Musings on the Most Ridiculous Band I Can't Stop Listening To
Besides Bird Song, the obvious hero of the new DaP 11 first set is Box of Rain, which might just be the best version they ever did of this easy-to-fuck-up favorite. Everyone’s mentioned the vocals–and they’re sweet and on key from everyone involved–but the secret hero of the song is Billy.
Listen again: it goes from Phil’s already quick count-off to the speed Billy wants, which is FAST as fuck–80’s tempos–and Phil can’t start crooning; all he can do is sing his beautiful melody and hang on.
Dave’s Picks 11 came in via FedEx today. (FedEx is my nickname for the illegal torrent site I immorally steal people’s hard work off of) and it’s a peach of a slam dunk of a roller coaster ride of an incoherent cliché.
The production quality alone is so good that obvious truths reveal themselves: a Strat simply sounds different from a Gibson 335. The distinct, but complementary, timbres by themselves make up a huge part of the Dead’s sound, but–and this is only focussing on Garcia and Bobby’s interplay, mind you– the way Bobby stays out of Garcia’s way, staying to the slashing upper-register chords that he seemed to invent and perfect in the early 70’s, was the kind of stuff that Keith Richards and Mick Taylor only dreamed about.
To some, Bobby’s playing has always been as interesting as Garcia’s; to others, this is blasphemy, but this latest DaP lets you make up your own mind about things.
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