If I was around in the late 60's you catch me at a Grateful Dead show. Or for that matter any Fillmore Show. It has been always a dream and only a dream to go back in time and catch the Grateful Dead back in the late 60's and early 70's. I have been a Dead fan for quite some time, and when I started listening to them when I was an early teenager I felt transformed and a little wiser. Someone called them Electric Bluegrass and looking back, there sound was a mix of that and so many other genres.
I also noticed that most music fans are Grateful Dead fans or not. I had a friend who was a music "geek" like myself who was not a Dead fan. I had other people who loved them. When I went back to college there was a lot of Dead fans. But that's all they listen to, that type of music. The jam type music was a big thing when I went north for college. It was like thy were stuck and could not get out of the rut.
Going back to my early years of my Grateful Dead listening I think I played American Beauty and Workingman's Dead to death. I am sure that could have just ruined my Grateful Dead experience but it did not. They were so much more then that. They mixed all these beautiful genres of music together and created their own.
One Day I was on my way for a day of record finding I turned on the local classic rock station I heard them play Aoxomoxoa. They mentioned that this was the original mix from the original pressing that was issued in June of 1969. I listened with great interest because I only had the 1971 mix that I believe everybody had if you had some of the early years. I was floored, this album is so different and so fun to listen to. The best example of hearing the different parts is the song "Mountains of the Moon." In the 1971 mix there is no haunting chorus and that is sad.
Hearing the rest of the album, I had one album to at least find when I went shopping that day. I never did find it for about 3 years later when I saw it at a tag sale. The man selling it told me it was the 1969 mix of the album and I quickly bought it. Listening to it was like seeing an old friend. All the stuff I remember when hearing it on the radio made me love this album more.
After years of looking for a CD copy of the "Original Mix" I said there was no hope. Even when they re-issued the Dead catalog they did not even put it out. I was floored, I could not understand why they would let this great time capsule of 1969 go by with out saying a word. I even went on the Grateful Dead mailing hoping, praying that this mix would see the light.
Just rather recently I found it on line, and there was joy in the world. It's still a widely circulated bootleg, but at least I can listen to it. Aoxomoxoa is one of the best of the Grateful Dead, the part of the peek of their early career. The fun part is like it's predecessor Anthem of the Sun they continue with the studio fun. If you are looking to transport yourself to the late 60's and be part of the San Francisco scene then enjoy this true album. Space out and enjoy!!!
MosaicImages1.jpg)
Dude, I agree with your statement about music lovers are either a lover the Dead "or not." I had Workingman's Dead in the early 80s and liked it fine. In the late 80s however I was living in the Bay Area where the Dead were a bigger deal, and they had just had a big hit. So I picked up more and more albums. Eventually becoming a near Dead Head.
ReplyDeleteThey have more live albums than you can mention, many of them excellent. But I also never bought into the notion that you only "got" the Dead if you saw them live, and that the albums suck. Obviously Workingman and American Beauty are the two classics, but I found many studio albums that I very much enjoy.
It also took becoming a guitarist for me to understand why Jerry is condsidered such a great guitarist. Other than the more rockin' stuff like Truckin', I still have no idea what he's playing, but can appreciate his understated, classy, and very rootsy style. Its quite brilliant, even if it doesn't blow you away with rock flash.
At the end of the day, I think for complete music lovers like us, its still hard to buy into the whole Dead Head thing. People who only listen to one style or even ONE BAND, I just can't really relate to as fellow music lovers. I can appreciate their "scene", and imagine they're having more fun at their parties than I am. But its about more than the music (which I think they would be first to admit). Its about a whole lifestyle. Thats cool, but there's no way true music hunters can just turn ourselves over to one style or band as completely as a Dead Head.
Frankly, from a musical standpoint, I wish the Dead Head thing didn't exist, so we could just judge the music on musical terms. They'd be held up as (nearly as) great as the Allman Bros or The Band (the two obvious comparisons, and two bands they played with a lot).