tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post6199306584053340363..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: 1970-1971: More Vintage Dead/Historic Dead ReviewsLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-36445998255648050502020-08-21T20:53:20.742-07:002020-08-21T20:53:20.742-07:00I added another review of Vintage Dead found by mu...I added another review of Vintage Dead found by music researcher Ron Fritts in the student newspaper of Kenyon College in Ohio. (Seems better to add reviews to the old pages rather than keep making new Vintage Dead posts.) This one's interesting for its sense of history and the development of the Dead. <br />The album just says it was recorded at the Avalon Ballroom in 1966, but Tindle comes up with a whole story of how it was recorded at the Trips Festival, the Birth of the Psychedelic, and fancifully recreates the evening. (He'd probably read Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.) His account isn't really accurate - this was just another show at the Avalon many months after the Trips Festival. <br />But it's striking that, as in so many 1970 reviews, 1966 is already viewed as the distant past, and the music from that year has to be set in historical context for today's listeners. There's already the sense of nostalgia for a lost golden age of discovery. (Tindle was probably in high school in '66.) But as he says, "rock music has come a long way since then," and the actual 1966 Dead are "less than outstanding" - they're too sedate, don't jam much, and need apologies. <br />For him, the Dead at their most powerful recreate the acid experience, and he's disappointed not to hear that in '66. He sees the Dead as progressing: "there is a new Grateful Dead today." They've abandoned "acid rock" because "they couldn't control its incredible power." Now they've calmed down, they sing catchy tunes, and they've become popular. Even though "they still occasionally let the acid out in live performances," the acid Dead are gone. <br />It would be nice if he'd named a specific album or live moment that captured him, but he gives a loving description of the Dead's music as an acid trip in itself that the listener must surrender to. (Or else be bored to death.) Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com