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    A sealed, unlabeled box sat undisturbed for decades on a shelf in the Grateful Dead’s San Rafael tape vault on Front Street, its contents an enduring mystery, even to those few with access to the vault. All David Lemieux knew about that box when he became the Dead’s archivist was that it contained tapes belonging to Bear—Owsley Stanley, the Dead’s first soundman and architect of the Wall of Sound. Even in the Dead Heads’ Holy of Holies, the taped-up box was tantalizing. But this was Bear’s personal property, and so he didn’t touch the box out of an abiding respect for the elder luminary of sound. Bear’s archive of Sonic Journal recordings had been kept safe for him for years within the Grateful Dead’s vault—over 1,300 reels of tape stored in heavy-duty cartons like old banana boxes. At any time, David could have popped the tops and explored them to his archivist heart's content. But they were off-limits without the nod from Bear. - Starfinder Stanley, Hawk, and Pete Bell, Owsley Stanley Foundation

     

    With a wink and a nod from Bear, we've peeled back those banana boxes to find some of the oldest and rarest of all recordings of the Dead including the double dose of shows that make up DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 43. The two virtually complete performances from San Francisco 11/2/69, Live At Family Dog At The Great Highway, and from Dallas 12/26/69, McFarlin Auditorium, are complementary in their clarity and consistency thanks to Bear himself, and in their ability to foreshadow where the Dead were headed in the years to come. If the two killer 20-minute+ "Dark Stars" don't get ya, how about the Pigpen-centric sets featuring "Midnight Hour," "Next Time You See Me," "Big Boss Man," "Good Lovin'," and the once-lost-now-found complete rendition of "Dancing In The Streets," or the first full acoustic set ever performed? And we're certain you'll be fascinated to uncover the "Mystery Of Bear's Banana Boxes" as told by Starfinder Stanley, Hawk, and Pete Bell in the liners.

     

    Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 43 was recorded by Owlsey "Bear" Stanley and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. Grab a copy while you can.

     

    *2 per order. Very limited quantity available.

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  • #1351
    Vguy72
    Joined:
    Meet up....

    ....I'm going early to try and get in the front GA section. Lot opens up at 4:30 I think???
    PM section is down? Says I'm not authorized to access.

  • #1352
    Deadheadbrewer
    Joined:
    I met #3230 accidentally, in Saint Paul, Minnesota!

    No notice, just a delivery a few minutes ago.

    I've told this to you all a million times, but a group in the Twin Cities has been recreating The Last Waltz on stage once per year for about 15 years. It's a very cool event.

    Be kind, rewind.

  • #1353
    bigbrownie
    Joined:
    Didn't Get a Notice

    ...but #23818 has arrived in sunny Southern California. Now if only that Little Feat box from Rhino would get its butt over here.

  • #1354
    hendrixfreak
    Joined:
    Vguy, I'll be lookin' for ya

    I'll hold or wear my Hamms beer hat, blue short sleeve shirt with very thin vertical stripes, gray pants, sandals, Fu Manchu with beard, short dirty blond/gray hair, goofy grin...

    I'm having trouble with my ankle, so I'm not climbing to the top in search of you, but maybe halfway between my Row 10 and your GA section up top. I told Nappyrags I'd be on the outside stairs, Row 10, between bands -- especially after Gabe Dixon but well before Los Lobos hits the stage.

    Try to come down for a brief hang. I'll have treats for ya! If I can make 2023 and 2024 shows, I'll have put in 50 years at the Rocks. Fortunately, not making little ones out of big ones, if you know your prison lore....

    HF

  • #1355
    proudfoot
    Joined:
    Went to get mail today

    Oooo, theres a package! New Daves!

    PSYCHE!

    Postal person misdelivered a delivery for my neighbor.

    >:(((

  • #1356
    proudfoot
    Joined:
    I go into a well-known coffee chain

    to chill while I get new tires.

    I give my name

    I sit down 10 feet away to wait and play the electronic crack game (phone ya know)

    10 seconds later some dude in line tells me my drink is ready

    Barista says she called my name

    She must have whispered it

  • #1357
    That Mike
    Joined:
    VGuy - RR sounds amazing,…

    VGuy - RR sounds amazing, and I’ll bet the band was fantastic! I just received Part 3 - The Fall yesterday, so after I finish this interminable Honey Do List, I’ll break it out. Glad you enjoyed the show.

    Dennis - Enjoyed reading the Last Waltz story, my favourite concert movie. When it was released in 1978, I knew I had to see the film, as I saw The Band on that, their last tour. Considering they got their start in Toronto, I thought it shitty the film got only limited release here at the time, but since I was in university then, I saw it repeatedly, even matinees, at a theatre no longer standing that was a block from where the Band (nee The Hawks) used to play at a long defunct club called Le Coq D’Or back in the early 60s with Ronnie Hawkins, and where Dylan came to hear them play. The rest was history. Great story, and Muddy’s performance was a highlight.

