Phrazz wrote:Hey Hoby, I have to disagree with your "any impact" comment. I for one like the music so much better when I know about the history of the piece as well as the musicians themselves. I think it adds texture to our musical understanding and helps us develop better ears in the process.
I am exactly the same way, Phrazz.
My comment was more of a pre-emptive defensiveness of a sort. Said defensiveness comes from my sad familiarity with "Deader-than-thou" (DTT) syndrome: Deadheads who behave as if you can't possibly enjoy the music as much as they do since you don't have the same knowledge and experience.
[I have one good tour friend whose symptoms are as follows: If you mentioned enjoying a particular show, performance, or tape, he would immediately steer the conversation to some show, performance, or tape you hadn't heard/been at and then his telling you about that would become the conversation. "Well, yeah, that version of <fill in song title> was ok, but it doesn't hold a candle to <fill in version you haven't heard or show you weren't at >."]
I was afraid my correction of Lumpy's statement and subsequent info would make it appear as if I was suffering from DTT syndrome. In fact, my problem has been diagnosed as "Too-Much-Dead-Information" [TMDI] syndrome. My quest to understand and learn everything I possibly could about the Dead over the decades leaves me with all this stuff in my brain that I love to share. Unfortunately it has also resulted in other (sometimes important) info being crowded out of my brains and dribbling out my ears. (EEEWWW!)
Anyway, I didn't want readers to think my offering was coming from DTT territory.
Thanks for the book recommendation...I'll work on this after Bob Woodward is done with me.
Be warned: It is not an entirely happy tale.
Oh, and my pal Black Peter scored me a recording of Jerry and Sara on the roof of some coffee house in Stanford (I think)...I'll try to dig this up somewhere. I had thought it might have predated this 1964 show (maybe 1963?) but I doubt as early as '61. Wasn't Jerry playing in the late 50s? I'll have to dig up some more bio...maybe he was in a high school band back then.
According to my sources (he said mysteriously)...
OK, hold it! The "sources" in question is in fact Volume 1 of The Deadheads' Taping Compendium. The first of a 3-volume reference tome which, in conjunction with Deadbase, creates a nearly bottomless pit of Dead music information.
...ahem, yes, well to continue. <Straightens tie and tugs at bottom of vest>.
According to the compendium (the 1998 edition - so this info might be outdated), the only known tape of Jerry and Sara is from 5/4/63 at the Top of the Tangent - the same venue as the treasure Lumpy gave us.
The setlist: Deep Ellem Blues, The Weaver, I Truly Understand, All Good Times Are Past, Long Black Veil, The Man Who Wrote Home Sweet Home, Keno, Foggy Mountain Top.
This tape is sometimes mis-dated 5/1 or 5/3.
If you can find that recording, that is quite a treasure in its own right.
As for Garcia playing in the '50s, he was certainly playing, but maybe not in public yet. So far, the earliest recordings are dated '61.
Regardless, for 1964 in a coffee shop, it's a pretty amazing recording and is now one of the gems in my own music library. Thanks again lumpster!
AMEN!!!
hoby
)
this is amazing, so much fun! Thanks so much lumpy
