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    clayv
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    Sweet liberty! We're venturing into the depths of 80s Dead with the complete show from 4/20/84 at the Philadelphia Civic Center and we're placing bets you'll think this one is more than fine. A strong contender for our mega 30 TRIPS AROUND THE SUN boxed set, 4/20/84 missed the cut by virtue of its setlist being a wee bit too similar to the years before and after. As DAVE'S PICKS VOLUME 35, it's found its time to shine. The first set delivers yin yang harmony between Jerry and Bobby songs, yielding driven and powerful takes on tracks like "Feel Like A Stranger," "Cold Rain And Snow," and "Brown-Eyed Women." The second set begs the question - will we ever stop peaking? - with a monumental "Scarlet>Fire," a ripping "Samson and Delilah," a "Space" that pulls shapes that know no names, and that "Morning Dew" - get.in.to.it! And because this one might have ended just a little too soon, we've packed disc 2 and 3 with knock-your-socks-off bonus material from most of the second set from the previous night, 4/19/84. Grab ahold while you can!

    Limited to 22,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOL.35: PHILADELPHIA CIVIC CENTER, PHILADELPHIA 4/20/84 has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman and is guaranteed to sell out. 

    *Limited to 2 per order. Very limited quantity available.

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  • KeithFan2112
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    Oh...duh - Kansas and Cheap Trick

    Not exactly huge acts in the 90s, but saw them in tiny venues with no assigned seating..

    Saw Kansas in Ocean City Maryland at Scandals. $5 cover charge, walked right up to the front of the stage. I was familiar with their greatest hits so I figured what the heck. I was in college a half hour, so I made a night of it with some friends. It was funny... The lead singer had on a black Kansas hat.
    A guy in front of the stage next to me had the exact same hat. After the show, the lead singer was leaning into the crowd giving high fives to the people in front. The dude next to me with the identitical hat had removed his own, swiped the lead singer's hat when he leaned in for the high 5 and immediately returned it; except he swapped the hats unbeknownst to the singer and returned the wrong one. So now that dude has the lead singer's hat as a trophy and the lead singer has no idea. Smooth move. My wallet also went missing that night. I've always wondered...

    Went to Disney World with my wife back in the 90s. There's a place called Pleasure Island where I saw Cheap Trick play. I had never been into them. The only song I recognized was I Want You to Want Me. It was funny though, because I recognized the line that Damone sings in Fast Times during Surrender. They kicked ass. That was another one where I just walked up to the front of the stage. As soon as I got home I bought Greatest Hits and Live at Budokan. The Dream Police

  • proudfoot
    Joined:
    aagh. I am avoiding work...

    1/11/78 is a great show.

    A box set of California January 78 would be good. Jerry's voice is in the trash compactor for much of it, but again.......

    I don't listen to the GD for the vocals.

  • proudfoot
    Joined:
    and from out of nowhere...

    I am having my occasional listen to Doors' albums.

    Waiting for the Sun: awesome
    Morrison Hotel: awesome
    LA Woman: awesome

    so good.

  • proudfoot
    Joined:
    one more VH comment

    re DLR:

    1981: yours truly is a McDonald's schmuck employee in South Pasadena CA. I take the trash out the back door, which is very close to where the drive-through order intercom is. There is DLR in a BMW ordering something. I called out to him, but he ignored me. (I am still surprised at that...no, not really.)

    what a juxtaposition, as I think about it 39 years later.

    RIP, Eddie.

    Oh, yes: I also had the hots for VB, JiminMD.

  • JimInMD
    Joined:
    RIP EVH

    Agree with what has been posted. A terrific talent. I must admit I never got into their music, however.. the glam and DLR were such a violent depart from what I had settled into by the time they really took off. Still, I respect the talent he was and a little confession, I had the hots for his wife.. so jealously clearly played a part.

  • That Mike
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    One I Missed

    Reading GaryF’s great write up on seeing Ricky Nelson’s final show (!) made me think not of all the shows I’ve seen, but the one I really regret missing, and shoulda coulda. My wife and I were watching Dylan’s No Direction Home, and when we saw the clip of Odetta we did a collective “Wow”! I wasn’t familiar with her much, but did some digging, great respect for this lady’s voice, like Roy Orbison meets Johnny Cash. As it turned out, she was playing a small folk club in town called Hugh’s Room, that I’d been to many times (I met Chris Hillman there). We hemmed and hawed, and for some frigging reason, we decided to count our toothpicks that night rather than venture out, and see her, something I’ll always regret, because she passed away six weeks later. To have heard her “live” would have been a joy.
    It is for this reason that when Wayne Shorter made an ultra rare appearance a couple of years ago, I went. No more missing legends.

