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Post by The Watcher on May 17, 2005 6:09:22 GMT -5
Hey guys and gals here we can list our fav. songs of the years between 1970 and 1979. and talk about what made them great. have fun.
1. "Monster" - Steppenwolf 2. "House Of The Rising Sun" - Frijid Pink 3. "Who'll Stop The Rain" - CCR 4. "American Woman" - The Guess Who 5. "Let It Be" - The Beatles 6. "The Letter" - Joe Cocker 7. "Ride Captain Ride" - Blues Image 8. "Ohio" - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 9. "Uncle John's Band" - The Grateful Dead 10 "Love The One You're With" - Stephen Stills
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Post by The Watcher on May 19, 2005 23:18:04 GMT -5
JOHN KAY & STEPPENWOLF
In the chaotic world of rock 'n' roll, in which the lifespan of most bands can be measured in terms of a few years or a few months, John Kay and Steppenwolf have emerged as one of rock's most enduring and respected bands, delivering hard-hitting, personally-charged music for more than three decades.
In the late 1960s, Steppenwolf embodied that era's social, political and philosophical restlessness, building an impressive body of edgy, uncompromising rock 'n' roll that retains its emotional resonance more than three decades after the band's formation. Such Steppenwolf standards as "Born to Be Wild," "Magic Carpet Ride," "Rock Me" and "Monster" stand amongst Rock's most indelible anthems.
At last count, the band's worldwide record sales exceed 25 million units. Its songs remain fixtures on classic-rock radio, and have been licensed for use in approximately 50 motion pictures and an even greater number of television programs. And, in addition to being the first band to use the term "heavy metal" in a song (in "Born to Be Wild"), Steppenwolf's punchy style helped to establish the fundamentals of the hard-rock sound that would flourish in the 1970s.
Steppenwolf's remarkable resilience is largely a reflection of the fierce determination and never-say-die tenacity that's driven Kay for much of his life. He was born Joachim Fritz Krauledat in 1944 in the section of Germany then known as East Prussia. He never knew his father, who was killed fighting in Russia a month before John's birth. When John was less than a year old, he and his mother fled to what would soon become Communist-controlled East Germany. When he was four, they undertook a perilous midnight escape into West Germany.
Growing up in Hannover, West Germany, John was profoundly affected by the American rock 'n' roll he heard on U.S. Armed Forces Radio. Though he didn't speak English at the time, the music's primal energy touched something deep in him, instilling both a driving ideal of personal freedom and an abiding interest in American culture. That vision became a reality in 1958, when the teenager emigrated with his mother and stepfather to Toronto. There, he immersed himself in the rock, R&B, country and gospel music that emanated from late-night U.S. clear-channel AM stations, while learning English from the speed-rapping DJs who dominated the rock 'n' roll airwaves.
By 1967, The Sparrow had run its course and Kay was back in Los Angeles, where ABC-Dunhill Records staff producer Gabriel Mekler encouraged him to form a new group to record for his label. Towards that end, the singer reenlisted two old Sparrow bandmates, drummer Jerry Edmonton and keyboardist Goldy McJohn, and recruited 17-year-old guitar prodigy Michael Monarch and bassist Rushton Moreve. The new outfit was christened Steppenwolf, after Hermann Hesse's mystical novel of the same name.
Steppenwolf's self-titled 1968 debut album-recorded in a mere four days-introduced the band's iconoclastic approach, which combined a tough, blues-rooted sound, a penchant for topical lyrics and the gritty growl of Kay, whose brooding presence and trademark shades made him one of the era's most magnetic and identifiable figures.
Steppenwolf soon emerged as one of the few bands of the late '60s to successfully straddle the pop-oriented AM mainstream and the hip FM underground, scoring substantial success on both the single and album charts without tailoring its approach to pander to either constituency. "Born to Be Wild"-written by ex-Sparrow member Dennis Edmonton, aka Mars Bonfire-became Steppenwolf's first major hit, and was subsequently featured prominently (along with the band's pointed reading of Hoyt Axton's anti-hard-drug composition "The Pusher") in the seminal '60s film Easy Rider, cementing Steppenwolf's status as counterculture icons as well as earning the group a hardcore biker following.
"For the times, Steppenwolf was an uncharacteristically tight band," Kay notes. "In San Francisco, The Sparrow had been allowed to stretch out and experiment. But when Steppenwolf was created, I think Jerry and I had both come to the conclusion that the strong rhythmic element was what we really valued. Our philosophy was 'Hit 'em hard, make your point and move on.'"
Steppenwolf's aggressive image co-existed with a thoughtful lyrical stance that challenged mainstream values and counterculture platitudes alike. "That idea of speaking your mind in the lyrics is something I had picked up in the folk-music community, and from growing up in post-World War II Germany," Kay states. "We didn't see why you couldn't have music that worked on a gut level but still offered some food for thought."
The band's career momentum and musical progression continued with such best-selling albums as Steppenwolf The Second (which yielded another Top Five classic in "Magic Carpet Ride"), At Your Birthday Party (which spawned the Top Ten hit "Rock Me"), the ambitiously conceptual Monster (whose politically provocative title track became a surprise hit), Steppenwolf Live (which featured studio single "Hey Lawdy Mama"), Steppenwolf 7 and For Ladies Only. Along the way, various members came and went, with bassist Moreve leaving in late 1968; he was initially replaced by former Sparrow member Nick St. Nicholas, before being supplanted in early 1970 by George Biondo. Guitarist Monarch exited in 1969, replaced first by Larry Byrom and subsequently by Kent Henry.
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Post by The Watcher on May 19, 2005 23:18:44 GMT -5
"Steppenwolf was always kind of a work in progress," says Kay. "By our second album, we had become more confident in not having to mimic others in our attitude, in our look or in our music. We were really in uncharted territory to a great extent, because at the time there were very few models of how all this should work. You'd play some arena in Monroe, Louisiana, using the same public-address system that they used to announce basketball games, with no monitors. You'd spend a lot of time scratching your head thinking 'There's got to be a better way to do this.'"
Steppenwolf's popularity and influence continued unabated into the early 1970s. But, burned out from the endless album/tour grind, the quintet officially disbanded on Valentine's Day 1972, a day that L.A. Mayor Sam Yorty officially designated as "Steppenwolf Day." Kay then released a pair of critically acclaimed solo albums, Forgotten Songs and Unsung Heroes and My Sportin' Life, which found him exploring new musical and lyrical territory, with rewarding results.
