Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

Nappy, my brother didn't go to that festival, his friends went to it. That trip you took in 1969 to that festival, must have been a blast.

This a a 2-cd set of Hollywood Bowl 9/22/72
Dark Side-Disc1
Careful, Echoes, Saucerful, Set The Controls-Disc 2.
I’ll have to track this down, looks good.
Listening to Billy Cobham Live Ayajala ‘78
The Magic Band tour Chicago 3/4/78.
Getting ready to cue up Dave’s 21-Boston Garden 4/2/73…getting ready in advance of ‘74 show, coming soon(I hope).

Music is the Best!!

I really wanted to go this show but...
1) I was living off the road in between San Luis Obispo & Morro Bay working for the Cal Forestry
2) I was a bit put off by the "commercial success" that allowed the band to play the Bowl (stupid, I know)...I had seen
the previous two tours, Atom Heart Mother & Echoes at the much smaller Santa Monica Civic Auditorium
3) Because of work I had to make a decision of seeing the PF gig or seeing GD do two nights at
the Hollywood Palladium two weeks prior to the PF Bowl gig...a no brainer...

Since you mention seeing them on the AHM and Meddle tours, and thus being quite familiar with Floyd before they hit that mainstream success with DSOTM, I wonder if you recall what your initial impressions of DSOTM were. Gilmour in Classic Albums famously says he wishes he had the experience of being a music fan in 1973 hearing the album for the first time, since they had played most of the album for a year before it came out, then recording and re-recording them, then mixing, he feels he missed out. Especially interested in your take (and anyone else of that awesome era who remembers Floyd pre-DSOTM) on that evolution following Saucerful, AHM, Meddle, and Obscured.

I have a decent collection of Floyd liberated boots from my days downloading from dimeadozen and Trader's Den, etc., pretty sure Hollywood Bowl was in there. I tried to get as many versions of Echoes as I could find. Loved that they brought it back for Wish You Were Here tour, plus Raving and Drooling and You Gotta Be Crazy, the pre-Animals Sheep and Dogs.

I didn't see Pink Floyd until 1975, when they played a large outdoor festival at Knebworth. But I started buying their
albums in 1972. The first one I got was the budget compilation " Relics" followed by "Meddle" and then "Umagumma". I loved these albums at the time, and they sat alongside albums of what has since become known as "space rock" - Hawkwind, Gong, Faust - the amazing Wolf City" by Amon Duul 2.

My brother got Dark Side of the Moon almost as soon as it was available, and.....it was clearly a great album, but it didn't actually have the qualities I liked most about their earlier albums. It seemed like they had gone mainstream, in a way. Before Dark Side, they were very much a "head" band, and were seen, as I remember it, being quite avant- garde. Great spaced out epics like "Saucerful of Secrets" "Set The Controls For The Heart of The Sun" and Echoes". With Dark Side they seemed to become more of a straights band, singing about the grimness of modern life.

They were nowhere near as much fun live as Hawkwind in the mid 70's. I can remember seeing Floyd live in 1977, in a huge air hangar - this was shortly after "Animals" had come out. Everybody was squatting awkwardly on the concrete for hours on end, and when the Floyd finally fired up, someone stood up. The bloke squatting next to me angrily shouted at them to sit down-and then turned to me and said "The Floyd deserve to be listened to." This was why punk happened.

That's sort of what I was thinking would be a fairly typical response to what does seem to be a much more mainstream direction. Which is also why Echoes being the direct antecedent to Dark Side is so interesting, since one is an extremely exploratory song, the other an album of musical and lyrical coherence, but still retains aspects of Echoes. Also, quite funny how a lot of Floyd fans in the decades since are largely fans of DSOTM-The Wall, maybe even Division Bell, and quite a lot seem to passionately hate the more adventurous stuff. But then, maybe not so funny at all, since Deadhead camps exist where the Era Wars are real and ugly.

My favorite band up until I attended my first Dead show.

Animals is my favorite album but the first CD I ever bought was Saucerful of Secrets in 1987.

Saw the trio in 87 and twice in 94, second night was complete DSOTM for Set2, same setlist as on the Pulse video.
Saw Waters 4 times, 2007,10,12,17.

