Grateful Dead

Walking down a dark, gravel country road, very late at night. Owls and spirits. Completely alone. Scared? No. Could be though. Nothing like that feeling of imagination running wild. We never walk alone, we are always accompanied by the spirits of the dead, the haunted... but walking around the pedestrian shopping mall at noon on Saturday in the bright sunshine is sure as shit a lot different than 2 am in the country. You don't feel a presence then, unlike the dead of night when the air is thin.

Born on the Bayou... Evil Ways, Black Magic Woman (it was all the Santana talk that brought me into this space). Healing Chant, Yellow Moon by the Neville Brothers. Dr. John, Gregg Allman... Willie Bobo "Fried Neck Bones and Some Home Fries." Wow.

\m/

I think its going to be something from the 1990s,, that's not what I'm hoping for, but that's what I think it will be.

Maybe the concern about Daves Picks not selling out is that it obviously indicates less demand for them. if that is the case - will the series continue ? Maybe it's had it's day, and it's time for a new approach. There must be a point where so few people buy them that it's no longer viable to carry on releasing them.

This morning I listened to some more Muddy Waters on my weekly car journey to the shop, from around 1960, when Pat Hare was in the band. With that out of the way, I got home and carried on with The Dead's show at Newcastle 4/11/72. Where I had left off, with "Next Time You See Me". It was uncanny how similar it sounded to the Muddy Waters band I had just been listening too.

....yeah Boi!
Been in the freezer for a minute.
Back then, they used to thank the peeps running the merch stand while playing live. Cool. Acapella and secret language cues. Also cool and mad respect looking back.
And Jim is correct. There has never been a Dave's from my birth year.
Wtf Lemeaux. Your surname is all vowels then an X. Pronounced eww.
Lol.
I guess you had to be there.
The Dead did first though.
Laid the framework.
And here we are.
Went with 5.3.93. Phish in Jersey. Hurricane Sandy relief. Cool again.
A live concert experience is one I'll never get tired of.

DReading's comments are on point. The releases are still relatively strong, the latest 69 release is especially high caliber GD. Years, sound quality and specialness of shows do matter but so do the other market factors that tug and pull at their subscription model. I could care less if these things sell out, so long as the quality is good I will still subscribe, others will come and go as they choose.

It's probably been 7 or 8 years since I compared 1977 dead to my supermodel X girlfriend.. after a while perfection is just not so perfect after all. I bet next year '77 will not be the in the pole position. With the GD, perfection was more a side effect than the goal. The goal was looking for something not yet discovered.. something new. Often they never got there but when they did, they knew it and knew what to do with it.

Google Rick Rubin and Grateful Dead, there's a gem of an interview there and he says this much better than I ever could. Is 1977 top tier GD, yes, absolutely.. but if every show was 1977... I would have been done with this band a long, long time ago. They are that good and that interesting but why would they be content with just one sound or one series of ideas? The journey is the reward, not the destination.

There has never been a 1968 Dave's Pick. Just saying. When this happens (and it will) I won't be terribly concerned if it takes a long time to sell out nor surprised if does the first hour. It doesn't matter (anyway). I'd like to see new shows get released well into my retirement 🙏. One day.. however.. they will change things up. All good things in all good time. (did someone say 1968?)

....yup. Santana coined that phrase regarding showering the fans with the good stuff. Now I need to seek out that show.
Need to filter out machine gun Trey. He was relentless at times then.
Carlos was probably tripping when he saw/heard that. All good. I also have some good quips when I'm under the effects of the psychedelica.
Things tend to expand. Then contract. Then it eventually meets somewhere in the middle.
Under a little shroom influence now.
So it all makes perfect sense.

Santana did sit in for Funky Bitch and YEM and maybe another. It's when they played Vermont, 7-25 I think? Since it was their home, he also let them play a longer opening set. I also remember reading somewhere how trey(maybe the band?) stayed with and Santana and was impressed that he still took out his own trash, haha. Santana also had the the comment about how he saw phish as the hose watering the flowers of the crowd

....3+ hour show. Getting ones moneys worth. I can appreciate that.

....I don't believe either band sat in with the other. But that was huge for the boys from Vermont. They started gaining huge traction that year. Phirst heard them in west coast GD lots that year also. Kept hearing about them by word of mouth. By 1993 they were playing much larger venues. Source? I kinda like them. Got my 50th and 51st Phish shows coming up in Hollywood next month. Phirst outdoor Phish shows in over a decade. Probably Festival 8 in 2009. Phirst time traveling out of state to see them since then as well. Hoping it warms up by then. Hasn't hit 70 degrees here in Vegas yet, and the 10 day forecast is saying it won't either. Unheard of.
Fluffhead and Slave To The Traffic Light were the 🎵's that perked my ears. I have a Slave license plate frame because it's applicable even if one doesn't know the story behind it lol.
See the city see the zoo. Traffic light won't let me through.

Mention of Santana not collaborating with Phish reminded me of this great track he cut with John Lee Hooker, round about 1990. The studio version is beautiful, and they also play a great version of it on The Tonight Show hosted by Jay Leno - there on youtube.