Last night driving along the coast (I love this drive, every Tuesday night after light running (+ pond swimming this time of year) and a Guinness in the pub with the boys), this great song came on. I’m not a Dead fan. Too much endless guitar noodling and weak voices for me, but this was a good ‘un. Plus, a week or so back I heard a couple of Dead songs I really liked. Who’d a thunk…
Also last night, the group Dave’s True Story with a great version of It’s All Over Now Baby Blue. I love well-done covers. Last week I heard Jesse Fuller doing San Francisco Bay Blues (which he wrote). It was covered by Eric Clapton on his masterpiece album Unplugged. Great to play one after the other.
And last night Muddy Waters doing Rosalie, such a perfect song, as I looked out at this view.
About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
Last night driving along the coast (I love this drive, every Tuesday night after light running (+ pond swimming this time of year) and a Guinness in the pub with the boys), this great song came on. I’m not a Dead fan. Too much endless guitar noodling and weak voices for me, but this was a good ‘un. Plus, a week or so back I heard a couple of Dead songs I really liked. Who’d a thunk…
I agree about the guitar noodling, and in general I never "got" the dead despite loving the scene at the shows and their followers. However, Estimated Prophet, Shakedown Street, and Eyes of the World always get me humming if not singing. They are missed.
Workingman's Dead and American Beauty are timeless and the high point for the Dead. Mar's Hotel is pretty good too. Most everything else was self indulgent, IMO.
Have you ever seen the documentary 'Rockin' at the Red Dog: The Dawn of Psychedelic Rock'? You can get it on Netflix streaming. I had been visiting and carousing in Virgina City for many years and had absolutely no idea of the history of the Red Dog Saloon as the origins of The Family Dog and the early San Francisco music scene. It started there with some key folks from SF and Marin and later they went back to SF and organized the big dances at the Longshoreman's Hall and the Avalon ballroom etc. Do the Charlatans ring a bell?
Lloyd,
If you're not a Dead fan because of the endless guitar noodling, order yourself a copy of Terrapin Station – new or used from a re-seller on Amazon for cheap. It's like the Abbey Road of Dead albums, heavy with the harder, tighter Bob Weir material on Side A and an epic, long (and not boring) Jerry guitar masterpiece on Side B.
-Jonathan
If you've not heard Richie Havens cover (back from his first album Mixed Bag, in the 60's) of San Francisco Bay Blues – IMHO the greatest cover on the planet! Entirely different than the aforementioned versions though. Vive la Difference!
– great photo Lloyd!