Grateful Dead

Yo!!! Rockers!!! I may be a little late on this thread, but thought I would chip in with my two cents worth. especially because I was VERY into early Floyd and actually saw my first Floyd show (3/14/73 Boston Music Hall) before I saw my first Dead show (12/1/73 Boston Music Hall). We started listening to the Floyd when we were freshman in high school, late 1970. Piper was OK but we were way more into the live cuts from Ummagumma---which even now still sound good, especially Astronomy Domine and Careful With That Axe. A couple of the studio cuts were OK----Grantchester Meadows and The Narrow Way----but the rest was a major waste of vinyl. Some of their early stuff now sounds very dated, but at the time, if you were a young stoner gobbling acid, it was pretty good. I do remember watching the 1970 KQED broadcast, which was a stoner's delight. Weird and wonderful. The "movie soundtrack LPs", I wouldn't recommend for casual fans, although some of that material (Cymbaline, Green is The Colour, and a couple others) worked its way into the live shows, and were pretty good. But they're a little uneven and could probably be skipped. IMHO, Atom Heart Mother-----which we could just never get into----was "of a kind" with some of the "art rock" or "prog rock" of that era----overly ambitious, pretentious, and somewhat lame. I believe it sold well in the UK, but less so here. Really it's only redeeming quality is that it set the blueprint for Meddle. Meddle solidified their reputation as the great acid rock cult band. That was the Floyd LP we really really loved, the long suite being edgier and much more "sci-fi" that AHM. And I must admit, lol, I like San Tropez.............. DSOTM changed the Floyd from cult band to arena rock gods. Not sure if that was a good thing but it happened. Unfortunately, it made the Floyd much harder----and expensive---to see. But Dark Side's tales of life, death, paranoia, and madness still resonate even today. And while truthfully Time and Money suffered from severe radio overexposure, an occasional listen to the full album can be a rewarding sonic experience. Wish You Were Here---the best Floyd ever? Maybe. Its focus on lost camaraderie and show biz cynicism also ring true today. The music is "sparse", but lyrically it's wonderful. Probably my fave Floyd and always a great listen. If you liked the political music of Dylan, or The Clash, how could you not like Animals? Angry and rousing, all in the right places. Also with some fine playing by Gilmour. Still like this one. HOWEVER. BY the time of The Wall, I had sorta lost interest. Not really into musical explorations of Roger's personal problems and issues. I got the concept of the wall, but I didn't have much sympathy for the Floyd by this time, as they themselves had helped create the gulf between themselves and their fans. Lots of people love it, but there's lots better Floyd than this. I must admit that I saw the post-split, "3/4 Floyd", but the spark wasn't there, the new material sucked, and IMHO it was just a big cash grab. Any serious Floyd fan should avoid those later studio albums at all costs. Although they do reveal that the true lyrical driver of the mega-successful era of the band was Waters, and certainly not Gilmour. After 1980, I sorta stopped being a Floyd Fanatic and moved into my serious deadhead phase. The Floyd didn't come around that often, tickets were super expensive, and frankly, if you saw one Floyd show on tour, you saw them all. Improvisation was not their thing............... Anybody interested in the early Floyd sound, should check out the live cuts on the recent big box. The BBC sessions from 68-71 sounded good before, and now sound great. And some things which circulated before as mostly mediocre bootlegs--such as Celestial Voices and The Man And The Journey (Amsterdam 69), have also been very nicely remastered. In closing, I would like to say that I am humbled by the outpouring of support given my recent "event". I am feeling well and doing well, playing lots of guitar and listening to lot and lots of music----Pink Floyd included. Rock on, Doc

And as I started spinning side 1A I realized that previously on this thread I had commented about Jack Straw being cut on the Betty’s. My bad, it’s actually Minglewood since that is the opening song.Oops. Anyway, when I removed the shrink wrap and opened the box Record 3 (Dancing, Scarlet/Fire) was not totally in its paper sleeve, and the sleeve was creased and appeared as if it had been forced in the box. The record had a huge smudge on it and the beginning of Scarlet sounds like crap (haven’t tried to clean it yet). Why does Rhino consistently fail at the simple task of providing good and reliable packaging? Is it because they pay the Umpa Lumpas a sub-standard wage? Or because they give the Umpa Lumpas Kool Aid in the break room? Or both? I mean, yeah, we would all like some free Kool Aid. But every day? And if you can’t take some Kool Aid samples home with you to sell to your friends, then how else are you supposed to make up for being under paid?

