pete@valid.UUCP (Pete Zakel) (01/09/86)
> Jerry . . . was wearing > navy blue instead of red. "Trouble ahead, Jerry in NAVY BLUE???" Well anyway, > I think that navy blue looks much better. He also wore navy blue for the > New Year's show. Was it really navy blue? I thought he was back to black. Although at the two Keystone Palo Alto shows (21,22 Dec) the first night he wore dark blue or violet so it might be navy blue. The second PA show he was back in red. Testing the waters, maybe? > > And now a word from our special guest reviewer Mr. Josh Belkin. > > There was something that looked to be computer-generated to us. > One was a kind of moving star, the other was a set of computer-generated > balls (I could tell by the way the "light" shined on them) which moved around > in a very graceful, precise but controlled manner. I could guess somone was > using a couple of track balls or joysticks to control the image. > I thought the "computer-generated" stuff was done by shining light through translucent glass or plastic. It looked much too clean and fast for being computer generated, and the shining-light-through-translucent-material trick is a LOT less expensive. > Here's the run down.... (pre-New Year) > > Gimme Some Lovin' > West LA Fadeaway > Brother Esau > Stagger Lee > Little Red Rooster > Tennessee Jed > Looks Like Rain > Don't Ease Me In > > Quinn The Eskimo > Samson and Delilah > -> He's Gone > -> I Need A Miracle > -> Crazy Fingers > -> drums > -> space > -> The Other One > -> Wharf Rat > -> Sugar Magnolia > > It's All Over Now, Baby Blue > > Rea Simpson I have "Greatest Story Ever Told" between "Gimme Some Lovin'" and "West LA Fadewaway" in my set list. Also, In the pre-New Year's show the Billy and Mickey didn't leave the stage during the "space" portion. Is this common? (In 53 shows it was the first time I'd noticed it). ------------------------------- Some of you may be interested, Gina Arnold did a "Pop Music Review" in the San Jose Mercury News on Wednesday 1 January 1986 titled "A dally with the Dead" which was not exactly favorable. Some quotes: "As a child, I was housemate to a rabid Deadhead -- my brother. I was subjected to countless hours of Grateful Dead music, day and night. I grew to hate the Grateful Dead" "Monday night, I ventured out of my narrow cocoon to see the Grateful Dead... accompanied by the self-same brother -- still, lo these many years later, a rabid Deadhead." And I was surprised." "And it was the music that surprised me: It was quite a bit more enjoyable than an old humbug like me would have expected." But then she goes on to say: "The Dead created a hypnotic, improvisational swirl of music that worked its way through songs like 'Crazy Fingers,' 'Sugar Magnolia' and 'Baby Blue.' Incidentally, the second set opened with a Deadish version of Manfred Mann's silly 1969 song 'Quinn the Eskimo,' a Grateful Dead first... Other than 'Quinn,' however, the Dead and Co. lacked any humor. The proceedings were taken with a dreadful amount of seriousness by the fans and by the musicians alike. Any crowd that doesn't get the humor in swirling oil-lights and tacky slides ... definately needs a good kick in the pants. Clearly, the Dead has a lot of secret strengths, but most of the rock attributes that modern audiences crave -- power, energy, sonic weight and lyrical meaning -- are absent in the band's songs. Instead, these meandering folk-rock numbers concern typical blues topics and sound perfectly unbelievable when sung by rich Marin hippies. As a social phenomenon, the Grateful Dead is an unqualified success. But as a rock'n'roll band, it could use some modern inspiration. Like maybe to be locked in a bedroom for seven years with its own music playing in the next room ad infinitum. Maybe _then_ it would decide to branch out." ????????? Where does this woman think she is coming from? Quinn a "silly" song? "Tacky" slides? No "power, energy, sonic weight and lyrical meaning"? Oh, well, I could flame for hours about this review, but it would do no good. Fortunately, most of the people I know that like GOOD music without someone else telling them what GOOD is will ignore this review and everyone else deserves what they get. ------------------------- BTW, Jerry is doing more acoustic shows: 16 Jan at Keystone Palo Alto and 18,19 Jan at Stone San Francisco. With John Kahn. "When Quinn the Eskimo gets here, everybody's gonna want a dose." -Pete Zakel (..!pesnta!valid!pete)