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Grateful Thread

Tough question, but is Bobby a user of something he shouldn't be? I've never heard a single rumor about him in that regard.

OTOH, he had to postpone the current Ratdog tour due to exhaustion, so maybe he was in a bad way all last summer/fall and that's what the problem was. I dunno.

Phil still seems to be kicking a%&, though. Those free soundboard downloads of the December and February shows with some members of Railroad Earth were pretty hot.
 
Maybe that would explain the Bob Weir funk.. Probably the self-medication caused the exhaustion. And you're right Phil still has the juice until he tries to sing.
 
Remember when he would only sing maybe one song every 10 shows? I don't mind his singing, but I hate to subject non-deadheads to it...
 
Who really sang Unbroken Chain and Box of Rain!!! The wonders of recording technology I bet
 
Well, the two big problems are playing and singing at the same time, and being able to hear yourself perfectly. Both are taken care of in the studio.
 
I think you guys are right - Bobby is mostly befuddled and Phil rocks on. Maybe Bobby needs a liver transplant like Phil...

And that is HILARIOUS, the one about not wanting to subject your non-DH friends to Phil's singing! I always go for the volume control when my soundboard CD from last summer comes to the "Lady finger dipped in moonlight" passage as "vocally styled" by Mr. Lesh.

By the way, I never got "DADARAN". A little help?
 
Searching for the Sound

Picked up this book just published and authored by Phil.. I've gotten through about 1/4 of it and I have to say this is a must read. This is the bands story through Phil's eyes.
 

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I've always felt that Phil was the most interesting member of the band. Here's a guy whose musical universe basically started with classical music, who then went to jazz, and the finally rock. (It's too bad he never collaberated with Frank Zappa - that would have been really interesting.) He originally played trumpet, and didn't start on bass until he got into the Dead. He studied under the avant garde composer Luciano Berio. To say that his approach to the bass is unique would be an understatement. Yeah, Phil is the man!

EDIT: Hey, Emoto, sounds like we have similar tastes in music. We ought to jam some time.
 
jmerlino said:
I've always felt that Phil was the most interesting member of the band. Here's a guy whose musical universe basically started with classical music, who then went to jazz, and the finally rock. (It's too bad he never collaberated with Frank Zappa - that would have been really interesting.) He originally played trumpet, and didn't start on bass until he got into the Dead. He studied under the avant garde composer Luciano Berio. To say that his approach to the bass is unique would be an understatement. Yeah, Phil is the man!

No question, he is an interesting fellow, both musically, and personally. I love his playing.

jmerlino said:
EDIT: Hey, Emoto, sounds like we have similar tastes in music. We ought to jam some time.

Hey, I'd love to. What do you play? I'm on the south shore, BTW, and have a room with a P.A. (and no neighbors close enough to bother with music). It is so hard to find someone with similar tastes to jam with... :thumb
 
snoone said:
Picked up this book just published and authored by Phil.. I've gotten through about 1/4 of it and I have to say this is a must read. This is the bands story through Phil's eyes.

This is definitely on my list. :drink
 
Emoto said:
Hey, I'd love to. What do you play? I'm on the south shore, BTW, and have a room with a P.A. (and no neighbors close enough to bother with music). It is so hard to find someone with similar tastes to jam with... :thumb

I play guitar (I think you do as well, yes?).
 
jmerlino said:
I play guitar (I think you do as well, yes?).

Correctamundo. Email on the way.

Any other Boston area BMW riding musicians who like this type of music out there?
 
snoone said:
Picked up this book just published and authored by Phil.. I've gotten through about 1/4 of it and I have to say this is a must read. This is the bands story through Phil's eyes.

Just got it on Sunday and finished it today. :thumb
 
snoone said:
Great book with some pretty cool insight into the band huh.

Yup. Me likey.

Lately I have "So Many Roads" stuck in my head (one of the newer Garcia?Hunter songs that Phil mentioned near the end of the book). I love that tune. Do you know it? Some of the lines work for motorcycling:

Thought I heard a blackbird singin'
up on Bluebird Hill
Call me a whinin' boy if you will
Born where the sun don't shine
and I don't deny my name
Got no place to go, ain't that a shame?

