[5] comments

1

"Please don't dominate the rap Jack If you got nothing new to say If you please don't back up the track This train got to run today"

The Grateful Dead weren't always an institution.

As a matter of fact, they were a cult band.

This was back in the days before the Internet. People only knew you where you were played on the radio, or toured. The Dead got NO radio play, and their gigs were primarily on the west coast, so the band was almost meaningless on the east coast.

Until 1970.

That's when Bill Graham decided to PUSH the band at the Fillmore East.

Upon entering a show at that fabled venue, you got a PROGRAM! And suddenly, on the back page, there was this picture of a standing audience with the caption "2600 happy people during the Grateful Dead". Hell, maybe the quote was a little bit different. But THIS is how I remember it. And it WAS memorable. How could a band with no footprint SELL OUT!

Then in February, to ACCOMMODATE the Grateful Dead. To present the shows as they should be. There was only going to be ONE show per night, and it was going to start at MIDNIGHT!

You've got to understand. I was still in HIGH SCHOOL! In the SUBURBS! The last train back from New York City was 11:45. To see this show was an IMPOSSIBILITY!

But I wanted to go. Because it appealed to my sense of ADVENTURE! All the best stuff happens at night. Especially LATE AT NIGHT, when everybody else is asleep. This wasn't a show, this was a HAPPENING!

And if it ran LONG ENOUGH, I could catch the morning train.

But I didn't even BOTHER to ask my parents for permission. There was no way they'd understand.

But these midnight shows...they caused MOMENTUM! To the point where I wanted to PARTICIPATE!

I bought "Workingman's Dead".

Now one expected a band with the name "Grateful Dead" to be all dark and heavy. More like Black Sabbath than Crosby, Stills and Nash.

But that's what the opening track of "Workingman's Dead" sounded like. Something straight off CSN's first album.

And when the instruments dropped out and they went a cappella, it was MAGIC!

Ever since the seventies we've been pursuing worse and worse sound. First there was the 8-track. Then the cassette. Which, in its prerecorded form, was duplicated at SUCH a high speed as to sound positively AWFUL! And then we had the supposed breakthrough of the CD. Which is about as warm as a cadaver. And now we've got the MP3 and its analogues, which are compressed digital files. They're SO far from music it's laughable. There should be a LAW, you can't transfer an acoustic guitar to MP3. Because it's like wearing a yamaka to a satanic ritual. It's UNHOLY!

But in the late sixties, the early seventies, the goal was completely the OPPOSITE! Not to SHRINK the music, but EXPAND IT!

Just like teenagers save up today for hot computers, we used to save up for hot STEREOS! We wanted to hear the music in all its pristine quality. We wanted to get CLOSER!

And when I dropped the needle on "Uncle John's Band" and stood in front of the stereo speakers in the living room, it was a RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE!

Unfortunately, I didn't have quite as good a stereo in my bedroom. Where I primarily listened to "Workingman's Dead". Where I learned to love the album. Where I became enamored of a track entitled "New Speedway Boogie".

2

It was a GEEKFEST!

Today music is an accessory, an AFTERTHOUGHT!

Whereas in the sixties and seventies...music was the RELIGION! People STUDIED IT! Knew EVERYTHING ABOUT IT! And an amalgamation of these devotees showed up at Harold Bronson's house this evening for a screening of "The Festival Express".

We had Allan Arkush, director of "Rock and Roll High School".

Burton Averre, co-writer of "My Sharona", a member of the Knack.

Patrick Goldstein, presently a film writer for the L.A. "Times", but prior to that a rock critic, most famous for saying in the early eighties that the only difference between Geffen Records and the Titanic was the Titanic had a better band.

Art Fein...rock gadfly.

Jeff Ressner, now a writer for "Time".

Our host Harold, co-founder of Rhino Records.

And me.

And I found the pre-screening conversation INTIMIDATING!

Sure, some statements were just stories, like Art telling us about Paul McCartney recently sitting in with Ray Campi in a club in Pasadena.

But then there was a long discussion of what songs from the original live performance of "The T.A.M.I. Show" were left out of the final film.

And then there were the BACKSTAGE stories about Mick Jagger from said show. Hell, that was 39 years ago!!!

I just shut up.

And when Patrick finally arrived with the tape, we went into Harold's screening room.

Let me just say it was featured in the L.A. "Times" Home section.

Although it only has twelve seats, it's a MINIATURE palace, even down to the stars in the ceiling. Hell, with a set-up like THIS you NEVER have to go out to the movies.

And after the lights were lowered, the film came up. The Grateful Dead were playing "Casey Jones".

I stopped going to see the Dead. They were just too UNTOGETHER!

Sure, they played for four hours. But one was COMPLETELY unlistenable, TWO were average and maybe ONE was great.

But on this night, they were PERFECT!