  • KeithFan2112
    Joined:
    RIP eddie VH

    First caught them with Sammy on the 5150 tour. You have to have a unique singer or two to make it in rock. To replace a one-singer frontman like Bon Scott or David Lee Roth and to be successful at it - damn near impossible. But Sammy got the job done in the studio and onstage, though I prefer those old records with DLR best.

    Saw them a couple more times with Sammy, saw them with the guy from Extreme singing (decent record, but man that guy did not fit in onstage).

    And finally DLR returned and just plain couldn't sing his own songs. But they ran deep in their catalog and the Van Halen brothers were spot on. It was always a thrill watching Eddie play. The LPs didn't do Eddie justice; you had to see him play live to fully appreciate the command he had over that instrument. Never saw anything like it.

  • Deadheadbrewer
    Joined:
    R.I.P., Eddie--Small Venues

    Dusted off Van Halen's eponymous debut CD last night for listening. In my mind, there was no Van Halen after Diamond Dave left. :-O Maybe I'll crank 1984 next.

    I've told this tale here before, but one night at a tiny jazz club in Saint Paul, the bartender asked the 12 or so of us who were there for the regular Tuesday night band to please indulge some friends of the owner with a set while the Tuesday night band took a break. At the end of the hot bluesy set, the bartender came up as the fill-ins left the stage and said, "Ladies and gentlemen--the Steve Miller Band." They had played a "hits" show for many thousands the night before. My friend and I sure didn't recognize them, but enjoyed the set!

    I saw Phish at the Cabooze with about 75 attendees back in 1991, and saw Widespread play for about 100 at a park in a smaller city about the same time. When I lived in Frisco, Co, someone said to go see a group one Friday. I went, and the band played for free for about 15 of us in Dillon, and their name was String Cheese Incident.

  • daverock
    Joined:
    Great shows

    Yes, that Longbeach 1997 Blues Festival has an amazing lineup.
    Also-Nappyrags-seeing The Stones/Ike and Tina Turner/B.B.King in 1969 now has legendary status. Terry Reid was good too-I saw him in a small club about 15 years ago. Apparently he was Jimmy Page's first choice as vocalist for the New Yardbirds, but he turned it down as his solo career looked as though it was going to take off. It was him who recommended Robert Plant, for the New Yardbirds gig I think. Great singer.

  • jrf68@hotmail.com
    Joined:
    Bummer...

    Like Proudfoot said, it was a small window in my musical life, but those first 2 or 3 Van Halen albums were dear to me. Still give 'em listening time here and there. That's what my older brothers and sisters were into and that means that it's what I was into in the early 80's.
    Eruption was a fantastic thing for an 11 year old kid. Thanks Eddie.

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Sweet liberty! We're venturing into the depths of 80s Dead with the complete show from 4/20/84 at the Philadelphia Civic Center and we're placing bets you'll think this one is more than fine. A strong contender for our mega 30 TRIPS AROUND THE SUN boxed set, 4/20/84 missed the cut by virtue of its setlist being a wee bit too similar to the years before and after. As DAVE'S PICKS VOLUME 35, it's found its time to shine. The first set delivers yin yang harmony between Jerry and Bobby songs, yielding driven and powerful takes on tracks like "Feel Like A Stranger," "Cold Rain And Snow," and "Brown-Eyed Women." The second set begs the question - will we ever stop peaking? - with a monumental "Scarlet>Fire," a ripping "Samson and Delilah," a "Space" that pulls shapes that know no names, and that "Morning Dew" - get.in.to.it! And because this one might have ended just a little too soon, we've packed disc 2 and 3 with knock-your-socks-off bonus material from most of the second set from the previous night, 4/19/84. Grab ahold while you can!

Limited to 22,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOL.35: PHILADELPHIA CIVIC CENTER, PHILADELPHIA 4/20/84 has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman and is guaranteed to sell out. 

*Limited to 2 per order. Very limited quantity available.

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In reply to by Colin Gould

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Sorry to hear Peter Green passed. To hear the live “Rattlesnake Shake” from early FM recordings - such as Live in Boston - was to hear Thunder itself. A gifted guitarist, but unfortunately a troubled soul. RIP.

Any Husker Du fans 'round here?

