tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post6540621983117412326..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: March 1967: Garcia InterviewLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-76837642736222350932013-05-23T21:09:42.993-07:002013-05-23T21:09:42.993-07:00My original plan was to transcribe the full interv...My original plan was to transcribe the full interview - the linked copy on the Archive is 60 minutes, and the circulating full interview is 80 minutes; whereas this article is only edited excerpts. <br />But, thinking of how many hours it would take to transcribe it, and how many other things I want to post as soon as I can, I decided to post this as originally printed in 1985. I'll try to add a more complete transcript later on. <br /><br />This is one of the key Garcia interviews, so I'll just note a few things. <br />As Blair Jackson noted, here we have some of the earliest statements of things Garcia would repeat in later interviews. <br />There's a certain innocence here, since the Dead were still just a local 'underground' SF band, and things like success & wealth were still abstract notions. (The interviewer even asks what the Dead will do if their style of rock becomes unpopular! - a frequent question to bands in the '60s.) <br />Garcia hasn't even become disillusioned with the Dead's first album yet - or maybe, prior to release, he just didn't want to say bad things about it.<br />So in hindsight, there's an irony in some of Garcia's answers - "we’d really kill ‘em in New York" was truer than he knew; and his benevolent perspective of the Hell's Angels would look very different post-Altamont.<br /><br />You can see the Dead's paranoia about record companies here, as they insisted they have complete artistic control so their music wouldn't be "chopped or changed." Part of that fear came from watching what happened to Jefferson Airplane - back in the Mojo '66 interview, Garcia mentioned how their first album had been screwed up by RCA, and even on Surrealistic Pillow the producer had meddled too much. (Though that didn't stop the Dead from also using Hassinger to produce their own first album!)<br /><br />The Dead decided not to appear in The President's Analyst, but later that year they did appear in Petulia, despite not having any creative control. Presumably they were just thrilled to be working with Richard Lester, who had directed the Beatles' films.<br /><br />Garcia's plans for including electric banjo & pedal steel in the Dead's music didn't materialize... He ended up giving his pedal steel away, but got another one two years later when the time felt right. A banjo would appear in the Dead's music only on the Dark Star single, ironically (and that from an old practice tape).<br /><br />I haven't seen the Newsweek article "Dropouts with a Mission," but I would like to!Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com