March Music Musings

Just thought I'd throw down some ideas about tunage as my beautiful wife and son are playing at the park. I'm supposed to be grading papers and cleaning the house but there's so much flying through my head...

The Grateful Dead's early 70s performances are some of the most magical music ever to be found. 5/4/72 is absolutely choice but this, of countless live shows, is the crux of the Dead problem: HOW to listen to them. See, once you have the studio albums (which makes you brave just in purchasing many of them, they're so spotty), you, as you know, must delve into live Dead. You can either begin with the officially-released stuff (Live - , Europe '72, Dead Set/Reckoning and so forth) or their Dicks Picks catalogue. Or, you can go ape and begin collecting the unofficial and 'real' versions of the shows that float among traders and trading websites. These are the gems. The only problem is, as one who's listened to gazillions of hours of live Dead, is, just which ones to have? You could be a completist and realize that you'll never leave your house again. Or you could collect some from each year as if each year's performance measured a different sound from the band. Problem is, it did. Fans all know that the '72 tour was radically different from the '73 sets and then '74 rolled around and all bets were off. Hit-and-miss '75 and '76 but look out for '77. Then '78 and even parts of '79 and '80. All a different band. The shows clocked in at around three hours, so do make a 'best of' per year or swallow an entire show? Here's another crux: do you stomach yet another El Paso/Mama Tried for the wonderful Eyes of the World? Those pre-Fire On the Mountain Sugar Magnolias are choice but does one really need to hear Bob's part of Let It Grow or The Other One in order to have it? I guess if I caught the band instead of nursed, I would have been able to hit the head many times. Here's one: if one could make a 'best of' setlist clocking in at approximately three hours, what would one want to hear?

Just picked up Charles Mingus' 1956 classic Pithecanthropus Erectus which is stunning. Beautiful hard bop (for lack of a better- and educated label) suite of four songs all interweaving some fantastic bass playing and horn interchange. I'm finding that every jazz record I pick up is worth two pop cd's I sample, though Chris Brown is right about the new Lucinda. All in all, my tastes must be changing. That, or I'm getting bored with so much pop music.

Can anyone supply me with a copy of a recent Eric Clapton show with Derek Trucks in the 'Duane' spot? I won't be able to see them on St. Patrick's Day as planned as I have a staff party. The party itself will be worth missing an overpriced concert but I'd love to hear how the 'Dominos' sound.

Rumor has it that the E Street Band is entering the studio this week in Atlanta. That's good and bad. I'm tired of the production sound and am ready for Bruce to change it up. Secondly, not quite sure about the Clarence spot as it's rumored that he won't tour and possibly won't record. That's fine, but I'm curious as to how Bruce will fill the horn spot. I think he should take the Miami Horns from his Seeger tour and use them in Clarence's spot. That would make for a wonderful change-up. Clarence's playing on the last tour and parts of the Reunion tour was really spotty. He'd nail certain songs and then completely fall flat on others. He's old and tired and I don't blame him for wanting to stay home. He's a senior citizen and doesn't need to be pretending he still has the energy of Bob Dylan or Phil Lesh. We'll see...