tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post8858165273131163727..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: 1972: Lillian Roxon reviewLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-34951324483036779782018-07-04T19:33:03.391-07:002018-07-04T19:33:03.391-07:00Roxon had a regular "The Top of Pop" col...Roxon had a regular "The Top of Pop" column of rock music news & reviews in the Sunday News from 1971 until her death in 1973. <br />Given the date, you'd think she would write about the Dead's recent Academy of Music shows in late March '72 - but no - she just says their recent shows are disappointing with fewer great moments, and instead falls into a reverie about a show she saw in 1970; without even mentioning their new live album, she raves about the two-year-old live album.<br />This also stands out for being possibly the most gushing newspaper review of the Dead I've seen from that era, at least in a mainstream paper. She makes that old show sound like the most transportive experience of her life, something that can never be recaptured. <br /><br />And which show was it? The Daily News interviewed her in their 8/29/70 issue about her Rock Encyclopedia (the first book of its kind, I think, published in 1969). <br />"Reflecting on all that has happened since publication last Nov., she told us, 'If I had to do it all over, I would change it quite a lot. First, I'd call it "Rock 'n Pop." Then, instead of referring to "groups" I would say "and friends." Groups, as they were, will never be quite the same...' <br />"Speaking of one group of friends, namely 'The Grateful Dead,' Lillian admitted that 'I tended to underestimate them. I've seen them perform from 12 to 6 in the morning without a break. They're the greatest. In fact, I could write an encyclopedia on them alone. <br />'Do you know one of my friends named her little boy after two groups - The Grateful Dead and the Jefferson Airplane. She called him Grair.'"<br />(Mary Engels, "She Rolls With the Rock," Daily News 8/29/70) <br /><br />I'd speculate she caught one of the Fillmore East "midnight" shows in July 1970. It's too bad she didn't go on to write another book about them! Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com