  • #1358
    Vguy72
    Joined:
    Red Rocks revue....

    ....I'll try. Let me get the bad out of the way. Lots and lots of stairs.
    Now for the good. One of the best food courts I've seen. They serve basically everything. And if you are near the top like I was, the constant smell of food pours down over you.
    If there was a police presence, they must be undercover, because I didn't see any.
    The sound there is top shelf. Wow. Towards the end of the show, the wind picked up and started bouncing the sound around the huge rocks and sounded even more amazing! (I was under the influence of psilocybin, so I may be compromised regarding that, but I don't think so).
    Getting around is easy. Getting in and out was easy. This place has it all.
    Now TTB. I literally cried a couple of times during the show. They are tight AF and brought it hard for 2+ hrs. When Susan really starts preaching, you better shut up and listen because she's got something to tell you. Members of Los Lobos came on and sat in for a couple of songs and that's some dream come true shit. At least to me.
    I have GA tix so a shout out to my neighbors Jessica and Ross and Susan and Alan for waving me over when I reached upper GA and yelled out if anyone had room by them for one person. You people were the best.
    I walked back to my car and drove to my hotel in stunned disbelief and didn't say a word.
    Didn't see anyone being busted for anything and pot smoke was definitely evident in the air. Crowd was chill. How can you not be at a place like that!!!
    I regret taking so long to finally visit the hollowed ground that is RR, but better late than never.
    You all have a great Saturday.
    I'll be wearing my Make America Grateful Again tee and my American Beauty brown bolt/roses cap tonight btw. Tall white dude with a white beard and glasses with a constant smile on my face. Can't miss me lol!

  • #1359
    billy the kiddd
    Joined:
    Alright, #43 has landed in the Bay Area!

    What a killer release, keep them coming Dave.

  • #1360
    Dennis
    Joined:
    may interest some

    My buddy sent me this in an email today,,, thought some might enjoy reading it....

