Rock - what are you listening to?

[cybot]

Plenty of info to chew on there! Wasn't aware the Cornell 5/8/77 show was finally released. Your mini review has definitely whetted my appetite despite the high price charged for the vinyl edition and the absence of Dark Star.

What do you think of the Veneta set? Much lauded at the time of its release but I don't know.....Though it's great to have a beautifully relaxed performance of Dark Star; Much slower (and longer!) than the frantic version on the From The Vault series.

The other two I'm not familiar with so I'll just concentrate on the Cornell set for now :)

Thanks for that Paul!

Veneta's a great show, Dermot, and fully deserving of its mythical reputation.  Just like Cornell, there is a beautiful flow to the entire concert from the more straightahead songs in the first set to the more extended jams in the second and third sets.  I might feel differently, however, if I had bought most or all of the individual Europe '72 shows as they were released but I had  been very happy with the Europe '72 Vols. 1 and 2 sets until recently when I picked up Cornell.  I enjoyed that so much that, when I was looking for my next Dead fix I just had to go for Veneta which enjoys a similarly hallowed reputation amongst the faithful.

What is the Europe '72 Vol. 2 set like?

Have just found out that they made a movie about the Dead and the soundtrack is now available. I'm sure you already know about this. Looking at the double vinyl edition I see there's a 24 minute unreleased version of........Dark Star. Yikes!

[mcq]

Listening to Big Thief's second album, Capacity, this evening.  Rather like this band's first album, Masterpiece, it takes a while to fully absorb but continued and sustained absorption in this music pays immense dividends because these are songs that will stay with you for quite some time.   These are songs which are entirely personal to Adrienne Lenker, drenched in metaphor and allegory and this ambiguity and abstraction can obscure their meaning to the listener.  But the passionate intensity of Ms. Lenker's vocal phrasings  -  one moment, gently confessional, and the next, startlingly vitriolic  -  makes it quite clear that these songs are dredged from a deep well of familial hurt, resentment, anguish and a sense of deep loss.  The cumulative effect is a bruising, painfully acute listening experience.  Without a doubt, one of the crucial bands of the moment.

Here is a wonderful recent session recorded for KCRW showcasing two of the best songs on the album.

First up is Shark Smile.  Big Thief at their most succinct.  Direct, compulsive,  insistent.  As ever, wonderful playing from Buck Meek.  His sense of timing is impeccable  -  sometimes behind and sometimes ahead of the beat, always approximate in its fractured sense of time, and always understated in his approach.  He never overplays and is simply there to serve the song.



Secondly, the remarkable Mary, one of the finest songs on the new album.  A deeply personal song with Lenker veering from delicate intimacy to bracing, jarring intensity.  Truly a whisper to a scream  -  just listen to the lines, "We overcome the sirens/We look both left and right/And I can feel the numbness accompany my plight/And I know that someday soon I'll see you/But now you're out of sight/And you'll kiss me like you used to in the January night".  The way she steps away from the mic and spits out these lines with a primal intensity is simply extraordinary and testifies to a singular stage presence.  And just listen to Buck Meek's accompaniment  during these lines.  His playing suddenly becomes more ragged, more dissonant as the warmth drains from Lenker's voice and it flattens out to a monotone.  The studio version is more restrained, more gently moving but this version feels more spontaneous and unhinged and replaces pastoral nostalgia with anger and resentment.



I first heard of Adrienne Lenker last year when I was trawling Youtube for Judee Sill clips and I stumbled across bootleg footage of her performing a solo version of The Kiss which just stopped me in my tracks.  There are a few versions out there but this one is the most satisfying although it is unfortunately incomplete.  Will Oldham recorded a tenderly beautiful version some years ago but there is something special about what a woman's voice can bring to this song.  Lenker's version is raw, anguished but possessed also of that redemptive purity that Judee brought to the song in her own performances.

[mcq]

Plenty of info to chew on there! Wasn't aware the Cornell 5/8/77 show was finally released. Your mini review has definitely whetted my appetite despite the high price charged for the vinyl edition and the absence of Dark Star.

What do you think of the Veneta set? Much lauded at the time of its release but I don't know.....Though it's great to have a beautifully relaxed performance of Dark Star; Much slower (and longer!) than the frantic version on the From The Vault series.

The other two I'm not familiar with so I'll just concentrate on the Cornell set for now :)

Thanks for that Paul!

Veneta's a great show, Dermot, and fully deserving of its mythical reputation.  Just like Cornell, there is a beautiful flow to the entire concert from the more straightahead songs in the first set to the more extended jams in the second and third sets.  I might feel differently, however, if I had bought most or all of the individual Europe '72 shows as they were released but I had  been very happy with the Europe '72 Vols. 1 and 2 sets until recently when I picked up Cornell.  I enjoyed that so much that, when I was looking for my next Dead fix I just had to go for Veneta which enjoys a similarly hallowed reputation amongst the faithful.

