Grateful Dead

Pleased to report I have received a shipping notice for GarciaLive Volume 18. When it will get here is another subject. By the way, Feel free to talk all the hockey you want. You have my permission. Personally, I have never watched so much as a single hockey game in my life.
Carry on (love s coming to us all)!

6/9.....76?

or

6/9.....77?

They are both outstanding in their own right; and both remarkably DIFFERENT for just being one year apart.
And one last thing, the two numbers, six and nine, are always funny side by side.

Sixtus

69 box, Dave.
Please.

...I don't mind, I don't mind.

For me, definitely the '76 show tops the '77 on June 9ths. Somewhat ironic given my personal penchant for '77, but that Road Trips release is one of my top 3 '76 shows, with 12/31 and 6/14 right there with it. Winterland '77 is one of the few boxes I don't have a physical copy of, but have had the music for years, and I'm just not blown away by those shows at all, and it was less than 2 weeks from those last May shows I dig quite a bit, especially Hartford. But that first Boston Music Hall show is just fantastic. And the bonus tracks make this a Jerry fan's dream setlist with Cold Rain, Scarlet, Crazy Fingers, Ship of Fools, St Stephen> Eyes (> Let It Grow to OPEN 2nd set!!!), High Time, Wharf Rat, Franklin's, and with the bonus, add in Mission in the freakin' Rain, The Wheel, and Comes a Time. The subjectively weakest Jerry picks are They Love Each Other and Must Have Been the Roses, which are fine, but I would love any and all of that first batch in one show. If Real Gone ever gets to pressing Road Trips on vinyl, I would snap that up in an instant. As for the '77, I have no idea why that box would go for twice what the Winterland '73 box does, especially with a bonus disc of stuff that has all been released now on May '77.

As for the literary conversation, my tastes tend toward history, philosophy, especially little books that deal with peculiar historical things, or history of ideas type things, like one called Beethoven's Hair follows a lock of his hair snipped off while he lay in his casket through decades, including coming through the Holocaust, and eventually leading to a lab for testing where they think they found the cause of Beethoven's deafness. Another concerned a vexing math problem, Fermat's Theorem, that had confounded mathematicians for 300 years and an attempt to solve it by a mathematician from Cambridge. I can get completely caught up in the weird, wild tales of non-fiction. For fiction, my favorite is Faulkner, but my favorite book ever is Animal Farm. And I'm big on Tolkien and the Harry Potter books (Rowling is an infinitely better writer than Tolkien, but he built a universe and languages and peoples and cultures, and though he fittingly writes like a philologist, I still enjoy reading his books again and again, just never as quickly as the Potter books). Music bios are another genre I will devour. And I doubt I will ever have enough books on the American Revolution, George Washington, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Pink Floyd
Ummagumma
Earphones
Natural setting
A lil' snack

Oh yeah...

Alvarhanso - good to see you mention him as a favourite author. An extraordinary writer- "The Sound and The Fury" is one of the most powerful books I have ever read. A few years ago there was a folio edition of that published, too. A two volume collection, with the first section of the novel colour coded, as Faulkner apparently intended, to indicate the timelines and who the hell was actually being referred to. Quite helpful with two characters having the same name, and a storyline that moves backwards and forwards in time, on the same page without warning.

There is an interesting essay by Nicholas Meriwether, in the book "All Graceful Instruments", called "Robert Hunter, William Faulkner and It Must Have Been the Roses". In the essay, Meriwether suggests that Faulkner's short story "A Rose For Emily" was an inspiration for the Hunter song. It sheds new light on "Must Have Been The Roses". Whether you agree with it or not, is a different matter of course - but worth a read.

If you gents don't know John Fante, 1909 (b. Denver)-1983 (d. L.A.) (Ask the Dust, others) you owe it to yourself to do so. His writing is sort of film noir-ish, what the critics called "dirty realism." Charles Bukowski once said "Fante was my god." His prose and novels bring life to life. Check him out.

After I became greatly enamored with his writing, I'm at a friend's gig and I see a Fante book on the front seat of his car. "What are you doing with Fante!?" I say, surprised. He's just as surprised that I know about Fante. So when we see each other, we discuss literature, much to the bemusement of his band mates.

