Steal your face, space your election
Review of Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and Mickey Hart's Deadheads for Obama concert
On Shepherd Fairey's Obama prints
†I took down the pictures that were here (they were too big in proportion to the rest of the page) but they are at the sites I link above
On Shepherd Fairey's Obama prints
†I took down the pictures that were here (they were too big in proportion to the rest of the page) but they are at the sites I link above
posted by Carl at 10:38 PM
4 Comments:
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Not so down with the Dead's pitching BO, if you don't mind a few nanoseconds of dissent. Reverend Obama has for months proclaimed his love for Jee-zuss, stood in protestant pulpits, shook hands with fundie-creationists, and even dissed the 1st Amendment. He voted for more funding of the war.
The SF show had little to do with anything except appeasing Bay Area demo-stoners who mistake Obama for some progressive, when BO's a Church boy, through and through: and attorney, for Osiris's sake. He also objected to Hill's health plan on rather capitalistic grounds.
Musically, Weir never had much to offer. The GD were at their best, arguably, when Bobby was not too involved, or at least just playin' rhythm. His R n B shuck and jive really bores many (even deadheads).
As a whole the GD were overrated, methinks: listen to some of the archived shows. Yeah some moments of intense jamming--they did have a decent rhythm section. Hart seems like sort of percussionist rather than a rocker, however. Mitch Mitchell or Charlie Watts quite superior: you listen to Zappa--what about Bozzio, Couliata (sp.?) etc.? Or jazz stix ala Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones? Even Buddy Rich quite f-n tastier than those SF hippie-bongo players. Lesh is alright, but overrated too. He was supposed to be the great Svengali, etc. where's the beef, man? Box of Rain? Nice but hardly Bartok.
Frankie Zappa and even Steely Dan put those fiddlers to shame. The Marin-cowboy schtick gets old pretty quickly (as it does with Zimmermann). Rusticus, as Pound would yawp.
Jerry did play some nice stuff now and then and his voice might move some to tears, but again, not that profound, musically speaking: it's sort of the hidden narrative (if not corporate force) that provides the kicks--or the vibe as the SF and LA scenesters say. Rock, Inc. was mostly a hustle, from its inception: now a big part of the Culture bizz (and also useful fore selling booze, if not underground market of chronic, etc.).
I think they're xtians or churchies now too, though with a lot of that Marin county new-agey BS added to the mix.
I'm surprised--you seem to have worse things to say about the Dead than Obama!
There was a good piece somewhere (Utne?) that claimed that posters that are truly cool augur poorly for a political campaign. You can imagine the Obama print as a stencil on a crumbling wall in the Seattle of Children of Men, the face that represented the last beautiful rebranding of the catastrophe. The anarchists will burn giant puppets. But whatever--allow me this last psychedelic swoon. Let's do something beautiful on the way out.
"for Osiris's sake"--I think of Guelah Papyrus. I think I only heard Phish play it once, 2/3/93, my first show, & maybe the loudest and scariest and most unrelenting.
Mickey Hart percussionist vs drummer--the Serengetti thing on Shakedown Street, a massive new age/world percussion overdub event, sounds sick and brain-damaged. He is better as just a drummer. But note that Fire on the Mountain, one of the Dead's top jam-vehicles, (also on Shakedown Street) is a Hart tune. MH vs fusion/jazz drummers--part of the GD sound is the rhythm section giving way, pulses floating out, spaces opening anywhere. Not being tight is what they're best at.
Weir is a good rhythm guitar player. Check out Live Dead--you follow fills that you think are Jerry's but turn out to be Bobby's. (Playin' & Cassidy are in my Dead top 10.)
Charlie Watts: the rock drummer who rushes the most. Listen to Some Girls... ain't nobody slowin' down no way! Percussion vs drumming in the Stones: Jimmy Miller, who coached the band in rhythm on their best albums, is responsible for the paradigm rollicking and groovy Stones sound & plays the kit on a bunch of tunes on Exile where Watts couldn't get it right. If you watch Godard's Sympathy for the Devil movie, there's the part where they're trying to record the song and it sounds dead and dull, and then suddenly it's incredibly catchy--what's missing from the movie is Miller teaching them the beat. But ultimately, who cares. I don't waste a lot of cochlea hairs on the Stones.
Phil: it's sort of like only he and Jerry are listening to each other sometimes. Like with Trey and Fish--the other guys are trying to keep up & not really "hearing" anything.
"Marin-cowboy schtick"--it's useful to remember that those guys were influenced by the cowboy shows they watched as kids in the 50s.
Listening to archived shows: this is music you can't listen to bits of and really get. You need to listen to a whole set, or at least a long jam--the musical world of the Dead is sort of like a magic eye picture, a whole spatial dimension that hides Narnia-like behind the flat surface of musicians sometimes sucking.
The anarchists will burn giant puppets. But whatever--allow me this last psychedelic swoon. Let's do something beautiful on the way out.
I can appreciate that, a bit: not as much as ah did 20 years ago. Dead Inc. seemed like some giant parfait: you devour a good deal of it and then are sickened, or some such cheesy metaphor.
The vibe only goes so far: especially when the new dead pusssy doesn't hardly go at all. ;) I was at a few 90s shows, when Jerry looked like some expanding balloon on stage. It was fun about a third of the time (at least the broads were not so harsh and shalll we say corporate). For those chumps who are used to spinning Kind of Blue, Trane, Bill Evans, ECM, etc., or complex freak musick of Zappa/Beefheart, not to say Debussy or Satie, or even pops Bach, DeadCo just doesn't make it musically. That supposed Svengali Lesh overrated.
At their best the GD produced a sort of world-beat fusion, with the mercurial Garcia--not quite Trane, eh---and really the percussion was predictable. The Marin cowboy jive that they fall back on also sort of booj-wah. Srry, just how I feel. Little rock muzak has any staying power for me rally: maybe a few cuts of early Steely Dan, some wild Zappa instrumental musick, that period of the GD with Godchaux. Kind of Blue still entertains,a bit.
Listen to like Bela Bartok's BLuebeard's Castle: musick for 20th century blood sport. Or late Scriabin: the castles also falling.................
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