Conference rdvax::grateful

    I had good vibes reading Hunters discription of Mystery Box, hope it's
    not too "pop"...looking forward to them during Furthur..
    
    
    rfb

    I asked the guy at Rockit Records about Mickey's disc yesterday
    and it's due in the store today (6/11). He said he'd have ample
    copies;-).
    
    Mike

	i sent congrats to Hunter, but noticed there's no announcement on
	either the Dead's page or Hart's page. i'm anxious to hear it.

The Next Step

All we need is flesh and bones
Stars to steer and the faith of stones
It all works out if you leave it alone
We'll take the next step on our own

All we need are hearts of thunder
Set in the compass of the deep dark sky
All we need is all we've got
Could be a little - It could be a lot

Depend on the wind
Of distant drums
We'll know the next step
When it comes

All we need is the key to the city
Open the gate yeah isn't it pretty
All we need is the weight of a feather
To tip the balance in the favor of love

Cold iron shimmy to address the lock
A little more mercy & a little less talk
Crawl on your belly through a river of tears
All we need is another ten years

Depend on the wind 
Of distant drums
We'll know the next step
When it comes

Borne on the tide all flecked with foam
All we need is a long way home
Federation sunset don'y pay the rent
Bury the baby and strike the tent

Words may differ but the song remains
Safe in the whistle of passing trains
Ninety-nine miles of solid gold track
Lay on the whistle & don't look back

Depend on the wind
Of distant drums
We'll know the next step 
When it comes

words by Robert Hunter, copyright 1995 Ice Nine Publishing (ASCAP)

    
    Beautiful!

Down The Road

Down the road to Union Station running through the fog
I thought I saw Joe Hill last night grinning like a dog
"I understand they did you in for everyone to see"
He smiled - shook his head - "that's a lie," said he
"I been on a mountain top observing from a cloud
Been in the hearts of workers milling with the crowd
My tears are shed for freedom and equality of means
My blood and perspiration oil the gears of your machines"

Down the road again
Down the road again

Down the road to Massachusetts driving through the night
I thought I saw Jack Kennedy hitchhiking by a light
I hit the brakes - backed up slow, and Kennedy got in
I said, "It's nice to see you lookin' back in shape again
Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe they gunned you down"
He just shook his head & looked off sadly with a frown
Said, "bullets are like waves they only rearrange the sand
History turns upon the tides & not the deeds of man"

Down the road again
Down the road again

Driving down to Fiddler's Green to hear a tune or two
I thought I saw John Lennon there, looking kind of blue
I sat down beside him, said: "thought you bought the store"
He said: "I heard that rumor, what can I do you for?"
"Have you written anything I might have never heard?"
He picked up his guitar and strummed a minor third
All I can recall of what he sang, for what it's worth:
"Long as songs of mine are sung I'm with you on this earth"

Down the road again
Down the road again

From the corner of my eye I saw the sun explode
I didn't look directly 'cause it would have burned my soul
When the smoke and thunder cleared enough to look around
I heard a sweet guitar lick, an odd familiar sound
(I) heard a laugh I recognized come rolling from the earth.
Saw it rise into the skies like lightning giving birth
It sounded like Garcia but I couldn't see the face
Just the beard and the glasses and a smile on empty space

Down the road again
Down the road again

Words by Robert Hunter
(c) 1995 Ice Nine Publishing

    Finally got to hear this last night.  Parts of it do seem to stray a
    little to close to pop for my tastes, other parts less so.  Hunter's
    lyrics are a treat throughout.  It's 50-50 whether I'll actually go
    out and get it.
    
    Has this band done any dates yet?  Anyone see em?  I predict "John Cage
    is Dead" will be a high point of the live show.  A lot of energy in
    that tune; I could almost picture the entire amphitheater at GW moving.
    
