Grateful Dead

We all seem to post past one another here, but I must say that you undoubtedly have the most eclectic personal taste in music that I've ever encountered. While nothing has yet struck me, I do listen - and look forward - to your diverse audio samples! Keep 'em coming!/thanks, kate

#11 upon arrival most of yesterday, today back to my latest find, Tull (well it's a timely discovery for MY life's journey)...I suspect TAAB may well have just permanently catapulted into my all-time top 5 albums list. Holy cow! As proof that '77 was a gr8 year for someone other than the Dead, I give you the mad genius of IA and JT: peace, kate

William S. Burroughs Track: "Summer Will" Label: Industrial Records Cat#: IR0016

Hot Chocolate Track: Put Your Love In Me Label: RAK Cat#: 5C 006-60 166

English Translation You are dead, you are dead, my dearest, And I breathe, you have left me, You have left me forevermore, Never to return, and I remain- No, no, if my verses have any power, I will go confidently to the deepest abysses, And, having melted the heart of the king of shadows, Will bring you back to me to see the stars again, Or, if pitiless fate denies me this, I will remain with you in the company of death. Farewell earth, farewell sky, and sun, farewell.

Your canonization of PL is spot-on in my book! :)) The more I read, the more I understand that he is a seminal figure in the evolution of the bass guitar from a simple anchor line to rhythm support. Because of his quick wit and native intelligence, interviews are always an intriguing affair. Perhaps one of my favorite, and also the most surprising, responses came during a Jackson interview (of course!) in April 90, to which Phil averred, in response to a question regarding musical influences: "...I don't study other bassists, and I don't think I've really drawn much from them. In my own style of playing, such as it is, I've been influenced more by Bach than by any bassists. Actually, you can go back even further - Palestrina, sixteenth century modal counterpoint." Okay, now I could identify diverse influences of the blues, jazz, country, western, balladic, and even carribean (Aiko) musical traditions in the Dead's catalogue, but 16th century modal counterpoint had eluded me entirely!/kate

As I alluded to on the #11 thread, I've recently discovered Tull; despite the usual studio reccos for newbies from a couple JT boards, my first choice - after copious sampling on Amazon and iTunes - was a '77 live comp (specifically, "Bursting Out", which would be absolutely no surprise to Heads :)) ). Anyway, "A Passion Play" arrived in the mail yesterday and I listened with a sense of rapturous epiphany on the way in for some unscheduled (and blessedly quiet) time at the office. However, in one of those queer alignments of cosmic circumstance, my draw from the Toscanini RCA box - that is, for listening once in the office - was AT & the NBC SO's rendition of Haydn's Symphony No.88*; an extraordinary coincidence because I was immediately struck by a strong similarity between the powerful musical currents of the 2 works! Sadly, my lack of technical musical education or general knowledge correlates with a deficient vocabulary in this area that precludes a more satisfying explanation of these congruencies. Still, a pretty neat observation among pieces written approximately 185 years apart! *Given the forum, I feel inclined to specify that the piece was recorded in studio on 3/8/38 ;) ...deadheads and dates...(and yes, that's nineteen thirty-eight (magnificent sound, by the way)/ peace,kate

Marshun, I know the feeling!!

A pleasant thing to come home to. Kudos to the United States Postal Service! The new Dave's Picks is pretty sweet, and not just because it's from '72. As usual, the latest release sounds great, but I love the context.... the Dead were in the middle of an amazing run that saw them perform over 50 shows in the last half of '72, a show every three or four days. They bounced around the country daring tour heads to keep up.While I enjoy the local perspective as expressed in the liner notes, I wish Dave (or whomever) would have included some historical perspective as it relates to this awesome run of Dead shows. This Wichita show is but one of many incredible performances that summer and fall. A slice of the Dead at their peak. I'm still deep into playing this for the first time, but already the standout tunes are the Jack Straw (yeh, yeh, I know... Jack Straw from Wichita), followed by a pretty new Box 'o Rain. Yeah, the Box is sketchy, but Phil's bass line from the previous J Straw had me distracted, I think he really is a God. Sweet China Rider transition, too. Truckin' Other One Brokedown looms.... we'll see how it goes.

Thanks A.Cajun.Head, Cool. Sometimes I get those directions mixed-up like everything is happening at once in waves or something.