Thought I heard that KC whistle
moanin' sweet & low
Thought I heard that KC when she blow
Down where the sun don't shine
Underneath the Kokomo
Whinin' boy -- got no place else to go


So many roads I tell you
So many roads I know
So many roads --
so many roads --
Mountain high, river wide
So many roads to ride
So many roads
So many roads


Thought I heard a jug band playin'
"If you don't -- who else will?"
from over on the far side of the hill
All I know the sun don't shine,
the rain refuse to fall
and you don't seem to hear me when I call


Wind inside & the wind outside
Tangled in the window blind
Tell me why you treat me so unkind
Down where the sun don't shine
Lonely and I call your name
No place left to go, ain't that a shame?


So many roads I tell you
New York to San Francisco
All I want is one
to take me home
From the high road to the low
So many roads I know
So many roads - So many roads


From the land of the midnight sun
where ice blue roses grow
'long those roads of gold and silver snow
Howlin' wide or moanin low
So many roads I know
So many roads to ease my soul
 
Not to ruffle any karmic feathers , I am a bit of a Dead snob.. I have over 80 complete shows on my computer/ipod/discs and honestly the music I listen to is 1968-1979 with 1977 and 1973 being what I consider the best musical years of the band. Though the Hunter/Barlow/garcia/weir lyrics might be great later on in the 80's and 90's I can't place the tune (so many roads).. I'll have to give it a listen. Maybe It'll open up my ears.

Bottom line is that I could never get into Brett era or the overstated Bob singing and even though Jerry did some great playing, he definately wasnt on top of his game being a junkie for so many of those later shows. Phil on the other hand was always pretty right there musically except for a couple bad moments here and there. Yeah, I know friends tell me to listen to this show or that show and I know there are some great moments but I end up always without fail going back to those older shows
 
I just listed to so many roads 10-09-94 from landover md.. That is a great tune.. and honestly I'm ashamed to say I have never heard it before. Maybe its time to start broadening my horizons once again
 
Well, broadening one's horizons is always a Good Thing, IMHO. Lazy River Road is another good one.

Have said that, I have to agree with much of what you said in your prior post about the later years and having favorite times. Frankly, I look upon anything after 1979 with great suspicion. 1977 was my favorite time for the band although I like a lot of the older stuff and a little of the more recent stuff.

The magic happened less and less often, and for shorter moments when it did happen, in later years. Sad but true. Jerry had a couple of brief ascents to the old spark and energy in the early 90s after health problems forced him to temporarily clean up, but even then it was hit or miss; mostly miss.

The two recorded shows that I go back to the most are 4/27/77 (Capital Theater, Passaic, NJ) that I heard live on the radio and 9/?/77 (Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ) where I was right up front. If you haven't heard either of these, give them a listen.
 
May 5-25 1977 are the string of shows I go back to the most. Try streaming or downloading any of the following soundboards from archive.org 5/5 New Haven, 5/7 Boston Garden, 5/8 Barton Hall, 5/9 War Memorial Buffalo, 5/11 Civic Center St Paul, 5/13 Aud Theater Chicago, 5/15 St Louis, 5/17 U of Alabama, 5/18 Fox Theater Atlanta or 5/25 The Mosque, Richmond Va. All of the above shows are spectacular.

9/3/77 Raceway Park was an outstanding show broadcast on WNEW FM from NYC . I lived in NJ and was at that show as well. I was also at the 4/26/77 (the day before the show you were at) show at the Capitol which was a great show in its own right.
I was so lucky to be from an area where so many venues were located that the Dead played in. From the 1st show I ever went to at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City to the Capitol Theater Passaic, the Meadowlands, The Garden, Radio City Music Hall, The Spectrum , Capitol Theater Port Chester, Stanley Theater Jersey City and the Nassau Coleseum I can't say that I ever had a bad time. The shows were a state of mind not a musical event
 
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