What Am I Listening to Now?

It’s been a hectic week and I am not as on top of things as I would like to be. Some of the music making its way through Silver has been:

  • Jefferson Airplane: 2400 Fulton Street (disc one)
    The early stuff. Ah, good stuff. Over the years I have found different facets of the Airplane to love. It began with White Rabbit, then the hits, the Dead influences, the Crosby influences, and am now a Jorma fan. As such, Embryonic Journey stands out. What a great tune.
  • Grateful Dead: Hundred Year Hall
    Europe ‘72. Deadheads recognize this tour as one of the monumental times of the band’s history. This release highlights the band at full speed, but only partially. One thing GDP has been irritatingly maddening with is releasing partial shows. This 26 April 1972 show is missing 14 songs from the night. Furthermore, the songs presented are not in chronological order. Argghh!

    Yet, there’s the 19-minute-plus Lovelight and a 39-minute Other One! Yes, the band was on fire.

  • Grateful Dead: Dick’s Picks Volume 11; 27 September 1972 Stanley Theater, Jersey City, NJ
    After the Europe run, the band continued rocking back in the States. The complete show is captured on this release.

    The thing that stands out for me is Brokedown Palace. It seems so fragile here. To think it was written in the same afternoon as Ripple and To Lay Me Down. That is some trio. Of course, the highlight of this show is the 30-minute Dark Star. Truly mesmerizing.

  • Bob Marley and The Wailers: Live!
    I have been a Marley fan from since I was a boy. I never got a chance to see him live, so this album has always gotten heavy play from me. Now that I do not have all my boots that I used to (I am convinced I once had every Marley show that circulated), this is all I have. The No Woman, No Cry is superb here!
  • Dude of Life: Crimes of the Mind
    I just read on Wikipedia that The Dude is now an elementary school teacher in NYC. That astounds me!

    I recall this album’s release. I was very excited as it was at the height of my liking of Phish. THe Dude of Life was a close friend to the band having written several of their early songs, including my favorite Fluffhead. Crimes is a Phish album with The Dude singing his songs. Awesome! I was blessed at having seen a show on the brief tour that followed.

    This album is not as weird as I sometimes think The Dude is. I really enjoyed listening to it this evening. Self is the highlight for me.

  • Rhythm Devils: The Apocalypse Now Sessions
    The epic movie with a legendary cast has a wonderful soundtrack. That music was played by none other than the Grateful Dead’s rhythm section: Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. Great stuff here with the boys and their friends imitating the sounds of the jungle. The ambient sounds make for a pleasant listen. The river music is among the most harmonic of the releases I have of Mickey’s. I really like this.

Also blogged on this date . . .

Tags: , , , ,

One Response to “What Am I Listening to Now?”

  1. By Zoooma on May 14, 2008

    Wow. Good stuff. It is a shame that some shows were released with songs cut out. And recently Rhino gave the fans two “Greatest Hits” compilations. I’m sure they’re good to listen to but a lotta fans are scratching their heads wondering where Rhino ever got the idea that people wanted “Greatest Hits” releases. I think that went out of fashion with Without A Net. Over at Speeding Arrow, they had all the available missing songs so people could download and mix them in with the official releases on their mp3 players.

Post a Comment

By submitting a comment here you grant ladow.net a perpetual license to reproduce your words and name/web site in attribution.