The “Prime” of the Grateful Dead

First let me say that it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed any music, let alone, The Dead, but I recently listened to a really hot show–one that intend to review soon.  This show really catches this band in their prime, but in order to define ‘prime’ it is important to note that The Dead had several primes, and this just happens to be one of them.

The “primes” of The Dead can most easily be marked by the personnel changes in the keyboard slot–also known as the hot-seat when it comes to The Dead because they either died as keyboardist with The Dead, or died shortly after their stint.  Here I’ll talk a little about the personnel, and in subsequent installments, I’ll give an example of a performance that typified their stay, or that particular “prime” with the band.

Some folks prefer the primal Dead marked in large part by Pig Pen, the iconic whiskey swilling, organ and harp playing, and liable to say anything on stage, larger than life personality who helped make the The Dead stand out as something more than just a psychedelic blues band.  His antics were unpredictable and the things that came out of his mouth would make the PC crowd shudder.

Other folks prefer The Dead most commonly associated with Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux who were brought in on the very tail end of Pig’s career prior to his death from complications due to cirrhosis of the liver–a bit too much swilling.  Keith’s jazz influences and his insistence on playing an acoustic piano almost exclusively led to a band that explored everything from jazz-rock fusion to disco.

Still, some folks prefer The Dead of the Brent Mydland years who came in to replace the Godchauxs–Keith had developed an addiction to alcohol and had a nasty habit of falling asleep at the keys, and Donna, well, she could make Bob Dylan sound like a songbird.  Soon after they were fired, Keith died in a car accident.  Brent played several different sets of keys:  piano, organ, synthesizer–and could also sing, so he was able to not only replace Keith and Donna from a personnel standpoint, but he went beyond, and though I would shy away from too many comparisons to Pig Pen, Brent brought back some personality behind the keys and brought an edge to the music that made it sound fresh again.

Finally, there are those people who prefer The Dead with Vince Welnick at the keys–Vince was brought in after Brent died of a drug overdose.  Why this would be your favorite, I have no idea.

Stay tuned to this space, and I’ll review the show I originally set out to review:  Live at the Civic Center Music Theater in Oklahoma City, OK on 11/15/1972.  For now, have a Happy Thanksgiving, and you’ll hear from me soon.

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October 1969: The Beatles’ Abbey Road Hits #1 on the UK Chart

41 Years ago this week, Abbey Road hit number 1 on the UK charts, and although released prior to the Let it Be album, it would be, technically, the Beatles last studio recordings released.  What is really amazing about the album is that, though the band wasn’t really functioning as a band at that point, they put many of their differences behind them, and in a number of ways, used to the album to make light of those differences. 

The album cover itself fueled speculation that there was truth to the “Paul is dead” rumor that gained some traction around the time the album was released.  Perhaps this is a topic for another post, but briefly, John Lennon’s white suit was said to symbolize a clergyman; Ringo Starr’s black suit, an undertaker; George Harrison’s blue jeans and denim shirt, a grave-digger; and the fact that Paul McCartney is walking out of step with the band and has no shoes all ‘proved’ the rumor to be true.  However you take the album cover, it is an iconic image in the world of pop and rock music.

In the UK, the album debuted at number 1 and spent 11 consecutive weeks there, and then was bumped for 1 week by The Rolling Stones’ Let it Bleed album before returning to number 1 for 6 more weeks.  In all it spent nearly 2 years in the UK top 75 and then reached number 30 when the album was released on CD in 1987.

The album is essentially divided into 2 sections–side A being a selection of singles, and side B being comprised of shorter incomplete compositions woven together into a longer musical suite.  Although most of the album was recorded in only about a month’s worth of time, it remains timeless in its appeal.

Various publications throughout the years have placed it on their ‘top’ lists in various slots, it is generally viewed as one of the top 20 albums of all time (I would put it in the top 10).  Like many albums or concerts I’ve recomended to folks over the years, this is one of those pieces of music that deserves your time, and deserves to be listened to in one sitting.  If you don’t own the album, get it–it’s one of those albums that is extremely approachable for those of you who might be less familiar with The Beatles–it is most definitely an album you’ll cherish.

