Just found a nice post based on some very careful and knowledgeable listening.
I won't always wallow so much in the dark stuff, but it's there, too. This is just a marker.
http://moderndeadhead.blogspot.com/2011/04/grateful-dead-summer-1995.html
good reading & kudos to the author-- it is certainly an exercise in tolerance/patience listening to those very dark, very wobbly last shows. it's also telling that perhaps the only songs garcia really seemed to invest himself in were the sad ones: tunes like stella blue, black muddy, so many roads, visions of johanna, etc. were the few bright spots in this otherwise bleak time...
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I stopped seeing Dead shows after the Europe 1990 tour (I did see three in 1991, but I couldn't tell you the dates and don't count them). So I missed The End, thank goodness. Obviously have read a bunch about it. What a drag. But, as you said, I appreciate the author doing some listening so I don't have to. And, you're right - ballads. Could be a combination of his state of mind and his ability to keep up with the songs, I guess. (Yes, that's speculation, for those readers who want that sort of thing flagged.)
ReplyDeleteFor a couple years I've lamented that this guy stopped posting. Some bloggers quit too soon!
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