    THE LAST WALTZ BLUES JAM
    by Bob Margolin
    The more blues-driven musicians commandeered the instruments at the jam, and played some old favorite songs together, mostly Robert Johnson’s. This sounds like a common scene at open-mic jams at blues clubs, where more experienced blues players sometimes conspire to sit in together. It happened at about 7 am, the morning after The Band’s Last Waltz concert on Thanksgiving, 1976. The Band had hired the entire Miyako Hotel in San Francisco to accommodate their guests. The banquet room which had been used for rehearsal before the show was now the party room, and musicians had been jamming in random combinations since after the concert, many hours before. But unlike your local blues jam, every blues player that morning was a Rock Star.
    Except me. I was there with Muddy Waters. who was invited to perform two songs at The Last Waltz. Muddy had recorded his Grammy-winning “Woodstock Album” the year before with Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from The Band, but The Band itself was an unknown quantity to him. He brought Pinetop Perkins and me from his own band to accompany him along with The Band and Paul Butterfield on harp, so that he would have something familiar to play with. Muddy also felt I was good at explaining what he wanted onstage to musicians he hadn’t worked with, though 25 years later, I still find myself wishing I knew more about what Muddy wanted.
    Muddy, Pinetop, and I checked into the hotel the day before the show and went to the restaurant. I saw a few familiar faces from the Rock World, and some came over to say hello and pay respects to Muddy.
    That night, Pinetop, Muddy, and I were scheduled to rehearse our songs for the show. I didn’t realize that some of those blues-oriented rock stars must have been in the room to watch Muddy.
    The next night, at the concert, Muddy, Pinetop, and I waited backstage to perform. Pinetop told me he heard one of The Beatles was there, not realizing that Ringo was sitting right next to him. Born in 1913, Pinetop knew as much about The Beatles as I know about The Backstreet Boys. Joni Mitchell, looking impossibly beautiful, introduced herself to Muddy. He didn’t know who she was, and just saw her as a young pretty woman. He flirted but she didn’t respond.
    I’m told that there was a backstage cocaine room, with a glass table and a “sniff-sniff” tape playing, but I never saw it. I did, however, see through Rolling Stone Ron Wood’s nearly-transparent prominent proboscis in profile. In the “green room,” Neil Young passed me a joint, smiling, “We’re all old hippies here.” Though I was 27, something about “old hippies” resonated with me for the future. Young was older than me by a few years and even had a couple of gray hairs then, but I remember thinking that nobody in that room was old yet except for Muddy and Pinetop. Now, I’m certainly an old hippie, though Pinetop, going strong at 88, is neither. As for Neil Young, film of his performance revealed a white rock up his nose, which was edited out frame-by-frame for the movie.
    California Governor Jerry Brown popped in and invited Bob Dylan to get together with him sometime. Dylan, relaxed and outgoing until The Governor arrived, instantly turned sullen and distracted, barely nodding without looking at Brown. The uncomfortable Governor soon left, and Dylan laughed just before he was out of earshot and reverted to his friendlier mode. Something is happening here, but I don’t know what it is.
    When it was our turn to play, Muddy and Pinetop sang the light, swinging “Caledonia” as they had for “The Woodstock Album.” In hindsight, I think Muddy could have presented himself more strongly with a deep slow blues like “Long Distance Call” which would feature his almighty slide guitar. But nobody could argue with his second song choice — “Mannish Boy” was always a show-stopper. It was preserved in full in The Last Waltz movie, which was released in ‘78. Harp player tip: Muddy loved the way Butterfield played on that song, setting up a warble that “holds my voice up” rather than just playing the song’s signature lick.
    Fatefully, only one camera was operating during our song, zooming on Muddy, but not changing angle. Standing close to Muddy, I was in every frame. Pinetop, at the piano way off to the side, unfortunately was never seen in the film. But as Muddy hollers “I’m a MAN” and we shout “Yeah” to answer, as we always did in that song, you can hear Pinetop also yelling, “Wahoo!” — which is a line from a politically incorrect joke that Pine had heard on the road, and was fond of telling over and over in 1976.
    Now, whenever The Last Waltz movie is shown on TV, a few people at my gigs tell me, “I saw you on TV!” and how I looked — happy or mad or scared or bored. I think they just project how they would feel. I was simply concentrating on playing, and particularly enjoying Muddy’s powerful shouting, Butterfield’s warbling-tension harp, Levon’s deep groove, and Robbie Robertson’s fiery guitar fills.
    Eric Clapton followed us, and as he began his first solo, his guitar strap unfastened, and he nearly dropped his Stratocaster. In the movie, his lips distinctly mouth, “Fuck!” and as he refastens the strap, Robbie picks up the solo and runs away with it.
    Muddy and Pinetop went right to their rooms after our set, but I went down to jam back at the hotel after the concert. This is where I realized that some of those blues-oriented rock stars had watched me rehearsing with Muddy and been impressed that I was playing Old School Chicago Blues in his road band and helping to arrange the songs for our performance. I also had a very cool blues guitar with me — my late-’50s Gibson ES-150 arch-top, which I also cradle on the cover of my latest album, “Hold Me To It.” Bob Dylan approached me and said he hoped we’d get to jam together. Then he disappeared. I did play “Hideaway” and some slow blues with Eric Clapton, whom I met that night. Dr. John sat at the piano for hours, and played along with everyone. My piano-playin’ sister Sherry, who lived nearby and was hanging out, sat near him, eyes glued to his funky fingers.
    Around dawn, I put my old guitar back in its case, and started to leave. Bob Dylan caught me in the hall and said, “I thought we were going to jam…” I decided to stay awake a little longer. We had Dr. John on piano, Ron Wood on bass, Levon on drums, Butterfield on harp, and Clapton, Dylan, and myself playing guitars. There were no vocal microphones, and we all played softly enough to hear Dylan sing “Kind Hearted Woman” and a few other well-known blues songs. His trademark vocal eccentricities sounded outlandish in the blues, but he did make them his own. Generally, the blues we played that morning were not remarkable, but I was honored to be jamming with these fine musicians, and I realize that they belong to the same “club” as you do — deep blues lovers.
    Recently, I read Levon Helm’s inside story of The Last Waltz in his autobiography, “This Wheel’s On Fire” (recommended!). I was shocked to find that because of time and budget constraints and Band politics, Muddy was nearly bumped from the show. Levon fought bitterly behind the scenes and prevailed to not only keep Muddy in but to indulge him with me and Pinetop too. We were treated as honored guests at The Last Waltz and I enjoyed the once-in-a-lifetime jam afterwards, but Levon never told us about making a stand for us. He just made us welcome. Ultimately, this gracious, classy, and tough gentleman was responsible for my good time there.

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A sealed, unlabeled box sat undisturbed for decades on a shelf in the Grateful Dead’s San Rafael tape vault on Front Street, its contents an enduring mystery, even to those few with access to the vault. All David Lemieux knew about that box when he became the Dead’s archivist was that it contained tapes belonging to Bear—Owsley Stanley, the Dead’s first soundman and architect of the Wall of Sound. Even in the Dead Heads’ Holy of Holies, the taped-up box was tantalizing. But this was Bear’s personal property, and so he didn’t touch the box out of an abiding respect for the elder luminary of sound. Bear’s archive of Sonic Journal recordings had been kept safe for him for years within the Grateful Dead’s vault—over 1,300 reels of tape stored in heavy-duty cartons like old banana boxes. At any time, David could have popped the tops and explored them to his archivist heart's content. But they were off-limits without the nod from Bear. - Starfinder Stanley, Hawk, and Pete Bell, Owsley Stanley Foundation

