Grateful Dead

wut? 5/21/82!!! isn't there a 5/21/77? happy 50 vguy

The recent blues discussions here caught my attention, thought I'd add my two cents. Been diving deep into the blues for many years, both old timey and newer, electric and country acoustic. Used to go to the record bins back in the day and read the back covers of old classic country blues albums while deciding on what to buy to build a collection. Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James, Lightnin' Hopkins, Mance Lipscom, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and the like. Saw Brownie McGhee at the tiny old Freight and Salvage in Berkeley one time with the harp player who played on Jorma's Hot Tuna live acoustic album, I think it was. That guy (can't recall his name) came riding up to the show on his bicycle, just strolled in through the front door grinning and looking a bit over the line. But Sonny was gone by then, and the harmonica player added a nice counterpoint to the classic Brownie acoustic blues. There's a unique record store, Arhoolie records, in El Cerrito CA in the Bay Area, where I used to hang out some. Chris Strachwitz opened it after producing and getting a cut of Country Joe's Fixin' to Die Rag tune, and it became a labor of love as he toured the south to find old forgotten blues guys in the 60s and 70s and put them on his label. What a collection of obscure great music he helped create. Just looked it up on Wikipedia and seems that the Smithsonian bought him out in 2016 to ensure that his classics remain in the American canon long term. Some good info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arhoolie_Records Among the acts he helped get going was an early Robben Ford blues group with his brothers in the Charles Ford Band. I saw them (and another under-heralded guitarist Amos Garrett another time) at the old Larry Blakes smoky dive bar down below Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley a few times back in the 80s. Incredible shows, from a few feet away. Right now I'm in Hawaii for a few weeks, at the moment watching the sun rise over the Pacific from a 10th floor balcony. Every time I come out here, the old time Hawaiian music is so soothing and just fits in so naturally while drinking a Mint Colada or Mai Tai at a table on an open air bar next to the waves lapping in. The funny thing is, the contemporary Hawaiian music in English is similar in sound to the old time stuff sung in Hawaiian, but falls completely flat to me. The lyrics are pretty sappy and mushy in English, but in Hawaiian, take on the magic of that musical language - plus I don't understand what they're saying then, so I make up my own meanings! If you want a dose of pure Polynesian soul, check out this wonder -- many have heard it, but maybe some of you haven't. Iz Kamakawiwoʻole, Somewhere over the Rainbow. If it doesn't relax you and put you in the mood for a little tropical respite, it's not my fault -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I Stretching out even further, my main musical tastes and collections are really jazz and classical music. The GOGD is one of the few rock bands I listen to anymore, but I listen to them a lot. Lately I've been catching up on a raft of forgotten jazz guitarists that I've been exploring recently. Have listened to the greats like Django, Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Tal Farlow, Jimmy Raney, Johnny Smith, Barney Kessel, Kenny Burrell, John Scofield, Emily Remler, and many others for decades, but now have been looking around and sampling using the magic of Amazon, ebay, Discogs and others to find more. There are a lot. From decades ago, Oscar Moore, Bus Etri, Joe Puma, Billy Bauer, Dick McDonough, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Mary Osbourne, Irving Ashby, Remo Palmieri, it goes on and on. More recently, the likes of Jimmy Bruno, Julian Lage, Angelo DeBarre, Pasquale Grasso, Howard Alden, and many others. Jazz can be an acquired taste, but these guys have been firing me up lately. These folks were/are virtuosos, many ahead their time, and they play tight. There's a really rich vein of musical history to mine out there, and when I compare the grace and sophistication of some of these tunes from the 40s and 50s to the unrecognizable stuff that assaults me over the radio these days, I can only shake my head.

....50 ain't no big deal. Not doing shit today. Playing 5.21.92 Cal Expo this morning. Slim pickings for 5.21 in Dead history (although I did catch the '95 Vegas show). Mrs. Vguy got me a Golden Knights jersey, albeit too big. Shes kicking herself. Relax honey. We can exchange it. She smiled that smile I fell in love with 21 years ago. I want oysters today....I'm a simple man, with simple needs. We gonna pitch a Wang Dang Doodle all knight long.

That would be great. Bring it.

Thoughts? You mean we have to wait until August to get the Box Set Reveal? That simply won't do. I say we storm the vault, find the reels slated for Normanization and head to Mockingbird Studios ourselves. From there we can tie Mr. Norman to his chair and proceed with an IV drip of freshly roasted coffee not letting him leave until we have the music in hand. Who's with me? Wait until August? argh.... tell me it isn't so! No wonder Bolo knows not what the box set bringeth. Note: I still have the wayback set to 6/10/1973. That's still my guess (hope?).

Doc: Be well and take care. VGuy - Happy Five-O! Sixtus

"10 Mins - Before the film, movie-goers will get an exclusive inside look at the shows in the 2018 Limited Edition Boxed Set" This is an asterisk on the 2018 MUATM info, as mentioned in a previous post. THOUGHTS?!?! Is the BOX SET a new set of 1989-1990 multi-track shows (hopefully), or will DL stick with his constant theme of 1970s era only releases and it will be a 1973 BOX SET. I'd like to see SPRING 1981 Box Set, he certainly speaks very highly of this tour & has it featured often in the "Taper's Section"....BRING IT!!!!

While I will say that my comment below regarding Daverock as Ziggy appears to be nonsense at this time, I won't edit it out because it was based on a vivid hallucination and...well, I want to share the image of Daverock walking down the street in blue jumpsuit and 6-inch stack heels. Sounds perfect. If he reveals to us that he has a lightning-bolt painted down his face?

Well Daverock, if you were wearing a blue jumpsuit and 6-inch stack heels what else would they call you?

I also listen to more Dead now than I did, which may be a consequence of being retired. When I was at work I used to make lots of short car journeys, which weren't really conducive to settling into a show. I was always rushing about in the old days-life is more laid back for me now. Before, I would listen to The Dead at the weekend. Now I can listen when I like, without having to charge off somewhere. But the reason The Dead have remained interesting to me all these years, is partly I think due to the depth of the music. It seems to have deep roots into the history American music-through covers like the aforementioned "I Washed My Hands..", and the ones in regular rotation that we are all familiar with. They seemed to remold this history into something new, without losing sight of the history. They were never a "blues" band or a "country" band, but the spirit of these-and other-traditional forms seemed to inform their own music. I have been listening to a lot of blues over the weekend-and this complements and fits in easily with listening to The Dead. I would also say I seem to be perceived as a lot less outwardly normal since I retired. Good!