Musings on the Most Ridiculous Band I Can't Stop Listening To
Precarious?
“Yeah, boss?”
Why did you strap the monitors down?
“Monitors are squirrelly fuckers.”
Okay. Why is the band set up so crooked?
“Band’s squirrelly fuckers, too.”
True. Precarious?
“Uh-huh?”
What about the shitty, hand-drawn Stealie banner casually tossed in front of the band where no one can see it?
“What about it?”
Good talk.
I’m no longer kidding, Enthusiasts: Complete Completely Completed July ’78 (The Complete Recording) is the best thing I’ve ever heard: the sound is astonishingly good, present and bright and not at all like work tapes made at a concert 40 years ago for no real purpose. (Betty Cantor-Jackson is the truest artist in that she was unaware she was creating art. Discuss.) With no exaggeration, there could not be a better live recording made today with all our gadgets and bandwidth; maybe you could equal it, but there’s simply no way to sound any better than this.
The 7/5 from Omaha’s second set is–as I declared before I heard it–the BEST EVAR, and now I’m starting in on the 7/3 from St. Paul; Garcia’s solo in Loser just loosed infected my duodenum with joy, and also subversive political ideas, and now my duodenum has begun a proxy war with my jejunum. I liked Spring ’90 and May ’77 boxes, but neither of them started internecine ideological battles in my belly.
The secret ingredient might be Keith: he’s nimble and light on his feet; he was up and down in 1978, but he was playing like his old self in July. It also might be the drummers, who are here the four-armed, four-legged singular entity that they often were, but also often were not. They’re unbelievable: one will take the fill, or the other one gets it, or sometimes Mickey starts a phrase and Billy does the middle of it and Mickey will put a little grace on it, and all the while the beat pulses forward, loping and hitching.
You say there are better things than the Complete Completitude (July Edition)? Fine, I’ll give you that some things are. Not many, though. True love, I guess; good health. But that’s it and I’m sure about it. In fact, TotD now presents Things That Are Not Better Than The July ’78 Box Set:
Buy it if you can, steal it if you must, but listen to it.
This is the only picture available from 7/5/78 from the Omaha Civic Auditorium, and it may or may not be a random picture from ’78 that I am claiming is from 7/5/78. Regardless, it is enormous and fit for use as a desktop or, if you are a medievel Pope, a ceiling fresco.
As you may have guessed, somehow or other a copy of the Complete July ’78 Recordings Of Completeness found its way to Fillmore South and, after a minute or two of thought, I decided to start with David Lemieuxnitionsexpert’s pick, the Omaha show; holy shit, is this thing stellar. I have not heard the second set, but I am ready to declare it the BEST EVAR. In fact, I am doing so. It has been declared.
Also: Garcia’s plump little titty.
O, Erato, speak the name: whisper it to me in the soft night while we slumber, into my ear, into my ear. Euturpe, you flirt, lay with my racked and ruined old bones and move my hand, move my hand. Polyhymnia, live up to your name, and sing of gods undone; leave your song in my head, in my head.
Omaha Civic Auditorium.
Say it twice, and it’s music playing.
Look at this bullshit. Look at all this bullshit. I’ve been sitting here giggling at it for five minutes. Everything is off-kilter and askew: nothing kilters and there is no skew. Not one skew. To paraphrase Ghostbusters: no human would set up a rock band like this.
The Dead’s crew took “Just put that anywhere” as a dare.
The 7/7/78 from the new Complete July ’78 Complete Recordings is up on Spotify (and, I’m sure, other places) and you should go listen to it. I’m only at Good Lovin’, and I am ready to pronounce this the Best Sounding Release EVAR. I’d write more, but I wanted to tell you right away.
Thank you, Betty, for your Boards. No other band had a Betty, but no other band needed one.
This video played before the Meetup, which means you can now call him David Lemieuxviestar; laugh if you want, but you’ve never been on a movie screen. As always, DL is adorable, or at least the Canadian version, ehdorable. If that is his home, I approve of his tasteful furnishings. (I’m also fairly certain he’s wearing makeup, but it’s not a video for YouTube; you kinda have to.)
Shipping notices for the Complete July ’78 have already gone out, and the box set shall arrive in Enthusiasts’ mailboxes in a day or two, and then a day or two after that, it will magically appear on my computer. Perhaps that is one of the new functions that I haven’t explored.
Observant viewers will note that the clip is only four minutes long; usually by four minutes into a video, DL is only halfway through talking about the woodland creatures within his view. He doesn’t mention the Dead until a dozen minutes have gone by in one of them. But here, David is on his best behavior and really bearing down, although if you look into his eyes, you can see pain.
TotD now presents The Pre-production Phone Call For This Video As Heard From David Lemieuxlevariations’ Side Of The Conversation:
“We’re on the same page: short and to the point and enthusiastic.”
…
“Not unless I see one, no.”
…
“Hey, man: if I see a bird, then I talk about the bird.”
…
“Because people need to know about the bird, that’s why.”
And so on.
I’ve got no skin in this one, as opposed to my usual plugs, but they did a special on the Dead channel on Sirius XM about the upcoming July ’78: The Complete Recordings box set and I caught a half-hour of it: this one’s going to be special. Like you, I’ve heard the shows from Red Rocks once or twice, and the selections from the 7th sound unbelievably good; it would seem impossible to improve on the circulating copies, but once again they have.
The revelation might be the Omaha show from the 5th. David Lemieuxleskinnerblues was gushing about it, but you know how excited he gets about the Dead, BUT THEN HE PLAYED THE TRUCKIN’, and if the rest of this show is this good, then I will be forced to consider naming this the Best Box Set EVAR.
Go listen to it, plus the other stuff, and buy the box. It’s not sold out yet, but it will be soon, and it deserves to be. Also: if people don’t buy it, then how can I steal it?
The upcoming July 1978: The Complete Recordings set is, on paper, the most exciting box since the Europe ’72 tour came out: not just remastered versions of the Betty Boards from Red Rocks, but three–count ’em–wild card shows. What was the last release that featured a show you hadn’t heard before, let alone three from a great year?
(Shut up. ’78 is a great year. And even if you don’t agree with me, David Lemieushuporx does, judging by the record; this means I win.)
There’s excerpts from the three non-circulating shows over at Dead.net, but I’m steering clear for now: I’m not a huge fan of context-less Dead. The proper unit is a Show; you could further divide into Sets, but you can’t measure the Grateful Dead in Songs. You can listen, though. Hell, you can do whatever you want.
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