tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post118544338488192052..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: April 1972: Band Interview & Empire PoolLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-87356020686122415122022-08-05T01:23:12.985-07:002022-08-05T01:23:12.985-07:00I don't know the issue date of this piece, so ...I don't know the issue date of this piece, so it might not actually be the May 12 issue of Frendz (which had the Dead on the cover); this may be from an earlier issue.<br />Michael Moorcock of Hawkwind went along for the interview for that issue. He told the Deadcast that John Trux was the interviewer, meeting the Dead at the Kensington Palace Hotel in early April. "He talked to Phil Lesh quite a long time, he talked to Jerry quite a long time, Pigpen... It's a good substantial piece with long quotes from Phil Lesh about Neal Cassady and stuff like that." <br />That interview hasn't resurfaced yet, but it's remarkable that Frendz was printing one long piece after another on the Dead, with several writers for the magazine lining up at the Dead's hotel.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-16658825031245605402022-05-31T04:34:48.218-07:002022-05-31T04:34:48.218-07:00Many interesting things here, I'll just point ...Many interesting things here, I'll just point out a few: <br />- Garcia makes gentle fun of his Rolling Stone interview that had just been published; <br />- Garcia also emphasizes that Tom Wolfe's acid test book was "inaccurate and unbalanced"; <br />- Kent hasn't heard Ace yet, but he gets Weir to talk about writing some of the music on the album (offhand I don't recall which song chords were Bach-inspired?); <br />- Weir also rhapsodizes at length about Neal Cassady and his influence on the Dead; <br />- Weir says that the Dead's best recorded work is the Other One, by which he means the one on the '71 live album - which Garcia in the Signpost interview also called "some of the best playing that we've ever done"; <br />- as for Live/Dead, Weir says that the album Dark Star "was not as good as the one recorded the night before at the Avalon Ballroom." He blames recording problems. I think he's way wrong, but the one he's thinking of was probably from 1/26/69; unfortunately the surviving tape is badly cut with most of the middle missing. At any rate, Weir also gives a nice description of how the Dead play Dark Star. <br />- Pigpen is gaunt and gloomy, but gives some rare quotes for the interview about his drinking and his raps. (I think this is the first I've seen his dad called "Ole Creepy"!) He even names some of his favorite blues performers - it's said that he's "worked with John Lee Hooker a few times." This may seem far-fetched, but I wouldn't discount that Pigpen might have added harmonica or something to some club shows, since we know he hung out with Hooker. <br />- Man's World was "dropped owing to a backlash from Women's Lib"? Probably this was a Pigpen joke, since the Dead would sometimes poke fun at women's lib in interviews. I'm surprised the song came up at all since they hadn't played it since 1970. <br />- Kent claims all too soon that the Dead are off heavy drugs now and "the cocaine thing is past," but Garcia admits, "I'll take anything." <br />- Kent watches the Dead's rehearsal at the Empire Pool (probably on April 6, when the Book of the Dead says "on Thursday evening the band rehearsed for four hours in the freezing cold"). He singles out You Win Again and Bo Diddley as highlights - but English fans would have to wait til the Lyceum shows to hear them. <br />- Kent is one of many Europe '72 reviewers to point out that Weir's the main frontman now, and also one of many to feel that it takes the Dead a long time to really take off in a show. Almost the whole first set of 4/7 is said to be uneven, with "something missing" until the Dead magic finally appears with Playin' in the Band. But the second set slays him with its intensity. (He especially likes Ramble On Rose. It's noticeable that unlike some other reviewers he doesn't say a word about the venue, his focus is entirely on the band.) <br />- Pigpen is less involved in the show than he used to be, with only three songs, though Kent says "he's still getting back into his stride." After the show, Pigpen mutters that it was "pretty mediocre"! Kent himself is left in awe. Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-60397789497316176272022-05-31T04:34:33.177-07:002022-05-31T04:34:33.177-07:00McNally writes, "The tour's first days in...McNally writes, "The tour's first days in London involved a great deal of talking with the press, and much of it was tedious... In London they stayed at the Kensington Hotel...and the reporters who descended on them had to cope with the cross-fire raps of band members, managers, equipment crew, and whoever else was around." (LST p.426-7) <br />Something similar can be seen in the film of their 1970 visit, where members of the English press corner whoever's available. A bunch of interviews came out of this '72 promotional flurry as journalists flocked to visit the Dead - among them Nick Kent for one of his first articles. Kent was writing for the underground paper Frendz - the editor must have liked the Dead since it had just printed another long piece on the Dead by Danae Brook a few weeks earlier! <br />Kent was a hardcore Deadhead at the time - just in the first paragraph he's already delving into the meaning of the Dead, their American mythology, lyric observations & musical analysis; and later on he's happy to see the obscure people whose names he's seen on the album credits. Nothing but admiration for the band here, turning into worship after he sees the April 7 show. <br />(He seems to indicate it's his first Dead show, but then again he shows some interesting familiarity with their repertoire: he knows they do 'Sing Me Back Home,' he misses Pigpen's "long inspired raps," and he even remembers 'Hard to Handle' and 'Man's World,' so either he'd seen them before or he had tapes.) <br />Kent's writing was said to be "inspired by Jack Kerouac and Hunter Thompson," which is evident here. It's hard to tell whether he carefully polished the style in this piece or hastily typed it out on a cocaine binge! Either way, I think it's one of the better articles to come from the England '72 visit since it comes from a fan so familiar with the Dead. He'd write another positive review in a later issue covering the Bickershaw Festival - I added his comments years later on meeting the Dead in that post. Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-88397313755025402202022-05-30T07:33:51.996-07:002022-05-30T07:33:51.996-07:00Nice!Nice!Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.com