tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post6838913680164683153..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: September 19, 1972: Dylan Stalks the DeadLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-80840784772867504932015-06-21T02:21:31.168-07:002015-06-21T02:21:31.168-07:00Yikes - no one caught my mistake!
This article i...Yikes - no one caught my mistake! <br /><br />This article is actually describing the 9/19/72 Roosevelt Stadium show - Carr describes it as a windy, rainy fall night. <br />I'd thought it was the Roosevelt Stadium show a couple months earlier, on 7/18. Don't know how I didn't catch the right date. <br /><br />An Archive reviewer comments on the show: "The weather was miserable, chilly and damp. There were sound and equipment problems that forced the band to take a few mini breaks. The performance...was inconsistent at best." <br />The show may have been better than Carr thought - unfortunately, only a wretched AUD circulates, so it's hard to judge.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-86616699772911301752014-09-02T21:45:13.041-07:002014-09-02T21:45:13.041-07:00Carr evidently wasn't too impressed by the Dea...Carr evidently wasn't too impressed by the Dead at this show - which is interesting because he'd been a fan since '67, and had written ecstatic reviews of how great they were at the Felt Forum in December '71 ("the best rock band in existence"), and the Academy of Music in March '72 ("the best set I have ever heard"). Here, he barely notices them - and just calls them "God's gifts to the counterculture." <br />It's a surprise to read that this incendiary show was played on a foul, rainy day! But Carr's impression that the music was unenthusiastic and turgid was way off; a surprise from someone who'd seen them so often. (He seems to have been distracted, though.) <br />The Dead played three sets, with fireworks - he mentions the "pyrotechnics."<br /> <br />There is an amusing description of the scene: "once you get past the pig-versus-rat manglings at the front gate, the Dead’s influence is felt: those who aren’t actually ecstatic are at least torpid, therefore no threat to anyone."<br />He also notes that "the Dead don’t go in for their old socko mind-fuckers anymore, but they draw more than they ever did." Not entirely accurate (the Dark Star at this show was certainly a mind-fucker), but the jamming emphasis at Dead shows had changed over the years more toward a straightforward song presentation, and partly as a result, the audiences kept growing.<br /><br />Here Phil explains why the Dead aren't playing in NYC: “Because New York sucks, that’s why. There’s no place decent to play there.” <br />The show poster proclaimed this was the Dead's "only New York metropolitan area appearance this summer;" but they returned a couple months later to play Roosevelt Stadium again, and the Stanley Theater. The Nassau Coliseum opened in '72, and the Dead started playing there in '73, though they weren't thrilled with it. (Bill Graham promoted those shows, while John Scher handled the Roosevelt Stadium shows.)<br /><br />Carr says the Dead announced "surprise guests" and the promoters hinted that there'd be a Big Jam, which didn't happen. I think it was probably supposed to be the Allman Brothers, who'd shown up for the 7/16 Dillon Stadium show - Garcia & Weir then joined the Allmans for their 7/17 Gaelic Park show. Perhaps the Allmans were traveling on the 18th?<br /><br />The focus here is on Dylan of course, unobtrusively watching the Dead's show. We don't learn whether he spent time with the band backstage, though I presume he did; Carr is pretty uninformative here. Lesh makes fun of the rumors that the Dead are going to do an album with Dylan. (Though I wonder whether Carr made up or embellished this little exchange.)<br /><br />The writing style here is so annoying & digressive I was tempted to just post excerpts...Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com