    /rick
    

    grate lyrics.....shivers up and down my spine again
    
    Fiddler's Green?????? as in Denver..?
    now that's interesting! Can there be more than one Fiddler's??? 
    
    who was John Cage????
    
    
    rfb

    
>    Fiddler's Green?????? as in Denver..?

	only one I know of - think of you, rfb, when I hear that line...
    
>    who was John Cage????
    
	not really sure, but isn't he the advant gard composer that
	was in some way (maybe they did one of his works) part of this
	symphony thing that Phil&Bobby&Mickey&Vince did this past 
	weekend?

	
	I have only heard 4 or 5 of these Mystery Box tunes - before
	I make up my mind one way or the other (hah!), I want to
	hear 'em all...

	furthur,
	Debess

	Fiddler's Green turned up about 800 documents using AltaVista.
	
	One of which is this gem ...
	FIDDLER'S GREEN
	(John Connelly)
	
	As I roved by the dockside on evening so rare
	To view the still waters and take the salt air
	I heard an old fisherman singing this song
	O take me away boys my time is not long
	
	     Dress me up in me oilskin and jumper
	     No more on the docks I'll be seen
	     Just tell me old shipmates
	     I'm taking a trip, mates
	     And  I'll see them someday in Fiddler's Green
	
	Now Fiddler's Green is a place I've heard tell
	Where fishermen go when they don't go to Hell
	Where the weather is fair and the dolphins do play
	And the cold coast of Greenland is far, far away
	
	The sky's always clear and there's never a gale
	And the fish jump on board with a flip of their tail
	You can lie at your leisure, there's no work to do
	And the skipper's below making tea for the crew
	
	And when you're in dock and the long trip is thru
	There's pubs and there's clubs, and there's lassies there too
	Now the girls are all pretty and the beer is all free
	And there's bottles of rum hanging from every tree
	
	I don't want a harp or a halo, not me
	Just give me a breeze and a good rolling sea
	And I'll play me old squeeze box as we sail along
	When the wind's in the rigging to sing me this song
	
	Copyright 1970 for the World, March Music Ltd.
	

	John Cage turned up in no less than 10,000 documents.
	
	Here is a excerpt from 1 ...
	
JOHN CAGE was born in Los Angeles in 1912. He studied with Richard
Buhlig, Henry Cowell, Adolph Weiss, and Arnold Schoenberg. In 1938 Cage
composed the first prepared piano piece, Bacchanale, for a dance by
Syvilla Fort. In 1951, he organized a group of musicians and engineers to
make the first music on magnetic tape. In 1952, at Black Mountain
College, he presented a theatrical event considered by many to have been
the first Happening. In 1958, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Emile
de Antonio organized a 25-year retrospective concert of his music at Town
Hall in New York. He is musical advisor for the Merce Cunningham Dance
Company, having been associated with Merce Cunningham since 1943.
	
In 1949 Cage received a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Award from the
National Academy of Arts and Letters for having extended the boundaries
of music through his work with percussion orchestra and his invention of
the prepared piano. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences in 1978, and to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in
1988. In 1982 the French Legion d'Honneur made Cage a Commandeur de
l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He received the Notable Achievement
award from Brandeis University in 1983. He received the degree Doctorate
of All the Arts Honoris Causa from the California Institute of the Arts
in 1986. Cage was the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard
University for the 1988-89 academic year. He is a laureate of the 1989
Kyoto Prize given by the Inamori Foundation.
	
.
.
.

John Cage's music is published by the Henmar Press of C.F. Peters
Corporation. Recordings of his work are available from Wergo,
Mode, New Albion, CRI, Columbia, Nonesuch, Folkways, Everest, Time,
Cramps, C/P2 and many other labels.

John Cage died in New York City on August 12th, 1992.

I've never heard (to my knowledge) any of Cage's compositions, but he did a
concert/happening that included a piece called 2'31" or something like that,
where it was 2 mins 31 secs of silence...any boots of that around ? :)

I've got some old Keyboard Magazine interviews with him,  I recal that he had
some interesting/bizarre/profound ideas about compostion and performance.

gotta love folks like that...my own twisted improvisations could be accecpted
by someone like him :)

WO

As for Mystery Box.   I picked it up - it's great.  Nice grooves....a 
little poppy in spots - definately weird to hear Hunter's lyrics in a 
new setting (pop/r&b music).  