I believe this has been mentioned here before and many of you probably already know that Lowell George helped produce Shakedown Street. You can check out Lowell on You Tube singing "Good Lovin" and "I Need a Miracle". For those of you not familiar with Little Feat, a good intro to the Feat's first thirty years is the compilation Hotcakes and Outtakes. It includes music from the Lowell era as well as the Craig Fuller and Sean Murphy years. The 2002 Waiting for Columbus compilation with the additional tracks is excellent and may be all you need. As noted before this is one of the best live albums of all time. The new box set release will get my attention, but perhaps not my money. I have to check it out. Of course the Archive has a ton of shows that are worth a listen. Interesting how The Feat never were inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. Shows what they know...
Early in my dating days with my wife we were talking on the phone and I had Little Feat playing in the background. She decided at that moment that I couldn't be that much of nerd. She shared that story with the band during a meet and greet during the 1999/Y2K New Years Eve show. As she frequently says the last 45 years is the longest date she has ever been on.

Recent listens...
Miles Davis - The Lost Concert
Wilco - Cruel Country
Drive-By-Truckers - Welcome to Club XIII
Jefferson Airplane - The Woodstock Experience
The Stones - El Mocambo '77

The Dead - Still listening to the St Louis shows and the latest Dave's

Be well...

Checked the small local library catalog for Fante, no dice. Glad to see recent posts sharing comments on books, always happy for leads on music and the arts. Thanks to all for this community of good will here. There are elephants in the room, topics we wisely leave elsewhere. Early brush with Sci-Fi happened in the late 1950s, when it was moving from near pure pulp with lurid covers into early social consciousness via writings of Bradbury, Heinlein, Asimov. Particularly taken with Theodore Sturgeons "More Than Human", the concept of gestalt consciousness, which seemed to blossom forth with the 60s acid tests and the music/performance of our host band.

Glad someone else mentioned Theodore Sturgeon and More Than Human. Of course I heard of this from Phil and how it was such a big part of the Dead’s early metamorphosis. It also lead to a life long interest in Gestalt theory which seems to pop up in life now and again, especially when I was in grad school.
Please check your PM when convenient.

Feat: interesting, had forgotten that LF aren’t in the Hall of Fame, especially when you consider some of the questionable inductees of recent years! How the hell then are the Feat not in there? Hits, sorta of, I mean who hasn’t covered Willin. Longevity as a active touring unit still bringing it for decades, check, (well except Lowell and recently Paul). One of the greatest live albums of all time, check! So why aren’t they in???

Since we’ve been having such nice discussions of.
Most of my early reading was any Dead, Rock and Roll, beats, etc (go figure).
Dove deep into Kesey, Kerouac, Cassidy etc.
Dabbled very superficially in Sci-fi because of friends influences. Ok, but not a big fan.
Have tried some of the classics but have never been able to get past much of the old prose i,e., started Sound and Fury once but didn’t get too far. Couldn’t understand half of what they were saying lol.
Of course read the required classics in school, though can’t recall what all that included, but remember I always liked reading classes etc in school (one of the only things I liked about school), but never really got tight with the old vernacular, perhaps my aversion to such is rooted in having to read so many pages of “dead guys” in grad school: Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Freud etc? Cool stuff, but tough reading!
Was on a big Everest kick about 25 years ago.
Over the years, ive gathered a pretty decent R&R collection of biographies etc, but through my collection development Librarian other half have been turned on to lots of more modern authors. Some I’ll list in case there’s folks out there searching that perhaps aren’t familiar.
Richard Russo (great characters!)
William Kent Krueger
Jonathan Evison
Jess Walter
Jim Harrison
Garth Stein
Jim Lynch
David Gutterson
Nicholas Evans
Yes I really like North West authors lol,
Just to name a few off the top of the ole head, with some not so modern ones:
Tom Robbins
Kurt Vonnegut
James Michener
Tom Wolfe
again just to scratch the surface, so many books, so little time, especially when constantly trying to chase the GD dragon…
Keep ‘em coming,
Happy Reading!