Bob Mould's next band Sugar...I got a copy of Copper Blue about a weeknhalf ago. Some good tracks

Husker Du:

Zen Arcade
New Day Rising
Flip Your Wig

If you want to hear some high-octane psychedelia, check out Reoccurring Dreams on Youtube....14+ minutes of fun.

....hmm. I visited a reddit post yesterday about Fleetwood Mac. Posted that the Peter Green Mac was the better Mac. Feedback was 50/50. Then this.
I still don't believe in coincidences.
Husker Du is good. As are the Minutemen and Seven Seconds.

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He replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and played on the "Hard Road" album from 1967. That's the only album I have with him on, and its a good solid blues album. Maybe not quite a spectacular as the Clapton driven Beano album from the previous year-but its worth hearing.
I saw him live once at a blues festival, Bishopstock, round about 2003. That was quite sad, really. He seemed disengaged and all the main solos and audible guitar parts were played by someone else. Peter didn't sing or talk to the audience, as I remember it. He just seemed sort of propped up there, with a guitar hung round his neck. Yet they used his name to advertise the band. The price of being a living legend, I suppose.
I have only heard Fleetwood Mac's singles with Peter on-and they do seem to be significantly better than the MOR band from later in the 70s.

That was the only Husker Du album I ever owned. I don't know how typical it was , but I used to like it. I was surprised when I first heard it how melodic it was-buzz saw guitars and enough energy to detonate a factory...but also quite poppy in way. A good way.

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My favorite Peter Green tune (with Fleetwood Mac)

"I can't help about the shape I'm in
Can't sing, I ain't pretty and my legs are thin
But don't ask me what I think of you
I might not give the answer that you want me to"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ag8DkipmQ

RIP blues man.......

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I am a big Peter Green fan. After he left the band he founded, Fleetwood Mac, he did go on to make several solo albums, quite nice stuff. The early releases with him and Danny Kirwin were peak early Mac. I saw Peter once at the Fillmore, he was a little subdued. RIP Peter.

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did some 7/24/87 and 7/26/87 view from the vault can't wait for this release and rz thanks for the california earthquake never knew or heard but if only two were played they should be released cool cool stay cool and love early fleetwood mac with peter green have some cds for that and when saw Tom Petty at the pepsi center they ripped oh well...well oh well rip

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Several months after the Dead’s 69 run at the Ark In Boston, Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac held court at the Boston Tea Party across town in 1970. Love those BTP releases, and listen to them a lot. Peter Green was a true guitar God who will be missed. The music remains. Be at peace Peter.

The Dead played 6 shows at the BTP in 69. Including New Years Eve, a rare NYE show outside the Bay Area.

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Albatross said it all.

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George Harrison said Albatross was the inspiration behind Sun King from Abbey Road. Now that's a piece of music! I would have been okay if it went on another 5 minutes, but I guess sometimes it's the small bits that keep you wanting for more. It's a perfect union of bass and guitar melodies. I imagine this is what codeine would sound like if it had a voice. Rain has a similar effect, though obviously more upbeat (and one of Ringo's finer moments).

I sense French Roast and Jai-Alai 6/23 in my immediate future.

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Sounds like a good performance here. Audio is just okay, but I'm sure once I treat it with some Poweramp magic it'll get a little better.

It's interesting- I recently read that Betty Cantor Jackson used to record those 70 shows on her private board. Not sure who paid for the actual tapes, but it does sort of answer the nagging question I've had in my mind for a while now - how is it possible that audio quality degraded so badly in the 80s. It also explains how the tapes that were sold off at auction from her unpaid storage bin warrant in so official Grateful Dead Vault somewhere.

But anyway, I really like the keyboard sound Brent uses on Feel Like a Stranger here. It's not too far from Dave's Picks 8 from 11/30/80, which is my favorite version; this may be my second fav.

The track list on here is superb. Hopefully they're on top of things throughout.

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I think the best music has already been played and the greatest musicians are dead and gone. That's not to say there is no new good music happening and no great musicians out there. I think for Blues , Country, Rock & Roll, Jazz and Blugrass the best music has been played. There are some exceptions of course as far as musicians go, but for the most part the legends are all gone.

The music and culture of the 20th century may have been unimaginable to the 19th century mind, so maybe the music of the 21st century will be similarly unimaginable to the 20th century mind. Which most of us still have. With new technologies, new instruments...new drugs...who knows what might happen?

baah humbug. These new kids and their (furry) tennie shoes, loud music with long jams and their long hair. Music hasn't improved since a bit since Glenn Miller, Bennie Goodman. ahh. the golden era.
Boy the old Lasalle ran great.. those were the days.

