tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post1019243858145695114..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: September 19, 1970: Fillmore East, NYCLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-64752626891268434922018-03-07T21:50:31.628-08:002018-03-07T21:50:31.628-08:00The interesting thing is, another Down Beat review...The interesting thing is, another Down Beat reviewer said pretty much the same thing earlier - Alan Heineman, reviewing Live/Dead: "Kaukonen has freely admitted that his guitar style owes a great deal to Garcia's, but...while the Dead may have been a greater social presence than the Airplane, the latter has grown into a musical force that has long since outstripped its roots." <br />(Then again, Heineman also favorably compared Kaukonen to Clapton circa '68! Jorma seems to have been a particular favorite among Down Beat critics.) Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-67896782094998743822018-03-06T00:28:42.728-08:002018-03-06T00:28:42.728-08:00The review is a bit harsh on Henry.
Interesting ...The review is a bit harsh on Henry. <br /><br />Interesting that Klee seems to rate Jorma Kaukonen more highly than Garcia as a guitarist. That would not have been a mainstream view among guitarists in my circle, then or later.Robin Russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16617158672125005901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-5437904292056212062018-03-06T00:11:56.016-08:002018-03-06T00:11:56.016-08:00No doubt about which show this is!
Klee mainly r...No doubt about which show this is! <br /><br />Klee mainly reviewed jazz shows for Down Beat, but was also a Dead fan - he had seen them at the Fillmore back in July, and here he was already seeing them again. As he says of Dead fans, "They can't ever get enough!" (Note that the girl in front of him is called a "Dead freak," as fans were most commonly known at the time.) <br /><br />He was right about the magnificent performance. Somewhat disappointingly, he writes little about the music itself, and the writing is sometimes hasty or clumsy, but he makes up for it with a close attention to the personnel and songs - naming almost every song in the electric set. He notes that there's just one drummer in the acoustic set (in this case Bill, though the two drummers seem to have traded this set from night to night) and that the New Riders join in. <br />Truckin' wasn't played that night, but he may have heard it at a previous show, or simply read about it in the Rolling Stone article on the Dead that week, where it was also called Juggin'. It's interesting that the one other new song he singles out is To Lay Me Down, which he says derives from "black soul-gospel." (Later on he says their show is like "a history lesson" with its range of styles.) <br />He likes the New Riders and admires Garcia's pedal-steel playing. He accurately notes that Weir sometimes also plays lead parts with Garcia (it may have been harder to distinguish them live), but it's funny that he gives Phil only the vaguest of compliments while saying that bass players "belong in the background." He's fond of the "loveable" Pigpen, who takes charge of the demanding New York crowd and wraps them around his finger.<br />He hints at the religious-revival audience-participation aspect of Lovelight ("clapping, dancing, singing along, screaming, shouting, involved"), and says that the band's performance matches the excitement of the audience, that as long as the crowd "and the vibes and the drugs are right," everyone can get caught up in it. <br />Pigpen, of course, gets the last word. Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com