fuck yes grateful dead

Grateful Dead : Halloween 1971 : Columbus, Ohio

Feels funny to say that an officially released show could be “overlooked”, but 10/31/71 seems rarely brought up. I’ve been rolling this one for a few days now and it’s treasures to be mined are many. Most every song is jammed to the brim but the “Tighten Up” jam nestled into this Dark Star is a space I’d like to live in for a long, long time. 

Thee only single-disc Pick; I think they just weren’t sure how they wanted to present the series just yet. If it came out today I’m confident they’d put out the complete show but for now you can hear the first set (plus encore) on the Archive over here.

doomandgloomfromthetomb:

Bill Frisell / James McNew / James Woodring - An Evening of Spontaneous Creation, Town Hall, Seattle, Washington, October 5, 2014

An unexpected – but extremely successful – collaboration between Yo La Tengo’s James McNew and guitarist Bill Frisell (with visual artist James Woodring in tow) took place in Seattle last weekend. What did these two musicians cook up for their “evening of spontaneous creation”? An almost hour-long Dark Star > Comes A Time. Seriously! Kind of a dream come true, really. Thanks to a great recording by Steve Kennedy-Williams we can all take this cosmic trip, too. 

For the most part here at fygd we like to stick to the pertinent years of 1965-1995. But every now & again it’s nice to remind ourselves of the ongoing vitality of this music with an example of a contemporary interpretation of it - and to these ears, this here is a truly fine example indeed. The Dark Star is broad, deep and exploratory, while the Comes a Time is otherworldly in an almost Julee Cruise-Angelo Badalamenti sense - it doesn’t take much to imagine it being performed onstage at the Roadhouse while some arcane detail re: the Laura Palmer case is revealed to Special Agent Dale Cooper et al. Enjoy.

fuckyesgratefuldead:

I’m gonna go and vote just like I always do, but the way I’ve always felt about the whole thing is summed up pretty succinctly here by this guy:
“I see the one-person nation, you know? I mean, the whole idea of government is like a ruse… It’s only scaring people and herding them around. It’s not governing, by any means. People are limitless. Each individual person has way too much to them. The only thing that seems realistic is to respect each person as an individual universe. Governments that exist, such as they do, are really just silly structures. If they enter your mind or your consciousness at all, they tend to enter as some alien bullshit that you have to deal with, you know, in an irritating sort of a way. That’s not the way things should be. All this evolution makes us better than that.”
-Jerry Garcia

… And it turns out maybe we’re not so evolved after all.

I’m gonna go and vote just like I always do, but the way I’ve always felt about the whole thing is summed up pretty succinctly here by this guy:
“I see the one-person nation, you know? I mean, the whole idea of government is like a ruse… It’s only scaring people and herding them around. It’s not governing, by any means. People are limitless. Each individual person has way too much to them. The only thing that seems realistic is to respect each person as an individual universe. Governments that exist, such as they do, are really just silly structures. If they enter your mind or your consciousness at all, they tend to enter as some alien bullshit that you have to deal with, you know, in an irritating sort of a way. That’s not the way things should be. All this evolution makes us better than that.”
-Jerry Garcia

Somehow only miss you more as time passes. Happy Birthday old buddy.

While yes this is a Grateful Dead blog, more importantly it’s a blog concerning music and true art. We’ve been heartbroken for the last 36 hours with the loss of one of the greatest artists we’ve been honored to share space and time with. And the Dead and Bowie shared more in common than most might think: both gave a lot of freaks, weirdos and misfits hope and a sense of community. 

In my view, when we lose a great artist we all have a responsibility to step up our game. Go and paint your version of your masterpiece. Thanks for everything, David Bowie. 

Artwork by brotherCKrafty .

Grateful Dead - New Year’s Eve 1981 was one for the ages. If you start it right about now you should hit some sort of a climax at just the right moment tonight.

Oh, and don’t forget the early Joan Baez acoustic set.That should put your timing right.