Grateful Dead

the apex of GD

or Bowl of Rubbers

just so easy

get on my FUCKING NERVES.

just had to say that.

To the coworker for whom without the rest of us would have no one to blame.

5-Branch - nice summing up on last paragraph about Dark Star, Denmark.

Nice overview about corona and I've found number about corona april 2020

http://www.careermalls.com/corona-live-update-april-2020-death-rate-liv…

...about Europe '72 Dark Stars. It's time to share this one again. I amassed detailed listens to all of them a few years back as I awaited Boxzilla:

4/8/1972 - Wembly Empire Pool, London - 32 mins; intense/fast paced first leg up til about 10 mins then returns to DS theme for 1st verse; spacey post-verse til ~17 min, then pace picks up for a few minutes, followed by a brief meltdown; additional spaciness around 24 mins followed by another full meltdown; interesting groove established around 28 min that has hints of Sugar Mag (into which it segues, flawlessly). No second verse.

4/14/1972 - Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, DK - 29 mins; loose first 10 mins not overly spacey; gets spacey around 11 mins; interesting groove establishes around 16 min to head into first verse w/interesting beat; heads off into intense nearly 7-minute jam inclusive of a very tight and fast Feelin Groovy jam; final 3 minutes are a meltdown. No second verse.

4/17/1972 - Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, DK - 31 mins; spacey opening to about 7:30 when first DS theme emerges leading to 1st verse at 9:45. Spacey post-2nd verse tries to take off but melts further around 19 min; returns to a partial groove around 24:30 and closes out with spaceyness in the last 2 mins. No second verse.

4/24/1972 - Rheinhalle, Dusseldorf, Germany - Split by Me & My Uncle; 26 mins 1st half, 14:30 second half. Spacey opening until about 8:45 where it coalesces and falls into first DS theme around 10:15 followed shortly by 1st verse with slow, sparse notes. Spacey feedback following verse until 15:45 and then picks up into an intense, fast paced jam for just under 2 minutes before it becomes dissonant again leading to major meltdown which eventually heads into Me & My Uncle with ease. Second half: spacey reintroduction persists until about 7 mins, where Keith leads-in with some piano phrasing and then the band follows into a tight fast paced jam where Jerry plays some lines back and forth as if in conversation with himself and then maintains an intense level effortlessly segueing into Wharf Rat. No second verse.

4/29/1972 - Musikhalle, Hamburg, Denmark - 30 mins; spacey opening for ~5 mins, then enters a groove and Phil hints at the Feeling Groovy jam until it finally is joined by Jerry a minute later until about 8:00, then the floor drops out into space. DS theme appears at 14 min which leads to first verse. Spacey post-verse noodling leads to major meltdown, settling in at 22 mins with a fat, fast-paced Keith-led groove. Final 4 mins are spacey & lead to major melt #2, dropping into Sugar Mag as DS finally melts away. No second verse.

5/4/1972 - Olympia Theatre, Paris - Split by drums; 19 mins 1st half; 17:34 2nd half. Spacey opening til about 6 mins when fast paced jam kicks in until 11:20, slowing down then resurrecting the DS theme into the first verse. 4 mins of space leads into drums. Second half post-drums is very spacey until 7 mins, then kicks into overdrive with a very high energy jam leading to a phenominal Feelin Groovy Jam for several minutes before settling into the second verse. DS dissipates into the Sugar Mag from E'72.

5/7/1972 - Bickershaw Festival, Wigan, UK - 19:49 mins; decent, coherent jamming for the first several minutes that congeals nicely around 8 minutes. Bottom falls out around 10 mins and leads to some light noodling, cymbal fills and space. DS theme emerges at 14:23 and heads into 1st verse. Space fills the air through the remainder of the song until it totally breaks down into drums. No second verse.