I gravitate toward non-fiction

Just sayin

this morning on a long walk

Some good stuff on there

No wood, but I am glad I gave it a chance

Read a series called The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Short series of 6 books, all but one are <200 pages. Not in the spirit of Asimov, Heinlein, etc but I found them to be a very entertaining, kind of nerdy quick read. Murderbot is a robot that figures out how to disable the part of itself that makes it obey human commands. The series incorporates some networking and programming threads into the story line. Nothing complicated that the reader has to think about but interesting (at least to me, I work at a software company). If anyone intends to try it, the 6th book comes before the 5th book in the story timeline. It's like the author intended to end with book 5 but decided to put out one more.

Daverock, check out Sailing Shoes, Dixie Chicken and Feats don't fail me now. All great and if they don't get ya, their first lp was also quite good. All the above are with Lowell, and I saw them in 78 with Lowell and also many times after with other who came after Lowell. Not the same band without him but still a good time and if you like the sound of shufflin' feet, it can't be beat.

The Kinks - To the Bone ( a great two cd collection of live in studio and live in concert performances. Fine Village Green Preservationn Society and a rockin' I'm not Like Everybody Else.
Steve Miller - Your Saving Grace. Very cool 8:49 Baby's House song co-written and featuring great keys by Nicky Hopkins.
The Kinks - Live in London DVD. Two video performances, one in 1973 and one in 1977. The 73 show has my favorite Kinks configurtion- The core band, keys, The Mike Cotton brass section, and back up women singers.
The Dead at Shoreline 9/19/2003 Highlights: Dark Star, Born Cross-eyed, Days Between and Peggy-o with Joan singing Peggy-o's parts.

two songs in....FIRE(I hope this comment is not offensive to anyone, or taken in the wrong way)

The video is on utoob.

Late 80’s I made a cassette copy of my friend’s “Waiting For Columbus” CD. Great live album.

Another great live album (at least to me) that I was introduced to in the mid-80’s is The Kinks “One For The Road”.

Good party music. You still get to listen to live music, and the guests at your house aren’t complaining about listening to the Dead again.

That Kinks album One for the Road is also a live DVD. Great stuff, although it is latter day Arena rock Kinks. Dave shows his stuff as a great guitarist on that show.

Ich verstehe aber nicht

Letzte funf non GD
Acid Mothers Temple
Little Feat waiting for columbus
Plasmatics beyond the valley of 1984
Pink Floyd ummagumma
Plasmatics new hope for the wretched

I like some Japanese authors. Haruki Murakami of course, Norwegian Wood and Wind Up Bird Chronicle are good places to start, 1Q83 is rather dark. I've read all his novels, all worthwhile. Yoko Ogawa, Suyaka Murata, Tushikuzu Kawaguchi and Hiromi Kawakami are very good. I also really enjoyed Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng's The Garden of the Evening Mists.

Listening to Van Morrison's Hard Nose The Highway at the moment. It gets a bit lost between the magnificent Saint Domenic's Preview and Veedon Fleece but I like it a lot. A great trio of albums. John Platania's guitar playing on Hard Nose The Highway is beautiful, I'll have to find more of his playing.

PT - thanks for the suggestion. I notice that you can get the three albums you suggest, plus the ones before and after them for just over £12.00 in the Original Albums series. Looks like a great bargain.

Not having a dig at Little Feat, and certainly not at anyone on here who likes them, but I noticed one of the reviewers on Amazon referred to them as "soft rock". I'd forgotten about that one. It has to be the worst description of a category of music I have ever come across in my life. Imagine saying that if someone asked you what kind of music you liked- soft rock. It would be like saying you favourite drinks were low alcohol beer, or decaffeinated coffee. You've heard of cock rock - this is soft cock rock. Not exactly music to make the walls of the city shake! But as I say- not in any way I dig at the band in question.

Last Dead was a 30 Trips show again - 5/14/78. Great first set leading up to an amazing "Let It Grow." It feels like a complete show in it's own right - in fact I prefer it to what came after.

I wouldn't call them soft rock Dave, more Southern boogie woogie, jazzy, bluesie, rock and roll. I quite liked them in the 70s, have a vague memory of seeing them at the Hammersmith Odeon but that might be a false memory, I used to drink a lot. That 5 album set has tempted me before. Dixie Chicken's a great song. Fleetwood Mac are soft rock, they're nothing like that.