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Why Music?

What is it that keeps us listening to music?  No, I won’t let you get away with a simple answer–“because I enjoy it”.  Why do we enjoy it?  Has anyone every satisfactorily explained that? 

I think, in order to take a stab at answering that question, we have to take a look at why our ancestors “invented” music.  I put invented in quotes because I think that a pretty strong case can be made to point out that rather than being invented, it was a device or mechanism used to mimic things that naturally occurred around them.

For the Classical Greeks, music was a very big undertaking rooted in religious implications.  The 2 principal instruments used to create Classical Greek music were the aulos and the lyre.  The aulos was a double-reed instrument with a high-pitched, nasal sound–much like a modern clarinet–and the lyre was a stringed instrument that can be best described as an early harp (although it wouldn’t sound much like today’s harp). 

On the one hand, the aulos was said to mimic the sound of the Gorgon Medusa’s screams as her head was lifted from her shoulders by the hero Perseus.  Stefan Hagel’s pages have some great information and feature some examples of aulos recordings here.  The aulos was the sonic representation of all that was chaotic in the world, and just by listening to a couple of examples on the aulos page from above, we get the picture.

On the other hand, the lyre (or kithara), or better, the tuning convention utilized on the instrument, was said to mimic the order and relationship between the planets as they saw them.  Again, check out Stefan Hagel’s page here for examples of kithara recordings. 

Whereas with the aulos we had chaos, with the lyre we have a sense of order and things belonging in their natural place, so, quite literally, Classical Greek music was the representation of everything–the yin and yang, as it were–in one place.  Music played a central role, but just as important as the music itself was dance–in and of itself, a highly stylized activity with plenty of religious significance–and verse, about which I’d like to talk a bit more.

Verse was important because in a society that had long existed in an oral tradition, the information that it was to be conveyed needed to be uniform to large extent.  They obviously didn’t have printing presses that ensured that the same information that was given to one person in the city was the same information given to another person in the countryside, so there needed to be some kind of convention or mechanism that allowed the information that was to be conveyed, to be conveyed with some kind of uniformity.  This information ranged from exploits of mythic gods, to labors of heroic characters, to fables and lessons, but one of the ways that they made sure that uniformity existed was to put the information to song.

So, put into context, music helps us come up with a prism through which to view the world.  Music helps us understand the unknown, reinforces ideas that we already have, and its lyrical observations provide us with a framework that we can use to, in a sense, lay over the top of the world around us.  Much like how I marvel at a well-read person’s ability to pull from a text that he or she has read and use it to explain or describe a situation or parallel situation that has happened in that person’s life, music provides for that same potential, albeit in a more simplified fashion and in a different vernacular if you will.

If you play any music, or at least understand the basic chord progressions of modern Western music, how would you explain why the same 3 chords used thousands of times over can be paired with the same lyrics–because we only have a limited number of words in our language and limited still by the number of words that can then be used to rhyme with those words–about love, death, and happiness, and people can then still find enjoyment in those same things as though they were new again? 

Perhaps that’s a larger question than the one that I set out to answer originally, but I think their answers are similar.  The fact is that humans have always lived in a world, to one degree or another, of chaos with “the unexplained” always baying at us like wolves on the edge of civilization, and one universal way for us to make sense of it all is to listen to how others deal- have dealt, are dealing–with the unknown.  Music helps us be closer to each other in ways that we may not ever understand–think of the parallels between the relationship between the heartbeat of a mother and her unborn child and how we may hear that familiar cadence in the rhythm and beat of a song.

These are big questions and I know I’ve just scratched the surface on some of these things, but I’d like YOU to think:  Why Music?  Think critically.  What does it mean to you, and why do you listen to it?  And before you closet classicists and ethnomusicologists have a field-day with my interpretation of Classical Greek music, please realize that you cannot argue with an ignoramus–it’s futile and you’ll just make both of us look silly.