So turn it down, get a haircut and get off my grass, hippies.

:D (hopefully not to be confused with fact or any resemblance of an honest opinion)

Oh, RIP Brent. You are missed.

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I’m sure Beethoven fans said “All the best music has been created” after he died. One would hope that a Beatles, Grateful Dead, Miles Davis would come along at least every hundred years or so.
I must be crazy ‘cause I’m starting to get excited about Dave’s 35. It’ll be great to have another ‘80’s show to love(at least I hope so).
Even a ‘68-‘72 Head can revel in a fantastic show from ANY era.

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In reply to by Mr. Ones

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Imagine if Beethoven dosed. Deaf or not, we would have gotten another symphony. I bet it would have been real and spectacular.

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Rewatching and listening to Blow Away from 09/29/89 Shoreline as I read your post, VGuy.

RIP Indeed. Let it Blow Away.

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I don't know anything about Beethoven or Classical music, so has there been someone who is as famous or as influential in Classical Music as Beethoven was since he died, just speaking about Classical music. I'm curious.

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I'm going to say Rachmaninov, or Dvorak. Or Chopin, or Schumann or Liszt or Paganini. Or Stravinsky, Debussy or finally Copland. Although, I am partial to Sor (the Beethoven of the guitar), Giuliani, Carcassi, Brouwer and Villa-Lobos... :-)

Absolutely agree with you on the btp mac stuff. We're lucky to have a good amount of FM music from them at that point. It was a dump but they certainly had some great bands

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In reply to by That Mike

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I've racked my brain but other than an old blues song involving women I can't think of a song about self gratification being so popular on radio. Any thoughts?

I know this will come off hasher than I mean but....some things are not funny, they way the CCP treat its people especially minorities is beyond the pale. I am not some woke sjw who needs a safe space at every turn, but sometimes people including myself need to be reminded of the evil out there.

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In reply to by Vguy72

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Go with the website. The bonus is another complete show. Got home from the hospital yesterday now that doc newsom decided my necessary op elective and there it was. Listened to both twice already. Very clean

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...about self gratification on the radio - the Divinyls song I Touch Myself got some airplay in the early '90s and was a catchy little tune, and let's not forget Pictures of Lily by the Who. Not sure who Maryanne With the Shaky Hand was using her shaky hand on, herself or another, but that might be another self gratification tune depending on your interpretation of the lyrics.

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In reply to by Charlie3

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Oh, that's a good one.

That chick brought the ol' shelehlee out of the closet...

But anyway...give a listen to 5 15 70 today, folks.

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Yeah, the Divinyls vocalist had a voice that really made the song.

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Snafu, I just said that I felt that the best music has already been played. I didn't say that there was no new music being played or that there was no really good music being played. I'll just keep that to Blues and Rock & Roll, I still believe that. There is
nobody out there that can come close to Jiimi Hendrix, or the Grateful Dead from 1969 - 1972. As far Blues music, I don't even need to give it a second thought, the best Blues music has been played. You've probably heard of the great harmonica player Rick Estrin, well he said , there are a lot of good harp players, a few great harp players, a couple of excellent harp players, but the best harmonica players are dead and gone.

I think everyone thinks that about everything at some point.

Think you could handle better than the best Dead ever Done?

I'll go with Frank -

Best is yet to come and babe won't that be fine
You think you've seen the sun but you ain't seen it shine

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In reply to by Charlie3

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Good picks I forgot about pictures

To each etc. but even though they're both dead SRV and Fz played years after Jimi and were at least as good if not better. Jimi was great of course but part of the greatness was showman ship which isn't playing.

Thinking about it, I would agree with you in the sense that we may have seen the best in blues...in its current form. What we don't know, is if someone will come up with a new form of expression within the idiom. Its quite believable that someone might have thought that in the 1920s that it was impossible to improve on the blues and jazz of Bessie Smith or Louis Armstrong. And in the way that they played, those people may have been right. What they wouldn't have accounted for would have been the different approaches of Robert Johnson, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix...and many others. I like to think there are more twists and turns ahead. Blues musicians who are informed by the past, but are able to use new skills, instruments and technologies to advance the form. Would it still be blues? Could be! Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix were.

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47 years ago today the Dead did their famous sound check at Watkins Glen. Hendrix Freak, were you at this, or Strider were you there?

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Snafu, I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn play twice, once at the San Francisco Blues Festival in 1979, and once at a Wavey Gravey event called.Cowboys for Indians, he played solo acoustic. . You're right he was absolutely fantastic.