First, an apology for my addled memories...the choice between going to the Hollywood Bowl for PF or the Hollywood Palladium two weeks earlier for the GD was based purely on the fact that I'd rather see GD...DSOTM wasn't even released until 6 months or so after the Bowl gig... touring with unheard music was pretty ballsy...the Mother Heart Atom show was great with a small orchestra and choir accompanying the band...it started with "Astronomy Domine" and it just got crazier then that...during the floating wisps intro to "Careful With That Ax Eugene" a guy sitting in the orchestra pit, stood up with his hands over his ears yelling "STOP"...his friends tried to calm him but it didn't seem to help...Waters walked over to the edge of the stage, kneeled down and talked to the guy who finally calmed down enough to be escorted out by one of his friends to the lobby...crazy....I have a pretty decent for the time bootleg of this show and you can hear a disturbance but it's not clear enough to know what's going on...2nd set was "Atom heart Mother" with the "Interstellar Overdrive" for the encore...we went home very happy....for "Meddle" my memories aren't quite there...I remember "One Of These Days" as played but set lists I've seen don't show it...The ones I've seen only list one set but that can't be right...I do remember that as we waited in line it hailed on us which was pretty funny....earlier in the year I had taken a pretty nasty fall and broke my left arm and I had to be off from work for three weeks before I could go back to light duty...I went home to LA and because of being ther with my arm in a cast I saw The Stones at The Long Beach Arena & Pigpen's last show at The Hollywood Bowl...also at that time was when my picture was taken with Muddy Waters in the lobby of The Ash Grove as we were both there to see Johnny Shines play...'72 was a good year, broken arm and all!

Alvarhanso - in some respects, the era of Pink Floyd leading up to Dark Side seems to have gained currency in recent years. The Early Years 1965-1972 box set is a treasure trove. And those gigs Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets played a few years ago, focussing on those years, were brilliant-to me, anyway. A cover band for sure, but one with credibility and fire power. They opened with Interstellar Overdrive and Astronomy Domine. Top that.

To me, Pink Floyd had three eras. First the Syd Barrett one, swiftly followed by the experimental phase, when Rick Wright was more influential. Rick Wright was also hugely important in developing their sound when Syd was at the helm - a very underrated musician. Then the Dark Side and beyond years, which seemed to be dominated more by Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters.

Nappy - that gig where they played Careful With That Axe Eugene sounds good. They did do a few well known soundtracks for films-but that experimental phase always struck me as something that would have gone well with horror films. Something by Dario Argento, perhaps.

Alvarhanso-sorry to come back so quickly-but that phrase "era wars" always puzzles me a bit. I don't think there is a single band or artist I have liked where I have liked all their work. Most, if not all, of the ones I liked in the early 70's left me a bit cold as the decade progressed. A random sample - The Stones, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Hawkwind - yes, it is everyone! - personnel changed, style, approach, inspiration...they all seemed to follow a similar trajectory-rise, peak, decline. And maybe repeat the pattern. I never saw myself as a long term "fan" of any band, who needed to like everything they did. I have also never felt the slightest animosity to anyone who sees things differently-or who likes a different era of a specific band to me though. I am certainly not at war with anyone!
A lot of bands I have liked for decades - but there is a massive difference in quality - to me anyway- in the music they produced during that time.

Though it does get ugly around here from time to time, mainly third and fourth Dave's of the year announcements and box sets.

But glad to hear all the excellent tales of Pink Floyd earlier years. I dig that stuff a lot, and love that box set. Would have loved seeing them back then. Though I could totally understand somebody freaking out during Careful With That Axe.

Apologies for misreading. Pink Floyd also seemed to be the main band that people in England got into when they started smoking dope in the early 70s. They were so big by 1977, that John Lydon-nee Rotten, in one of his attempts to upset the masses, wore a Pink Floyd tee shirt with "I hate" scrawled on before the bands name. Nick Mason put a replica of this tee shirt on display at the Pink Floyd exhibition in London a few years ago.

So last week Sis tells me she saw a Dead show at Mammoth Gardens 4/24/70. Now she sent info about "another good show she saw", the Denver Pop Festival including 6/29/69 where she saw the final performance of The Jimmy Hendrix Experience. The festival was largely overshadowed by Woodstock two months later but was a Barry Fey three day gig for $15 with great lineups and setlists. Only four years removed from her "generation" but I had no idea Denver's scene was that good back then. Going to have to get some stories from her.
Cheers!
Edit: Listened to the aud. recording she sent with it. Interesting hour or so with the last song missing (Voodoo Child/Slight Return). Not Jimi's best, but he was blazing. Some bad stories about the teargas, etc. there at Mile High. Wasn't long after that a similar incident at a Red Rocks show with Jethro Tull got rock shows banned from that venue for many years. Times were tougher for hippies before I started going to shows, but I guess it happened to us as well when the scene just got too big later.

There are NO WARS!!!!!!
Dona nobis pacem

Amen to that. Always a worry when people feel the need to be at war with others who have different beliefs or ideas. I wouldn't want to be part of a society where everyone agrees with each other, and tries to shut down debates that question the status quo.

In the old days, when you paid to have something done, you were rewarded by getting it ON release date! Today was listed as release date! Not only did I NOT receive my new CD, it appears that you haven't even bothered to ship it yet! This total lack of concern for your long term supporters, is soon going to bite you in the A$$!

Starting this morning with some of Garcia's finest (LA Baker) and disc 3 of this gem! The band just kicked into Eyes and I must say, today is gonna be a good day!

Rock on, gang