tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-386363682011-04-22T00:32:56.010-05:00Turning four semi-critical ears to the Grateful Dead's 1977Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.comBlogger211100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-19950221298207050982007-05-21T15:05:00.000-05:002007-05-21T15:07:04.978-05:00

A famous old NBA baller offers up his thoughts on May:Magical MayWell, maybe it isn't really Bill. But, it is a nice impression.

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-38504328580105286422007-05-11T21:54:00.000-05:002007-05-20T22:06:37.854-05:00

The second of this three-night run at San Francisco's Winterland Arena featured the band starting off a little slowly, but fortunately they hit their stride toward the end of a long first set and never looked back. This show definitely tops the first night of the run.There's not much to say about the first few songs of the night, with the exception of "Mama Tried," discussed in the following

Murphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619952832945797388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-79252496572504094272007-05-07T09:38:00.000-05:002007-05-07T10:37:16.094-05:00

Pardon the link to 'the nation's newspaper' but USAToday is running a story on an auction that Ram Rod's son is holding to redistribute some of the late and venerable roadie's Dead-related collection.Check it out here.

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-70599717763513585832007-04-30T21:42:00.000-05:002007-04-30T22:01:15.427-05:00

Guess what prominent political commentator is apparently Dead fan? Yep, that's her in the middle of the photo. You may recognize her unless you've wisely trained yourself to avert your eyes whenever you glipmse her demonic face. I shan't print her name here for fear of attracting some of her hateful, ill-mannered ilk to the site.If you can't resist, you can read her interview with Jambands.com

Murphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619952832945797388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-46551211143962830282007-04-29T22:56:00.001-05:002007-04-29T23:00:31.155-05:00

During the 70's, San Francisco's Winterland Arena was known as the Dead's "home" venue, and the band sounded pretty comfortable there on March 18, 1977, a show notable for the debut of "Fire on the Mountain" and the only version of "Terrpain Station" which features the "Alhambra" jam that appears on the album version. Is this a truly great show, or just one that's an interesting footnote in the

Murphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619952832945797388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-42151990461524207312007-04-25T19:24:00.000-05:002007-04-25T19:44:47.911-05:00

I have been enjoying the new 'Tapers Section' of dead.net and I promise some thoughts on the spate of shows on my docket soon. The thesis is clearly stealing focus from this project (and many others, so don't feel too bad). I have been particularly enjoying the week of my birthday, 1/26, as there are precious few deadshows from late January it was exciting to get some high quality downloads

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-27620816464250976942007-04-23T22:08:00.001-05:002007-04-24T09:22:16.470-05:00

If you haven't noticed already, official vault archivist David Lemieux is running a pretty cool feature over at Dead.net called the Taper's Section, where he gives a weekly run-down of notable performances from the Dead's thirty-year history. The features take the form of "This Week In Dead History" and include links to free mp3 downloads of the official vault recordings of the performances

Murphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619952832945797388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-26169493524892360282007-03-31T09:50:00.000-05:002007-03-31T12:13:15.322-05:00

That is of course our friend Bobby Dylan on the right. I'll post my thoughts on the Springfield show in response to Jon's real soon. But, last night, I was having some fun with the Wii and made these little buddies to play doubles tennis with. Jerry is surprisingly swift and Bobby has a wicked backhand.

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-65008911610547534182007-03-16T21:55:00.000-05:002007-03-31T13:36:10.019-05:00

Our co-contributor hooked me up with 3/18 and 3/19, so reviews of those two nights will be forthcoming, followed by 4/30 as suggested by Bob. (I assme you meant 4/30, and not 4/3, right Bob? My DeadBase doesn't list a show for 4/3). But first I'll tackle 4/23 because it's a show I've been listening to for about a month now, and as great as it is, I'm ready to get it off my Rio Karma to make

Murphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619952832945797388noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-38402932982884715392007-03-08T18:11:00.000-06:002007-03-08T18:12:56.507-06:00

Just something to keep in mind. From the Onion's AV Club:Similarly, I've always preferred The Band to The Grateful Dead, because The Band boiled all that spooky Americana folderol down to fairly tight little folk-rock songs, while The Dead would start with a good melodic foundation and some mythologically trippy Robert Hunter poem, then squander audience goodwill with indifferent noodling. But

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-70763170673491161012007-03-02T17:21:00.000-06:002007-03-02T17:22:34.102-06:00

I'm gonna post this 'cause I'd like some feedback. I've been hearing this song a lot on the radio that I listen to and it has bit me good. I'll be checking out the whole album soon. Midlake seems to draw on a lot of 70s influences here and I am loving it.Midlake -- Head Home