What is the Europe '72 Vol. 2 set like?

Have just found out that they made a movie about the Dead and the soundtrack is now available. I'm sure you already know about this. Looking at the double vinyl edition I see there's a 24 minute unreleased version of........Dark Star. Yikes!

Europe '72 Vol.2 is exceptional, Dermot, and at least as good as Vol.1.  It was released in 2011 not long after the release of the monumental Europe '72 box set (containing complete recordings of all of the shows on this tour) and consists of the best remaining recordings of tracks that did not make it to Vol.1.  The highlight is an almost hour-long rendition of Dark Star/The Other One (recorded in Wigan on May 7th) but the quality is remarkably consistent throughout the entire set.  I imagine the producers of Vol.2 were spoilt for choice given the overall quality of all the tour recordings but they chose very wisely.  Very highly recommended if you are not prepared to delve into the individual concert recordings.



And yes, I am looking forward to that Grateful Dead documentary. I believe it is either directed or produced by Martin Scorsese - who did such an outstanding job with Bob Dylan on No Direction Home - so we should be in for a treat.

[cybot]

Veneta's a great show, Dermot, and fully deserving of its mythical reputation.  Just like Cornell, there is a beautiful flow to the entire concert from the more straightahead songs in the first set to the more extended jams in the second and third sets.  I might feel differently, however, if I had bought most or all of the individual Europe '72 shows as they were released but I had  been very happy with the Europe '72 Vols. 1 and 2 sets until recently when I picked up Cornell.  I enjoyed that so much that, when I was looking for my next Dead fix I just had to go for Veneta which enjoys a similarly hallowed reputation amongst the faithful.

What is the Europe '72 Vol. 2 set like?

Have just found out that they made a movie about the Dead and the soundtrack is now available. I'm sure you already know about this. Looking at the double vinyl edition I see there's a 24 minute unreleased version of........Dark Star. Yikes!

Europe '72 Vol.2 is exceptional, Dermot, and at least as good as Vol.1.  It was released in 2011 not long after the release of the monumental Europe '72 box set (containing complete recordings of all of the shows on this tour) and consists of the best remaining recordings of tracks that did not make it to Vol.1.  The highlight is an almost hour-long rendition of Dark Star/The Other One (recorded in Wigan on May 7th) but the quality is remarkably consistent throughout the entire set.  I imagine the producers of Vol.2 were spoilt for choice given the overall quality of all the tour recordings but they chose very wisely.  Very highly recommended if you are not prepared to delve into the individual concert recordings.



And yes, I am looking forward to that Grateful Dead documentary. I believe it is either directed or produced by Martin Scorsese - who did such an outstanding job with Bob Dylan on No Direction Home - so we should be in for a treat.

Thanks for that Paul....

Didn't know that Scorsese was involved in the Dead documentary. Should be stellar! Looks like it's time to be grateful I'm not dead ;)

[markof]

Regarding Grateful Dead live albums.

Would you know where I could find a guide online to the best of the live albums and/or to the "must haves"?

There seem to be a vast amount of live albums available .

Mark

[mcq]

These would be my essentials, Mark, that belong in any Dead collection.

1.  Live/Dead
2. Europe '72 Vols. 1 and 2
3.  Cornell 5/8/77
4.  Reckoning
5.  Without A Net

Beyond that, there is a treasure trove of live recordings, many of which have been polished up and released officially by Rhino.  The key years to track, I would say, are 1969, 1970, 1972, 1977 and 1989/90.  The following links offer a more detailed appraisal of the band's live work.

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/mdekonin ... -releases/

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/crod89/g ... -overview/

[cybot]

+ 1

[cybot]

The Cornell show in full :)

[markof]

These would be my essentials, Mark, that belong in any Dead collection.

1.  Live/Dead
2. Europe '72 Vols. 1 and 2
3.  Cornell 5/8/77
4.  Reckoning
5.  Without A Net

Beyond that, there is a treasure trove of live recordings, many of which have been polished up and released officially by Rhino.  The key years to track, I would say, are 1969, 1970, 1972, 1977 and 1989/90.  The following links offer a more detailed appraisal of the band's live work.

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/mdekonin ... -releases/

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/crod89/g ... -overview/

Many thanks.
I'll give them a go - brilliant.
Mark

[markof]

Nice companion to Roxy and Elsewhere.
Fantastic sleeve notes by Ruth Underwood (percussionist with the band at the time).