Following Steppenwolf's highly successful 1974 European "farewell" tour, Kay reformed the band with Jerry Edmonton, Goldy McJohn, George Biondo and new guitarist Bobby Cochran. The group recorded three more albums-Slow Flux, which yielded the Top 20 hit "Straight Shootin' Woman," Hour of the Wolf and Skullduggery-for the Epic-distributed Mums label, before calling it a day once again in 1976. Kay then signed with Mercury Records and relaunched his solo career with 1978's well-received All In Good Time.
It was around this time that Kay learned that two of his former bandmates were touring with a bogus "Steppenwolf." The notion of the fake band playing low-rent club gigs-and tarnishing the legacy he'd spent nearly a decade building-aroused Kay's fighting spirit, motivating him and Steppenwolf co-founder Jerry Edmonton (who by then had retired from music in favor of a career in photography) to take steps to establish their legal claim to the band name.
In 1980 Kay launched an all-new lineup, now billed as John Kay and Steppenwolf, virtually starting from scratch to restore his band's good name. The new group spent the next several years working a punishing touring regimen, playing anywhere and everywhere it could to rebuild Steppenwolf's reputation as a class act.
"That was a real ego adjustment, and a real test-do you want to do this badly enough to rebuild this thing from the ground up?," Kay admits. "It was a tremendously humbling experience, grinding it out 20 weeks at a time, reconquering small chunks of real estate step by step. But it showed me that there were people out there who still felt a deep connection to Steppenwolf. By 1987 or thereabouts, we came up for air and looked around and saw what we'd accomplished. We didn't have any albums in the Top 40, but we had built this solid thing that was kind of like the Grateful Dead in miniature."
Indeed, the lengthy rebuilding period had put Kay and company back in touch with a large and loyal fan base-as well as an influx of younger listeners responsive to band's enduring appeal-that has kept Steppenwolf rolling ever since. Since then, John Kay and Steppenwolf-which now includes longtime members Michael Wilk (keyboards/bass) and Ron Hurst (drums) and relatively recent addition Danny Johnson (guitar)-have released seven albums and maintained a busy international touring schedule that keeps the band on the road for several months per year. The band also hosts Wolf Fest, an annual weekend-long festival that draws fans from around the world-fondly dubbed "the Wolfpack"-to the band's adopted home base in Tennessee.
In 1994, on the eve of Steppenwolf's 25th anniversary, Kay returned to the former East Germany for a triumphant series of Steppenwolf concerts; that trip reunited him with friends and relatives he had not seen since his early childhood. The same year, Kay published his autobiography, Magic Carpet Ride, which compellingly related the ups and downs and his and his band's history.
Today's Steppenwolf, operating without major-label financing, is the model of a successful cyber-age cottage industry. The band's self-contained operation incorporates an in-house 24-track digital recording studio, as well as an extensive website-www.steppenwolf.com-that serves as a cyber-clubhouse for fans around the world. The website also functions as an outlet for Steppenwolf music, allowing fans easy access to the group's recent work, as well as CD reissues of the entire Steppenwolf and John Kay album catalogue. The band continues to generate vital new music, with a number of recording projects in the works, including the recent John Kay solo effort, Heretics and Privateers.
Steppenwolf's dramatic and sometimes turbulent history recently became the subject of an episode of VH-1's documentary series Behind the Music. That much-talked-about broadcast underlined the band's ongoing stature and influence, but John Kay, now in his fourth decade with Steppenwolf, remains focused firmly on the future.
"There's a lot of truth in that old cliché about whatever doesn't kill you making you stronger," Kay concludes. "Looking back, I realize that it's the struggles that have taught us how to gain our independence and live the rock 'n' roll of life on our own terms."
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Post by The Watcher on May 19, 2005 23:25:19 GMT -5
originally comprised of singer Kelly Green, bassist Tom Harris, guitarist Gary Ray Thompson, keyboardist Larry Zelanka and drummer Richard Stevers, formed in 1967. In 1969, the group signed with the Parrot label. Their first two singles, "Tell Me Why" and "Drivin' Blues," failed to win many listeners. Their third single, a distorted version of "The House of the Rising Sun" climbed into the Top Ten on the charts in the United States. It became an even bigger hit, internationally.
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Post by The Watcher on May 19, 2005 23:37:16 GMT -5
"Rarely in rock and roll history has there been so close a relationship between creative achievement and audience response as with Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969 and 1970, the years when they were without question the most sucessful and exhilarating band in America. Making music against the grain of the post-San Francisco pop music of the Sixties, Creedence struck a true chord with records that were clean, demanding, vivid and fast-with what might be called straightforward lyricism." Greil Marcus, CHRONICLE
1941 November: On the 9th Tom Fogerty is born in Berkeley, California. 1945 April: On the 24th Doug Clifford is born in Palo Alto, California. April: On the 25th Stu Cook is born in Oakland, California. May: On the 28th John Cameron Fogerty is born in Berkeley, California. 1958 Tom Fogerty plays in 'The Playboys'. 1959 Tom Fogerty plays in another band: 'Spider Webb and The Insects' September: John, Doug and Stu begin performing as 'Blue Velvets', while attending high-school. November: Tom Fogerty joins the band changing the name into 'Tommy Fogerty And The Blue Velvets'. The quartet became a popular attraction in the Bay Area suburb of El Cerritto. 1961 October: Tommy Fogerty & Blue Velvets first single Come On Baby/Oh My Love released. November: Second single Have You Ever Been Lonely/Bonita released. 1962 June: Third single Yes You Did/Now You're Not Mine released. 1963 John Fogerty gets a job as picking and shopping clerk at Fantasy Records, while Tom works at Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and Stu and Doug are still at San Jose State College. 1964 After auditoning as an instrumental band, TF&BV are signed by Fantasy records, on the understanding that they change their name to the more topical 'The Golliwogs' and play beat music to monopolize on the concurrent 'British Invasion'. November: The Golliwogs single Don't Tell Me No Lies/Little Girl released. 1965 April: Second Golliwogs single You Came Walking/Where You Been released. July: Third Golliwogs single You Can't Be True/You Got Nothin' On Me released. 1966 March: The Golliwogs single Brown-Eyed Girl/You Better Be Carefull released. April: The Golliwogs single Fight Fire/Fragile Child released. John and Doug are drafted into the army. December: The Golliwogs singleWalking On The Water/You Better Get It... released. 1967 John and Doug return from the army. November: The Golliwogs single Porterville/Call It Pretending released. Later that year Saul Zaentz buys Fantasy Records. After discussions with The Golliwogs, the quartet turn fully professional and change their name in Creedence Clearwater Revival. December 24: Creedence Clearwater Revival formed by John Fogerty, lead guitar, Tom Fogerty rhythm guitar, Stu Cook, bass guitar and Doug Clifford, drums. 