And Jerry Garcia was still thin, and his hair was still black.

And I was reminded of why all the girls had a crush on Bob Weir. He was so damn CUTE!

And then there was Pigpen. Even I had missed seeing Pigpen. You see he died, from the results of alcoholism, before the band truly broke big.

It was a fucking REVELATION!

But it was also frightening. It was SUCH a long time ago. 1970!

You see these Canadian dudes had an idea. A cross-country FESTIVAL! With the bands traveling by TRAIN!

There was the Band. Ian & Sylvia. Delaney & Bonnie. Buddy Guy. The Flying Burrito Brothers. A few minor acts. And Pearl herself, Janis Joplin.

3

By 1970, the Band had already peaked.

Really, it's about their first two albums. Even though I'm partial to "W.S. Walcott Medicine Show" and "Just Another Whistle Stop" from "Stage Fright".

But it's not that what came after '69 was so bad, it's just that what came before was so GREAT!

There are no numbers from "The Band" in this movie. But there are killer versions of "The Weight" and "I Shall Be Released". The second of which wraps around your chest and squeezes tight. Richard Manuel seems to be an ALIEN, singing SO high, out of the side of his mouth. It's positively HOLY!

Still, it's weird. And even weirder when you remember that Manuel hanged himself.

And Rick Danko is no longer with us either, but here he's the life of the party, drunk on the train, singing songs with Joplin, Garcia and Weir.

And Garth Hudson's beard is pitch black. He looks like he just graduated from college. And Robbie's wearing a suit, even back then. But Levon...today's cancer survivor, he sings the Band's most famous song, from his drum kit on the side of the stage, "The Weight".

Everybody looks so YOUNG!

Today we think of Delaney Bramlett as a Southern abuser.

Here he looks like he could never hurt a fly. Young and innocent.

Same deal with Bonnie. Stick thin, with no miles on her face.

But really, the movie is all about Janis Joplin.

4

Janis Joplin's light has faded. She's been forgotten. Oh, you read about them doing a biopic, but you don't hear her music on the radio, and people don't talk about her.

On the inside, scuttlebutt is she was saddled, until almost the very end, with a lame band.

Then there are the revisionists who say she had no TECHNIQUE! That she was just a BELTER!

And then there are others who say she was a singer, and not much of a writer.

But when you see Janis Joplin on stage in this movie, you put her in the league of her rock compatriot who died within weeks of her, Jimi Hendrix.

Yeah, there's the song. And there's instrumentation. But really, most professionals have those bases covered adequately. It's about the presentation, the DELIVERY!

Oh to see Janis at the mic. Running her hands through her hair like a nervous adolescent. And then singing so intensely you feel she doesn't notice the crowd, she's POSSESSED!

But then she goes into a rap.

I wish the younger generation could see just this five minutes, Janis' performance of Cry Baby". You see today kids think music is about FAME!

Yes. About being all over the media, going to fabulous parties, garnering enough money to be set for LIFE!

But that's not the way it USED to be. No, music used to be a means of EXPRESSION!

Wipe the slate clean. From Madonna to Mariah to Britney. They just ain't got no soul. It's about SPECTACLE! It doesn't come from the heart...maybe because their hearts are ICE COLD!

Janis Joplin stands on stage, while the band is vamping, and tells her complete story.

Oh, you've got to see Janis.

Although nude photos of her showed her with a bit of a pot belly, here she's thin, with a narrow butt. And not much of a chest. And on her alternately cute and homely face, a great deal of acne.

Today that would be sandblasted away. Lasered off.

But this is a raw person. One of America's MOST FAMOUS!

Yet imperfect.

RICH!

But without love.

She starts lamenting that they all leave, asking why. You think it's the SONG, but then you realize it's her truth. They're with her, and they keep talking about places they want to go, people they want to see...and all she wants is for them to be with her. She doesn't want to POSSESS them, she just wants them around.

THAT'S the human condition.

Today people believe if you're famous, never mind rich, your life will work.

This is not true. It's NEVER been true. But today the WHOLE COUNTRY perpetuates this myth. USED to be America was the land of POSSIBILITY! If you worked hard, you could MAKE something of yourself. NOW, America is one big LOTTERY! If you're lucky, you can WIN! It's not about building yourself up, achieving something, it's about the needle falling on your square.

Why sing live when you can play a tape?

Why make mistakes when Pro Tools can eliminate them?

We've shaved off all the rough edges, in search of some vague perfection that's supposed to pay dividends, and we've excised life itself.

Even Joss Stone. She's got the voice, but not the PAIN! You can see it in Janis' face. She was picked on in school. Came to San Francisco and tried to fit in. She could do this one thing, and it had gotten her a lot, but it hadn't made her life perfect.

I just wish she were alive today. THIS is a person who would have insight. Who could tell you about life. The people with the facelifts are still looking for something elusive. They're into fakery rather than truth. Like we can't TELL you had that boob job? Who are you trying to PLEASE?

