| Author | Message | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 1728 Registered: 5-2002 |
Last week I received my Grateful Dead Movie DVD. Since I had recently seen the movie on PBS, I started with Disk 2, which was great! Then a few nights later I chose the "Feature-length commentary", and that turned out to be very enjoyable and informative. Then finally I watched the movie itself again. This is just a great DVD in all respects! I had previously posted about how watching this movie had given me a greater respect for what Bill Kreutzmann was doing, especially in the one drummer lineup of that period; and now watching the DVD at home, I'm also getting a much greater respect for what Bob Weir is doing as well. | ||
| dadabass2001
Advanced Member Username: dadabass2001 Post Number: 374 Registered: 6-2002 |
Hi Dave, I'm a Dead fan as well, and the early-mid 70s line up was my favorite because of the elements you mentioned. Both Bobby and Bill were in fine form, and Phil and Jerry seemed more focused as well. I also like everybodys compositions during the period. I haven't checked out the commentary on this film yet. I'll have to go back and do so. Mike | ||
| bassman10096
Senior Member Username: bassman10096 Post Number: 721 Registered: 7-2003 |
Bob and Bill were the unsung heroes of that era. Both had reached very high levels of their games by that time. Neither seems to get the recognition their playing deserved, either. At least Phil makes it pretty clear in his book that both guys did pretty exceptional stuff in his view. Take Not Fade Away/Goin Down the Road from Skull and Roses as just one example of how both Bob and Bill shined. Bill | ||
| exploiterplayer
Member Username: exploiterplayer Post Number: 65 Registered: 12-2002 |
I thought Bill added a jazzy feel to the band in that era. | ||
| kmh364
Senior Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 859 Registered: 9-2003 |
Weather Report Suite from Disc II shows Bobby at his rhythmic best. The band figured this was their swan song, so they were generally in fine form. They were (are) all excellent musicians that generally don't get their just due, despite ample evidence such as the strong performances documented in the GD Movie reissue set. As an example of what I mean: In a Guitar Magazine special issue ca. Spring '03 devoted entirely to Hendrix, various musicians were asked what their favorite Hendrix composition was. Robby Kreiger from the Doors responded that "Purple Haze" was THE de facto example of psychedelic ("acid") music. According to him, ONLY Hendrix "GOT IT" with regards to musically representing an acid trip, unlike "others like the GRATEFUL DEAD that played horribly". Amazing words from a VERY (technicaly) limited guitarist that seemed to think that string bending was reserved for ONLY the "G" string, LOL! | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 1740 Registered: 5-2002 |
Yes, "Jazzy feel" is an apt discription of what I was seeing watching Bill during the longer jams. And yes, Weather Report Suite is pretty neat to watch. It's a difficult song, and they were all watching Bobby for the changes. Very nice writing on Bobby's part. "Amazing words" also because Robby Kreiger did some really nice stuff in the "psychedelic" vein. The End comes to mind. | ||
| kmh364
Senior Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 860 Registered: 9-2003 |
I definitely dig the Doors, and they did make some great music (what would "Apocalypse Now" be without "The End"), I just don't feel they were particularly great musicians, IMHO. Particularly, for Robby to knock Jerry and Bobby (and Jorma!) considering his limited instrumental prowess (as compared to those three) was pretty disrespectful, don't you think? | ||
| kmh364
Senior Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 861 Registered: 9-2003 |
BTW, New Dead DVD/CD release pre-order just announced: "Truckin Up To Buffalo" Rich Stadium, Buffalo, NY July 4, 1989 http://stores.musictoday.com/store/dept.asp?dept_id=1968&band_id=601 | ||
| kmh364
Senior Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 865 Registered: 9-2003 |
I got mine! "TUTB" DVD, CD, and Tie-dye Tee, LOL! They ship around Memorial Day. I just love to listen to psychedelic music performed by people that play horribly, LOL! (Sorry, Robby, I just couldn't resist the dig, LOL!) | ||
| grateful
Member Username: grateful Post Number: 62 Registered: 12-2004 |
Right on Kevin, I wish I could play as "horribly" as Jerry. Mark, ago | ||
| kmh364
Senior Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 866 Registered: 9-2003 |
I'm with you, Mark. I like the Doors, but they ain't no Dead! Krieger plays OK (i.e., better than me), but he's got some Jones ragging on Jerry and Jorma! | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 465 Registered: 7-2004 |
Did Kreiger really say that Jorma stinks? While I disagree with those who say it, I can understand people not appreciateing Jerry and Bobby - though they are among my personal favorites, (at least early Bobby when he cared more about playing his guitar, before he became "the cute one" and got distracted with posing for the girls). Both of them had very unique styles that some people just don't get. But Jorma stinks? I guess it's true, he is as bad at fingerpicking as Stanley Clarke is at bass, or, for that matter, as Michael Jordan was at basketball, or Lennon/McCartney at songwriting. As for the G.D. movie, I was there every night but one (including the last night when Mickey rejoined the band). My friends and I always thought that these shows were far from their best. It seemed there was friction among them that unfortunately manifested itself onstage. I love the movie for it's historical perspective and the fact that I am no doubt somewhere in it as a little speck in the backgound. I also love the nitrous scene - very creative given the low-tech special effects at the time. But as for their playing, I thought they were far better in '73 and earlier in '74 - especially the 3 night stand they did at Winterland in February of '74. Also, when they returned a couple of years later, the batteries seemed to have been significantly recharged. Bill, tgo | ||
| kmh364
Senior Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 868 Registered: 9-2003 |