1968 July: First album, called simply Creedence Clearwater Revival, released, earns CCR first gold record. August: First two singles, Suzie Q. parts I and II, and I Put A Spell On You/Walk On The Water simultaniously released. 1969 January: Second Album, Bayou Country, released, sells over one million copies, earning CCR first platinum record award. Proud Mary/Born On The Bayou, also released, first gold single. It introduced the mixture of Southern creole styles, R&B and rockabilly through which the best of the group's work was filtered. April: Bad Moon Rising/Lodi released, second gold single. Bootleg/Good Golly Miss Molly released in France as a single. July: Green River/Commotion released, third gold single. August: Third album, Green River, released, earns second platinum record award. September 17: Bad Moon Rising hits the #1 position in Great Britain's New Musical Express top 30. October: Down On The Corner/Fortunate Son released, fourth gold single. November: Fourth album, Willy And The Poor Boys released, third platinum record award. 1970 January: Travelin' Band/Who'll Stop The Rain released, fifth gold single. Rolling Stone Creedence cover article. Interview by Ralph J. Gleason with John Fogerty. January 30: Creedence jamsession with Booker T. and the MG's at the Factory in Berkely. April: First European Tour, CCR earns uprecedented praise and acclaim from European press and public. Up Around The Bend/Run Through The Jungle released, sixth gold single. July: Fifth album, Cosmo's Factory released, sells over three million copies, fourth platinum record award. Lookin' Out My Back Door/Long As I Can See The Light released, seventh gold single. July 10: Start of 'Mondo Bizzaro 1' tour. December: Sixth album, Pendulum released. Fifth platinum award 1971 January: Have You Ever Seen The Rain/Hey Tonight released, eight gold single. The Inside Creedence booklet by John Halliwall comes out. February: Tom Fogerty leaves group for solo career. July: Sweet Hitch-Hiker/Door To Door released, eleventh single. August 2: Start of 'Mondo Bizzaro 2' tour. September: 'Second European Tour' 1972 February: Start of New Zealand, Australia and Japan tour. Molina/Sailors' Lament released in Germany as a single. March: Tour ends, last single released, Someday Never Comes/Tearin' Up The Country. April: Last album, Mardi Grass, released. Start of the 'Mardi Grass Spring Tour'. July: Creedence Clearwater Revival disbands.
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Post by The Watcher on May 19, 2005 23:44:34 GMT -5
In the early sixties a little known band called Chad Allen & the Expressions emerged from the confines of stale American rock to experiment with a hot new British influence. Record executives heard the Winnipeg band with excitement but upon discovering the group was Canadian quickly ignored them. Under pressure, Quality Records eventually released a single with only the song title, “Shakin’ All Over", and a simple moniker as to not give away the song’s roots, ‘Guess Who?’ The song soon became a hit and legends were born.
newly named group, The Guess Who, consisting of Randy Bachman (lead guitar), Jim Kale (bass), Garry Peterson (drums) and a new member, the talented Burton Cummings (keyboards), began recording in 1966 . Burton Cummings became the lead vocalist and largely gave the band its new found identity. The Guess Who enjoyed minimal success between 1966 and 1968, most of which came from Canadian radio stations
that were still yet undecided in their support of a homegrown band in the wake of the British invasion.
Airplay in the U.S. was non-existent, which lead to four records displaying dismal sales and a jump from Quality Records to producer Jack Richardson’s newly formed label, Nimbus 9.
The label jump was The Guess Who’s moment of truth. After recording in New York in September of 1968, the band released their first gold U.S. single, “These Eyes", which quickly reached #6 in 1969. A second album saw two singles, “Laughing" (#10) and Undun (#22) hit the charts.
By 1970 largely based on the success of the bands’ landmark album, AmericanWoman
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Post by The Watcher on May 19, 2005 23:51:45 GMT -5
Those of us in our forties today remember with fondness and excitement the atmosphere created by four young guys from Liverpool, England. As all of us remember where we were during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, we likewise remember being transfixed in front of our small black & white television sets on February 9, 1964, when the Beatles made their first American debut on TheEdSullivanShow.
In preparation for their appearance, the CBS Television office on West-Fifty-Third Street in New York was overwhelmed by more than 50,000 requests for tickets to a studio that held 700. During their appearance, the Beatles sang five songs in the following order: All My Loving, Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, and I Want To Hold Your Hand. On this night, seventy-three million people watched the Beatles. Their appearance had such an impact that most normal activities in America came to a standstill watching their performance. Criminal activity in most of the major cities and towns in America was put on hold, and getting a taxi or bus in New York was almost impossible, until their performance was over. Mass hysteria resulted wherever the Beatles appeared, and Beatlemania was created.
Two days later, on February 11, 1964, the Beatles sang their first concert in the United States, at the Washington Coliseum. The Beatles only came to Maryland once, when on September 13, 1964, they performed two shows at the Baltimore Civic Center (now the Baltimore Arena).
The world's number one rock group consisted of John Winston (Ono) Lennon (born 10/09/40 - died 12/08/80), whose middle name came from his parent's admiration of Winston Churchill, and which John changed to Ono in later years; James Paul McCartney (born 06/18/42); George Harold Harrison (born 02/25/43 - died 11/29/01); and Ringo Starr (born Richard Starkey 07/07/40).
During the Beatles recording career from 1962 to 1970, they would release twenty-two singles (45rpm) in the United Kingdom, and thirty-three in the United States. Their first UK single was Love Me Do/P.S. I Love You, released October 5, 1962, on EMI/Parlophone Records. The first USA single would be Please Please Me/Ask Me Why, which they released on February 25, 1963 on Vee Jay Records. Although the Beatles were big in England, they had not yet caught on in the United States. Following their first USA single, came From Me To You/Thank YouGirl, which was released May 27, 1963 on Vee Jay, followed by She Loves You/I'll Get You on Swan Records. Finally on December 26, 1963, Capitol Records decided to release I Want To Hold Your Hand/I Saw Her Standing There, which went to number 1 on the Billboard Charts on January 18, 1964, and stayed there for seven weeks. As luck would have it, the Beatles first US visit planned for February 1964 with their appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show had been booked almost six months earlier. Only by accident did the Beatles I Want To Hold Your Hand happen to be at #1 the same time as their first US visit. One could not have asked for better timing. On January 30, 1964, following the success of I Want To Hold Your Hand, Vee Jay Records re released Please Please Me, only this time with From Me To You as the B-Side.
Interestingly, many singles released in the UK had different B-Sides from those released in the USA. During this time in recording history, all recording artists used the A-Side as the hit, and the B-Side was just about any song used merely as a filler, except the Beatles. The Beatles were the first and only group in recording history to release a hit song on both sides of a single 45 rpm record. Also, the Beatles are the only group in recording history to have twenty songs reach number one.
