Grateful Dead

I don’t remember not listening to music. Mom was the music person I guess in our family. She owned records, she sang in the house and every morning the local AM station would be playing the top 40. Top 40 back then 60-62 ish would be a real mix of music. You would go from Johnny Horton to The Platters to Frank Sinatra to Peter, Paul and Mary. Radio didn’t/wasn’t so pigeon-holed then. Though when I moved to Texas a few years back I was surprised at the number of top 40 (regional?) songs I never heard and never made the playlist in the NYC market.
We were young when Mom got us record players for Christmas, I was maybe 7. For the youth, record players were wood boxes that you took the lid off and there be a turntable, the front had a 4 inch speakers, driven by maybe 1.6 watts that when turned to 11 you could hear in your bedroom!
My first records were “kids” records, they were the size of a 45, but had only a small hole in the middle and you played them at 78. The only one I remember was Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee from Pinocchio. All of these bit the dust when me and my brother threw them like Frisbees. Mom started getting up kid lps. Great songs, like on Top of Spaghetti and The Cat Came Back.
Mom had old 78’s that I listened the shit of out until I was maybe 11. Had a good Al Jolson collection and a slew of pop hits from her day. Songs like The Coffee Song by Sinatra. Silver Threads Among the Gold (Crosby), Red Silk Stocking and Green Perfume (can’t remember), The Woody Woodpecker Song. It was a golden age!!! Records spinning away at 78 RPM with the constant hiss,,,,,, ahhh.
When I turned 13 I got a REAL stereo for Christmas. TWO SEPARATE SPEAKERS!!! First two albums Mom gave were both live! Johnny Cash San Quintin and Ray Stevens Guitarzan – LIVE! First I bought Andy Williams greatest hits. I continued to buy, I like “greatest hits” albums because I generally knew most of the songs. Like Dylans greatest hits 1, the Peter, Paul and Mary one. I know I was a boring boy!
First show, maybe the first live show was in 8th grade, the school took us to the local amphitheater and we saw the New Seekers (I like to teach the world to sing). First show I paid for was Andy Williams at the same venue.
I was big into disco in the late 70’s, listened to the local “black” station out of NYC. WBLS (stereo in black),,,, night show hosted by Frankie Crocker. Opened his show with King Pleasure’s, Moody’s Mood for Love,,,, great cut!!!
In 78 met my wife and we moved in together. She was a deadhead and more of a rock person. Learned a ton of new music from her.
Now all these years later I have a collection that boost over 7,000 artist covering over 750,000 songs. All stuff I listen to, no. I really, really, really don’t like metal or punk. We won’t even talk about German metal! (my kid listened to that shit) ( I’m sorry was that judgemental?). I’m more like a Libarian,, I read all the books, but I keep them in order and make sure they’re complete and labled correctly. (I think that’s enough .) I have all my records (except for the yellow 78’s), I have all of Mom’s 78 (about 600 of them), I have about 20 feet of lps, about 16 banker boxes of cd’s. And yet my wife doesn’t believe the limited edition vinyl is a GREAT investment for our retirement! Oh what fools these mortals be.

Sorry about the length, sorry if I’ve I covered this before, thanks Oro for the first show shout out, don’t know how you could remember what show I”VE been too  I have no real memories of first show,,,, it was all way to new to me.

Extra sidebar,,, caught a tube vid of Billy and the Kids in Hawaii at Bill’s house. WOW, what a house, huh!!! Hard to believe any of the other guys have digs that nice!!!!

I have about 150, maybe more, that I picked up as a kid from age 5 - 15. Bought a few recently and they all seem to produced on the 180 Gram vinyl, which is much heavier and sturdier than the flimsy stuff we used to get. That's a plus. The pricing seems comparable when inflation is considered. The inflation calculator I looked at places 1 dollar in 1980 at $3.44 today. The last LP I bought back then was Rush - Hold Your Fire. It has a $7.99 sticker on it. So the 5 LP Dave's Picks Vol. 1 that I pre-ordered would have cost $27.52 for each LP, for a total of $137.60. Dead.net only sold it for $99, so I suppose we're doing alright if the inflation calculator is correct.

The show I saw was the one that was recorded and released on a live album the following year. It had a dramatic start- Watcher of the Skies intro, and all you could see on the stage were Peter Gabriel's eyes, illuminated by florescent paint. Everything else was black. I remember thinking the gig had an Alice in Wonderland quality to it. It was a bit like the David Bowie show in a way- everyone sat rivetted watching the stage. It was my friends who really liked them - I tended more towards heavy rock, where everybody went nuts. Black Sabbath and Hawkwind were the ones for me. It was good - but not quite to my taste as much as the other bands I saw. I never saw Genesis again - although I carried on seeing Hawkwind up to 2019. God help me.

Simonrob - I got a very strong sense in the early - mid 70's that I had arrived just as the party was ending. Which proved to be the case, unfortunately. Most of the bands I liked had released their best records by 1973. In fact, I think they all had.
Although I really liked the punk records and gigs from summer 1976-1977, I really didn't like the emerging punk culture - everybody walking around with cropped hair, spitting at bands, looking for a fight with anyone who didn't conform to the new dictat. Bands that copied The Ramones - all a bit rubbish by the end of 1977.
What I really liked - although I didn't recognise it at the time - was rock n' roll. It was there, hidden in plain site in the music of both the heavy rock bands of the early 70s and the punk ones from 1976-77.

