#keith godchaux
Text
youtube
Demo Review: Grateful Dead - “Wave that Flag”
On Feb. 9, 1973, Jerry Garcia made an instructional audio recording of “Wave that Flag” so he could teach the song to his Grateful Dead bandmates.
The solo demo of the song that would eventually become “U.S. Blues” is out to announce the forthcoming From the Mars Hotel (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition). It finds Garcia at home, on acoustic and electric guitars and percussion, singing mostly complete - but slightly varied - lyrics to the short-lived member of the Dead’s live repertoire.
The recording reveals Garcia pretty much knew what he wanted his collaborators to do with the song. That’s particularly strange, given the many iterations it went through as it morphed from “Wave that Flag” into “U.S. Blues.” As such, it’s a super-cool peek behind the curtain and a demo that checks all boxes as it’s a good listen to boot.
Out June 21, Mars Hotel 50 includes a remaster of the original LP, the Dead’s previously unreleased May 12, 1974, concert in Nevada and a demo of “China Doll” to go with “Wave that Flag.”
Grade card: Grateful Dead - “Wave that Flag” (Demo) - A
3/27/24
#Youtube#grateful dead#jerry garcia#bob weir#phil lesh#bill kreutzmann#keith godchaux#donna jean godchaux#wave that flag#u.s. blues#from the mars hotel
7 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Grateful Dead
Terrapin Station
1977 Arista
—————————————————
Tracks:
1. Estimated Prophet
2. Dancing in the Streets
3. Passenger
4. Samson and Delilah
5. Sunrise
6. Terrapin Station
—————————————————
Jerry García
Donna Godchaux
Keith Godchaux
Mickey Hart
Bill Kreutzmann
Phil Lesh
Bob Weir
* Long Live Rock Archive
#GratefulDead#Grateful Dead#Jerry Garcia#Donna Godchaux#Keith Godchaux#Mickey Hart#Bill Kreutzmann#Phil Lesh#Bob Weir#Terrapin Station#LP#Roots Rock#1977
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
youtube
Grateful Dead - Shakedown Street
#grateful dead#jerry garcia#bob weir#phil lesh#mickey hart#bill kreutzmann#keith godchaux#donna godchaux#robert hunter#psychedelic rock#acid rock#country folk#soft rock#funk#disco#pop#shakedown street#1978#Youtube
2 notes
·
View notes
Photo
1972
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Bob Weir, Keith Godchaux & Janet Tessel, Nassau Coliseum 1973.
18 notes
·
View notes
Text
4 notes
·
View notes
Photo
grateful dead-gaelic park, bronx, NY., august 26, 1971.
there is nothing not to like about the dead in the summer of 1971. the band was absolutely raging, as evidenced in the high voltage shows at the hollywood palladium, chicago’s auditorium theatre (featured on dick’s vol. 35), and the yale bowl—all of which resurfaced when donna godchaux discovered the original reels on a houseboat that was owned by keith’s parents.
1971 is also the year when bootleg recordings begin to sprout up like weeds, and grateful dead bootleg LPs were selling like goddamn hot cakes. outside of gaelic park a number of freaks were peddling their pirated analog wares and the dead’s manager, sam cutler, had other ideas. the grateful dead hated busting people, but they were fed up with this growing scene. cutler and a posse of security guards descended on the LP slinging hippies and informed them that garcia told them personally, “we want you guys to go outside and liberate those bootlegs.” and this is exactly what happened on this evening in the bronx, though word is that they would return many before the night was over.
in addition to discouraging bootleg sales, the dead were also cracking down on the tapers. one such taper who consistently eluded cutler and head roadie big steve parish, was marty weinberg. marty didn’t get caught, he was too crafty for that. the bronx native was in front of the stage on this august night, holding his microphone level to his chest, a Uher 4000L portable slung over his shoulder. marty had been taping the dead since their central park gig back in ’68. since then, he’d accumulated hours and hours of grateful dead music, taped in very high fidelity. marty’s field tape from this night is first rate and linked at the header of this post for your aural consumption.
