Music
All Good Things in All Good Time
August 9, 2010 is the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Jerry Garcia. My favorite biography of the Grateful Dead is Sweet Chaos: The Grateful Dead’s American Adventure by Carol Brightman. There’s also the Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics. There’s also Rolling Stone magazine’s Garcia book, and Dark Star: An Oral Biography of Jerry Garcia which seems to have just been republished by something called Plexus Press. For those of you who would rather mark the occasion with listening than with reading, I heartily recommend any (read=all) of the following:
Don’t Let Go – a great double live comp from ’76; highlights include “I’ll Take a Melody,” “Sitting in Limbo,” and the gospel triple-shot that rounds out the second disc: “My Sisters and Brothers,” “Lonesome and a Long Way from Home,” “Mighty High”.
The Grateful Dead – Road Trips Vol. 3 No. 3 (May 1970) – I wrote about my love for this most recent GD Productions release here last month.
Jerry Garcia and John Kahn live at Marin Veterans Auditorium 2/28/86 – What can I say? Single disc acoustic gem.
Workingman’s Dead, which btw turns 40 this year
Garcia Plays Dylan – a wonderful two-disc study of JG’s incomparable Dylan covers. “Visions of Johanna” alone is worth the price of admission, but don’t miss “Tough Mama” and, you know, all the rest of it.
And hey, as long as we’re getting into this–people who have read my short story “The New Life” might remember that at one point Brad buys his friend Kenny a Grateful Dead live release for his birthday. The release is 2/11/69 live at the Fillmore East, and I am happy to report that you can download the two-disc set directly from the Dead website for a measly $12.99 (or more depending on your chosen quality/format).
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXE2vCKHDn0
Tags: Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia
Hey Justin — Long time lurker here, and lover of the Grateful Dead. Good on your for coming to the band’s defense here in the trenches of book blogging (or whatever you call this).
The literary world loves to love the Beats, all things Gonzo, Pynchon/Delillo dystopias — yet for the most part when you talk to writers about the Grateful Dead you hear the same old gripes: bad harmonies, out of tune voices, sloppy playing. These aren’t unfair accusations, but they are not defining characteristics.
The Dead were the James Joyce of the American music scene — they pulled from everything and fused it together on their own terms. For a serious examination of American letters from Kerouac to Franzen, the band is required listening, because they hung and played with everyone — from Neal Cassady to Ornette Coleman, Dylan, Tom Wolfe, Ken Kesey, Walter Cronkite, Al Franken. The band had a huge impact, direct and indirect, on late 20th century American culture.
Of late, I’ve really been digging the Garcia Let It Rock release, featuring Nicky Hopkins on piano. But whenever I’m in the mood to really toast Garcia and his compatriots I crank up August 1, 1973 — especially the raging Garcia-dominant chain of Dark Star>El Paso>Eyes of the World>Morning Dew. I’ll play it extra loud tonight . . .
My ex-girlfriend slept with Weir on tour (before she was my ex) and it took me a few years to be able to bear the playing of a GD tune because of that. She was a very pretty, skinny, 19-year-old six-footer of the slightly-upper-middle class and would go on the caravan/pilgrimages with dusty buds and wear Moroccan-style outfits and name her cats preposterous things like “Dark Star” (her other ex went on to play bass for Morphine). Then one night I was sick and fevered and had a radio on in the dark at a low volume and some hippie DJ on the college station played several hours straight of TGD and it sounded amazing. The last thing I remember hearing that night was a bootleg of Uncle John’s Band and it blew my mind. I haven’t listened to TGD since that night so as not to ruin that experience.
When a member of the Grateful Dead dies, is that irony?
No, that’s just dumb luck.
Steven Augustine, how old are you, exactly? You appear to slip through time, like Little Big Man or Baron Munchausen, having many strange adventures…
51, dude! Lived in many states and countries. Composer by trade. Been around.
Here’s some of the background:
http://sirstevenaugustine.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/art-annoys/
Nice. I have become a fan…. I expect a memoir someday.
Sorry, better copy (more pix):
http://staugustine2.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/the-endless-thread-6-0/#comment-3250
“I expect a memoir someday…”
It’s already all over virtual space, Pem… (but we’d better cede the floor to the DedHeds)…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pigpen-grave.jpg
it also makes for a decent NOFX song (that gets the date wrong)
Sounds like a yes.