 

With a wink and a nod from Bear, we've peeled back those banana boxes to find some of the oldest and rarest of all recordings of the Dead including the double dose of shows that make up DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 43. The two virtually complete performances from San Francisco 11/2/69, Live At Family Dog At The Great Highway, and from Dallas 12/26/69, McFarlin Auditorium, are complementary in their clarity and consistency thanks to Bear himself, and in their ability to foreshadow where the Dead were headed in the years to come. If the two killer 20-minute+ "Dark Stars" don't get ya, how about the Pigpen-centric sets featuring "Midnight Hour," "Next Time You See Me," "Big Boss Man," "Good Lovin'," and the once-lost-now-found complete rendition of "Dancing In The Streets," or the first full acoustic set ever performed? And we're certain you'll be fascinated to uncover the "Mystery Of Bear's Banana Boxes" as told by Starfinder Stanley, Hawk, and Pete Bell in the liners.

 

Limited to 25,000 numbered copies, DAVE’S PICKS VOLUME 43 was recorded by Owlsey "Bear" Stanley and has been mastered to HDCD specs by Jeffrey Norman at Mockingbird Mastering. Grab a copy while you can.

 

*2 per order. Very limited quantity available.

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Submitted by Oroborous on Fri, 09/09/2022 - 13:57

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Have you tried a PM to Marye?
Sometimes she can gain access behind the magic curtain and inform the great Dr Rhino of Oz!

EDIT: I’ll be joining ya shortly Istshow, just give me about a half to get home lol.
CHEERS Y’all!

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Submitted by proudfoot on Fri, 09/09/2022 - 19:42

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10 9 81 LA
Rolling Stones
J Geils Band
George Thorogood
Prince

Prince got booed and pelted and had to leave stage

He ultimately got to say "how do you like me now?" though.

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Submitted by proudfoot on Fri, 09/09/2022 - 22:18

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I have the storiez of biblical rains and weather

I have heard show
Way hot

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Submitted by Forensicdoceleven on Sat, 09/10/2022 - 05:44

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Hey rockers!!!

We got majorly drenched at SPAC in 84. Still, enjoyable, solid show. We got soaked on the way down from Toronto, we were on the bikes that summer................

Next summer, also on the bikes, we got soaked on the way and during the Hershey show. Another wet enjoyable time................

Rain symbolizes darkness but also represents an essential part of rebirth..........

Doc, off to morgue, homicide calls..............
Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life..........

Why why why in this age of instantaneous everything and GPS and mofo Alexa and such does it take a simple package ("days, weeks, months...who knows" - Eeyore) forever and a day to get over to Europe?

Sent by rowboat? (row, row, row, row, row)
Porpoise?
Plate techtonics?

And then pay taxes fees duties royalties shipping costs...

You have my sympathy Deadmike. Maybe it will arrive by Christmas.

I don’t mind, the weathers fine!
Yes indeed d Doc, the Toga 84&85 slip-n-slide left a smokin crater to be sure, fine time indeed, because of the weather! Well, that was part of it lol.
And Hershey, what can I say, lost my shit in Hershey!
But speaking of Toga PF: could have gone to that 6/18/83 show, BUT…long story short, IDIOT!
Caught the 84&85 madness, and that’s what I recall madness, the band, the weather, the scene, “ran into a rain storm”
Had tix for 88 but long short, had to sell and go to hospital for upper GI etc, BOOOOOooooo!
TOOoooGA

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Submitted by Crow Told Me on Sat, 09/10/2022 - 09:29

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I was at that 10.9.81 show. One of my worst concert experiences, actually.

It could've been epic. I was living in NorCal, got a call from a friend down South who said he had extra tix for the Stones gig, did we wanna come down? In those days, the answer to questions like that was always yes, even if it meant we would have to leave now and drive all night to be there. So we did. We drove 400 some miles in the Magic Bus (my roomie's VW van), got to our friend's apartment at about 3am, where there was a party raging. Everybody decided to head over to the Coliseum and get in line. So we did. Eventually got inside and had a decent spot on the grass, where I lay me down to sleep for a while, finally, before the show started.

Woke up when Prince started his set. He's getting booed from the get go. I had no idea who he was, and was in no condition to make any judgments, just wanted to find a bathroom and maybe a coffee. Coffee? Hell, no. My friend's got something a little more potent. I snort a spoonful of it and as my neurons suddenly snap into action and the whole ugly scene comes into focus. The band's Black. The crowd's white. They're throwing shit, booing. A Stones roadie comes out and scolds them. Says something like, "this is who the Stones wanted to open the show, if you don't dig it, at least show some respect." They didn't show some respect. They kept throwing shit till Prince stopped playing, maybe halfway through his set. A really horrible moment, because it definitely felt like these people where fine with Black music, as long as it was played by white people.