In the United Kingdom, the Beatles released twelve albums (33 rpm/LP's), however released nineteen in the USA. There were several reasons for this. One is that UK albums had fourteen songs, whereby USA had only twelve. The second, and really the most important reason is that Capitol Records decided that they wanted to create their own albums, different from the UK, using titles taken from UK singles and EP (extended play) singles. Such US albums as Meet The Beatles, The Beatles Second Album, Something New, Beatles '65, The Early Beatles, Beatles VI, Help!, and Yesterday and Today, were never issued in the UK in this form. Even Help!, the Beatles' movie soundtrack was issued with different cuts than the UK version. It was not until the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that they maintained the integrity of the albums universally.
The song writing duo of Lennon-McCartney is the most successful in the world. The only other song writing duo to come close to the success of Lennon-McCartney is Elton John and Bernie Taupin. Although they almost never wrote any of their songs together, John Lennon and Paul McCartney decided that all songs written by each of them would always be credited to both of them. Generally, what each would do is write a particular song, then present it to each other. In areas where each song needed a word, or some changes, they then would sit together a fine tune the song.
From 1962 to 1970, the Beatles recorded 214 songs. Throughout the years, there have always been speculation and rumors about what many Beatles songs mean. Often, the common belief, based mostly on rumor, is no where near the truth. Although reviewing each song and its meaning is not practical, I have chosen some more common and/or most interesting songs and outlined its real meaning
All the songs written and recorded by the Beatles for their first five albums, Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles For Sale and Help! had the same theme, love. Each of these songs dealt with relationships, boy meets girl, boy loses girl, etc. John Lennon had married Cynthia Powell at Mount Pleasant Register Office in Liverpool on August 23, 1961, being the only Beatle to be married at this time, and Paul McCartney had dated a girl from Liverpool named Dorothy Rhone, followed by Jane Asher (Jane is the sister of Peter Asher, famous for the recording duo of Peter and Gordon). These relationships provided the inspiration for the songs on the first five albums. It was not until 1965 that John Lennon wrote Nowhere Man, a song that had the distinction of being the first song that was not about love.
In early 1961, Paul McCartney wrote P.S. I Love You, which was dedicated to Dorothy. During this time, Dorothy was sharing an apartment with Cynthia Powell. Although Dorothy was madly in love with McCartney, Paul was too young to settle down. Consequently, Paul broke off their relationship. Cynthia, seeing how devastated Dorothy was at the breakup, described this in a book she later wrote titled, A Twist of Lennon. About the same time Paul broke up with Dorothy, John Lennon realized that he was truly in love with Cynthia. To describe this feeling, Lennon wrote Do You Want To Know A Secret to Cynthia. The Secret being that he was in love with her.
When comparing the writings of John and Paul, Paul was always a more outgoing type, writing about things that he felt and that had happened. John on the other hand was both introverted and extroverted. His extroverted traits were mostly an act, for the sake of the group. His real self was truly introverted, and many of his writings deal with his inner thoughts. In Lennon's There's A Place, he speaks of the sadness in his life, and retreats to his inner thoughts to find safety and contentment. Like most of Lennon and McCartney's love songs, Paul is the confident one that believes things with work out, while John is preoccupied with feelings of apprehension.
The first song that Paul wrote the words to before the music was All My Loving. Paul thought of this song first as a poem while shaving one day. The song deals with being separated from the one that he loves. The Beatles first performed All My Loving in 1963 during a performance at London's Royal Albert Hall. It would be at this concert on April 18 that Jane Asher was in the audience, and met Paul. Jane, although only seventeen, was an accomplished actress, and was serious about her acting career. Throughout their relationship, she placed her acting first, often, before the relationship with Paul. Paul, on the other hand, believed that Jane should be always available to him, whenever he was not touring. Because they were separated a lot, Paul wrote Things We Said Today. He describes his reflection of their times together, and his memory of the things that they said that day. The Beatles made five movies; A Hard Day's Night, which recreates the frenzy of Beatlemania; Help!, which cast Ringo in the starring role as one who inherited a magic ring, whom members of an evil cult constantly pursue in their attempt to get this ring; Magical Mystery Tour, features the Beatles and other actors on a bus ride journey through the English countryside; Yellow Submarine, which is animated. It is a psychedelic fantasy, whose plot is about a happy kingdom called Pepperland. This kingdom is taken over by the Blue Meanies, and the Beatles, riding to the rescue in a yellow submarine, eventually conquers the Blue Meanies through the power of love and music, and their last film, Let It Be, an eighty-minute documentary of the Beatles rehearsing at Twickenham Film Studios, recording sessions at Apple Studios, and playing live on the roof of their Apple offices in London.
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Post by The Watcher on May 19, 2005 23:53:12 GMT -5
In December 1969, I had the opportunity to travel to London over the Christmas and New Year's vacation from school, with my parents and brother. During my week's stay, I had always held out the slim hope that I might be able to see the Beatles. I figured my best chance to see them accidentally, would be to go to them. On the morning of December 28, I decided that I would go to the Beatles Apple offices at 3 Saville Row. My brother, although reluctant to go with me, finally gave in, mostly because I was going regardless. Leaving our hotel at Green Park, we hailed a taxi, and telling the driver to take us to Apple was all we had to say. He knew exactly where we wanted to go. A short ride later we were dropped off directly in front of the Apple offices. The excitement of just being in front of this building was tremendous. The building was all white, with a brass plate affixed to the wall to the left side of the entrance door. On this plate was simply written "APPLE." Being sixteen at the time, and my brother eighteen, we stood outside for several minutes attempting to devise a plan to get inside. We were dressed in suits that I figured at least lent a limited amount of sophistication, which really meant to me that they would not toss us out immediately. After reaching no logical conclusion, I figured to best way to get inside was merely just to go in. My brother kept telling me that we should not, but I was determined. So I walked up the few steps with my brother following, and opened the entrance door. Upon entering, we found ourselves in the foyer, with another door to pass through to get inside. We continued. Once inside, there was a girl at the far end of the room sitting at a desk, who was the receptionist, and standing near her was Mary Hopkin, the recording artist for Apple Records, famous for her song, Those Were The Days.
