tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post8041326181004490992..comments2024-03-26T23:10:34.814-07:00Comments on Grateful Dead Sources: 1968-1969 Short PiecesLight Into Asheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-31190740189430386992018-09-07T10:21:35.381-07:002018-09-07T10:21:35.381-07:00From the Long Strange Trip DVD bonus:
"This ...From the Long Strange Trip DVD bonus: <br />"This DELUXE EDITION boasts a previously unreleased, six-song live performance from the band’s first show overseas, recorded on May 24, 1970 in England at the Hollywood Festival, along with backstage footage." In the announcement Lemieux claims they're releasing "the entirety" of the UK '70 footage, which presumably will include more of the Roundhouse rehearsals.Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-62208202732625932152018-09-07T10:06:23.524-07:002018-09-07T10:06:23.524-07:00runonguiness, Can you elaborate on "6 Hollywo...runonguiness, Can you elaborate on "6 Hollywood Festival songs" and "more Roundhouse rehearsals"?Jerry's Brokendown Palaceshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06451361448230329754noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-53690861284135630462018-08-29T15:54:38.858-07:002018-08-29T15:54:38.858-07:00Wavy mentions a few: 70-3-27 where the Dead were i...Wavy mentions a few: 70-3-27 where the Dead were initially booked but did not play; 70-4-3; 70-6-21; 70-8-4 onwards Medicine Ball Caravan tour that the Dead bailed out on, maybe more. I'll check, fire up the scanner and send them to you tomorrow once I get over the excitement of 6 Hollywood Festival songs and more Roundhouse rehearsals coming out on DVD/BR. runonguinnessnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-66380214474554436282018-08-29T12:22:25.701-07:002018-08-29T12:22:25.701-07:00Good find! "Sailing saucers, blazing birthday...Good find! "Sailing saucers, blazing birthday candles..." I'd initially thought Marlene just made it all up, but it seems the Detroit crowd was playing games after all. Remarkable. <br />Does Wavy Gravy mention other Dead shows in the book? I've suspected the Hog Farm appeared at more Dead shows than is generally known. <br /><br />Jerry dancing sure caught my eye. We know he was pretty animated onstage in '69, and I always assumed he just became more motionless over time, but then again I don't recall him boogieing much in any '67 film clips. Sal Valentino claims that in earlier years "no one looked at the audience" and San Francisco bands didn't pay any attention to them. He's generalizing though, not talking about the Dead particularly, and who knows when he saw them. (He'd been in the Beau Brummels, who never played with the Dead, and was living in Los Angeles by early '69; but later in 1970 he joined Stoneground.) Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-208459064182515452018-08-29T06:21:22.204-07:002018-08-29T06:21:22.204-07:00Wavy Gravy mentions the Detroit show in "The ...Wavy Gravy mentions the Detroit show in "The Hog Farm and Friends" on p 46.<br /><br />"We pulled the whole show in back of Barry's house [where the Hog Farm were staying in Detroit] and it was a squeeze. Like slipping 60 circus midgets in a phone booth - in the snow. Barry and Moe sold their clothes and wordly mush and we hooked up with the Grateful Dead for a western reunion. Babbs is back after driving in triangles for a month.<br /><br />"There is a fantasy afoot to mobilize the Dead and everybody else into a fantastic convoy of maybe 500 souls. A circus tent that holds 10,000. We have a powwow with Jerry Garcia and it sounds too good to be true. That night the Dead are booked into the Grand Ballroom, Detroit's psychedelic cavern of funk with the Hog Farm pushing soft piles of people sailing saucers, blazing birthday candles for Buddha.<br /><br />""I love you, but Jesus loves you the best. And I bid you good night, good night." Sleep tight little piggies. Babbs and the Dead go west and we saddle up the Hog and head for New York City."<br /><br />That seems to mesh pretty well with Marlene's account so I think it can be taken literally. I also suspect it is where DeadBase got their We Bid You Good Night entry for this show from and the context in which Wavy quotes the lyric should not be taken to mean they necessarily played the song.<br /><br />It's good to learn "Jerry Garcia dances for the audience" in LA!runonguinnessnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5195590583641426943.post-42985702031296416502018-08-28T23:42:15.046-07:002018-08-28T23:42:15.046-07:00Didn't have a place to stick all these, so why...Didn't have a place to stick all these, so why not here... <br /><br />Detroit: A puzzling letter - I don't think the Dead show was quite like a kids' playground, so at first I thought the writer was satirizing the scene. But it's possible this falls into the occasional sixties trend of seeing people at psychedelic events as becoming like children again, being more free, open, uninhibited and playful. (And sometimes, as in the 2/19/69 Dead recording, this literally happened onstage.) <br />I don't think the Hog Farm's presence was known before, but they were frequent visitors to Dead shows. The 12/20/68 East Village Other ran an article on the Hog Farm (a "conglomerate joy of 60 or so childlike people"), who were traveling across the country. In it, Hugh Romney said: <br />"We'll do our show for anybody who is willing to get in a pile and hum... Anything can happen as long as nobody gets hurt. We have lots of paint and paper we put out, and as many as 200 have worked on the same painting. We have also a 50 foot hotdog which inflates for people to go inside and be projected in and on. We have volleyball and ping pong and a lot of fancy games like the circle joke and the gong bong; games to get high on. At the University of Michigan 5000 people simultaneously sat down in concentric circles and spoke and moved as One..." <br />With stuff like that going on, perhaps this writer's "group therapy" experience wasn't so far-fetched! At the time, the Hog Farm wanted to get the Dead to play in a traveling "circus tent" wandering across America.<br /><br />Chicago: More bass players were listed, but I was most interested in this early Lesh-centric view of a Dead show - Garcia usually gets the praise in early reviews, but here it's pointed out that "Lesh lends power and sustenance to every note he plays." <br /><br />The Fillmore: nice to find a review of the Dead's first acoustic set! He gets a name wrong, but accurately describes how it came about. It's odd that he thought the Dead "seemed bored" during the show, but he still had a great time, smoking dope, dancing with chicks, and enjoying the good vibes. "We can share the women, we can share the wine..." The Dead played a few shows in late '69 at the "New Old Fillmore" (where the old Fillmore had been). This writer hates Bill Graham's oppressive Fillmore West, and longs for the "carefree days of old," back when things were easy and groovy. (Many 1969 articles are nostalgic for the days of old, 2 or 3 years before.) <br />"Black Shadow" was 22 at the time, and already felt that music had been better a few years earlier. He wrote in a later article complaining that new records weren't interesting anymore: "I remember the first time I listened to the Grateful Dead on acid. And there's nothing happening now that's anywhere near as heavy... The Dead are still in there fighting, but I don't know how much longer they can hold out - I heard two tracks from their new album, and they sound tired." ("Record Wrap," SF Express Times 3/19/70) So his assertions that the Dead now sound "bored" and "tired" make more sense coming from such a jaded old music veteran. Light Into Asheshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06943335142002007213noreply@blogger.com