Thorogood, playing his bar band blues, was much better received. As was J Geils with their white boy R&B schtick. The Stones, I have to say, were bad. I saw them four times, and this was by far the weakest performance. Sound was horrible, and the band was so untogether it was hard to figure out what song they were playing.

"Dude, is this Shattered?"

"I think it's Get Off My Cloud. No, wait, it's When the Whip Comes Down. Isn't it?"

I thought maybe my memory of the event was overly negative, perhaps fueled by my relative unfamiliarity with the Great God Speed, but just a couple weeks ago I spent time with an old friend who had also been there. He remembered it pretty much the same way: Bad vibes, bad show. Sometimes that's how it goes.

Finally cooling off today after a week of 110F. Praise ye gods! Last five:

Little Feat: Waiting for Columbus
TTB: I am the Moon (vinyl finally arrived!)
Kamasi Washington: Heaven and Earth
Sly and the Family Stone: Live at the Fillmore
Prince: Sign o the Times

Yeah Crow, similar unfortunately less than ideal experience with the Stones.
Might of been 78? Definitely around 1980, Rich Stadium, no clue who else was on the bill?
Honestly, we weren’t big fans, probably still too young to really get their deal?
Anyway, kinda funny to say now after what happened to Dead Land, but we went mostly to party in the lot and in those days about the time all the openers were finished and basically just after the main act came on you could just waltz right in without a ticket.
But the sound was so atrocious that you couldn’t tell what they were playing half the time! Loud and bad, is not good…I believe that’s the only concert outta hundreds, thousands? that I ever walked out on, and it was free!
Unfortunately this soured me and my pigheaded young peanut from ever going to see the Stones again : (
So remember boys and girls: God Is Sound!
ALL HAIL John, Dan, Don, Howard etc, those Ultrasound folks were Gods!

EDIT: ooopps forgot, I have a PBS recording on the DVR that I haven’t watched yet of the Feat, the current lineup, playing Columbus. Can’t comment since I’ve not watched it yet but just an FYI to keep an eye out…

It's a horrible feeling, being in a crowd that starts booing or throwing things at someone on stage. My worst memory of that was at Reading Festival, 1977. Both Jayne County ( Wayne as she was then) and a reggae band, whose name escapes me, got bottled off because they didn't meet the white hard rock template. It was an intolerant era, and if someone didn't like the look of you...bosh.
Many years later, at a Blues Festival, both Courtney Pine and then group of gospel singers got rough treatment for daring to be different.
Curiously, I looked at the bands who played at Reading in 1977, and apparently Kingfish were scheduled to play on the first day. We arrived way too late to have caught them.. so that was something of a missed opportunity.

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Submitted by Vguy72 on Sat, 09/10/2022 - 11:13

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....those '80's rockers can still rock. Very impressed with Poison and Def Leppard. Crue and Jett were pretty good too. I will say that the sound was incredible though. Neat little thing they did. I caught a whiff of cigarette smoke and thought, "who lit that?", then Crue broke into Smoking In The Boys Room. Then the cigarette smell was gone. Some olfactory sense trick??
Tommy Lee did get a few girls to show off their boobs too.
Everyone had a blast, but my son was ready to leave after four hours lol.
Rock on 🤘

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Submitted by proudfoot on Sat, 09/10/2022 - 14:01

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I went to the show with my friend Chris was a big Prince fan even then. He turned in to a lot of music such as New York Dolls and a whole bunch of Zappa plus other stuff.

If you had to categorize him, he would qualify as Black. I say that because of Crow's observation of "we want White people playing Black music". I dont recall his thoughts on the rejection of Prince and his band.

Was the reason that Prince was booed because he was black-or was it more the music he and his band played, and the way it was presented? Reason I wonder this, is that when I saw The Stones in 1973, Billy Preston played a set in support with no problem. And in 1982, Black Uhuru were one of the support bands, and they went down really well. On the Stones 1969 tour of America, both Ike and Tina Turner and B.B King were on the bill-and I have never read that they had any problems with the crowds.
Personally, I like B.B.King and Ike and Tina - Black Uhuru were okay - Prince I have never really cared for. Not that I would have booed him, obviously -I'd have been really interested in what he was like live if I'd come across him by chance.

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Submitted by LedDed on Sat, 09/10/2022 - 18:13

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Prince Rogers Nelson achieved great success in entertainment. He was known for having multiple bodyguards in public at all times and being standoffish and unapproachable to fans as well as often maintaining unwanted contact with other celebrities.

He had talent to be sure - his guitar soloing on that famous take of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," with Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne etc. is the stuff of legend.

He always came across to me as creepy and a little bit of a prick. Also, in his music, he could not produce a drum sound to save his life - and ultimately, he didn't. Thin and tinny - tit tit tit tat tit his percussion always went.