Ah yes, a good book here by the fire in my study, a fine single malt at hand and my pipe brimming with the best leaf, I think I'll reach for a vintage volume titled The First Third by one Neal Cassady, a most interesting chap.

As the evening light grows dim and the creatures of the forest return to their nests, I turn the pages, pondering anew the age old question: should I take a whole or a half?

As for the gentleman who "got no wood" from listening to Lowell George, I'd suggest a whole tab.

All I can do is have a gummy snack.

10 3 76 is missing disc 3
Oh, maaaannn...

To the Archive, Robin!!!

If that would help, proudfoot.

A Woody Allen allusion, from a really stupid spy movie made in Japan that he narrated in Allen-esque English. Possibly his first "film."

Question: is it safe to mention W.A. anymore or has that become taboo here in this hyper-sensitive forum of elitist snobs? Or, by posing the question in an intentionally rude manner, have I banished myself??

"Self-banishment"... hmm... isn't that what we just did for two freakin' years?

Okay, I have nothing to offer whatsoever! I'm just typing. Enjoy the weekend, gents. I'm learning to play Brown-eyed Women and it's a gas!

....yesterday. Needed a cigarette afterwards.

I always loved that movie.

I have also learned that Woody's transgressions don't enter into the thoughts of today's youth's. Most have never seen a Woody movie,,,, and the comedies are WAY too long ago. Most kids I meet in the store, never heard of him.

shame,,, some great stuff there.

I played bass cello in the marching band.

My mother dressed like hitler feeding my dad hot dogs.

I will take 5,000 ham on rye to go, 2450 without pickle, 1345 with extra mayo.

I'd love to know it, but don't want the federal chefs closing down my kitchen and sending me to the mixing bowl.

I hope you can decipher my wink wink nudge nudges.

What a cool looking show. My brother talked to Peter Grant a couple of weeks ago, Grant played pedal steel at the show, he asked Grant if Owsley had taped the show, Grant said he didn't remember Owsley being there and Owsley usually made his presence known.

Nick -I haven't read many Japanese novels, but I did read "The Memory Police" By Yoko Ogawa last year-excellent. Going out with someone who wrote haiku over the last three years led me to reading a few collections by Matsuo Basho - "The Narrow Road To The Deep North and Other Travel Sketches" is one I have here.
And of course, Jack Kerouac wrote haiku. I've been dipping into his collection, and his poems in general all year-it being the 100th anniversary of his birth. Makes a change from re-reading "On The Road" etc. I have never read Neal Cassady's book, though. I got the feeling that what was interesting about him was more other people's impressions, rather than the man himself. I could be wrong there, of course. You can't read everything, and poor old Neal failed the acid test I'm afraid. Even if he did pass the earlier one.

I haven't seen a Woody Allen film for about 40 years. I used to like the science fiction one - I've forgotten it's title, at the time of writing. I'm not sure what I would make of it now. Comedy seems very much a product of it's time, to me, and it doesn't always travel well.

It feels inevitable that I will get some Little Feat soon!

Who has a tape of this show? It's been listed in Deadbase since the very first edition so it's safe to assume that the show took place. You know D/N/S did their research if this show didn't exist it would be removed from Deadbase. Another show I'm always seeking out is
02-06-79, Tulsa Oklahoma posters do exist but I've never come across a tape of it even as filler.

Your Joni comment reminding me of a bit done by the cast (I believe) of National Lampoons Lemmings...it was a fake ad for a new Joni LP "Joni Mitchell Sings For Dogs"...funny stuff although at the time my female friends did not think so

Honestly, I found Neal Cassady's The First Third -- about growing up in Denver and such -- to be far superior writing than much of what Kerouac did. I mean, the freakish Truman Capote was a very good writer, who famously said that what Kerouac did was "typing." About as nasty a put-down as can be and I don't endorse it, having enjoyed much of Kerouac's work. But The First Third is truly well written and the story it tells is full of pathos. Of course, Neal never got to live the third third.