the gaelic park show is notable for mckernan's superlative first set performance, highlighted by his recitation of empty pages—one of only two versions in circulation. this would be pig's last gig until december '71, and he rocks it throughout. big boss man and mr. charlie are both impeccable. hard to handle is a barnburner and certainly on par with 8/6 or 4/29; unfortunately, it would be the last time pigpen would sing the otis redding number with the dead. the remainder of the set is an exact balance of songs led by garcia and weir, including a ripping bertha, a solid sugar magnolia, an early rendition of loser with the soon-to be-dropped ‘sweet suzie’ line, and a top-notch sugaree, featuring impassioned vocals by jerome.
set two opens with me & my uncle and tonight's take is absolutely brimming with energy. from here, we get a succinct 10-minute china cat > know you rider with some bright and wily lead bass from phil. jerry's vox kicks out and bobby takes his customary northbound train verse, an anomaly that i believe only occurred once during garcia's tenure with the band. following workman-like versions of deal and cumberland blues, the quintet rolls out a 25-minute truckin' > other one that features some especially potent guitar playing from weir. this other one jam is classic '71, slashing and building to towering freaky heights. three quick tunes, including a tight uncle john's band, gets us ready for another fabulous jam sequence that begins with st. stephen, and then flows—with great alacrity—into a tasty not fade away > goin' down the road > not fade away sandwich with plenty of zesty riffs. after a lengthy break, the boys return to the bandstand and send the crowd home with a rocking johnny b. goode.
this is the last show the dead played featuring the original five members and they put their foot on the gas throughtout, delivering a shitkicker of a performance. the following week, carman moore wrote about the event in his village voice 'new time' column. moore referred to the band's output as "good music making," and the structure of the concert as "...a general crescendo, light at the beginning and heavy-groovy at the end—not a shooting star, call-the-law finale, just a heightened physical-emotional climate...the goods delivered as promised...sort of like good preaching in a church known to be a happy place." in other words, an ideal spot to shake your bones on a late-august new york night.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
youtube
From the Mars Hotel (1974) album cover art was created by Kelley/Mouse. The front depicts an actual San Francisco building, juxtaposed in an extraterrestrial landscape. The real Mars Hotel was a derelict flophouse, at 192 Fourth Street, that had been the temporary residence of Jack Kerouac. It was demolished during the Yerba Buena redevelopment and is now the site of the Moscone West Exhibition Hall.
The working title for the album was "Ugly Roomers". Kreutzmann said it was "a self-deprecating dig at ourselves, but we changed it to 'rumors' out of respect to the boarders at the hotel." After another title change to From the Mars Hotel, the punning spelling "Ugly Rumors" was retained in stylized Aztecan text on the front cover, as rotated mirror writing. The rear cover depicts the band as the "ugly roomers", in the guise of cartoon characters lounging in a room in outer space, watching television. Lesh wears a pharaonic nemes, Garcia a space helmet and Kreutzmann a galea. Weir is a space-clown marked with a "Z". Keyboardist Keith Godchaux bears a halo of lightning bolts and backing vocalist Donna Godchaux, who had recently become a mother, is depicted as a madonna. The image was created from a group photograph taken in the lounge of a hotel in the Tenderloin district.
