Tag: grateful dead

Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 69: Grateful, (Not) Dead

It may have kicked off with a text thread from my friends over my lack of any experience with the Grateful Dead studio albums, but it’s since turned into a full-scale obsession. I have fallen hard for the band in a way I didn’t when I first discovered Live/Dead and the Dick’s Picks series back in my early 30s. We’re talking 11 CDs, 2 biographies, 2 guitar books, a podcast and the Amazon documentary series all devoured or at least obtained in the last few weeks. I know there’s a part of me using this as my way to connect to Ross; I’m constantly telling him how much it sucks he’s no longer here now that I’m obsessed. I do this even though I’m pretty firmly on the side of “dead is dead” and that’s the end. Trying to not over-analyze and just let this love(light) shine for the time being.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 68: Mini Humbuckers

I honestly meant to get a review up this week (it was going to be either the self-titled debut from Starcastle or Miles Davis’s Agharta), but the fates intervened and I instead became completely obsessed with my latest acquisition: a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe 70s with a gold top finish. This beautiful beast. I’ve always wanted a gold top, but never thought I deserved one. Trying to think better of myself, and I have to say, it’s the most buttery smooth playing experience I’ve ever had. I waffled between this and a 50s Standard with P90s, but in the end I love the chime and clarity the mini humbuckers bring. Anyway, that was my week. Let’s get on to the playlist.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 67: Breaks and Such

Second verse, same as the first? Once again, I was really hoping to get more (well, any) reviews out this week, but the continued search for a rhythm without my son combined with the impending arrival of Hooptober and work insanity made it impossible. I’m going to try and get at least one in a week during the next month and a half as I dive into the horror reviews, but – fingers crossed – the weekly playlists will continue. This week focuses on new releases and my re-engagment with the Grateful Dead, so enjoy and I’ll see you on the other side of Hooptober.

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Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 54: Ross

I’m too tired, and the mourning subsides only to allow the calm to grab just enough of a hold so that the next stab of shock and anxiety hits like a brick to the face. Here’s the theme: Ross loved jam music. He was a Deadhead, but he also loved Otis Redding. Derek Trucks was a newer fascination, and I already talked about how he would come in and ask about bands like Caravan and older Genesis. God, he was a pain in the ass, but he was also a sweetheart. Next to me is a bag dropped off for my birthday last week, a set of notebooks from Moleskine, including a monogrammed soft leather notebook and a hardcover slipcase volume for logging movies. He knew me, covered for me, and cared.

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grateful dead - live/dead
Vinyl

Grateful Dead: Live/Dead (1969)

From chaos to order. Its starts with the different instruments, tuning and finding there feet in a large, sonic space. But eventually the disparate sounds come together, and it’s anchored by the bass. Soon the individual components become the whole that is Grateful Dead, and as “Dark Star” kicks off Side A of the band’s classic first (of literally hundreds) live release in earnest we realize just how essential (I was going to say instrumental but that’s a pun too far) the late, great Phil Lesh was to the band’s sound. Live/Dead is so many things, and for me it’s still the definitive live document of the band, and the album I turn to not only when I need some Grateful Dead in my ears, but when I need to drift off and calm my mind as well.

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