As for the Woodster, Dennis, I joke about him because in certain circles "our age" mentioning him gets hissed at. But I never believed that child abuse BS because outrageous tactics in divorce proceedings were at that time an SOP. I.e., Mia Farrow is and was a total nutjob and it sounded like her attorney cooked up the abuse story to get Woody to surrender to her terms. "Make it stop" type of tactic. Now, is Woody a total creep for marrying his 19 year old former daughter in law? Totally. But I'm not consigning him to oblivion over that one.

Okay, solved THAT one... It's 95 in Denver and in a couple hours I will descend into my 70-degree basement, with the neon Hamm's sign, for a spleef and guitaring session. That's my urban escape in summer heat.

C'mon Dave, let's get some excitement going: make a special release of that new June '68 Owsley tape OR give OSF permission to release it. Then, box news and 43 news. Did I say please?

Proudfoot: no friggin' idea what you're talking about. What? Are you taking over for Bolo and his indecipherable clues??

The First Third is mos def better than one might be inclined to assume. “Don’t let the glasses fool ya” oh, wait, that’s Bromberg, ahem, aaaa, how bout, don’t judge a book by its author!

Oro and HF - you are guys are so deep in the catalog. I'm amazed. Feeling out of the know for sure on works like the First Third. so yeah, way back in late high school it was On The Road, of course, that opened my mind. But out of that scene it was Gary Snyder (Dharma Bums, Japhy Ryder,) that ended up having the most profound affect. Still someone I turn to time and again. Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems is foundational (Migration of Birds!) and then there is the Smokey the Bear Sutra.

Ginsberg also, of course.

HF/Oro - that's good to know. I have read around "The First Third" in a way, without ever actually coming across the book itself. I have a copy of "The Collected Correspondence of Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady", here, that has letters in it between the two people from the 1940s-1960s. I will definitely dip into that again before the summer is done. And I read Carolyn Cassady's "Off The Road" when that came out some 30 years ago.

The best holiday of my life was in 1990 when we went on a tour of the West Coast-my one and only visit to America. We only spent two days in San Francisco, and spent the time alternately doing what me and my girlfriend chose to do. Us having little in common. As San Francisco meant more to me than it did her, I had first shout - and off to City Lights book shop we went. Among others, I got a biography of Neal called "The Holy Goof", by someone I had never heard of at the time and have never heard of since, called William Plummer. Like the other books I have just mentioned, I have never read it since, but I thought it was great at the time.

And when I got back home, there was a letter ( or maybe "Spiral Light", I forget) on my doorstep, telling me The Dead were playing Wembley that October. 1990 was like my 1960s.

before Neal Cassidy, before Herbert Huncke, there was Jack Black who wrote "You Can't Win" published in 1926...his autobiography details his life as a petty criminal and dealing with "straight society"....

"The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs & Corso in Paris, 1957-1963" by Barry Miles...had a blast reading this ...have his Zappa bio in storage somewhere....damn books....

Mighty tasty

One of the first shows I ever heard on cassette back in the day

I called my friend and said "more Dead!"

As I said, I spent a little time on the (beat) mountain.
As is often the case, On The Road was my gateway drug to the beats via the Dead! I’ve Read much of but not all Kerouac. And now have a bunch more “new” stuff I’ve not read yet. It’s been so many moons ago and my reading comprehension perhaps was not as good, so it might have been me, but a lot of Jacks writing can be tough. He unfortunately at times could really wallow in the mire. As the years passed, and the alcohol took hold, he wasn’t the same young enthusiastic Sal Paradise most know and love. But there are also so many fine writings! Just Gotta Poke Around!
My favs above and beyond OTR are: Dharma Bums, the parts of Desolation Angels that involves the former, and a book of short Stories called Lonesome Traveler. Gary Snyder is awesome, but alas I’m not much of a poetry guy : (
I have several bios, but have not read them all yet. Our boy McNally’s Desolate Angel is very good, Angel headed Hipster by Turner, Subterranean Kerouac by Amburn, The Awakener by Helen Weaver, Jacks Book by Gifford, and Memory Babe by Nicosia, which some consider THE JK book, but since it came to me late in life I have not read it yet. In fact so much stuff from and about Jack has come round in later years and unfortunately their just collecting dust since Ive been more inclined to read other things. I often get really deep into a topic, then move on. But hopefully some day I’ll get the beat bug again.
There are some good “letters” books too that give more insight to the actual people behind the characters and are interesting snap shots of life in mid century America.
Carolyn Cassady’s Off the Road is another excellent inside look, but from a much different perspective. along with Women of the Beat Generation by Knight.