Hey Justin — Long time lurker here, and lover of the Grateful Dead. Good on your for coming to the band’s defense here in the trenches of book blogging (or whatever you call this).
The literary world loves to love the Beats, all things Gonzo, Pynchon/Delillo dystopias — yet for the most part when you talk to writers about the Grateful Dead you hear the same old gripes: bad harmonies, out of tune voices, sloppy playing. These aren’t unfair accusations, but they are not defining characteristics.
The Dead were the James Joyce of the American music scene — they pulled from everything and fused it together on their own terms. For a serious examination of American letters from Kerouac to Franzen, the band is required listening, because they hung and played with everyone — from Neal Cassady to Ornette Coleman, Dylan, Tom Wolfe, Ken Kesey, Walter Cronkite, Al Franken. The band had a huge impact, direct and indirect, on late 20th century American culture.
Of late, I’ve really been digging the Garcia Let It Rock release, featuring Nicky Hopkins on piano. But whenever I’m in the mood to really toast Garcia and his compatriots I crank up August 1, 1973 — especially the raging Garcia-dominant chain of Dark Star>El Paso>Eyes of the World>Morning Dew. I’ll play it extra loud tonight . . .
My ex-girlfriend slept with Weir on tour (before she was my ex) and it took me a few years to be able to bear the playing of a GD tune because of that. She was a very pretty, skinny, 19-year-old six-footer of the slightly-upper-middle class and would go on the caravan/pilgrimages with dusty buds and wear Moroccan-style outfits and name her cats preposterous things like “Dark Star” (her other ex went on to play bass for Morphine). Then one night I was sick and fevered and had a radio on in the dark at a low volume and some hippie DJ on the college station played several hours straight of TGD and it sounded amazing. The last thing I remember hearing that night was a bootleg of Uncle John’s Band and it blew my mind. I haven’t listened to TGD since that night so as not to ruin that experience.
When a member of the Grateful Dead dies, is that irony?
No, that’s just dumb luck.
Steven Augustine, how old are you, exactly? You appear to slip through time, like Little Big Man or Baron Munchausen, having many strange adventures…
51, dude! Lived in many states and countries. Composer by trade. Been around.
Here’s some of the background:
http://sirstevenaugustine.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/art-annoys/
Nice. I have become a fan…. I expect a memoir someday.
Sorry, better copy (more pix):
http://staugustine2.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/the-endless-thread-6-0/#comment-3250
“I expect a memoir someday…”
It’s already all over virtual space, Pem… (but we’d better cede the floor to the DedHeds)…
With you 100% on that analysis, zublop. Thanks for popping out of the lurk to share these thoughts. And yeah, I think the Let It Rock release is pretty good, but it just doesn’t hit me in the guts. It was the same when they released the Legion of Mary stuff–I was like, ahh okay interesting, a saxophone; but in the end I didn’t want to listen to 11 minutes of saxophone in the middle of Second That Emotion. I don’t know that particular ’73 show (if you’ve got it on mp3, perhaps I can prevail upon you to mediafire/yousendit my way?) but fall ’73 was a pretty rockin time. The nine disc box covering the three-night November stand at Winterland is beyond the effing pale. I’m also a huge fan of Dick’s Picks 8 (5/2/70). The “Cold Jordan” on there was the only one I had up until RoadTripsV3N3 just came out. Anyway, thanks again.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pigpen-grave.jpg
it also makes for a decent NOFX song (that gets the date wrong)
Sounds like a yes.
With you 100% on that analysis, zublop. Thanks for popping out of the lurk to share these thoughts. And yeah, I think the Let It Rock release is pretty good, but it just doesn’t hit me in the guts. It was the same when they released the Legion of Mary stuff–I was like, ahh okay interesting, a saxophone; but in the end I didn’t want to listen to 11 minutes of saxophone in the middle of Second That Emotion. I don’t know that particular ’73 show (if you’ve got it on mp3, perhaps I can prevail upon you to mediafire/yousendit my way?) but fall ’73 was a pretty rockin time. The nine disc box covering the three-night November stand at Winterland is beyond the effing pale. I’m also a huge fan of Dick’s Picks 8 (5/2/70). The “Cold Jordan” on there was the only one I had up until RoadTripsV3N3 just came out. Anyway, thanks again.
Saw them three times, including the last show in Chicago. Good times.
Saw them three times, including the last show in Chicago. Good times.