5/11/1972 - Rotterdam Civic Hall, Netherlands - Split by drums; 13:45 mins 1st half; 30:34 mins 2nd half; Opens with a light, airy jam that persists to congeal into a decent groove as it treads in and out of spacey phrasing. This settles into a mysterious sounding jam that grows with intensity without a return to the DS theme before dissolving into drums. Emerging from drums, Phil and Billy duel for 2 minutes before Jerry joins back in with some complimentary thoughts; the DS theme appears around 5 min followed by 1st verse. A few moments of spacey feedback give way to spacey noodling that devolves into a full blow chaotic meltdown, only to emerge around 19:30 into a very nice, fast paced groove that hints at Caution and PITB jams. This eventually dissolves and a light, sparse outro ends the song as it heads off into Sugar Mag. No second verse.

5/18/1972 - Kongressaal, Muenchen, Denmark - 28:20 mins; almost 2 mins of noodling before opening notes from Phil; a loose jam ensues around the DS theme for the next several minutes and then decays. At ~9 min an interesting jam emerges, which eventually settles back into the DS theme and 1st verse around 14:30. The remainder of this DS is borderline chaos as it treads in and out of varying degrees of a meltdown until it settles into Morning Dew. No second verse.

5/23/1972 - The Strand Lyceum, London - 30 mins; Spacey opening minutes lead to tight fast paced jam commencing around 3:30 for two minutes and then it settles into another spacey jam digressing to almost…nothing. Billy and Phil then have a small duel until ~13:30 when the rest of the band fills back into a delicate groove which grows to into a jam reminiscent of the post-Truckin' foray from E'72 until about 17 mins, when they drop into the DS theme and 1st verse. Ensuing is additional delicate spaciness that transgresses into a frenzied meltdown madness, and eventually settles into Morning Dew. No second verse.

5/25/1972 - The Strand Lyceum, London - 34 mins, out of Wharf Rat. Strong opening with a groove almost from the beginning, no noodling around here in the first 7 minutes. Then turns very spacey until 15 mins when DS theme appears, and heads off into 1st verse. Post-verse finds a Billy, Phil, and Keith duel for several minutes. At 21 mins, Phil institutes a mellow Feeling Groovy jam, soon joined by the rest of the band until ~25 mins. Final minutes are dominated by space and then a monumental meltdown before heading off into Sugar Mag. No second verse.

Final Verdict(s): It is a very close tie between 4/14 and the second half from 5/4. I put these on the pedestal due to the crazy, intense jams surrounding the Feelin Groovy sequences. They are just interstellar. Part of me also wanted to simply catalog which Dark Stars included a Feelin Groovy jam from the '72 trunk, so I feel my work is done and I can rest easy. I'd be delighted to hear if any others had similar, or more excitingly, differing thoughts.

Sixtus

5/11/1972 Rotterdam is one of my all time favourites.
5/7/1972 Bickershaw was the one I was fortunate enough to to witness.

Stoltz & Coworkers
To the coworker for whom without the rest of us would have no one to blame.

5-Branch - nice summing up on last paragraph about Dark Star, Denmark.

Posted by :Dennis on Thu, 04/30/2020 - 11:43
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
some coworkers...
get on my FUCKING NERVES.

just had to say that.

Posted by :stoltzfus on Thu, 04/30/2020 - 11:35
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Especially when they know you like the Grateful Dead and they don't, it's more like they HATE the Grateful Dead.

Anyways, I got a shipping notice on Tuesday with a USPS tracking number and just before I logged onto dead.net now,
I checked the USPS tracker and the number doesn't come up yet.
I'm looking forward to this standout show with a bonus disc.

My tracking still says it is in Fontana Ca. for three days now. It still says it is scheduled for a Friday Delivery. I called UPS and they said it is in transit. and it will go to the USPS for the delivery. I called the USPS and they say they have no record yet but it would have to be delivered by 7 AM Friday morning to USPS to be delivered by Friday and they said that is VERY possible

Chuck

.....i usually share my office with one other co-worker. Unfortunately, he was furloughed two weeks ago. but fortunately that let's play my music louder than usual. Kinda like I am now.