Prince wasn't for me and he never will be although millions disagree and that is their choice.

\m/

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Submitted by carlo13 on Sat, 09/10/2022 - 19:30

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I sure wish I could have seen pig on lovelight. It would be cool if a genie in a bottle (like on the twilight zone) would appear with 3 wishes. One wish would be at a pig show. I would definitely not play pocket pool at that show.

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Submitted by carlo13 on Sat, 09/10/2022 - 19:52

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My timeline was Aerosmith rock in a hard place tour1983 I believe, and ac/dc 1984 to Judas priest. I jumped in the whole hair band scene, until I started going to the max creek bar scene in Providence R.I. at the living room. Total party scene, and acid source. Jiggle the handle, and later max creek with jiggle as one band jiggle the creek. They were the launching pad to terrapin station. The first dead show at BB arena, and on the bus since.

....that was the mid-eighties. It was bad-ass. I was bad-ass. Still is/am.
80's metal is not dead. Just ask the 40K plus fans singing along to every song last night. Holy flashback Batman!
And my granddaughter gave me the biggest hug afterwards and her husband gave me double fist bumps. Then I introduced them to my post concert ritual. In-N-Out burgers. Passing the torch y'all because music is indeed. The best.
And yes. That's my son making the face I love/hate.

I wasn't suggesting that Prince wasn't talented either. He wasn't my cup of coco, but he obviously had something. I wasn't put off by the androgynous aspect - in Britain in the early 70's a lot of boys who were into rock music looked like girls. I was really into The Stones and David Bowie, Iggy and the Stooges. And although I have never felt inclined to wear makeup, when I look at photographs of myself when I was 18, I look as though I had had a sex change compared to how I looked a few years earlier.

The hair metal bands of the 80s passed me by - I gravitated towards punk in 1976- but the heavy rock bands of the early 70's were the soundtrack of my teens. Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep etc. Hawkwind being the main one, and they were also the gateway drug to The Dead. The music press of the day often referred to them as the English version of The Dead, and I used to wonder - who they?

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Submitted by Vguy72 on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 00:30

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....I'm guessing daverock is approximately ten years older than me.
It's all about the teenage formative years in my opinion.
And yes. I recall wearing makeup. Earring. Spiked belt. Mullet. Roachclips. Walkman. Pushead art shirts. Converses.
I was dangerous.

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Submitted by Nick1234 on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 07:17

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Any recommendations for poets? English language, 20th or 21st century? We pick up the keys to our house in Shetland on Tuesday, the winter nights up there are dark and long, plenty of reading time. I find I prefer to dip into things these days, my concentration is shot, probably an internet victim, so poetry suits me fine. No Beat poets thanks, I read all that stuff when I was in my teens, that was enough then, they really tried too hard.

After many hours of auditioning, I've chosen a new hi-fi system. Focal Kanta 3 speakers, Sugden A21se amp and Gold Note CD1000 cd player. Cables I'll go with the salesman's recommendations. Cables were the hardest things to audition, not that many available to demo. It has the best balance of clarity and warmth I found at that price which to be honest was well over my original budget, still, 'you're a long time dead' as my Irish mum often used to remind me. Any thoughts, any down sides you can see before I hand over the dosh? What exactly is a Class A amplifier, the technical stuff is all gibberish to me?

Last 5:

Roxy Music-For Your Pleasure
The Who-Quadrophenia
Hot Tuna-Phosphorescent Rat
Belle and Sebastian-The Boy With The Arab Strap
Neil Young-Zuma

Congratulations on your move, Nick1234. Am totally unfamiliar with your audio equipment, however known is that you have given it much thought and chosen with great care, may it bring you endless hours of enjoyment. Had the good fortune to travel through much of Scotland, but not all the way out to the westerly isles, nor to the north, Orkney is on the bucket list. Shetland as you know well is more Norwegian so many ways... the north being a center of the early civilized western universe thousands of years ago rather than the wilderness south of England when it was contiguous with northern Europe at Doggerland. Do you know the work of poet Norman MacCaig? See what you might think. Recent notes on the Rolling Stones had me thinking back to my teen years, I listened to Big Hits: High Tide and Green Grass endlessly summer of 1966 when it came out, learning guitar parts. My introduction to Muddy Waters music was through the Stones, no surprise there but it was such roots. Later on Thanksgiving 1969, I missed a first shot at seeing them live. They were at the Baltimore Civic Center for the "Get Your Ya Yas Out" Tour and my fourteen year of brother somehow managed to score a ticket... but my parents would not allow him to go. I was seventeen at that point, had been to a bunch of rock shows. But no, my parents said, if he can't go, it would not be fair to give his ticket to you... Aaarrrggggggh. Did not get to see them live until the Exile tour, at RFK stadium.