Anyone got any suggestions for quiet early morning music? Gorecki's 3rd, Labradford- Fixed Content, Mark Hollis -ST, Larmousse, that sort of thing. Stuff that won't wake anyone else up 🙂. I'm one of those appalling larks, up at 4.30, I love the early day.

Thanks.

The first band I ever saw were Genesis at our local venue for 2nd string artists in autumn/fall ( take your pick 😀) 1972. I remember that I didn't much care for the music, still don't, and that the singer dressd up. I was 13 and these were warm up gigs for the next night at the Lyceum I believe, about 40 miles west of here. Alice Cooper, Bowie, Roxy Music, Stones, Zeppelin etc were much more my thing then. I met a friend in 1974 (he sold me my first acid on my 15th birthday) who turned me on to the Dead and I reciprocated by getting him into my stuff. Europe 72 was my first Dead album.

The first song that made a big impression on me was "Apache" by The Shadows in 1960 when I was 7. After that it was the Beatles in 1962. I guess things really got serious around 1969 when the San Francisco sound became readily accessible in record shops and on the radio thanks to Radio Luxemburg (208m medium wave). BBC radio got in on the act with the John Peel show. Unfortunately by the mid 70s it was as good as finished with few new bands of any note coming to the fore. Disco, punk, new romantics etc. were never interesting to me and my circle of friends and British progressive music became so self-indulgent as to be virtually unlistenable. Of course there were still points of light in the darkness but the golden age of music had sadly passed into history.

PS: First time I saw Genesis was at the Reading Festival in 1972.

You saw Genesis in '73? I was 9 when Abacab came out, and then came the Phil Collins tidal wave. I only ever heard two songs on FM radio from Gabriel Genesis in those days: Watcher of the Skies and Lamb Lies Down. In my early 20s I began buying up the Genesis back catalogue, as an extention of my taste for prog rock. I thought Supper's Ready was magnificent, and still play it regularly.

I've seen a lot of youtube footage from '71 - '73. There's a great show from the Rainbow. That must have been a transcending show. And to see Gabriel's on-stage persona in his prime. Wow wow wow wow wow.

Would love to hear about that experience. I may go see Steve Hackett - he's going on tour to play Seconds Out. I may see if that fits into my schedule.

My first gigs were when I was 15, in 1972. They were T.Rex in the summer - at which there was a riot of teenage girls who temporarily stopped the show. Then David Bowie in the December. This was at a venue called "The Hardrock", and it featured what they referred to as "festival seating". This meant everyone sat on the concrete floor in as close a proximity to the lotus position as they could manage. Everyone stayed down, too. Older people at this one than T.Rex.

1973 things gathered pace - I saw Hawkwind, Black Sabbath, Genesis, Uriah Heep and The Rolling Stones.

Records were really important too, of course- and going to record shops. Which could account for why I still like vinyl today over other formats.
And television-I never saw Alice Cooper live - but I saw a film of them on the Old Grey Whistle Test, and in summer 1972 he had the big hit - "School's Out"
And the music press-the N.M.E being the fount of all knowledge. Iggy and the Stooges didn't have a record out in 1972, and they only played one gig in England - in London, which I didn't go to. But it was well written up and photographed, so that it assumed mythic proportions. I snapped up their first album from the bargain bins - and "Raw Power" the day it came out in 1973. When Iggy Pop finally came to the these shores, in 1977, it was like a visit from the Messiah. Unfortunately, The Stooges were no more- David Bowie played keyboards, and people in the audience flocked to his side of the stage to watch him rather than the Ig.
But those years 1972 - 1973, when I was 15-16, were magical times.

....as you were.
I discovered music when I was 12.
The year was 1980. Ergo, my influences. Started with The Beatles.
Then new wave and heavy metal.
Used to make fun of Duran Duran back then. High school cliq shit.
Now, I realize they kick ass.
Headbangers Ball anyone? MTv Gen here.
Music is indeed the best Mr. Ones.
Edit. The Scorpions are doing a residency here. They also put out a record recently. It's pretty good.

All Spinal Tap kidding aside, the drummers are always the first to go. Keith Moon. John Bonham. Ginger did outlast Jack, but not by much. Of late, Taylor Hawkins... Charlie was preceded by Brian Jones but that was lifetimes ago. Joey Kramer has bowed out of the upcoming Aerosmith Vegas residency, and Peter Criss could never play 90 minutes with KISS again. Let us not forget Neil Peart, Nick Menza... the list is endless. Lars won't be able to play like he does now in 20 years - maybe ten. Metallica will reinvent themselves.

I am excited to catch the D&C shows again as Summer tour arrives. Without Billy. Will he ever return? Does it matter? Not to discount him - I love the man, and to me the best and tightest the band ever was was when he singularly owned the drum chair. But the show must go on.

I love Dead & Co. Yes the tempos are leaden, but my god Wolf Bros. makes D&C sound like Ministry on methamphetamine. Someone tell Bob to stop dumping a bottle of Log Cabin over his fretboard before taking the stage. John Mayer, Oteil and Chimenti are so goddamn good. Bobby hangs his hat on them and it all meshes beautifully. Last summer at Red Rocks, Jay Lane ably took up for Kreutzmann and you could hardly tell, except there wasn't any coke on the side cymbal (heh-heh).

The vibe at D&C shows is so goddamn good... all across the country. I have had some of the best times in the parking lots, Shakedown Street and in the venues with like minded brothers and sisters who carry the spirit of the Dead onward.

I had to stick up for them. Be well everyone.

\m/