tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post7526438196539498408..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: December 1972: Bob Weir InterviewLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-42766742772332328772022-09-16T06:55:56.022-07:002022-09-16T06:55:56.022-07:00Sounds like ex post rationalization for a Dark Sta...Sounds like ex post rationalization for a Dark Star > El Paso or something. :)Fate Musichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05648291938690043423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-73846141523449456472022-09-15T17:23:48.726-07:002022-09-15T17:23:48.726-07:00- Weir sometimes talked about how it would be nice...- Weir sometimes talked about how it would be nice to use strings or horns in the Dead's live show. Later in '73 they'd add a couple horns in one tour, a rather half-assed unrehearsed attempt which wasn't repeated (other than a few sax guests later on). A string section was never attempted at a show, though people would get to hear one idea of an "orchestral arrangement" on the Terrapin album. Wake of the Flood in '73 would have more embellishments from other musicians than the Dead normally used, in keeping with Weir's desire for new textures. <br />- It's interesting to see what Weir thought Wake of the Flood would be like as of December '72. They wouldn't record it for 8 more months, and most of the songs on the album hadn't been written yet. Weir expected Pigpen would be on the album; it would have "sensitive ballads if we can pull them off" (they'd been playing Stella Blue already); it would have "some driving rock 'n roll" and maybe "extended tracks." Maybe Weir thought he would write some rockers; the album ended up being mostly Garcia, with one Weir epic composed in summer '73. <br />- Weir often talked about the need for musicians to be accessible and attract an audience. For instance it was on his mind in this 1970 interview: <br />"John Coltrane played some dynamite music...but he was never any superstar. And he had not much of an audience, because not many people could understand what he was playing... It bugs you if you are playing music the best you can play it, and not many people are listening, and just because you want people to listen...you might consider changing your material [so] that more people will be interested... It's a shame Coltrane sacrificed accessibility for something else... And the result was he had little audience and great music... Coltrane set a really striking example of that possibility where you can get just too far out." <br />http://deadsources.blogspot.com/2019/01/1970-bob-weir-interview.html <br />So in the case of the Dead, Weir was very concerned with keeping their shows accessible with familiar forms of music and "crowd pleasers," not getting too far out and losing their audience. Like in his outline of a Dead show at the end here, during the long spacy jams "we may be losing some of our audience at that point, [so] we bring them back with a little rock ‘n roll." To him, it's important to keep the audience with them, to only gradually get into the "weird" stuff, to "shake out the cobwebs" if the crowd gets drowsy. He wants "positive feedback," not audience confusion. Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-86951932966090979832022-09-15T17:23:20.190-07:002022-09-15T17:23:20.190-07:00This interview was done on Dec 15, 1972, before th...This interview was done on Dec 15, 1972, before the Dead's show at the Long Beach Arena. Weir came out from the shadows somewhat with a number of interviews after Ace was released; this is a good one with many points of interest. <br />- Weir remembers, "We once played Ohio in this huge arena to 200 people." This was likely the 11/22/68 show at the Memorial Auditorium in Columbus. Lesh describes it in his book: "We start off at the Veteran's Hall in Columbus, Ohio... The hall is huge, cold, and hollow-sounding.... I look out into the hall and see - no one. Oh, wait, there are some people right down in front of the stage, cheering us on gamely. About 300 souls in a hall built for 6000." (p.138) <br />Now the Long Beach Arena, with something like 14,000 capacity, is sold out... <br />- The conversation about what they might have played at a football game is quite interesting - hard to imagine the Dead in that environment! But a few "crowd rousers" might have worked. Scully remembers the 4/17/72 Danish TV broadcast, in which less than an hour of the show was aired live. <br />The Dead indeed had their own version of 'Stars & Stripes Forever' which they pulled out as a tuning ditty now and then (for instance 12/31/71, 11/19/72). <br />- Weir was reluctant to do another live album in '72, so the Europe '72 album was "a group decision forced upon us by circumstances." (He thinks the album turned out well, though.) Meanwhile, Scully was pressing Weir to do a solo album once the Dead decided not to go into the studio. <br />Weir's in no hurry to do another solo album - as it turned out, it wouldn't be until 1978. It's funny when he suggests he might have "too much material" for the Dead's albums - at the moment he had not one new song. He admits being "less than prolific," and for the next few years he'd get maybe a song or two per Dead album. <br />- John Barlow's book Mother American Night has a chapter on writing the Ace album with Weir out on Barlow's ranch. He vividly remembers the ghost & Weir's dog as well, and Rolling Thunder's advice on how to exorcise the ghost: <br />https://relix.com/articles/detail/john-perry-barlow-looks-like-rain/ <br />- Crowe wants to know why Playin' in the Band has been on so many albums. Weir points out that "it’s completely different, you must admit, on all three albums," but thinks that "the song has seen just about all the recording it needs to." (He doesn't seem to be communicating much with Mickey Hart lately, if Mickey's album was a surprise for him.) Crowe says "we were all relieved to see it absent from Europe ’72" - if only he knew, a live version on that album would have been the best of all! Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com