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Submitted by Nick1234 on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 10:36

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Thanks dmcvt, no I wasn't familiar with Norman MacCaig but I will be soon, his collected poems will be the first package I'll have delivered to our new house.

You must make it to Shetland, it's a magical place. I've travelled all over the world and it's the only place I've wanted to live. It's very civilized but very wild at the same time.

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Submitted by daverock on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 10:50

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Nick - the poets who immediately came to mind on reading your posts were Coleridge, William Blake and T.S.Eliot. You may well already have read them , but if you haven't, "The Rime of the "Ancient Mariner" and Blakes "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" may be the best entry points.
There's an obvious Dead connection with Eliot, in that both "Dark Star" and "Stella Blue" feature lines that are very close to ones in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." "The Four Quartets" is infinity confined within a poem.
But it's all down to personal choice. My best friend hates Eliot, saying she doesn't want to read books where you have to read another book to find out what they are about. She would recommend Haiku, the three line Japanese poems. Basho would be worth checking out in that field. I don't agree with her- I tend to like books that exist just on the edge of my understanding.

VGuy - yes, I was thinking that about our respective ages. Heavy rock was also the sound of my teens more than 20's. I had friends who were into what was called The New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the early-mid 80s - Saxon, Samson, Iron Maiden etc Motorhead were lumped in - I liked them alright-but more their singles than their albums. But the NWOBHM, as it was known didn't appeal to me at all.
Last 5
Undercover of the Night Stones
Nine Below Zero Sonny Boy Williamson
Guitar Wizard Tampa Red
Feelin' Good Jesse Mae Hemphill
Stars of the Mississippi Blues cds1 and 2 Big Joe Williams

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Submitted by Nick1234 on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 10:59

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I used to work voluntarily, before covid struck, as the Saturday librarian at the Buddhist Society in Eccleston Square in London. They published a lot of Haiku including Basho and I read a lot and enjoyed it, but always wondered if I liked the translator rather than the original author. How do you translate Japanese characters into English and keep the Haiku format? I'll purchase a few volumes though so thanks for the nudge Dave and thanks for the other suggestions.

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Submitted by dmcvt on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 11:38

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Nick: at great risk of divergence, pandemic fostered my run through a spell of various readings from Scotland, for example Andrew Grieg's tome on fishing and philosophy, At The Loch of The Green Corrie, how I found MacCaig. Also in that vein of self discovery by journal, The Outrun by Amy Liptrot, growing up on an Orkney farm with Skara Brae next door, her escape to London, mired in drunken dissolution, the saving grace of return to essential roots. Now many of us moderate tipplers might know the superb Highland Park of Orkney well enough, so I will look for your report on Shetlands only distillery, Saxa Vord.

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Submitted by Nick1234 on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 12:13

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I'll check out the distillery at Saxa Vord and report back. As you say Highland Park is top notch. I have been to Saxa Vord but not the distillery. It's lovely on Unst, the northern most island in the UK but it is two ferry rides from my house. I may stay up there for a few days next spring. Saxa Vord holds the record wind speed for the UK, 197mph! Blimey! It was New Year's Eve 1991 if I remember correctly, two Canadian hikers sadly died.

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Submitted by daverock on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 12:52

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Yes, they can amount to a re-writing of the original text sometimes. A few years ago I was in a poetry group - we would decide on a poet, then meet up a week later to discuss what we had chosen. It takes all sorts, as they say. Anyway, when we read Baudelaire it seemed that all the translations of specific poems that we brought in were markedly different from each other.
Not poetry, but a remarkable book I got delivered yesterday is "The Guitar Circle" by Robert Fripp. It's nominally about guitar playing, but he takes a meditative approach to the subject. In the parts I have read, he considers the relationship of sound to silence, and of our bodies to instruments. It's a long way from Bert Weedon.

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Submitted by Nick1234 on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 13:08

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Have you seen his 'Sunday Lunch ' videos with Toyah? Disturbing but they show he does have a cracking sense of humour.

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Submitted by Vguy72 on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 13:53

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....I've watched a few. He's like the crazy uncle that you would never want to leave a family reunion.

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Submitted by billy the kiddd on Sun, 09/11/2022 - 19:31

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41 years ago today, I was at the Greek Theatre for an absolute blast of an evening with the Good Ole Grateful Dead. It just happened to be Mickey Harts birthday and Joan Baez came out with a cake and the crowd sang Happy Birthday to Mickey Hart.. This 1981 run at the Greek Theatre was my favorite of all the times the Dead played at the Greek in the 1980s. This was my favorite show at the Greek of all the Dead shows I saw there.