I’m guessing Butch was being facetious....If not! “To the Rack”! or what Stoltzy said, LOL , though Way to Go Home might work better?
DS etc: I’m with the weird patrol on this: the weirder the better. Any band can play a bunch of songs, only the Dead could get outside like that and have it not just be 25 minutes of noodling...for those musically knowledgeable enough there is a difference! But hey, like Daverock said, what ever brings you pleasure...I’ve always liked DS, but when I started getting the E72 shows ala carte, and really digging in, it became apparent that what I was missing out on the years I took a step back, was all this great improvisational galactical goodnees. Now like many, I’m obsessed with DS, or any extended stuff!

DHBREWER: what he said! Yeah, no disrespect to those supposedly actually listening to 2,3,4? full shows a day, but I can’t keep up. I’ve been trying to do the pick of the day, but it seems to turn into 2 or 3, and I’m lucky if I can play one in the background while I’m trying to do other things. Then I feel lame that I didn’t listen careful enough, so sometimes I’ll try to listen again, which puts me further behind. Plus I’m getting burned out on so much Dead, I know, more Blasphemy! Wait up Butch, we can get tortured together, LOL. So with all those factors, I too SOMETIMES like to cue up just the meat and potatoes, not the whole show. Personally, I don’t need to hear Me&My Uncle etc every time I try to listen. Dark Star, TOO, weirdness, Drumzzz (post actual drums), space, jams absolutely!

ANGRYJACKSTRAW: neat, that sounds cool to research all those venues vs Rubber Bowl, LOL too funny!

4/28/71: yeah that looks like a real Bobbie Dazzler! I’ll have to try and fit that one in this WE...

SHIPPING: same thing, long short, looks like Monday? Bummer, plus I’ll have to make a Death Run and go to PO when their open, Dooooah!

10/9 vs 10/16/89: being at 10/9 I’m biased, but I’ve always said 10/16/89 or NFof D is the most underrated live Dead release. Great list, execution, sound, boo-yah! 10/26 is awesome, but I’ve only heard it once or twice so need more listens. But really, it’s like Jim says, what ever was the last one listened too...😉

EDIT: MORE FALL 89 por favor! Spectrum 89 anyone?
SIXTUS: cool, nice research!

Nice.

I'm printing it off and putting it in the trunk for future generations!

Your work will not be in vain!

OROBOROUS - That's awesome you were at 10/9! I can't imagine.
10/26/89 is a monster show. Definitely top 5 89 for me.

SIMONROB - You were at the Bickershaw Festival show?! What was that like? Probably my favorite show of the tour. Real long show with The Other One and Dark Star, and just about everything else.

Sixtus - great analysis of E72 Dark Stars-thanks. I would print that off, too, if I had a printer.

I like the quote from Jerry in that book "Signpost to New Space" that the Dead's primary function was to get people high, not to crank out rock and roll. That's approximately what he said, if I remember rightly. There are so many great jams that do this, but I have always thought of the Dark Stars between 1969 and 1974 as being the essence of that approach.

In the later years, and in line with Unkle Sam again, drums and space seem the main vehicles for lift off. Incredible power when you were actually in the hall listening to it. You could feel it with your whole body-thinking of 11/1/90 again.

had tix for 10/25&26/89 but had to sell. Planned on Philly and Miami, but when Warlocks happened I couldn’t afford Miami, and didn’t have enough PTO at new job I really needed at the time, so Doooaaahhh!
Actually had to call in sick on 10/9 from hotel pay phone, which in those days was tricky to do without your boss knowing you were calling long D lol. Had to due that trick a few times...