Directly to the left side of the room was a sofa and on the wall above it was a huge painting of John Lennon. Just to the right of the receptionist's desk was a hallway, and we could see that there was an office there. A man approached us, who turned out to be the doorman, named Jim. He asked if he could help us, and I struck up a conversation with him, mostly to prolong our visit. I asked if any of the Beatles were there, and he replied that they were not. I did learn that Paul and John's offices were on the first floor, down this hallway only a few steps away, and that Ringo and George had offices upstairs. However, after a few minutes, and realizing that we had no business there, were told that we could not stay. Although we were not sure, my brother and I did get the feeling that at least one of the Beatles was there, because of the panic-stricken reaction of the employees, and their quest to get us to leave. We'll never know for sure, but it was exciting at least to have been this close.
By the summer of 1967, the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, on June 2, unquestionably the Beatles greatest album ever. It was the brainchild of Paul, and took more than six months to complete. John, Paul and George contributed its songs, but in a more simple sense, they conceived all the songs from ideas and things in everyday life. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, long thought to be about an LSD trip, was written by Lennon taken from an idea he got from his son Julian. Julian, a young boy, came home one day with a painting he had done at school of one of his classmates named Lucy O'Donnell. In explaining the painting to his father, he described it as Lucy, in the sky with diamonds, and the song was born. The song Getting Better, came from a description of the weather, in that it was getting better all the time.
Earlier in the year 1967, Paul came across a newspaper article in the Daily Mail about a seventeen-year-old girl who had been missing for weeks. The article quoted her father saying "I can't imagine why she should run away, she has everything here." Based on this article, Paul wrote She's Leaving Home. Somewhere along the way, John came across a poster, printed in 1843 that announced the appearance of a circus coming to town. They called it Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal, and boasted the "grandest night of the season," at Town Meadows, in the north of England. Directly written on this poster was "for the benefit of Mr. Kite," and featured Mr. J. Henderson, a well-known Somerset. As a result, Lennon wrote Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite! All the characters in the song and the feats they would perform, came directly from this poster.
During the recording of Sgt. Pepper, George Harrison, who had learned the sitar, studying under Ravi Shankar, and all the Beatles were spending time with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. George wrote Within You, Without You, which features these influences and the sitar. The first time the sitar was ever used in a popular song was on Norwegian Wood from the album Rubber Soul. Paul wrote When I'm Sixty-Four as a tribute to his father and the music of the thirties, and actually composed the melody when he was only fifteen. In 1967, England had just stated using meter maids to issue parking violation tickets, fashioned after the United States. Upon seeing them, Paul came up with the song Lovely Rita. Good Morning, Good Morning, by Lennon, came directly from a box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes that John liked to eat for breakfast, and a Day In The Life , another Lennon composition, came from several newspaper articles in the Daily Mail. Paul contributed to this song in the section, "Woke up, got out of bed..." from an unfinished song he had been working on. Rather than complete the song, it's short verse was added here. To finish the album, the Beatles needed something short, so George Martin suggested writing the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), and the album was complete. It would be during the recording of Sgt. Pepper that McCartney met Linda Eastman, an American photographer, whom he married in 1969.
Following Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles released their third movie soundtrack, Magical Mystery Tour, which contained such classics as Penny Lane, written after the street by the same name, and an area that surrounds its junction with Smithdown Road in Liverpool. Following its release, the original road signs were stolen, causing officials to place them high on the sides of buildings, out of reach. The people and businesses described in the song were taken from actual events. Today, Penny Lane, is the best-known street in Britain. The idea of placing Penny Lane in a song was John's, but it was Paul that put it together and made it work. Two other noteworthy songs from this movie are Strawberry Fields Forever, and I Am The Walrus, both from Lennon. Strawberry Fields Forever was conceived from a Salvation Army orphanage in Woolton named Strawberry Field, a short distance from where Lennon grew up, and I Am The Walrus, is a disjointed collection of three songs combined that Lennon was working on. Added to this were ridiculous images and nonsense words made up by Lennon, such as "semolina pilchards, elementary penguins, texpert, crabalocker, etc." When asked about the song, Lennon said that Bob Dylan got away with murder in his lyrics, so he decided that, "I can write this crap, too." Next came the famous Hey Jude, one of the biggest sellers for the Beatles, and the longest song ever recorded on a single 45 rpm record at the time, at seven minutes and eleven seconds. At the time, Lennon and his wife Cynthia was divorcing, and Paul, being very close to their son, Julian, wrote Hey Jude as a show of support for Julian and Cynthia during this difficult time. Originally titled, "Hey Julian," then "Hey Jules," it was later changed to Hey JUDE, because from a song standpoint, the name was stronger.
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Post by The Watcher on May 19, 2005 23:54:07 GMT -5
From this point, from 1968 to 1970, the Beatles recorded four more albums; The Beatles (White Album), Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be. Some of the more interesting songs from this period contained on these albums are: Glass Onion, written by Lennon, which is the name that he came up originally for another band that signed with Apple Records called the Iveys. They did not like the name Glass Onion, and decided to call themselves, "Badfinger," taken from "Badfinger Boogie," the original name of the Beatles song A Little Help From My Friends. McCartney's Martha My Dear, was written about the love of a girl, although the name Martha came from the name of Paul's sheepdog; Julia, written by Lennon, was named for and dedicated to his mother. Also, from the white album is a song by Lennon titled Sexy Sadie. This is another interesting one because Sexy Sadie actually refers to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with whom Lennon became quite disillusioned. During one of the Beatles many visits with the Maharishi, they learned that he had made advances to a female member friend of the Beatles. Upset by this, the Beatles abruptly left. In retaliation, Lennon wrote this song but knew he could not use the Maharishi's name, thus came up with Sexy Sadie. George Harrison was seeing a lot of Eric Clapton, and learning of his love of chocolates, wrote SavoyTruffle about Clapton. All the names used in the song, except two, were actual names of candy. Creme Tangerine, Montelimart, Ginger Sling, Coffee Dessert, and Savoy Truffle were actual. George made up the names Cherry Cream and Coconut Fudge to fit the song.
In Yellow Submarine, George Harrison wrote a song titled, Only A Northern Song. This song was intended to have been on Sgt. Pepper, but as in many cases, George's songs were placed in the background in favor of Lennon and McCartney's. From the beginning, Northern Songs Ltd., was the publishing company that published the songs of the Beatles. John and Paul each received 15 percent of each song they wrote, while George and Ringo received only 1.6 percent for each of their songs. Consequently, George and Ringo felt like contract writers, not getting the financial credit due them as part of the Beatles. As a dig toward Northern Songs, George came up with Only A Northern Song, in which he is saying, who cares, it's only a Northern song.