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Grateful Dead Live at the Greek Theater 1982-05-22 – A Review

I’ve posted the link to the audio at the end of this review, but I would love for you to check out the review first, listen, and then let me know what you think. 

I’ve been listening to every ’82 show I can get my hands on, and thanks to the Internet Archive, and specifically, their “Dead Zone”, I can stream these shows, and I often have a selection of several versions of the same show to choose from.  Back to 1982…  ’82 is a really hot year that sort of gets forgotten between the big years of ’77 and ’85, but it is fantastic music that should be heard.  The band seems fresh, and they have a couple of things going for them that the 2 big years above weren’t able to afford them. 

In ’77 (and ’78 to a larger extent) the Godchauxs were weighing the band down.  Donna for one reason or another (there are lots of arguments in her defense as well as arguments against her) Donna became very shrill, and Keith’s grand piano had locked the band into a place that made it difficult for them to be dynamic and evolutionary.  Besides, Keith’s battle with alcohol had made him little more than a sleeping fixture on stage.

In mid ’79, Brent Mydland essentially filled the spot that both Godchauxs had occupied, and came in with not only a new sound vocally, but he supplied a new array of sounds on the keys that really allowed the band to explore the bounds that they had previously occupied.  Although 12/01/79 is one of my all-time favorites, it really did take a couple of years for Brent to really settle-in and find his space in the music and probably took as long for the band understand where he was in the music as well.  It is interesting to note that in the previous Spring tour, Jerry had switched sides on the stage with Phil on 04/02/82 in order to be next to Brent, a position he would remain in while on stage for the duration.

Back to the concert…  What a show!  I’m a sucker for Jack Straw shows, and maybe I’m a total geek, but I’ve even got a Great Northern t-shirt.  The band is listening to each other, and playing well together.  The Jack Straw pleases, the Sugaree is fantastic, Cassidy hits those outer limits but brings it all back home, but that Cumberland Blues simply blisters–it is definitely one of the good ones that I asked about in a previous post about best versions/performances of Dead songs.

I was a bit worried when I saw the Lazy Lightning, but from the first notes, you realize that this isn’t 1985 where they play it much faster than their ability to make it sound any good.  This one cooks and satisfies, and so does the Deal to end the first set.  I love a good Deal first set ender.

In typical fashion, a first set starting with Jack Straw is coupled with a second set starting with China>>>Rider, and this one has all the components you would want.  This is a good one to listen to in order to get a feel of the band.  There is so much energy brewing here, but it’s all about how well it is harnessed.  In fact, and I’m not the first to say this, but the recurring train theme in Dead music is the perfect metaphor for the band–so much power moving on its own and the question is, how to control it.  Sometimes you just have to hold on, sit back and enjoy the ride.

Women Are Smarter is fun, Never Trust a Woman showcasing Brent’s personality is gritty, and the Lost Sailor>>>Saint of Circumstance is right on the money.  They explore, and as you’ll find typical of this particular show, they all coalesce around that emotionally climactic rallying-point in the music.  Again, you may not always know where you are within the context of the music, but you have the confidence that the band will help pull you out of it and allow you to make some sense of where the music has taken you.

He’s Gone, a usual jumping-off point, helps propel this one into that second half of the second set otherworldly realm and dumps you off into a short drums and then into space.  I agree with folks who say that Not Fade Away should pull out of space rather than end the show, and that’s exactly what happens here.  Maneuvering out of the fog, they give form to chaos, and before you know it, you are listening to the old familiar cadence of Not Fade Away, and it feels good.  Brent’s organ swirls while Jerry’s guitar shreds and Bob finds those funny angles in the music; all the while Phil is dropping sonic bombs and Mickey and Billy are laying down a gauntlet.

Once they’ve squeezed that one for every drop, they send you off on an up-tempo Wharf Rat.  I cannot stress this enough, but the Dead understood the power of silence as well as the power of volume, and it is readily apparent in this one.  They are spot-on in this version instrumentally, and their harmonies are quite good–again, a fact that owes a great deal to bandmates listening to each other.  Another aspect of the band that this song tells about is the overall physical condition of the band.  In later years when Jerry ballooned-up, he would absolutely struggle through this song, typically placed late in the second set, and it would be dreadfully evident in his vocals.  This one is very nice.