0 notes
Text
youtube
10/15/23: It was 50 years ago today, October 15th, 1973, the Grateful Dead would release their sixth studio album Wake of the Flood. This would be the first non-live record without PigPen McKernan on keyboards, as he had passed away seven months earlier as a result of his rampant alcohol use. His replacement (who had supplemented McKernan on piano for a couple years already) was Keith Godchaux, who provided his first and only lead vocal on the somewhat poppy 'Let Me Sing Your Blues Away'... my favorite track on this very flawed and boring record. This album would be the shaky start of the Dead's 'middle period' (that's what I call it anyway) that would last until Go to Heaven in 1980. I mean if you take this and compare to their previous studio record American Beauty (or heck even the more recent Europe '72) it sounds like a completely different band! Most apparent is a complete lack of energy on so many of these tracks... even the most 'Dead-like' track 'Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo' is a shadow of former similar slow-ish jams. And before you say anything about the band being more known as a LIVE band, I don't care... these are still official records released by the band, and up until now had ranged from at least mediocre but more often to brilliant. This record is just a bit less than mediocre... I guess if you're hungover it's good in the morning. For what it's worth, the studio version of 'Eyes of the World' is decent, but definitely a song the band draws out more superior as a live track. Otherwise, 'Stella Blue', 'Row Jimmy', and the endless 'Weather Report Suite', all kinda suck IMO. I wouldn't say to outright skip this record due to the aforementioned 'Let Me Sing'... they shoulda let Godchaux do more singing and writing, although admittedly it doesn't sound much like a Dead song with that hyper saxophone. Since we won't get to them here (although I may talk about them in a different form) the remaining 'middle period' albums are all better than this one, especially their next record Mars Hotel. So go get that one first.
0 notes
Text
Album Review: Grateful Dead - Wake of the Flood: The Angel’s Share
Given all the difficulty Phil Lesh had when trying to teach “Unbroken Chain” to his bandmates, it’s no surprise the Grateful Dead ignored the song for more than two decades before finally playing it live in 1995.
Fans were ecstatic when the song finally made it to the stage. But, truth be told, the Dead had as hard a time with the “Unbroken Chain” in ’95 as they did in 1973.
The group began working on what was known as “Phil’s Song” during sessions for Wake of the Flood. As outtakes released on the digital-only Angel’s Share edition of that LP make clear, Lesh stumped his comrades with the song’s complexity, causing Jerry Garcia to complain he wasn’t having a good time.
“It’s not supposed to be fun, it’s supposed to be right,” an exasperated Lesh tells the guitarist.
“It turns around,” Lesh had said to the band earlier. “I’m telling you, it turns around so that what was the offbeat is now the one.”
Surrounded by multiple takes of the songs that would make up Wake of the Flood - “Unbroken Chain” was held for From the Mars Hotel - “Phil’s Song” is a highlight. Other insightful gems include the band, with sax player Martin Fierro in tow, poring over the sonic blueprints to construct Keith Godchaux’s “Let Me Sing Your Blues Away” from scratch and the stunningly delicate and intricate ensemble playing across four stabs at “Weather Report Suite” and three earlier takes dubbed “I Am the Rain.”
As with the previously released Angel’s Share editions of Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, the consecutive iterations of album tracks including ‘Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo,” “Stella Blue,” “Eyes of the World” and “Pistol Shot (China Doll)” can grow tedious; mercifully, “Row Jimmy” appears but once.
Donna Jean Godchaux must’ve added her parts toward the end of the recording process as she is a non-factor on this bonus LP, which previews the 50th-anniversary edition of Wake, slated for Sept. 29. Instead, listeners are treated to tentative vocal performances as the band works out the music, paired with chatter, false starts, aborted takes and related ephemera. This makes Wake of the Flood: The Angel’s Share a fascinating one- or two-time listen to the Grateful Dead in raw form. But it’s not something for regular spinning.
Grade card: Grateful Dead - Wake of the Flood: The Angel’s Share - B
9/5/23
#grateful dead#wake of the flood#wake of the flood: the angel’s share#2023 albums#jerry garcia#bob weir#phil lesh#bill kreutzmann#keith godchaux#donna jean godchaux#martin fierro
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
Grateful Dead
Wake of the Flood
1973 Grateful Dead
—————————————————
Tracks:
1. Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo
2. Let Me Sing Your Blues Away
3. Row Jimmy
4. Stella Blue
5. Here Comes Sunshine
6. Eyes of the World
7. Weather Report Suite
a. Prelude
b. Part 1
c. Part 2 (Let It Grow)
—————————————————
Jerry García
Donna Godchaux
Keith Godchaux
Bill Kreutzmann
Phil Lesh
Bob Weir
* Long Live Rock Archive
#GratefulDead#Grateful Dead#Jerry Garcia#Donna Godchaux#Keith Godchaux#Bill Kreutzmann#Phil Lesh#Bob Weir#Wake of the Flood#LP#Folk#1973
1 note
·
View note
Text
Tuesday, August 1, 2023 11pm ET: Feature LP: Grateful Dead - Shakedown Street (1978)
Shakedown Street is the tenth studio album by rock band the Grateful Dead, released November 15, 1978, on Arista Records. The album came just over a year after previous studio album Terrapin Station. It was the final album for Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux, who left the band a few months after its release. The record was produced by Lowell George (of Little Feat) and John Kahn.