The greatest section to Abbey Road is the famous medley, which consists of ten unfinished songs, all grouped into one basic medley. It begins with Because, written by Lennon. It came about one day when Yoko was playing the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14, in C Sharp Minor (Moonlight Sonata). John asked Yoko if she could play these same chords in reverse order, which she did. This then became the music for Because. Three other songs of note in this medley are She Came In Through The Bathroom Window, written by Paul that described an actual event. Once while he was away from his home, several teenage girls broke into his house, gaining entrance through the bathroom window, thus the song; and Carry That Weight and The End.Carry That Weight was written by Paul to describe his feelings and the burdens of being a superstar, and The End, was written to be the last song they recorded, to describe the end of their studio career. Because it was released on Abbey Road and not their last album Let It Be, it did not work out as planned. In Let it Be, two songs of note come to mind. One is the title track Let It Be, written by Paul that describes that although the Beatles were going through very troubled times, and could barely stand to be in each others company, Paul's message was to merely, let it be. Probably the best song from this album was Paul's The Long And Winding Road. In this Paul is describing, without saying anything specific, the despair he felt during this time, and that the long and winding road leading to the door, was a sign of hope and better things to come. Paul's inspiration for the title was actually a road, which was long and winding that ran along the water to his home in Scotland. The last time The Beatles performed together in a studio was on August 20, 1969. On January 4, 1970, the final taping was completed for Let It Be. In April 1970, McCartney announced that he had left the Beatles, citing personal, business and musical differences. On December 31, 1970, they legally dissolved the Beatles.
In the years that followed, each Beatle went on with their respective solo careers, with McCartney being the most successful, closely followed by Lennon. On December 8, 1980, outside his Dakota apartment building in New York, as John and Yoko were leaving for the studio, a fan approached him and asked if he would autograph a record album for him. Lennon, gladly complied. Later that evening, John and Yoko returned to the Dakota following this recording session. Outside the front gate to the apartment building, John was shot five times by a deranged fan, the same one that Lennon autographed one of his albums for earlier that day. John Winston Ono Lennon, died a short time later, and his remains were cremated. A memorial to John Lennon, titled "Strawberry Fields" is found in New York's Central Park, directly across from the Dakota apartment.
During John Lennon's lifetime, and following his death, four noteworthy songs were written for him and in his honor. The first was written by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody in 1974 titled, The Immigrant. It is dedicated to Lennon and centers around the attempt by the United States to have Lennon wrongfully deported; the second is a song by Paul McCartney titled, Here Today, a beautiful tribute written in 1982 from McCartney's Tug of War album; Third, is the wonderful tribute by George Harrison titled, "All Those Years Ago," and lastly, Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny), written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin. It is an outstanding tribute to the greatness of John Lennon, and equally as good a description of Lennon's killer. In 1998, tragedy struck again with the passing of Linda McCartney, who lost her battle to breast cancer, and again with the passing of George Harrison on November 29, 2001.
The Beatles recent releases of Anthology 1,2 and 3, feature two new songs Free As A Bird and Real Love. Both of these songs were originally conceived by John Lennon in the 1970s. Lennon's wife, Yoko gave these two songs to Paul McCartney, and he with Ringo and George, finished the songs. Using John's voice from his original demo tapes, the Beatles were together again. The release of Free As A Bird and Real Love, and their subsequent success is a testament to their popularity and will remain so forever.
The Beatles changed history and the music world in a dramatic way. Like Glenn Miller from the forties, who changed music by his innovative style of using clarinets in place of trumpets, and Elvis Presley in his unique style of rock 'n roll from the fifties, the Beatles were the group from the sixties, and remain so today.
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Post by The Watcher on May 20, 2005 0:13:39 GMT -5
After starting out as an unsuccessful pop singer (working under the name Vance Arnold), Joe Cocker found his niche singing rock and soul in the pubs of England with his superb backing group, the Grease Band. He hit number one in the U.K. in November 1968 with his version of the Beatles' "A Little Help From My Friends." His career really took off after he sang that song at the Woodstock festival in August 1969. A second British hit came with a version of Leon Russell's "Delta Lady" in the fall of 1969 (by then, Russell was Cocker's musical director) and both of his albums, With a Little Help From My Friends (April 1969) and Joe Cocker! (November 1969), went gold in America. In 1970, his cover of the Box Tops' hit "The Letter" became his first U.S. Top Ten. Cocker's first peak of success came when Russell organized the "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" tour of 1970, featuring Cocker and over 40 others, and resulting in a third gold album and a concert film. Subsequent efforts were less popular, and problems with alcohol (both on-stage and off-) reduced Cocker's once-powerful voice to a croaking rasp. But he returned to the U.S. Top Ten with the romantic ballad "You Are So Beautiful" in 1975 and topped the charts in a duet with Jennifer Warnes on "Up Where We Belong," the theme from the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. He has survived, still charting into the '90s, albeit with less frequency than he did in the '70s and '80s. He also continued to work throughout the new millennium. No Ordinary World was his first release since 1997's Across from Midnight. Respect Yourself appeared in 2002.