The Around and Around is, well, it’s Around and Around, and although the Good Lovin’ starts a little shaky, it settles down and yields a really nice Bob rap and build-up to the end.  The U.S. Blues encore is a nice one to hear and is a great exclamation point to this show, and this is not just a mail-it-in encore either; these guys are still at work, and you can tell by the crowd bleed-in through the mics that the crowd loves it.  This encore is a real thankyou from the band to the crowd–the band loves it too.

All in all, this is a fantastic show.  Sure you will find problems with it, but this show comes from a time when they were playing really well and enjoying themselves.  I would definitely recommend checking this show out as well as challenge you to listen to that whole ’82 – ’83 period and weigh it against what might be your favorite period.  This is good stuff and it rocks.  Here is the link (enjoy, and again, let me know what you think, and while you’re at it, tell me what YOU are listening to):

http://www.archive.org/details/gd82-05-22.sbd.gorinsky.5215.sbeok.shnf

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Les Paul: A Life of Musical Innovation

photo courtesy blog.oregonlive.com

I haven’t said anything about Les Paul since his death a week ago, but I’ll just say that when I saw Les Paul guitar for the first time, I just had to have one.  In guitar parlance, you are, very very generally, either a Les Paul guy or a Stratocaster guy.  If you are familiar with the sound, you’ll know that the Les Paul has a deeper tone, or, as I like to call it, a bit of a growl to it, in comparison to the twangy brightness of the Strat.

We’ve got Les Paul to thank for two of the most important musical innovations of the 20th century:  the electric guitar, and multi-track recording.  We take it all for granted because we are just used to hearing music rather than recording it, but if you’ve ever done any recording, you know that multi-track recording not only changed the way it was recorded, but changed the way we all listen to music, and what we expect to hear when we are listening to it.

Rather than talk about his life – there’s plenty of information about Les Paul and his life story – I would rather you sit back and listen to him play and talk about his life and his music.  Accompanied by Marian McPartland who is a fantastic pianist – if you can ever catch her show, please do – Paul Nowinski on bass, and Lou Pallo on rhythm guitar, Les Paul gives you a big juicy slice of musical history that deserves a listen.

Please take a listen here, enjoy, and share your thoughts:

http://www.archive.org/serve/LesPaul1996-2002PianoJazzMarianMcPartlandNYC/LesPaul1996-2002PianoJazzMarianMcPartlandNYC.wma

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Grateful Dead Live at Madison Square Garden on 1987-09-19 – A Review

Courtesy Steve Zipser and Setlist.com

My business partner told me this morning that Mickey Hart had been a good friend of Walter Cronkite, and that Cronkite had been something of a closet Head.  The way they met, or as well as I could piece it together, is pretty interesting.  Apparently, Stephen Stills was to do the music for a sailing documentary that Cronkite was going to be narrating.  The long and the short of it was that Stills ended-up flaking-out and Mickey along  with Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana and some others put together a soundtrack for the documentary, and that’s how the two met and eventually became friends.

The articles that I read placed that meeting some time in ’87 or shortly thereafter, so I’m not completely clear on the date, but Mickey invited Cronkite to a show at MSG and Cronkite reluctantly accepted.  His comment to Mickey was that he was looking for reasons to leave during the show, but couldn’t find one.  He was hooked.

In any event, I thought it might be appropriate to try and track down the show, but with little success.  Oh, I have access to the show, I just don’t know which it is…  Not having any luck finding the date I was looking for, and for the purposes of just simply listening to the music rather than getting lost in research, I chose this show from Saturday night in a 5 night run – hey, I’m a sucker for Maggie’s Farm (don’t worry, I’ve included a link for the show below, but read first).  I’ve long had the  show from the night before which features a smoking La Bamba, but I had overlooked this little gem.

The recording quality of this soundboard is particularly good, and as is the case with most MSG shows, the mood is electrifying, and the band is on and having some fun.  Also of note is the fact that this one was being broacast on television for the FarmAid Benefit, hence the particular importance of Maggie’s Farm appearance in this show.