DP 31 is hot, hot, hot. Just finished a first listen to the last two discs and that was some top shelf Dead. Took a minute and read the essay on the shows and was cracking up the way the author was throwing shade at the folks who discovered the Dead through the E'72 album - almost like later days with talk of Touchheads. The need to judge is strong in some.

Oro, I agree that a palate cleanser is a necessity for optimum listening pleasure. Currently moving on with my Funk Box box set for a little soul break, James Brown currently telling me to Get on up... and now Charles Wright is emphasizing how important it is to Express Yourself.

10/19/89 Dear Mr. Fantasy. Skip to 2 hrs 10 minute mark. Jerry just went up and up and up till he ripped the roof back then brought it back down. This was the the moment I saw the crack that let in all the light never saw anything like it before or after.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrGXUvUbLGo

Mickey's line about the GD was that the band was in "the transportation business."

I always liked that line.

I saw a video with him saying "GD were more about transportation than Music".

I liked that too.

....look at him go!!!! Brent hot on his ass. Awesome. When he plays riffs like that, i call it Heavy Metal Garcia. What's also awesome is that he was playing Wolf. Neat-O.

... how anyone hates on you is beyond me. This man could play! 10/19/89 is just another perfect example.

More Brent-era releases would be great - some of my favorite GD, all-time. This is a great show :)

Peace

For additional details, see the E72 steamer trunk liner notes. Lol! :-P

Didn't you write some of the notes for the Bickershaw show, Simonrob? :-)

I always wanted to do a tour of Europe and visit each and every theatre they played as part of the fun. Perhaps one day I will. Agree on the Dark Star comment(s). Salzburg is on my list regardless.. All these places and things are quite high on my list..

Edit: 10/9 vs 10/16/89: being at 10/9 I’m biased too. 10/8 and 10/9 as a one two punch.. well, they are really hard to beat. I wasn't at 10/16, I think that release might sound a bit better.. I wasn't 100% happy with the remaster of 10/9. It did not get the Full Norman.

Can't imagine a song that beautiful written about someone. I know her mom has been interviewed but any word on her?? I know she worked for the Dead towards the end, but how about now? Wonder what it is like when you hear that song and it is about you? Be safe all... bob t ... Listening to 6/10/76 again

If Norman is mixing these right now please take your time and get it right, Sir.

Thanks!

Unfortunately, I was not able to get the Europe 72 box when it came out. I've collected about half of them over the years, individually, but I never got the Bickershaw show. And now they're a little harder to get for the price I want to pay, but at least I can still listen on Spotify.

Jim, 10/9/89 did not get the full Norman? Can you elaborate on that?

I thought the multi track release of this box set with Plangent was A+ stuff?

Peace.

Otis, yes 79-90 with Brent, so much good music!....and yes, some stinkers along the way. But, tons of good shows to harvest in those days. When Brent died in 1990, I was super bummed, stayed away from the band, which was a mistake.

The song Cassidy, is also written partly about Neal Cassidy, besides Cassidy Law. Also, some of the lyrics refer to the death of John Barlow's father. But your right the song is named after Cassidy Law.

....as Mustin said. DP's too. No Daves or Road Trips.

All of the Road Trips are on Spotify as well. You gotta look under the compilations section.

Sent you a PM.

....Thank you Mustin. You are correct, kind sir. I stand corrected,, for all the right reasons. All lumped together though, but I can figure it out.
Another reason why this is the kindest corner of the internet.

I was just burning some jasmine incense and remembered coming home in the mid eighties from a stretch of dead shows on the east coast and reeking of jasmine and patchouli sweat. I remember those religious fliers that were passed around with the cool illustrations even though I was always an atheist. also passing around Greenpeace fliers and stickers that
we would get from donations to GP. I'm sure some of you guys remember those fliers. Everytime I smell jasmine and frankincense it reminds me of those days.

Mixing - Mike McGinn, He also did JFK '89 and maybe one other. These don't sound as good as they should have. The Don Pearson Ultramatrix cassettes sound way better.