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Submitted by daverock on Mon, 09/12/2022 - 05:07

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No, I hadn't seen any of those clips before. They look like a wacky couple - we could do with a few people like that round here. Maybe not next door.
I noticed today that the bard of Salford, John Cooper Clarke is performing here in Lowestoft in a week or two. He was what was called a punk poet, and he became known in England round about 1977. "Evidently Chickentown" may be the single most profane poem ever written -best heard live, with no musical backing - maybe Glastonbury 1981. Definitely someone to hear, not read.

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Submitted by Dennis on Mon, 09/12/2022 - 07:59

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Late as always.

Prince - Miles Davis liked him.

Poets,,, know none, but I know a tune called "Everette" by Slaid Cleaves. (I always think it's title, "that's just what poets do". Lyrics below.

Everette

Everette Maddox was the poet laureate of the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans, which was where his ashes were buried in 1990, after a jazz parade around Carrollton. This song was recorded by Slaid Cleaves on his Unsung album. The lyric is included in Umpteen Ways of Looking at a Possum, an anthology of writings about Everette published by Xavier University.

Tyger, tyger, burning bright,
Through the forests of the night.
Everette’s was the hand and eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry.
Everette, could cage it in a
Line of thought, a line of verse.
Everette knew what words were worth.
And Everette’s words were diamond words.
Whenever you heard them, something stirred
Inside of you.
‘Cause that’s what poets do.

Oh, Everette, he never et
A square meal in thirty years.
But men don’t live by bread alone,
And you could find him any time,
Slouched upon his high chair,
Drinking scotch,
And staring at his crotch.

He slept on sofas, slept on floors.
Some nights, he slept out of doors.
Napkin backs and envelopes
Were the places Everette wrote
His masterworks,
And all of us young

Turks gathered up the scraps
That Everette tossed into our laps.
That’s how Everette won his fame:
We’d print them under Everette’s name,
Every year or two,
‘Cause that’s what poets do.

Who was the man behind the mask?
None of us ever dared to ask.
Poetry was Everette’s shield and sword.
Despair could be its own reward,
When despair was polished hard,
Until it shone, like a precious stone,
Where all of the pain could sparkle through.
‘Cause that’s what poets do.

And all of us at the Maple Leaf,
Knew that he would come to grief.
Some folks live so close to death,
That you can swear you smell it on their breath

Yes, poets dream, and poets drink.
Poets live life on the brink.
Poets smoke, and poets die,
And if you ever ask them why,
They’ll tell you, they don’t have a clue.
They’ll tell you,
It’s just what poets do.

So, Everette’s body turned to ash,
And we all had a mighty bash.
People came from near and far,
To toast the bard at the bard’s bar.
We knew he would have done the same for us.

And Everette, wherever you are,
Leaning on some heavenly bar,
Sloshed upon some sacred stool,
Where God serves His holy fools —
Even while you damn Him to His face —
Everette, I know you’ve got His grace.

And as I listened at your wake,
I saw how only you could make
Triumph out of tragedy,
Tragedy into a divine comedy.
Your words, your words will outlive you.
‘Cause, Everette,
That’s what poets do.

Bluebonnet Border SkinnyWords and music © 1992 by Steve Brooks and Frog Records

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Submitted by Crow Told Me on Mon, 09/12/2022 - 15:16

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A poem so lovely as the GOGD. Although there was a time that I did read a fair amount of poetry. Used to reread Whitman's Leaves of Grass every summer. Had a pocketbook version that I took with me on long bus rides and backpacking trips. I always thought Walt should be considered an honorary beat. “Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs! " (Although I think he maybe meant "jams.") Also used to like Dylan Thomas a lot. Maybe I need to go back to that stuff?

That Playing in the Band feature is kind of cool. If nothing else, it confirms my long head belief that Weir Is Lord over all rhythm guitarists. If we can even call what he does "rhythm guitar." It's really more like what McCoy Tyner does behind John Coltrane: constantly shifting chord shapes, shifting rhythmic accents, little single-note melodies between chords. It's amazing stuff, and very fucking hard to play like that. (Try it, amigos.) We tend to focus on Jerry, understandably, but man, Bob could play his ass off.

Las ultimos cinco:

ABB: Live at AR Studios
Ty Segall: Manipulator
Little Feat: Feat Don't Fail Me Now
Dexter Gordon: Dexter Calling
Sly Stone: Stand

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Submitted by billy the kiddd on Mon, 09/12/2022 - 19:31

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What a fantastic show this was, another great night with the Good Ole Grateful Dead. They opened up with a knockout version of Shakedown Street. It would be really nice if this 1981 run at the Greek could be released, it was my favorite year there.

I also find my ears drifting towards what Bob is doing-especially in 1972. Very inventive - I like the combination of single notes and partial chords - as Crow suggests it's much more than just keeping time. I seem to remember reading him referred to as a "colourist" once, which seemed right to me.

I've also just noticed that on Amazon they have lopped 20% off the price of the 1981 show that's due to come out soon.

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