From the NY Times
//http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/arts/music/12ratl.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1
Pretty good article, imo.
Thanks.
lw
I thought so too.
So what do you think of said show?
That show was fooking electric, imo.
But I really like the Buffalo show that went down the day before or the next day, and actually listen to it more often than the Cornell gig.. I do appreciate that whole tour. Heck, the whole year of 1977 just smoked, imo.
However, I'll prolly dust off the cornell show after posting this comment. hehe
lw
On the other hand, its tough to pick a best dead show or era that I didn't catch live. And out of all the Dead gigs I caught, there was only a couple that I would classify as clunkers. (Mostly due to technical problems.)
Looking back, many of my favorite experiences were the shows we caught with toostoned. Large doses of sacrament with circus joints passed around during certain peak musical movements left some lasting impressions, bruddah. :cool2
However, I really couldn't pick a favorite show attended. There were way to many peak moments. The first five years were like a honeymoon. The next five, scary and hairy as shit. The second decade leveled out a bit, but there were negative residual effects from earlier shows. This last decade has been smooth like buddah, bruddah. Tons of intensity tempered with experience makes for grand lift-offs into the cosmos.
I miss toostoned.
lw
...... but at the end of the day, I agree with the folks who contend that if one can recall a specific show in great detail, one wasn't really "there" when it went down.
lw
Quote from: "laughingwillow"The next five, scary and hairy as shit.
Was that from the feeling of the time, the zeitgeist, or something else?
I only saw about 12 shows in the flesh, a couple in the 80's at Cal Expo were a bit underwhelming, but I was at the retirement show in 74. My show memories are all a bit smokey.
As far as recordings, I am partial to a couple shows from 1969(the Avalon and Fillmore East) I found in my mailbox sent from the midwest..
But I am gonna check some 77s.......
LOL I could always make up a little care package, bro........
lw
Please do. I really like putting my shows through the lw filter.
So much music, so little time....
You be the judge:
//http://www.archive.org/details/gd1977-05-08.mtx.dan.35086.flac24
So, I've been previewing a few shows as of late, including the Cornell gig in '77.
The big deal about that show, imo, is that the entire band is on fire and the two drummers are ACTUALLY PLAYING AS ONE.
lw
That was rare. Mickey Hart has killed plenty of my buzzes over the years. What's wrong with him? Now Billy Crossman, now there is a real drummer, the unsung hero of rock and roll. Long live Billy K!!!!!
Hey, amom: I just saw your question copied below.
Quote from: "Amomynous"Quote from: "laughingwillow"The next five, scary and hairy as shit.
Was that from the feeling of the time, the zeitgeist, or something else?
There is really no easy way to explain it. So you might be sorry you asked.....
A point was reached in 1988 or so when the dead scene/shows started getting real personal for me. The deeper I got into the scene the more I realized it was a bona fide separate society existing on the fringe of the mainstream. I remember ending up in a hallway at Kaiser Aud one particular psychedelic show and then realizing I was being herded in a specific direction by the spinning freaks. SO I fought the current and went back to an empty area around the corner. Soon I was in the middle of a spinning mass of humanity being "escorted" around the bend again. Much psychedelic hi-jinx ensued before I threw in the (early) towel for the evening. I split, vowing never to return. Even skipped the next night's show. However, two weeks later, I was back on the bus. I became alternately obsessed and terrified as the psychological pressure started to ramp up at shows for me. A psychedelic fear of the unknown, if you will. However, I was just as attracted to the cosmic lessons I'd gleaned from past shows as I was afraid of what lie just around the proverbial cosmic bend. Oh, how my mind conjured e-vile and insidious motivations for the families collective acts and actions. Anyway, the wife and I happened to attend many of the same shows before we met. Imo, the first show we attended together in 1994 was the turning point with my inner psychedelic turmoil. After that, the biggest lessons I gleaned happened at shows with the wife and toostoned.
lw
Wow....
jrl: I've been doing a lot of comparative listening as of late. The 5-8-77 show has to be one of the tightest of any I've heard, from start to finish.