From the very start the music is very tight and, though the lyrics get flubbed quite a bit, the setlist is good, and one thing I always like to hear is interaction between the band and the audience.  In the first set, we hear, “we want Phil. we want Phil.”  Phil makes reference to how well restrained the crowd had been in the nights before, and rewards the crowd with Box of Rain – one I always like to see in a setlist.

The Crazy Fingers > UJB > Playin’ is very good, but particulary the transition into Playin’ – it is right on the money.  Drums and Space are enjoyable, and this comes from a guy who used to wear out his fast forward button as he zipped through Drums and Space every chance he heard it – boy was I happy when I could just advance to the next track on a CD.

The post Drums and Space sequence is really nice with Miracle into a Maggie’s Farm that lives up to expectations.  This was the first time they had done this one on their own after having played it 3x while touring with Dylan a couple of months before.  It is un-rehearsed, spontaneous, and very hot.  Not all of the lyric assignments had been as worked out as they would be in later years, but the unknown often comes together and yields wonderful results.

Lovelight is short and sweet but hot, and is a good capper for the 2nd set.  The encore is a sweet Black Muddy River – one that always makes my eyes feel like they are about to well-up.  This one is well-played and by the book, but everyone sounds good, and Brent’s tinkling on the keys through the second part of the chorus makes the hair stand up on my arms.

Overall, this show more than satisfies, and is a good example of how the band could rise to the occasion when it needed to.  It’s a stellar show, and one I think you ought to listen to.  Let me know what you think.  Enjoy the show:

http://www.archive.org/details/gd87-09-19.sbd.mccarthy.396.sbeok.shnf

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Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett: Representatives of a Different Time

I’ll go ahead and file this one in the category of “things I wish I had said but didn’t”…  I recently read a great John Derbyshire observation (most of them ARE great) the other day where he succinctly and accurately made the following comments about the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farah Fawcett: 

“Jackson, like Fawcett, was a relic of the time when we were a single nation, listening to the same pop songs, going to the same movies, sticking the same babe posters on our bedroom walls, laughing at the same jokes, even giving our kids names from a common stock. Whether Jackson should be extravagantly mourned or not, I leave to you to decide; but that era of national-cultural unity surely should be. Requiescat in pace.”  Read the entire entry here.

He’s right.  We’ve become so specialized in the music we listen to, in the sports we play, in the television shows we watch, etc.  When I was younger, there was pop, rock, rap, and oldies on the radio; We played baseball in the summer, football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and so on; There were a handful of things to watch on network television, and on cable, we had ESPN when it seemed that they were showing 24 hour coverage of Australian Rules Football, plus we had MTV which actually used to play videos.  I know my parents would laugh at the number of choices that I’ve laid out already, but compared to what is available now, that was IT.

These people didn’t have to pitch reality shows to Lifetime Networks and have some dopy crew follow them around with cameras and microphones so that we could sit around saying, “why are we watching these no-talent ass-clowns”?  No, these people were stars because, in a pool of entertainment so limited, not in terms of ability or creativity, but in terms of sheer depth, these people naturally stood out, and had somewhat of a captive audience.

Whatever you think about someone like Michael Jackson, what with all of his eccentricities and his bizzare and downright disgusting behavior, he along with Farah Fawcett represented a time that, for better or worse, we’ve pushed beyond.  My old poet friend and mentor, Jared Carter, argued a decade ago that we’ve turned into a society of producers of art with fewer and fewer consumers of it, and the net result is that those consumers have more crap than art to consume.  I tend to agree with him as well.

Welcome to Arizona Premiere Music

Music is our passion.  And we hope it’s yours too.  Unbeknownst to many, Arizona has a burgeoning music scene spanning all genres and styles.  Arizona Premiere Music was created to cover Arizona’s music scene as well as cover other broad ranging topics regarding everything that is music.  We invite you to participate in the ongoing dialogue of our blog and share the enjoyment we all derive from music.