And here she is, the Queen of Gloom, Katatonia, with her bright sunny hit "Unfurl":

I knew as soon as I mention that unusual word the lyrics would fly :-) Ok, another word, "gloom", popular in Motown songs (not too much gloom in Dead songs :-) ) From the Temps Sunshine, blue skies, please go away A girl has found another and gone away With her went my future, my life is filled with GLOOM So day after day I stay locked up in my room I know to you, it might sound strange But I wish it would rain, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah I've always loved the way that sentence unfurls.

Rush 2112 Temples of Syrinx Look around at this world we've made Equality our stock in trade Come and join the brotherhood of man What a nice, contented world Let the banners be unfurled Hold the red star proudly high in hand

Thanks for the reply. There's one for $300 close to me, might pull the trigger...

Dark Side, yeah overplayed, but,,,, it still sound GREAT. Sure I can live with Money, but the rest,, that's some wow stuff. I am still wowed by the song Time. The "jam" between verse 2 and 3 is still amazing. You're left with a feeling of a much, much longer jam, you're left with a feeling of tripping balls, that you indeed have been sitting there for a whole day "So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again. The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, Shorter of breath and one day closer to death. " Words that carry a weight you felt at 25, but come really clear at 62. Animals, also great. With me, PF had great lyrics, I love in Dogs the vindictive(?) lyrics "And it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw around. So have a good drown, as you go down, all alone, Dragged down by the stone." Righteous indignation? Early stuff,,,, Careful with that axe eugene and set the controls. But surely in my book the pinnacle of the their work is "the wall"! Where do you go from up? How could you top that. Tommy? Quadrophenia? Fucking crap compared to the wall. The Wall is just the perfect match of lyrics and music. One example I've always loved is the alliteration of the line from "Goodbye Blue Sky" "Did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath a clear blue sky? " (not too many songs get to use a word like "unfurled" :-)) The whole concept of the wall, the metaphorical (and physical building) of the wall, how we all build our own walls and live behind them. ( a little like Marley telling Scrooge, "`I wear the chain I forged in life, I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. ... " Comes a time when a blind man takes your hand! Sorry for the prattle, Pink Floyd, a band for the ages.

I have had a chance to demo the 339 Pro w/ humbuckers and thoroughly enjoyed playing it. Very smooth neck and warm sound for such an affordable guitar. Epiphone can get a bad wrap but I really like a lot of their offerings. However, I ended up springing for the Ibanez AS93 and absolutely love it. The finish is gorgeous, pickups (Super 58 humbuckers) are super warm but articulate and handle a Tube Screamer nicely, and I got a deal on a hard case since I was a local buyer - check out Reverb.com if you are not familiar.

I've never seen that face cover before, but Relics was the first Floyd album I bought. It was available on a budget label in the early 70s. Like many of my generation, this was like a gateway drug, pointing away from progressive rock back towards psychedelia.

For those around the Sandy Hook, NJ area - from a buddy. We found out that Donovan's Reef, a local Sea Bright bar 2 miles down the road from the beach house, has started what they call Tie Dye Tuesdays where they have a different Grateful Dead cover band playing every Tuesday of each month. Last night we saw the Cosmic Jerry Band there, a band that includes Mike and Jely Roll, the former lead guitar and bass players from the IDB Dead cover band that we've seen over the last couple years. Last night they were joined by lead guilarist/singer Mark Diomede, who plays with Dead cover bands Juggling Suns and Dead Reckoning, among others. Mike and Mark joined forces for some incredible guitar jams on some of the songs. Cosmic Jerry Band set lists: Set 1: Mission In The Rain, Ramble On Rose, Loser, Let It Grow, Don't Let Go, Bertha Set 2: Catfish John, Big Railroad Blues, Jack-A-Roe, Bird Song, Harder They Come. Set 3: Sugar Magnolia > Tore Up > The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion), Maggie's Farm > Cumberland Blues, Deal > Sunshine Daydream We'll be back at Donovan's Reef next week on Tie DyeTuesday to catch Dead Reckoning. . If you live around there, might be worth checking out.