However, imo, one would have to divide the group's career into at least four different phases. With and without piggers as well as with and without Mickey would have to be the minimum number of configurations to consider. (4)
amom: Please realize that I don't consider the dead scene to be a giant conspiracy, but rather an experiment in group consciousness. And when powerful sacraments are added to the mix, an amazing synchronicity can and does occur that is something like connecting a bunch of pc's.
The fear is/was mine and I own it.
I do what I do for the lessons to be gleaned. To know myself is to know you.......
lw
Quote from: "laughingwillow"jrl: I've been doing a lot of comparative listening as of late. The 5-8-77 show has to be one of the tightest of any I've heard, from start to finish.
However, imo, one would have to divide the group's career into at least four different phases. With and without piggers as well as with and without Mickey would have to be the minimum number of configurations to consider. (4)
lw
Here is another question: how are you judging? How tight they were, how passionate, how psychedelic, how weird?
I think my love of 66-69 comes from me using the the last two scales.
Criteria above would be band performance and set list.
If you are looking for psychedelic interplay, that's another story..... Tours tended to ebb and flow psychedelia between individual shows and maybe days of the week, imo.
Also, most any live dead experience is enhanced with the ingestion of an active sacrament, imo. The live experience is the way to go and listening to shows I caught on disc can bring me right back to a particular emotion, even if not as strong the second time around.
lw
Quote from: "laughingwillow"amom: Please realize that I don't consider the dead scene to be a giant conspiracy, but rather an experiment in group consciousness. And when powerful sacraments are added to the mix, an amazing synchronicity can and does occur that is something like connecting a bunch of pc's.
The fear is/was mine and I own it.
I understand.
Recent comments aside, I've often pondered the content of the entheogenic experience, pondered its utter strangeness. Where do these things come from? All the explanations -- Jungian/Freudian psychological, mechanistic, etc. -- would never predict or explain the strange and alien worlds we find ourselves in. Even the most literal, McKenna-esque explanations fall short. There may be a component of all in what we experience, but even taken together they fall short. It
is the emergence of a group consciousness, but what a consciousness!
To me it is a mystery to be beheld, not an experience to be analyzed!
Quote from: "laughingwillow"Also, most any live dead experience is enhanced with the ingestion of an active sacrament, imo. The live experience is the way to go and listening to shows I caught on disc can bring me right back to a particular emotion, even if not as strong the second time around.
lw
What did the Deadhead say when his stash ran out?
"This band sucks!
LOL One of the most profound shows I ever experienced prolly fit into that category, jrl.
Toostoned came out onto the prairie for a couple of shows way back when. We caught the dead in wisconsin. Jerry was long gone and Phil was reportedly suffering from equipment failure that wouldn't be replaced for a day or two. Robet Hunter opened and then Dylan did a set. Word was that Hunter bolted after his set figuring the dead would have an off night with a pissy Phil. The venue was a little trashy, etc.
But then the show started and Dylan joined the boys on stage. It was obvious everyone was having a ball. I was laughing my ass off AT Dylan. He set up his keyboard right in the middle of the stage. (For his set, the keys were so far off to the side that it was difficult to even see him.) And when the dead played his songs, Dylan seemed to be impersonating himself. And badly at that. Mickey was chortling, too. But so was Dylan, so who knows.
Anyway, the second set got rolling, there was a seam in the music and toostoned sparked a circus joint. The effects of the circus joint on top of the active sacrament lasted for a half hour to 45 minutes. During that time, we both entered that sacred space and returned three or four times. For me it was like catching passing waves. All I had to do was close my eyes and go. (Toostoned said he kept his eyes open the entire journey.)
Early on it got real deep for me and I almost vacillated on my resolve to remain in that sacred space for as long as possible. When fear came whispering in my ear, it was difficult not to break the spell and bolt from the scene. But this time when the voice mentioned my impending death, I replied that everyone dies and I should be so lucky as to go while doing what I loved to do. The tone changed quickly after that. The ride became exhilarating. I felt exposed and examined and connected and loved all at the same time. The fear was at least temporarily burned away and all the mice came out to play.
I'll never forget that night. And I'm sure it will never make it to the top of any must have shows (except for me) anytime soon.... Christ, I don't even remember the date.
lw