“Good Lovin'”…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
Birthdays 7.19
Beer Birthdays
Adrian Tierney-Jones
Five Favorite Birthdays
Benedict Cumberbatch; English actor (1976)
Edgar Degas; French artist (1834)
Anthony Edwards; actor (1962)
Max Fleischer; animator (1883)
Brian May; rock guitarist (1947)
Famous Birthdays
Yael Abecassis; Israeli model and actress (1967)
Muhammad al-Bukhari; Persian scholar (810)
Marianna Auenbrugger; Austrian composer (1759)
Paule Baillargeon; Canadian actress and director (1945)
Theo Barker; English historian (1923)
Buster Benton; singer-songwriter and guitarist (1932)
Heinrich Christian Boie; German author and poet (1744)
Lizzie Borden; accused murderer (1860)
Vicki Carr; singer (1941)
Allen Collins; guitarist and songwriter (1952)
Samuel Colt; inventor (1814)
Mark Crispin; computer scientist (1956)
A.J. Cronin; writer (1896)
Friedrich Dessauer; German physicist and philosopher (1881)
Atom Egoyan; Egyptian-Canadian director (1960)
Michael Fekete; Hungarian-Israeli mathematician (1886)
Thomas Gabriel Fischer; Swiss musician (1963)
André Forcier; Canadian director and screenwriter (1947)
Helen Gallagher; actress, singer, and dancer (1926)
Keith Godchaux; rock keyboardist (1948)
Alan Gorrie; Scottish singer-songwriter (1946)
Kevin Haskins; English drummer and songwriter (1960)
Joseph Hansen; author and poet (1923)
Samuel John Hazo; author (1928)
Pat Hingle; actor (1924)
Florence Foster Jenkins; soprano (1868)
Richard Jordan; actor (1938)
Gottfried Keller; Swiss author and poet (1819)
Aleksandr Khinchin; Russian mathematician (1894)
Lisa Lampanelli; comedian (1961)
Bernie Leadon; guitarist and songwriter (1947)
Robert Mann; violinist, composer, and conductor (1920)
John Martin; English artist (1789)
Charles Horace Mayo; surgeon, clinic founder (1865)
George McGovern; politician (1922)
Tim McIntire; actor and singer (1944)
Freddy Moore; singer-songwriter and guitarist (1950)
Ilie Nastase; tennis player (1946)
Alice Dunbar Nelson; African-American poet (1875)
Garth Nix; Australian writer (1963)
Jim Norton; comedian (1968)
Mark O'Donnell; playwright (1954)
Steve O'Donnell; screenwriter and producer (1954)
Jayne Anne Phillips; writer (1952)
Edward Charles Pickering; astronomer and physicist (1846)
Martin Powell; English keyboard player and songwriter (1973)
Arthur Rankin Jr.; animation director, producer (1924)
Tom Raworth; English poet (1938)
Miltos Sachtouris; Greek poet (1919)
Campbell Scott; actor (1961)
Elizabeth Spencer; writer (1921)
Percy Le Baron Spencer; microwave inventor (1894)
Sue Thompson; singer (1925)
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow; physicist (1921)
1 note
·
View note
Text
Thursday 1/5/23 10pm ET: Feature LP: Grateful Dead - Shakedown Street (1978)
Thursday 1/5/23 10pm ET: Feature LP: Grateful Dead – Shakedown Street (1978)
Shakedown Street is the tenth studio album by rock band the Grateful Dead, released November 15, 1978, on Arista Records. The album came just over a year after previous studio album Terrapin Station. It was the final album for Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux, who left the band a few months after its release. The record was produced by Lowell George (of Little Feat) and John Kahn.