Not by name...he referred to the Dead, Airplane, and "others" that did acid rock but didn't "get it" like Jimi did and they "played horribly". I thought that was absolute blasphemy coming from him. If it was Jimi saying that (and he was much too humble to go on record with a comment like that, even if it was true), he'd have a leg to stand on. As far as the performances: I'm a Pig Pen-era fan. To me, after Pig died, the band was never the same. Having said that, I still dug their performances in the movie (and afterwards). "Bad" Dead is still better than most others on their best day, and it is certainly better than having no Dead at all, LOL! | ||
| kmh364
Senior Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 869 Registered: 9-2003 |
I'll post the entire quote from Krieger word for word when I get home this eve. I personally don't understand why it was necessary for him to knock those guys when asked what Hendrix tune "did it" for him. Ragging on other players (who ALL play better than him, IMHO) to underline how good Jimi was (and we all know how good Jimi was), especially considering he's no friggin' virtuoso himself, just makes him look like an Ass. Personally, from my own experience, NOBODY got the essence of my "trips" like the Dead (e.g., "Morning Dew"). Er, um, in a past life, that is ,LOL! | ||
| kmh364
Senior Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 872 Registered: 9-2003 |
Here's the quote as published in the Guitar World Magazine Special Collectors Issue of Guitar Legends, Issue #57 - Winter 2002: "The Doors were in NYC doing a TV show with (famed NYC deejay) Murray the K, and he brought us up to his office after the shoot and said 'Hey, I gotta play something for you . Ever heard of Jimi Hendrix?' "Well, no...' So he put this record on, and I just couldn't believe it. People call the Doors psychedelic, but this was true psychedelic music. To me, Hendrix was the guy who was able to convey the feeling of the LSD experience in his music, whereas most of the people who took acid, like the Grateful Dead, played terribly. They may have been having fun, but nobody else got it" I stand corrected: He didn't rag on JA/Jorma specifically, I just assumed he did based on my recollection of his statement. My bad. Robby simply inferred that there were others that played terribly, but he specifically had the Dead in mind when he made his statement. I guess us DeadHeads out there don't count among those that didn't "get it", LOL! | ||
| lbpesq
Senior Member Username: lbpesq Post Number: 466 Registered: 7-2004 |
Hmmmm ... minimal three-piece band - no bass - backing a poet who likes to get drunk and expose himself. Yea, that's the LSD experience just as I remember it! (NOT). Seriously though, I liked the Doors, but I NEVER thought of them as a psychedelic LSD band, and no one I knew did either. Bill, tgo | ||
| jlpicard
Advanced Member Username: jlpicard Post Number: 201 Registered: 7-2002 |
Why do some people find it neccessary to put labels on everything? How do you define an Acid trip anyway? Wouldn't that experience be different for each individual? And so logicaly, wouldn't the music be different also? For example, maybey "Farmer Brown" hears Chet Atkins while trippin' out on the back porch of his farmhouse? LOL! Mike | ||
| kmh364
Senior Member Username: kmh364 Post Number: 873 Registered: 9-2003 |
Touche'! Good point, Mike, LOL! To each his own , I suppose. As a teen, I knew of a group of jocks in town that hung out at one of their own's place dubbed "the attic" (i.e., an attic room in his Mom's house, what a surprise!). Despite them all being lettermen, they smoked a lot of rope, drank a lot and did other recreational substances. They were all Zeppellin heads and, therefore, when they tripped, they tripped to Led Zep. They thought that Zep knew the golden road to unlimited devotion (Cashmir? LOL!). To my reckoning, I guess the Doors really ARE psychedelic compared to Zep, LOL! | ||
| jacko
Intermediate Member Username: jacko Post Number: 195 Registered: 10-2002 |
kevin. ignorant english question.... what's a letterman? graeme | ||
| paulman
New Username: paulman Post Number: 10 Registered: 2-2005 |
When is that quote from...the late 60's? I know the article is from 2002, but when did Robby actually make the quote. I agree with "The End" being quite good. In the younger days we'd take one channel of the stereo and put it though a delay pedal set to 2 seconds. Then as Jim was ranting in the middle with the raga guitar, we'd sweep the delay time up and down. So, the one channel would be clean, and then a second or two later you'd get this weird closer/nearer doppler from the other side. With a wide stereo separation (and some drrruuugggzz oh no!) it felt like the room would twist and turn. Heh...sorry for the long rant! | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 1763 Registered: 5-2002 |
Graeme, I think that, simply put, in high school (ages 15-18?), if you played on a sports team, they awarded you a piece of cloth that you could sew on your sweater of jacket. The cloth was in the shape of the initial or initials of the name of your school. For instance if you went to Newtown High School, you would get a big letter "N" to sew on your jacket. Thus, you were a letterman; and with such distinction were conferred some measure of status from some segments of high school society. | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 1764 Registered: 5-2002 |
I like the story about running one channel of "The End" through a delay!! | ||
| jagerphan84
Intermediate Member Username: jagerphan84 Post Number: 186 Registered: 10-2003 |
Re: the 'varsity letters' as I've heard them called- Maybe my high school was weird (well, I know it was) but we received varsity letters after taking a somewhat ridiculous number of music classes. Myself and about 3 or 4 other musically-inclined students in my class worked up the 8 or 10 full-year courses needed for the letter. A skinny, long-haired letterman in Birkenstocks? Whodathunkit? Adam | ||
| keith_h
Member Username: keith_h Post Number: 70 Registered: 2-2005 |
Actually my high school had letters for sports and for the music folks that were in marching band. They then got bars (jocks) and I think musical notes (band) for each year they participated. Keith |