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A friend asked me what I had been reading lately, so I thought I would share my latest reads:

Guitar King: Michael Bloomfield's Life in the Blues by David Dann-excellent read if you are into Bloomfield
California Dreaming by Michele Philips - OK with some insight into how fast the Mama's and Papa's took off and then broke up
Rod Serling: His Life, Work and Imagination by Nicolas Parisi - Excellent detailed look at behind the scenes of the Twilight Zone
Simple Dreams by Linda Ronstadt - a great read, very funny and honest, tells her story and the story of the beginnings of Country Rock
Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge by Sheila Weller - If you admire Carrie, this is a great book telling her story

The easiest, most fun read is Linda's.

I am now beginning to read the Beatles Anthology, a huge book, authorized by them and in their own words.

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A sentiment that has been shared by many (including The Greg Kihn Band and their Breakup Song). To put it another way, "It's good to be in something from the ground floor. I came to late for that and I know. But lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over." I suspect this is a generational thing, although I confess that the high point of this feeling came for me in the '80s when there just really wasn't a lot of new music that I dug. I dug some '80s stuff, but not a lot.

Lately, I'm finding a lot of new stuff to dig, although it is not the classic rock sound of yore, nor is it a Dead clone. Mostly, it's artists doing something I haven't really heard before, or doing something old with a new twist. Sturgill Simpson, Khruangbin, Leon Bridges, Flaming Lips, Tame Impala and St. Paul and the Broken Bones would be a few examples of newer artists that I dig. So nobody is gonna do what Hendrix or the Dead did better than the original, I agree with that, but there will be artists finding new forms and styles that will be just as cool in their own way. And honestly, if I only had one artist to listen to, or only one style of music available, it would get old no matter how good it is.

Edit: Or, since I've been on a little Who kick lately, "Rock is dead they say. Long live rock".

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My own latest music reads include Patti Smith's memoirs "Just Kids" and "M Train". And just yesterday I finished Holly George-Warren's excellent Janis Joplin biography "Janis: Her Life And Music".

The latter brought back bittersweet memories. I was fortunate enough to see her perform twice. The first was on the Cheap Thrills tour in '68 and the second time was at Woodstock.

Such a tragic loss to her fans along with Pigpen, Hendrix, and Jim Morrison.

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Richard Wagner died about 60 years after Beethoven who died around 1827 and wagner around 1887. Wagner was considered new age classical who said that "I am going to produce classical music that is much more interesting and new age than Beethoven's boring and sleep inducing symphonies." He said something like this back in the day.

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In reply to by carlo13

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I've been a huge Wagner fan all of my life thanks to my parents playing classical music in our home.

I've seen his operas performed any number of times and like the Grateful Dead, I'm happy to travel great distances to see one. Last summer we made a train journey from Seattle to see his epic four-opera cycle "Der Ring Des Niebelungen" at San Francisco Opera.

Wagner the man was quite unpleasant (anti-semite, philanderer, swindler, etc) but he was a brilliant composer and created the combination of music linked to on-stage action that we see applied today in musical scores for motion pictures.

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Carlo13, the Grateful Dead were huge fans of Wagner, and they even cancelled a couple of shows in 1985 so they could attend the performance of the Ring Opera in S.F. I saw the Dead shortly after at the Greek Theatre, it was a blast!

....I've started, over the waning weeks of the 'Summer of Sixtus'**, the newly released read: "Action Park - Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park", which is a MAJOR callback to my youth (yooot!) in the late '70's and early/mid-80's when spending time in NJ and at 'The Shore' - which always did its best to emulate the death-defying antics via water slides but never approached the true point-of-no-return that was Action Park. My assumption is that there are at least one or two peeps here that had experienced the unadultered chaos of Action Park. I still remember the commercials and visits, which made me buy this breezy, sarcastic, comical, adventurous, very fun book.

** 'Summer of Sixtus' has officially come to an end as today was my first day at my new Pharma gig. No complaints on this end, it's good to be back in the driver's seat.

Looking forward to DP 35 big time, gimme some Philly.

Be Well People.
Sixtus

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Right on, a blast from the past. I grew up across the border from Vernon, NJ in a then rural area of Orange County, NY and went to Accident Park when it was just the Alpine Slide, and maybe a couple of times later. Injuries abounded there, from the minor to the life alteringly tragic. Take a look at the water slide loop that these yahoos came up with, the Cannonball Loop, no engineering or water-ride experience appear to be involved, just the back of a napkin and an idea of what a loop looks like.

Love the fun random connections that come up on these threads.

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