“Good Lovin'”…
View On WordPress
0 notes
Text
GRATEFUL DEAD: MEET UP AT THE MOVIES 2022: Tivoli Theater, Copenhagen, 17 April 1972, aired 1 November 2022
This excerpt of an iconic Grateful Dead moment, right in the middle of my favorite period where they were at the height of their powers, is so familiar and yet was rendered absolutely fresh.
They’re cramped on the stage all around the same level and they are having fun (yes there are the Bolos/Bozos clown masks) and are so young (well, Pigpen—so few times to see him perform certainly at this length—is haunted) and the songs are fresh (He’s Gone is at a quick pace, Jack Straw has only Weir singing both parts of the story).
This is the band I fell for and we are within two weeks of the 50th anniversary of those Memorial Hall shows where the bus came by for me to get on. This is all the stuff of legend and, again, the time machine almost stripped away the distortions of myth. I am simultaneously listening to the Revolver box set and the outtakes from those mythic performances. They are OUTtakes and the recordings are iconic and fixed. But for a moment they’re just songs that are growing. Dead tunes never stopped growing/decaying.
Europe 72 are a pinnacle and yet, as important a period as it is, that past is slippery in large part because they never were fixed.
Yes the best moments are the jams, Truckin’ and the China>Rider transition, but there’s an excitement and fun in their discovery. Garcia is amused and excited, also thin and energetic; I suppose I still resent that he started slipping away well before he actually died. But here he established lots of social capital.
Lesh is far from the grand man that he has become after 1995 as he stepped up to maintain precisely this legacy. But in those moments, he’s a nerdy goof, only occasionally turning on the magic. Still the juju is irrepresibly there. I am struck how often he’s the high harmony singer (Jack Straw, Ramble On Rose).
Pig too is a revelation. There isn’t a Good Lovin’/Midnight Hour/Lovelight rave nor Caution; he seems too fragile for that. But he sings It Hurts Me Too, Chinatown Shuffle, and Next Time You See Me poignantly with some nice harp work. But he played lots of organ too—and it matters on the songs (Ramble On Rose, He’s Gone) and jams (Truckin’). Similarly, it takes seeing to remember what Keith Godchaux added. He’s often down in the mix but he really contributes (El Paso, Chinatown Shuffle) with actual solos as part of the electric Dixieland that is the Dead
At this point Weir really is just the kid, coming into his own with songs like Jack Straw. Like Lesh not being quite the constant Scott LaFaro soloist he is now, he isn’t the full blown C-A-G-E-D chord fragment master of the fretboard (though it’s there). Both are even conventional, even though they are collectively blowing the paint off the walls in this period. And then Garcia is both enjoying being the charismatic leader which too quickly became a burden to hide from in a haze of Persian and just a member of the band. The range and energy of his playing is breathtaking, but he’s also not just soloing all the time. I haven’t mentioned Billy Kreutzmann but I also preferred him as the only drummer and there’s power and swing throughout.
Good old Grateful Dead but somehow new, like I was when this was coming down.
1 note
·
View note
Video
youtube
Grateful Dead - Estimated Prophet
#grateful dead#terrapin station#estimated prophet#jerry garcia#donna jean godchaux#keith godchaux#mickey hart#bill kreutzmann#phil lesh#bob weir#tom scott#progressive rock#jazz rock#rock#music#music is love#music is life#music is religion#raining music#70s#70s music
32 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
free-dreamerimelda
Untitled
digitalsnehal
My Posts
koalifiedhooman-blog
Hooman and the Animals
randosuggestions-blog
can i get a fuckin uhhhhhhhhh