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-4385916046477916522007-02-27T22:13:00.000-06:002007-02-27T22:17:41.516-06:00

I'll get you the 3/18 and 3/19 shows. Sorry for the delay. We can postpone for now. I'm gonna offer up some thoughts on a show that I absolutely love the 4/3/77 Palladium shows. It reaks of the east coast Dead. I'll also contribute to 4/23.I am going to repost my comment to your year-in-review here, since I like the give-and-take format better. If anyone else would like to 'post' as opposed

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-26342188659746625752007-02-16T18:18:00.001-06:002007-02-17T12:06:20.011-06:00

Here at Live Blogging Dead HQ East, we're busy listening to 4/23/77 Springfield Civic Center and taking notes for a review to be posted soon. (None of our loyal readers has hooked me up with 3/18 or 3/19, so I'll have to skip those for now).In the meantime, here's a little Non-Dead content: my annual Year in Music list. Bob has already posted his here, but since I have nowhere else to park mine,

Murphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619952832945797388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-36603141345901490222007-02-01T20:52:00.000-06:002007-02-03T10:57:48.027-06:00

The Dead's first full show of 1977 took place at Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California on February 26. The band hadn't played a show in nearly two months -- since New Year's Eve 1976/1977. So you could reasonably expect them to sound a little rusty on this night. But this is certainly not a show to be overlooked. Aside from a little roughness around the edges, the first show of the year

Murphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619952832945797388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-40634159533718106092007-01-29T21:19:00.000-06:002007-01-29T21:31:29.871-06:00

There is an interesting post on the Long Tail blog that discusses the current trend of bands giving away their recorded works for free on MySpace pages, etc while banking on gigs to earn money.Anderson's argument is that recording and distribution costs have fallen to virtually nothing so bands feel justified charging nothing for their recorded works while charging for the experience of seeing

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-33589207227319578812007-01-27T11:44:00.000-06:002007-01-27T11:45:20.344-06:00

One of our contributors, Murph, may find this new webtool handy:GubbIt's a listmaking tool and repository.

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-35954664725422548632007-01-26T12:02:00.000-06:002007-01-26T12:36:33.531-06:00

Thanks for the b-day wishes, and the excellent 'promo' copy of Live at the Cow Palace, NYE, 1976! I was indeed listening to this fine release at 4:08am... GMT; which means I shut the listening party down a little after 11pm CST. I can assure you that the reason was not due to any defiency with this recording but, rather, a pressing need to sleep.Since this show is the real opener of 1977 it is

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-85077190987975786652007-01-26T08:08:00.000-06:002007-01-26T08:19:09.365-06:00

Today we celebrate the birthday of our fearless co-contributor, Bob! Happy birthday Bob! We know he's already celebrating because if you glance down and to the right you'll see he was listening to "One More Saturday Night" at 4:08 a.m.! Way to rock, Bobby! He tells me he will spend a portion of his birthday putting the finishing touches on our first substantive show review of the year...but I

Murphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619952832945797388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-36605177551886970672007-01-22T18:22:00.000-06:002007-01-22T18:31:35.523-06:00

We're busily listening to the first two shows of the year, 2/26 and 2/27 and will hopefully post our thoughts on those within the next few days. But looking down the road a little bit...I'd love to give 3/18/77 (Winterland) a listen, but it's not available at archive.org. So if anyone could point us to copies of that show (in mp3, streaming, or lossless formats, we're not too picky) we'd be

Murphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619952832945797388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-75982816771487428222007-01-21T14:42:00.000-06:002007-01-22T07:44:21.840-06:00

Before we dive in to sample and critique a little of the '77 vintage, I'll offer some of my thoughts on what makes the year special, as well as what its detractors cite when they claim it's vastly overrated.First, the good.... tight playing and shimmering vocals.After taking a near-complete rest from touring in 1975, the band returned in 1976 and spent most of the year playing competent but

Murphhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11619952832945797388noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38636368.post-1169177490785834042007-01-18T21:31:00.000-06:002007-01-21T10:00:45.500-06:00

2007 marks the 30th anniversary of what many consider to be the Grateful Dead's Annus Mirabilis, 1977. This blog was created to both honor and critique that year.The idea is simple, we're both going to do our best to listen to as much material from this magical year and offer commentary where appropriate. This is my intro. Murph's will follow. Most likely this blog will take a dialogue

Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01327521242231759555noreply@blogger.com0