Art resonates when there's truth and honesty.

Art is not primary today, because there's very little truth and honesty.

There was a lot of truth and honesty in the sixties and seventies.

5

All you keep thinking is...I wish I'd been THERE! On the train, traveling across Canada.

THIS was the rock and roll lifestyle we aspired to. Not the private jet isolation with all the security guards. We didn't want to be in the spotlight, at least not the mainstream spotlight, we just wanted to be left alone, off in our own little world, to do our own thing.

And there we are. God, I could see myself in the audience.

And you're reminded of the era. Everybody thinks the concerts should be FREE! There's a HUGE security problem. And the funniest thing is Bob Weir ends up defending the COPS! Hell, is $14 too much for a day of music? Is it fair that a cop got his head broken open?

Boy was it a different era.

A bygone era. When music mattered.

There was no production, certainly no tapes, no dance routines except for Sha Na Na. No, it was only about the music.

And the film could have used more narrative. But there are moments when you're sitting there looking at the screen saying THERE IT IS!

6

Now make no mistake, the scene isn't completely dead. Today there's the jam band world.

Actually, it's become a pejorative. Critics say there are no hits, not enough record sales.

Well, I think people are missing the point.

Attendees go to the concerts to hear the MUSIC, to be part of a COMMUNITY! Those elements are MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than getting the right-sized rims in a video.

These jam band fans have REJECTED MTV. They want something more REAL!

Like the Dead used to be.

The Dead are PLAYING THEIR NEW ALBUM!

That's the way it was back in the day. "Workingman's Dead" had been released in May. This was the end of June, the beginning of July. You went out and at least HALF your show was the new record.

It brought me back.

There was "Casey Jones". And the yet unreleased "Friend Of The Devil".

And then, about two thirds of the way through the film, I heard those introductory notes. Fuck, they slid into NEW SPEEDWAY BOOGIE!

I had to make sure. Let's see. YUP, Altamont had been at the end of '69, the chronology was right.

You see the Stones might have made a film about the world's most notorious rock festival, but the Dead made the definitive statement, with "New Speedway Boogie".

Oh, the song's a slow boogie. Like the Fillmore at three in the morning. As for the speedway...that's where the ill-fated concert took place, yes, Altamont was a race track.

Jerry's picking out the lead. Phil Lesh is laying down the bass. But the true revelation is the two drummers. Mickey and Bill are sitting at their side by side kits LOCKED IN THE GROOVE! Just to watch Bill's hands is AMAZING! He's holding the left stick so LOOSELY! In the proper way, not the ham-fisted style of today.

And on the side of the stage we've got Pigpen. Seemingly an old man when he died, but here, not that long before, with smooth skin, blowing his harp, adding accents.

"Spent a little time on the mountain Spent a little time on the hill Things went down we don't understand But I think in time we will"

Oh, we knew it was special back then.

But we didn't think we'd LOSE IT!

We didn't think everybody would DIE! We didn't think our COMPATRIOTS would sell out, never mind the musicians themselves.

But film is frozen in time.

For all the riveting performances, some are boring. But if you want to know what it was like, if you want to know why the assembled geeks wanted to see a film about a rock festival THIRTY YEARS AGO, go see "The Festival Express".

It's not Woodstock. Neither the festival, nor the film.

Still, it's special.

And this specialness was EVERYWHERE in this era. In every nook and cranny of America people were playing instruments, going to gigs to hear musicians. It was THIS scene upon which the modern music business was built.

However, we've lost the FORMULA! The PENUMBRA has superseded the CORE!

The core was and still remains the music.

Music is about freedom. You've got to find players, and let them loose.

Sure, they might not be able to show up anywhere on time. They might be out of touch with every day realities. But that's why they can CREATE! They live in an alternative universe. You can get jerks like Justin Timberlake to show up on time, the only thing that's lacking is the INSPIRATION!

The major labels want to take all the RISK out of this business.

But it used to ONLY be about risk. Giving bands of ragtag musicians a hundred thousand dollars and seeing what they came back with.

They might have spent some of the money on dope, but they didn't spend it on stage sets or clothing. No, their goal was to lay their SOUND down on tape. And when pressed into discs, this sound ENRAPTURED the audience.

Now it's about BLUDGEONING the audience. CONVINCING them.

Used to be music was a SEDUCTRESS! An IRRESISTIBLE seductress.

Today it's Urkel. Or literally Lizzie McGuire. Imploring people to LIKE ME!

Janis Joplin couldn't even get ON MTV today. Hell, she wouldn't even be SIGNED!

It's not about how you look, but how you play. Do you truly have the music IN YOU? If you do, the public will find your efforts. Because the audience is hungry for great stuff, and there's so little great stuff out there.

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