The Holy Goof is good, but I think I liked The Cassady Issue of the great Spit In the Ocean series the best!
Mucho cool stuff in those Spit in the Ocean issues! The Fast Life of a Beat Hero I think is good? Cant remember but I have it so? The First Third is more about little Neal and the sometimes incredible, but often horrible, eye opening experiences of his youth than the Angel Headed Hipster he became. He always aspired to be a writer and having the big time writer friends he had, you could say things rubbed off on him. He also worked very hard on his writing, so it’s not as I say A book to judge by its author! Some of Jacks portraits of his own child hood are also some favorite JK writings. Again, interesting looks into sort of working class mid century American life.

As much as I dig psychedelic Neal 2.0 and all his influence on the scene and his Herculean feats with the pranksters et el, I prefer early beat Neal, Dean Moriarty, I think of Dean Moriarty…

It’s been so long etc, but I have read some Burroughs and Ginsberg etc, but I’ve never been a big poetry person, and Burroughs can be a bit too out there, but I loved reading a ton of Jack, and anything by or about Neal.
OTR and more so Dharma Bums literally changed my life in my twenties! Must Reads imho.

and that's not a complaint. Okay, I'll go for Carolyn Cassady's book and the 1926 Jack Black. So to this literature list I must add a few:

The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man by David W. Mauer (inside look from 1940 on how hustlers of every stripe fleeced their marks, from the late 1800s to 1940)

Lowlife: Lures and Snares of Old New York by Luc Sante (1991) More than you want to know about the underclass in NYC, from pimps and whores to rogue police to grog shop druggings/robbings. The goods.

Both are meticulously documented nonfiction. And if you have the stomach for the very nastiest fiction, try

Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. (1957). Indescribable, the prose is tough as nails. Horrifying in parts, downright disgusting in others. Highly recommended....

"The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1944-1959" is a great book. In fact, I prefer it his novels. Less messing about, if you know what I mean.
And talking of Barry Miles - his "William Burroughs - A Life" is worth looking at, if you are interested in Burroughs. It seems a very truthful book - it doesn't always present Burroughs in the best light - which, considering what he did, isn't a bad thing.
Denis Johnson is a more recent American writer who is worth reading. His collection of short stories, "Jesus' Son" is a good starting point, chronicling his life of addiction and petty crime in the late 60's, I think. He thankfully transcended that lifestyle, though, and the last book he wrote before dying in 2017- the beautiful "The Largesse of The Sea Maiden" is exceptional.
Harry Crews is another hot one. " The Knock out Artist" about an ex boxer who retires and goes on to earn money by knocking himself out with a single punch to the face is a wild and windy ride.

Since we were just talking about famous people and now we are talking about literature I will combine the two subjects. My doctor wrote the book The Kite Runner, once he wrote the book he no longer needed to be my doctor. He was a great guy and a great doctor.

…hello my brothers and sisters, Hope all is well! Keep on truck’n everyone!!! Peace be with you all! This grateful summer! ;) for anyone interested, I have been Cleaning the art studio, I found a box of still sealed Mint Dave’s Picks! They are from #42 thru #35! If anyone missed out please send me a PM Message & I’ll make you “Smile Smile Smile! “ ;) have a grateful day my brothers and sisters ! Keep on truck’n with the the Grateful Dead in your life & be kind!
Rock on & take care! 🙏❤️💀🌹

....nah. I'm good.

5 to one baby
One in 5
Daves 42 thru 35

Thank you for the offer LMG.

If they were from before the 11/6/77 Daves I would say tell me more...I wasnt wise enough to subscribe at the start

re Last Exit...don't forget the west coast version "Hard Rain Falling" by Don Carpenter...also, I'm a sucker for hard boiled mysteries...Hammett, Chandler, Ross MacDonald, Donald E. Westlake, Mickey Spillane, John MacDonald, Jim Thompson for the "classic" writings...add to those classic takes The Joe Kurtz novels by Dan Simmons...a great great hard boiled trilogy on greed & revenge...