Grateful Dead

I was never that much of a CSN fan, for some reason, but man, I love love loved the Byrds. And the If I Could Only Remember My Name, which is so steeped in Dead-like Marin Country vibes.

And I always thought Croz was an amazing interview. I used to wonder why all his ex-bandmates seemed to hate him, given that he was so articulate and had such interesting thoughts about everything and so obviously loved music so goddam much. I guess everybody’s an asshole when enormous quantities of cocaine are involved. Except me, of course. Give me a 12 pack and an 8 ball and I am always the most hilarious and charming person in the room. (Or so I seemed to think, back in the ‘80s. Egad, it makes me shiver to remember those days.)

Strange to lose Croz so soon after Jeff Beck. But also not strange. Death is the most natural thing in life, it has been said. We’ll see them, and each other, in the sweet by and by. Hopefully sometime before then we will receive our DaP 45s. We can never have too much ’77 Dead, and we can never have it too soon. Be well, my friends, and seize the day. We've only got so many of 'em left.

Man, this is unexpected and painful. When I was younger, back in 1969, I was turned on to Crosby Stills and Nash from their appearance at Woodstock. Wow, what a beautiful combination of voices and such far out songs. Long Time Gone, Wooden Ships, Guinevere, they just go on and on. That first CSN lp was sooo good. Then Deva Vue, another masterpiece with Almost Cut my hair, a favorite played maximum volume when he was doing time, that all the inmates loved, and the warden hated. In between all of that was his first lp, If I could only remember my name. What can you say about this one, all the San Francisco stars played on this one, including our very own Mickey Hart and Good old Garcia. This was the one, another timeless, beautiful record. Cowboy Movie, so good and Music is Love, played that one a lot back then, seemed to always be playing in the background when amazing things happened. I was lucky enough to be in attendance when CSN&Y broke attendance records at an outdoor event in Tampa, Florida on 8-23-74. It was packed, shoulder to shoulder, unofficial counts total over 66,000. The one event I remember about the show, during Our House, Nash was on the piano, doing his thing and some fool in the audience set off a bottle rocket. It was quiet as a mouse, which is hard to do when there are so many people, and Bamm goes the rocket. Nash slams down the keyboard cover on his grand piano and storms off the stage. Stills appears from the wings and sits down with his acoustic and says "I'm from Tampa, went to school here, and I know what kind of person set that rocket off." From everyone screaming and yelling that Steve was from Tampa to dead quiet. Steven says, now that you got that out of your system, let's see if we can get Graham back out here. After thunderous applause, Nash creeps back on stage, sits down at the piano and plays the most beautiful Our House ever. The band came out together, then they did everyone's solo stuff, then they introduced Neil Young. Quite the memory.
Blows against the empire, If I could only remember my name, and the first CSN lp will always be a part of me, they were the beginning of my San Francisco love affair that is still ongoing.
Thanks David, you were and still are a part of my life's soundtrack. you will be missed.

Not done one for a while

Crooked Tree - Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway
This is my favourite album from 2022.
Live at the BBC 1967 - 1971 - Soft Machine
Not listened to this for some time, love the vocals by Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt in the early years
Live at the BBC - Barbara Thompson
Only heard the first 9 of the 14 CDs in this box but so far so good
Live at the Capitol Theatre - David Crosby and The Lighthouse Band
Rewatched the DVD of the December 2018 concert. Very good show.
Shiver meets Matthew Bourne Volume 1
This is the latest release on the Discus label which dropped through my letter box this morning. On first listen it’s sounding good. I look forward to several relistens.

On the cover of this month's "Record Collector" there is a list of musicians names, with the letters R.I.P. printed after them. On top of a large recent photo of a grinning Iggy Pop.

One of the things I used to love about driving around all the time was listening to music while I did so. Obviously. And sometimes, what I was listening to corresponded beautifully with what was going on outside all around me. I can remember listening to Dark Side in the car while driving towards, through and out the other side of some typical English town. It seemed like the perfect soundtrack to the way people looked and were behaving. Hanging on in quiet desperation and all that...
I also like that version of Wish You Were Here with Stephane Grappelli on violin.

....Screaming Suicide. 7.8/10.
Roots, man.
Always looking forward to new metal up your ass.

Clearly related to catalytic converter thefts and/or Porn star incarcerations and ill faith attorney efforts. (per my magic 8 ball)

....what did Florida do now? Probably something dumb.

Crosby RIP? And at the tender age of 81? Crap.. None of us are safe, the next thing you know Keith Richards will be in the news....

On a serious note, love him or hate him, he was one of the major talents in our tapestry. He could play, yes and quite well.. but he had one of the most amazing voices in rock and roll history, plus he had a great state presence, sense of timing and well.. he was a rock and roll superhero. If not, he would have been gone at like 27. If it wasn't for his ego and occasional freak outishness.. he might very well be canonized.

RIP David Crosby. You were really one of the great ones and will be missed.

Sorry for the typos.. let's just agree they were intentional.

Would love to do that, have seen them advertised for decades, have never gone. I saw the 300 damn dollar box they're offering, and I will definitely pass. Hopefully the Atmos Mix will be available on SACD or BluRay, but having the Immersion Box ought to be enough. Disappointed in the choice of a 1974 show to release as well. I have a bunch of Floyd boots, and while agree with most of the comments on the less than stellar sound quality on most of the tapes, I have some that are pretty decent. At least as good as the most recent Duane-era ABB releases. I guess the Immersion set got all the outtakes? Seems unlikely, since they have the footage of Gilmour recording an Eclipse solo and laughing, and interviews where he says he did a take of On the Run, then Waters came in and did another, admittedly better, take that was used. Also, they were doing Dark Side differently across tours in 1972 before they finalized the sequence. This seems way overpriced for what's there. The books are the most intriguing to me. But I wanna do the laser light show. I was once at a party where they put on Dark Side and Wizard of Oz, nothing special. The use of Echoes as a soundtrack to Jupiter and the Infinite Beyond scene in 2001, on the other hand, is awesome, and fully available with searches.

All that said, I wonder if they will do a box set of the Middle Years with all the outtake material I seek. Doubt it given the Animals release has no extra material at all, which is a shame, love that album.

And fare thee well to Crosby. He was a major figure in rock history, and in Dead history. Fantastic singer, songwriter. The good Doctor wrote this about Oscar Acosta (Dr Gonzo), but it applies to Croz: "He was God's own prototype. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, too rare to die."