For Mustin123, who asked about how it was to be at Bickershaw and seemingly doesn't have the show on CD, here below are the liner notes that I wrote for that. Indeed Wilfred was correct in identifying me as the responsible party.

There has been some discussion on here recently about bad shows, fun shows etc. Bickershaw was neither of these. Due to the meteorological combination of a monsoon and an ice age, being there certainly was not fun. I doubt that any of the attendees would say it was a fun experience, but there was some great music played so it certainly wasn't a bad experience either. That the weather had improved by the time the Dead got to play was a big bonus but their performance ensured that the climatic conditions could easily be forgotten. Incidentally, tickets for all three days cost a mere 2.25 pounds

Anyway, here are the liner notes (note: I was asked to provide more a general overview of the festival than to focus specifically on the Dead's performance) :

Bickershaw was a place that I had never heard of, but it was hosting a festival and the Grateful Dead were going to be there for the only festival appearance of their European tour. This was too good to miss. While the good-time peace-and-love festival ethos had come to an abrupt end in America at Altamont in late 1969 (indeed the Dead had been scheduled to play there but had declined shortly before their performance due to the situation), festivals in England were still pretty cool and relaxed.
Bickershaw turned out to be a small coal-mining village that time had largely forgotten. The festival site was on the wrong side of the tracks, literally. Having crossed the colliery railway sidings it was immediately apparent that the site was a desolate swamp complete with reed beds and a lake. There was also a lake at Woodstock and we had all seen the beautiful people skinny-dipping in the sunshine. Here it was different. Here there was a sign by the lake with the terse warning “Crap in water, do not drink”. To make matters worse, the weather was bad. It was unseasonably cold with frequent rain that continued for most of the three days of the event and there was a bitter wind. At least nobody was likely to consider swimming in the toxic pond. As I recall, most of the site was covered in a layer of mud and in places it was seriously deep. There was no way the mud at Woodstock could compare with this stuff. This was going to be all about survival and it was obvious from the outset that only the music could provide salvation. We just had to hope.
During the first two days there was enough good music and other distractions to keep the hypothermia at bay. The other distractions included such oddities as fire-eaters, acrobats, high-wire cyclists, an aerial display and high divers. Friday’s highlights included a fine performance from Dr. John who liberally sprinkled the audience with mystical gris-gris powder. The final act on Saturday was Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band who played an awesome and astonishing set the likes of which I had never seen before – or since. Large video screens on either side of the stage added to the experience. Finally Sunday – the day of the Dead – dawned, cold and grey. Still trying to come to terms with what the Captain had done to my brain, I evicted a frog from my wet sleeping bag and settled down to listen to the day’s musical offerings. In front of the stage things had taken a distinct turn for the worse when the tank used by the divers was simply emptied onto the already muddy ground creating a quagmire of unprecedented proportions. In the afternoon the New Riders of the Purple Sage played a fine set, but it was more suited to sunny California than the tempest that we were enduring in northern England. Despite the conditions, the crowd remained, defying the weather. It was obvious why most people stuck it out to the end – they wanted to see the Grateful Dead and a bit of inclement weather was not going to get in the way of that.
At last it was time for the grand finale – and the Dead did not disappoint. The first set was powerful enough to drive away the rain clouds and for the first time in three days the sun appeared. Things were definitely looking good. Around this time the fences around the site disappeared, presumably blown down by the arctic winds or stolen for scrap metal. This allowed the villagers come and see what was happening and whole families showed up to gaze at the spectacle. It must have looked like Armageddon to them. By now the Dead were back on stage for their second set, playing to this surreal mixture of mud-caked long-haired freaks and coal miners in their best Sunday clothes with their wives and kids in tow. As the set progressed, the music ascended to ever higher planes. Cultural differences melted away as hippies and miners grooved together. Things got even better as Dark Star > The Other One was complimented by an impressive firework display. The band were obviously up for it as they played on and on despite the cold. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and after a seemingly endless performance it was all over and we were left standing in a dark, cold swamp trying to take in what we had just experienced. It was true – there really was nothing like a Grateful Dead performance. Due to the magic of the music and the resilience of the estimated 30,000 attendees, the vast majority appeared to have had a great time despite the conditions which, by the end, had paled into insignificance.