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Post by suthrnstuff on May 20, 2005 0:13:50 GMT -5
Hey Guys! Here are my top 10 favorites of 1975: (what a year that was) ;D
1. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds...Elton John
2. Fire...Ohio Players
3. Pick Up The Pieces...Average White Band
4. Best Of My Love...Eagles
5. Black Water...Doobie Brothers
6. Philadelphia Freedom...Elton John
7. Shining Star...Earth, Wind & Fire
8. Sister Golden Hair...America
9. One Of These Nights...Eagles
10. Fame...David Bowie
1975 was a great recording year for Elton John and Eagles
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Post by The Watcher on May 20, 2005 0:18:51 GMT -5
was a one-hit wonder Latin-tinged pop/rock band, that one hit being "Ride Captain Ride," which made the Top Ten and sold a million copies in 1970. The group was formed in Tampa, FL, in 1966 by Michael Pinera (b. September 29, 1948, Tampa, FL) (guitar, vocals), Manuel Bertematti (b. 1946, Tampa, FL) (percussion), and Joe Lala (b. Tampa, FL) (drums). Malcolm Jones (b. Cardiff, Wales) (bass) joined in 1966, followed in 1968 by Frank "Skip" Konte (b. Canyon City, OK) (keyboards). The band moved to New York City in 1968 and managed a club called the Image. Then they moved to Los Angeles, where they signed to Atlantic Records' Atco division in February 1969, and released their self-titled debut album. This was followed by Open (1970), which featured "Ride Captain Ride." But the Blues Image never followed their hit. Pinera left, replaced by Kent Henry (guitar) and Dennis Correll (vocals). Then the Blues Image broke up. A third album, Red White & Blues Image, was compiled from outtakes. Skip Konte joined Three Dog Night, while some other band members reformed as Manna. Pinera later was a member of Iron Butterfly, then Ramatam, and, with Bertematti, the New Cactus Band. He also formed a band called Thee Image and worked as a solo artist. Lala became a Los Angeles session player and worked with Joe Walsh and the various manifestations of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, among others
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Post by The Watcher on May 20, 2005 0:23:44 GMT -5
The musical partnership of David Crosby (born August 14, 1941), Stephen Stills (born January 3, 1945), and Graham Nash (born February 2, 1942), with and without Neil Young (born November 12, 1945), was not only one of the most successful touring and recording acts of the late '60s, '70s, and early '80s -- with the colorful, contrasting nature of the members' characters and their connection to the political and cultural upheavals of the time -- it was the only American-based band to approach the overall societal impact of the Beatles. The group was a second marriage for all the participants when it came together in 1968: Crosby had been a member of the Byrds, Nash was in the Hollies, and Stills had been part of Buffalo Springfield. The resulting trio, however, sounded like none of its predecessors and was characterized by a unique vocal blend and a musical approach that ranged from acoustic folk to melodic pop to hard rock. CSN's debut album, released in 1969, was perfectly in tune with the times, and the group was an instant hit. By the time of their first tour (which included the Woodstock festival), they had added Young, also a veteran of Buffalo Springfield, who maintained a solo career. The first CSNY album, Déjà Vu, was a chart-topping hit in 1970, but the group split acrimoniously after a summer tour. Four Way Street, a live double album issued after the breakup, was another number one hit. (When it was finally released on CD in 1992, it was lengthened with more live material.) In 1974, CSNY reformed for a summer stadium tour without releasing a new record. Nevertheless, the compilation So Far became their third straight number one. Crosby, Stills & Nash re-formed without Young in 1977 for the album CSN, another giant hit. They followed with Daylight Again in 1982, but by then Crosby was in the throes of drug addiction and increasing legal problems. He was in jail in 1985-1986, but cleaned up and returned to action, with the result that CSNY reunited for only their second studio album, American Dream, in 1988. CSN followed with Live It Up in 1990, and though that album was a commercial disappointment, the trio remained a popular live act; it embarked on a 25th anniversary tour in the summer of 1994 and released a new album, After the Storm. The trio again reunited with Young for 1999's Looking Forward, followed in 2000 by their CSNY2K tour.
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Post by The Watcher on May 20, 2005 0:59:34 GMT -5
A very interesting little artical I found and wanted to share with all of you here....
An Evening with the Grateful Dead
Jerry and co. mellow out, grow up
We change and our changings change, a friend said once. It sounded true, but it seems too that through it all we stay the same. That obscure rumination takes us to, of all places, backstage at the Fillmore West, a spot that has mutely witnessed its share of changes and has gone through some of its own. Backstage used to be literally that, a few murky closets with just a few inches and a thin wall separating them from the amps. Now the car dealer on the corner has gone through his changes, and Bill Graham got extra floorspace for a dressing room as big as the lobby of a grand hotel. No palms but a lot of sofas, on one of which sat Jerry Garcia as if he owned the place. Which he once had, sort of, when it was the Carousel, changed from an Irish dance hall to a mad den of psychedelic thieves who for a few months put on a series of dances the likes of which hadn't been seen since the early days of the old Fillmore.
Jerry Garcia had played over there too -- he had been a foundering member, so to speak -- but he had never owned it. Bill Graham had owned that Fillmore and now he owned this one and Jerry was working for him one more night. There was a time when Bill Graham was always on hand when the Dead were playing, but this night he was in New York on business (the next night in LA), and a second or third generation of underling, a soft-faced young man named Jerry Pompili was watching the clock and counting the heads on behalf of Fillmore Inc.
It was just past eight-thirty, showtime, and Jerry P. approached Garcia and asked if they were ready to go on.
Jerry G. was deep in one of his eyeball-to-glittering eyeball monologues, but he paused long enough for a glance around that indicated he was the only musician present and accounted for. "The other guys will be here in a minute, man," he said, "Phil's the only one who might be late."
"Well," said Pompili, "what happens if Phil is late?" allowing into his voice a hint of his hope that the Dead would find a way to start without him, to be nice for once. A hopeless hope.
"Nothing happens," said Jerry G. grinning deep within his hairy tangle, "We'll start whenever Phil arrives."
"Okay," said Pompili, shrinking like a tired balloon, and Jerry geared back up to rapping speed, instantly oblivious of the interruption.
Everything had changed, and nothing too. After over five years of extra inning play, the celebrated Fillmore (and all of rock and roll show biz) versus Grateful Dead game was still a nothing-nothing tie. For five of those years the Dead took their lumps, always scraping through but never out of trouble. In the past half year, however, their tenacity has finally begun to pay off (perseverance furthers, says the Book of Changes). The years of weathering cosmic crises have given them an unshakable musical and group foundation (and even an odd sort of financial stability) and on that they are building afresh.
Typically, their luck waited until the last possible moment to change. 1969 ended with the near disaster of Altamont. The Dead family had been crucial in its organization, and they were as responsible as anyone for the sanctioned presence of the Hells Angels. That day -- they did not even get to play in the end and do their best to save it -- was, says Jerry, "a hard, hard lesson," and while they were absorbing it in early 1970, they had an epic management crisis. Their manager, whom they had chosen because of his honesty and earnestness, was irritating some family members who did not trust his ingratiating manner. Weeks of tense encounters led to a showdown and the manager was let go. Only then did the band discover that he had been bilking them all along; by that time he had disappeared and no one had the time or heart for a suit.
Then they got busted en masse in New Orleans (their second time, the first in the fall of '67 in San Francisco). That has now turned out to be just an inconvenience of time and money, but in March they didn't know that. In the middle of all of this they had to do a record. Something complex was out of the question; Jerry and his writing partner Ron Hunter had some tunes, so they walked into Pacific High Recorders in San Francisco, and banged it out in nine days.
The result was Workingman's Dead, one of the best of the few good records released this year, their simplest production since their first LP, and their most popular release so far. "It was something," said Jerry, "all this heavy bullshit was flying all around us, so we just retreated in there and made music. Only the studio was calm. The record was the only concrete thing happening, the rest was part of that insane legal and financial figment of everybody's imagination, so I guess it came out of a place that was real to all of us. It was good old solid work. TC (pianist Tom Constanten) had just left to go his own way, and with his classical influence gone, we got back to being a rock and roll band again, not an experimental music group. Man, we had been wanting to boogie for a long time."
Workingman's Dead is just about as good a record as a record can be. Easy on the ears from the first listening, it gets mellower as it grows on you; a lot of different rhythms but one sure pulse. In it they tap the same rich emotive vein that the band has reached, and have made from it story songs with down-home feel hiding sophisticated structures, but the Dead's molding of the material is a lot more raw and driving. The Dead look at the world from the outside edge, and their song heroes are losers and hardworking men. "A friend of the devil it a friend of mine," they sing at one point, and the closest they come to "I Shall Be Released" is: One way or another, One way or another, One way or another, This darkness got to end.
