exclusively were responsible for their musical telepathy although I'm sure it helped. Same goes for being open and ego-less enough to become part of the group mind. It's hard to know what any other person is thinking and there may well be evidence that Mayer does not have the mindset to get into that consciousness but there have been a lot of things he has said that suggest that he does have the mindset for it. But it's not just up to him, the other guys have to be there too

  13. To me collective improv is just one facet of musical telepathy. Musical telepathy, to me, means a group of musicians locked in tight, knowing where the music as a whole and each individual's contribution is heading, even if it's because of rehearsal, lots of stage time, or made up on the spot. Even for the Dead I'd argue there was less collective improv than they are given credit for as much of the jamming themes were familiar ideas from rehearsal and shows. In 1968 they were rehearsing all day long almost everyday at the Potrero Theater. My point is that i think it was time playing together that was the main factor that gave them "telepathy" and for that to happen to Dead and co they'd have to spend many many hours rehearsing or playing a relentless touring schedule to even have a chance to get that good. Mayer is probably the most likely to have the energy and desire to hit it that hard and it's the old guys who most likely don't

  14. I think the musical telepathy you guys are talking about comes mostly from time spent playing together, whether that is rehearsing or just playing lots and lots of shows.  I'm sure psychedelics give a unique flavor and intensity to the musical telepathy of a true rock ensemble, but plenty of bands that didn't do psychedelics or form and play in the 60s had/have it, too, Wilco being a prime example.  Fare The Well definitely did not have it and Dead and Co have a long way to go before they get it, if they ever do.  Probably the older guys lack the drive and energy to really make that happen. 

     

    But its easy for me to hear the improvement in Dead and Co from their first shows to this past tour and I believe that is mostly from the growing experience of having played together more times.

  15. Its interesting how people hear things differently, because the way you described Stranger is exactly what I hear in Lazy Lightning.  They both have the characteristic Bobby weird time signature, they start out with the main vocal parts, complex and interesting musically, they both lead into a big jam.  On LL, Phil holds the melody in parts while Bobby slashes, Jerry blazes and Brent punctuates the jam with staccato bursts and flourishes of B-3.   They weave around one another, building and coalescing  into an intense crescendo, capping it off with a vocal rave up from Bobby and then ending it tight and sharp.  As for lyrics, corny or not, they are about the same topic and they both have the same level of sophistication, which is not much, as is appropriate for the subject matter!  Each to his own and something for everyone, I suppose.

  16. I'm curious, do those who don't like Lazy Lightining also not like Feel Like A Stranger, which is what I would expect since they are pretty close together in my opinion.  If you like Stranger but don't like Lazy Lightning, I'm curious as to what you see as the difference between them?

  17. You're joking, right?  or you're trying to get the resident Weir proponent (me) all riled up?  Ha ha ha!  I thought I had posted a ways back my treatise on how I think Garica plays better when he doesn't have to sing lead vocals with Lazy Lightning and Let It Grow being two of the best examples? 

     

    I love Lazy Lightning, at its best its got the blazing Garcia leads, slashing chords from Weir, a catchy little melodic riff, intricate and precise ensemble playing from the rhythm. section and the keyboards (better in the Brent years, IMO) and a jam that just cooks along like a fast Italian sports car on a winding mountain road.  What's not to like about all that?  I've heard some say they don't like the lyrics, but they don't bother me at all.  Chasing girls is one of the main themes in rock 'n' roll from the earliest days of Chuck Berry and the Sun Studios gang all the way through and Lazy Lightning and Feel Like A Stranger are right in that tradition.  I got no problem with it.

     

    Not like its gonna convince anyone who doesn't like the song, but I think the version from Go To Nassau (May 1980) is excellent as is the one from the Greek in '82.

  18. Aside from what people think about his musicianship and personal life, I admire John Mayer for his sincere passion for the music of the Dead and the way he handles himself in the press these days.  Mayer has passion, positivity and integrity while Chris Robinson has negativity, petty jealousy, and hypocrisy, IMO.  There are a lot of good things that Mayer has to say in this interview, he seems like he is happy and doing things for the right reasons.  I have a lot of respect for him.

     

    http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/john-mayer-on-katy-perry-learning-from-the-dead-embracing-pot-w490230

     

     

    Some people are probably jealous of your situation [with the Dead]. Chris Robinson, formerly of the Black Crowes, was just on The Howard Stern Show and took shots at your musicianship. Does that bother you?
    I care about this band too much to give that life. I have my thoughts, but it's not my place. I realized not long ago that I'm done debating my own merits: "No, I am very good." Music isn't a sports-page thing to me.

  19. I don't think we can blame fans for wanting to keep having the joy the Dead scene provided.  It is very hard to say "I'm not going to go see the Dead anymore because I don't want to burden Jerry with the feeling of needing to keep touring to keep bringing us joy".  He certainly gave 1000x more joy to so many of us than we could reasonably expect and I will be forever grateful to my core for that.  I just wish he had found a balance, but he was never very good at saying No, he would either just avoid or have someone else say No for him.

     

    I'm guessing, as you noted, that a lot of the responsibility he felt was to keep the Dead family (musicians, crew, other staff) employed.  He had a personal relationship with all of them and I can imagine it would be very hard to act knowingly to put them out of a job, even if it destroyed him, which it helped to do.

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