Great write up Daverock! The closest I ever came to such a scene was a Genesis ‘reunion’ at Milton Keynes Bowl which was a fundraiser for Peter Gabriel’s Womad which, in it’s first year lost a packet. It rained like there was no tomorrow and mud pies were thrown at anyone with a brolly. Got home soaked and caked in mud but very happy even though I had to listen to Talk Talk before Genesis came on.

Frank on the Bickershaw review below.....much as I'd like to take credit, its Simon, not me, what wrote it.

I also attended a mud bath, though-Reading 1977. After three days or so of trekking through the mud, the soles of my shoes literally fell off. Hawkwind-also veterans of Bickershaw 1972- played mid afternoon one day, but it was a bit of a mess all round. I can remember Wayne/Jayne County and the Electric Chairs tried to play and got bottled off. The same thing happened with a reggae band-possibly Steel Pulse. The atmosphere was dominated by loud ,drunk, white, men in their late teens and early 20s-and anything they didn't like they smashed or bottled. Heavy metal and punk were the defining sounds.
Round about that time it became very unhip to be tolerant of anything. And that mood, as far as I could tell, permeated the 1980s, too. That's in England, I should say- I am not assuming it was like that in America.

Good quote for Mickey. That's what attracted me to them. An infinite number of bands can, could and will rock the joint. As indeed, could the Dead. But it was that other thing they did that got me.

I used to regularly attend Reading Festivals in the early and mid 1970's. The earlier events were the hippy trippy stoned events that were so prevalent in those times but at a particular moment the festival changed into a heavy metal fest which attracted a completely different set of people. Times had changed, and the crowds and the music reflected that. As Daverock so succinctly said "it became very unhip to be tolerant of anything". I never went again.

just a (hopefully) helpful note about those releases . . .

If you want them, and dont want to pay exorbitant reseller prices, almost all of them are available for download on nugs.net. You can get lossless copies that will be indistinguishable from the CDs for around $25-30 dollars and even less for mp3 which is what you would get from Spotify.

The only catch is that a few of them are the old school version instead of the latest box set version. They have the original Hundred Year Hall, Rockin the Rhein, and Steppin Out releases only for those shows.

Same goes for Dicks Picks which can get expensive on the secondary CD market. Lossless downloads are a nice way to fill in the gaps in your collection.

Did everyone see that tonights Shakedown Stream is Closing of Winterland? Nice.

FrankParry I'd have gone home after TalkTalk played, fantastic band. I could never stand Genesis.

I loathed festivals, mud or no mud, gave up after a couple.

God I sound so negative, sorry.

Despite, at the time, living in Liverpool which is pretty close to Bickershaw the thought of going would never have entered my head. After a golden period 70 - early 72 when I saw several bands a cash shortage between 72 - 75 severely curtailed my concert going apart from a weekly outing to a Folk club in a town centre hotel. Had I gone it would have been to see Captain Beefheart since while I was aware of the GD they hadn’t gotten under my skin yet. Many years later I did work with someone who had gone and had suffered through the cold and mud, perhaps blasphemously, he had little memory of the GD set.
The only festival I attended was in 1978 in Roskilde, Denmark. Saw the Terje Rypdal band in one of the smaller tents, Elvis Costello being bottled off stage ( the local newspaper described him as a charlatan??) although he seemed pretty good to us. The headline act was Bob Marley and The Wailers, this tour made up the recordings released on ‘Babylon by Bus’. We were getting into the show when my eventual brother in law insisted we leave because had to get back to see the tv news! This was one of only three times I left a concert early.