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Post by The Watcher on May 20, 2005 1:00:19 GMT -5
That's a long way from the messianic enthusiasm of "Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion" ("See that girl barrbonn' around, she's a dancin' and a singin' she is carryin' one"; remember?), but it's won them more friends. Sales haven't been at hit proportions, but enough to make Warner Brothers friendly for the first time since they were trying to sign the band up.
"Of course we still owe Warners money," Jerry said, "but we're getting the debt down to the size where it's more like a continual advance." A family member, John McIntire, is now the manager, some old friends are watching the books, and the days when organs got repossessed five minutes before showtime have receded, at least for the present.
"We're feeling good," Jerry went on, "really laid back, a tittle older and groovier, not traveling so much, staying at home and quieting down. We used to push ourselves and get crazy behind it, but now we're all getting more done but not having to work at it so hard.
No one could say when the turn from the old Grateful Dead to the new began, but the key was opening up the band's structure. The Dead's complex personal changes are as legendary as their public ones, and they ended only when they decided that they didn't have to be just the Grateful Dead. They could also be Bobby Ace and the Cards from the Bottom, a reentry group led by Bob Weir, or Mickey Hart and the Heartbeats which a lot of golden oldie rockers. At the same time (spring 1969) Jerry got a pedal steel to fool around with and ended up commuting dawn to Palo Alto twice a week to play Nashville style in a little club. That group became the New Riders of the Purple Sage and other Dead members sat in from time to time.
All that country music got them singing, something for which they had not been noteworthy in the pass, and hours of three-part harmony rehearsals got them back to acoustic instruments. Less noise made them less wired. The small quiet groups could and did do club work, around the Bay which meant gigs without touring or equipment hassles. All that ended up with the groove that made Workingman's Dead possible and has created a unique musical experience which they call, rather formally, An Evening with the Grateful Dead.
Phil arrived, sweeping in with madman-long strides, a few minutes before nine, and the latest evening began before a happy crowd of oldtime heads. They opened with the acoustic part (there's no other name). Jerry and Bob Weir on guitars, Pigpen on piano, Phil on electric bass, and Bill Kreutzman (who alternates with Mickey Hart) on drums. The first tune was "Juggin'," an easy going autobiography of a band's life on the road, dotted with busts and bad times and long gone friends like Annie who they've heard is "living on reds, Vitamin C, and cocaine, and all you can say is 'ain't it a shame.'" It went on like that for an hour, music soothing to weary hearts and hard-driven minds because it understands that state of mind only too well. Jerry and Bob shared lead guitar and vocals, Pig doodled around when he wanted and just sat there when he didn't, and Phil and Bill just kept the beat. David Nelson of the New Riders came in about half way through on mandolin, and Jerry switched to his Fender, and it was all very sweet and funky. They ended with "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," and believe it or not, the Grateful Dead looked angelic at last.
The New Riders came on after the break -- Jerry on pedal steel, Mickey on drums, David Nelson on electric guitar, Marmaduke lead vocal and acoustic, and Dave Torbert on bass. They opened with "Sly Days on the Road" and that too set the pace for a rolling set of country rock that probably sounded a lot like the Perkins Brothers when Carl was working honky tonks around Jackson, Tennessee. Except that Carl Perkins never had a drummer as tense as Mickey Hart, and while Jerry most often was tastefully traditional on the steel, he allowed himself some short freakouts banshee-style seldom heard below the Mason-Dixon. They ended with "Honky Tonk Women" which was a gas; Keith Richards, from a film clip in the light show, watched them without cracking a smile.
Then it was time for the Grateful Dead, and everyone was on their feet moving as they began as they used to begin with "Dancing in the Streets" ("It doesn't matter who you are, as long as you are there"). After that came the lovely "Mama Tried" that the Everly Brothers had on their Roots album, and then Pigpen took it away with an all-out dramatic rendition of "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World." Out of that into "Not Fade Away" (quite a repertory that night, huh?) and it was past one thirty; Jerry Garcia was still going strong after four hours on three instruments but the Fillmore floor had gotten to me and we wandered out with that Bo-Diddley-by-way-of-Buddy-Holly beat pounding on and on and on ("My love is bigger than a Cadillac . . .") It wasn't one of those weird nights when, acid-blitzed, they gushed out music as hypnotic energy; is was more legible and, if not as spellbinding, more open music. Very fine indeed.
Those weird nights are surely not gone forever, but the Dead are a bit more careful these days. "Altamont showed us that we don't want to lead people up that road anymore," Jerry had said before the show, "taught us to be more cautious, to realize and respect the boundaries of our power and our space." The Dead never called themselves leaders, but they were high-energy promoters of the psychedelic revolution. On one hand they know now that it's not going to come as quickly as they thought; on the other, they know it is already too big for them to direct. They are now just helpers, like the rest of us. "At last the pressure's off," Jerry said.
He is disturbed, however, about what he calls the "politico pseudo-reality that we find when we go out on tour. Dig: there's a music festival, but because there are people there, radicals say it's a political festival now, not a music festival. I don't want to take over anybody's mind, but I don't want anybody else to take over anybody's mind. If a musical experience is forcibly transferred to a political plane, it no longer has the thing that made it attractive. There is something uniquely groovy about the musical experience; it is its own beginning and end. It threatens no one."
"The San Francisco energy of a few years back has become air and spread everywhere. It was the energy of becoming free and so it became free. But the political energy, the Berkeley energy, has assumed a serpentine form, become an armed, burrowing, survival thing. It's even still on the firebrand, 'To the barricades!' trip that I thought we had been through in this century and wouldn't have to will on ourselves again.
"'Accentuate the positive' though, that's my motto," he said with a gleam in his eye, "and there are more heads every day. Heads are the only people who have ever come to see us, and it used to be that if we played some places no one would come out because there weren't any heads in the town. Today there is no place without its hippies. No place."
With that Phil had come and the band had to start juggin,' playing for the people and hoping to get them high. "We realized when we started out," Jerry had said a few minutes before, "that as a group we were an invention, as new as the first chapter of a novel. We started with nothing to lose. Then suddenly there was something, but always with the agreement that we could go back to being nothing if we wanted. So nothing that has over gone down for the group has ever been real except to the fiction which could be made unreal at any time. A lot of limes when we were at that point, we consulted the I Ching, and the change we've gotten has always said push on. So we have; there's not much else we can do until the next change."
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