Dave Rock mentioned in an earlier post remembering the albums he sold rather than those he bought with the proceeds. I have to admit the only time I sold albums was when I was desperate for cash and the 50 - 60 that I sold don’t live in my memory. However, I have given away many albums over the years and have lived to regret several of these. The one that sticks in my mind is an early copy of ‘Led Zeppelin II’ which was a paler brown than later issues and mislabelled one track as ‘Living, loving wreck’. Of course, if I had never given away LPs and CDs I would probably be unable to move in the house. You have to let go sometimes.

Genesis - not a group that I ever liked. Unfortunately, in earlier years I had the misfortune to look very similar to Mike Rutherford when he had long hair. Several times I was mistaken for him, once in the Virgin Records Megastore in London and again at a Steve Hillage concert, luckily my, then, strong Scouse accent soon convinced people they were wrong.

Keep well everyone.

Thanks for sharing that! Great notes! It'll be nice to think about all that when I listen again, which will have to be soon now.
Supposedly Elvis Costello saw GD at Bickershaw and decided then to start a band. Forget where I heard that...

Shortest festival story ever told:

Friday, July 27, 1973: laying on our sleeping bags, heads propped up gallon jugs of water, 30 feet from the stage in front of Jerry, passing joints as the GD delivered a nearly two hour show on a perfect summer evening.

Saturday, July 28, 1973: after a four-hour GD show that started at noon(!), it poured and poured with lightning and thunder during The Band's set and they had to stop playing while we endured the mud.

First and last festival ever.

I just listened to, and wouldn't want to be without, their Duke/Abacab/Genesis trifecta.

It would have been great to hear where they might have gone had Peter Gabriel remained in the group. Gabriel could have "toughened up" Phil's and Mike's songs, while Phil could have reminded Gabriel that it isn't enough to just make interesting sounds; a great song has to start with a great melody. Sometimes Phil's music got a bit simplistic (even with a thoughtful melody), while sometimes Gabriel's music focused too much on sounding ethereal at the expense of melody.

Yes, you need to hear it just one more time. The ultimate, definitive and most rewarding Me and My Uncle version of all time was by … Mike Wilhelm! Go find it and give a listen. You'll finally realize what the song could provide, complete with sound effects and a string quartet that appears out of knowhere as it downshifts and the story heads toward the final grim resolution. He turned it into an audio movie.

But once I start thinking about ultimate cover versions of mindbendingly great songs, I just remind myself of the finest version of Highway 61 by … Dave Alvin! Or Ray Manzarek doing Downbound Train (Tony Williams on drums, if my memory serves) … or Havana Moon by Geoff Muldaur.

It's May Day folks. You've got your Dylan, Phillips, Berry treats for the day. Happy hunting and listening.

OKIEDOKE13
Is that the ‘Me and My Uncle’ on the ‘Wilhelm’ album that was put out on the Zigzag label by the much missed magazine of the same name? It was the first version I heard and I agree with it being the best I’ve heard. I have to say that it must be several decades since I last heard it because I haven’t had a record deck set up in a long time. I keep saying that I’ll buy a phone stage and dig out the player.

On a sadder note RIP Tony Allen a great drummer and afrobeat pioneer with Fela Kuti.

Fourwinds and Jim, thank you for the info on the Warlocks box. Learn something new every day, interesting. They still used the original John Culter recording mastered by Glasser. Where was Norman during this one?

JFK box was mixed by Norman and mastered by Glasser, again from the 24 track master recorded by John Culter.

The cover of Me & Uncle, meh. Dave on Highway 61, I liked a lot.

Next song that came up for Dave Alvin was "Johnny Ace is Dead" live 4/22/17,,,, very nice sound.

Also, not sure where I picked this name up, but Sasha Dobson. Anyone into her. I think I like her. Library closed so I can't get any in. Any fans out there?