Lots of neat drum grooves - a definate lack of guitar.  

Mick raps/speaks/sings very nicely.

The lyrics are excellent as well - 

"Long as songs of mine are sung, I'm with you on this earth"

...
:)
bobo

        <<< Note 531.12 by TOLKIN::OSTIGUY "Ripples never come back" >>>

>concert/happening that included a piece called 2'31" or something like that,
>where it was 2 mins 31 secs of silence...any boots of that around ? :)

Hi Wes,

Santana did this for the opening "track" of the triple-lp-live-awesome album
Lotus....

bobo

    A FRIEND OF MINE CAUGHT THE LAGUNA SECA DAZE SHOWS
    HE SAID IF ANYTHING MYSTERY BOX WILL VERY INTERESTING THIS SUMMER.
    TONS OF ENERGY WITH MICKEY GOING CRAZY. THE HIGHLIGHT WAS BOB COMING
    OUT FOR A MYSTERY BOX VERSION OF FIRE ON THE MTN.( WITH BOTH BOB AND
    MICKEY SHARING VOCALS.
                          ROSS
    

	it's 4'33"
	and he did it to point out that music is all around us.
	his idea was to have an audience listen to it's own breathing,
	and the sound of shuffling feet, or talking from the 'cheap
	seats'. i understand it created quite a controversy.
	
	wes, i can dub you a copy if you'd like.  ;-)  ;-)

>    TONS OF ENERGY WITH MICKEY GOING CRAZY. 

	the interview I heard him do with David Gans, they were talking
	about logistics on the stage.  Mickey said all that was really
	important was that he be comfortable.  Gans said "how about a
	big chair to sit in" and Mickey responded "uh, I will definately
	-not- be sitting" ;-) ;-) ;-)

	Debess

	ps Ross - mixing upper and lower case is easier on the eyes,
	for some reason.  all upper case seems like you're shouting!

re: John Cage

I remember hearing some of his stuff in some music classes in college.
Good introduction to abstract music.

I think one of his things was treating pianos and stuff to get new sounds.

At the Bob+Phil+etal symphony, I read that they played 4 John Cage tunes
*simultaneously*!

re: tape of the 4'33" of silence

There's a copy floating around, but it's REALLY hissy ;-)

/Ken

>I think one of his things was treating pianos and stuff to get new sounds.

	yeah, i read he invented something called the ?altered? piano.
	where he would place things between the strings to get new
	sounds.
	
	also, there's a double cd where it's suggested that you get two
	cd players to randomly play the cuts from each cd simultaneously.
	
	;-)
	
>There's a copy floating around, but it's REALLY hissy ;-)

	probly didn't use Dolby!   ;-)
	

Bobo, thanx for the pointer...

Ah, yes Jay Jolls, Prepared Piano seems to strike a chord..so to speak...
makes ya wanna put a can of nails into a Steinway, EH?

NE1 ever heard of/seen "Birdsongs of the Mesozoic" ?  this is a group I saw at
the WAG (Worcester Artists Group) some years back, I have one of their cd's,
very interesting music

>	yeah, i read he invented something called the ?altered? piano.
>	where he would place things between the strings to get new
>	sounds.
	

		didn't TC do that when he was playing with the Dead?
		I seem to remember reading about them working with
		a sound engineer(?) who was appalled at the things they
		were doing to instruments to get new sounds...

		Debess

>didn't TC do that when he was playing with the Dead?

yup - Anthem of the Sun.  TC played prepared piano. Somewheres in the middle
of Side 1.  I don't believe he ever played prepared piano live onstage with
the Dead.  Only in the studio, for AotS.

 Josh

    There is actually a published score for Cage's 4'33!  I believe it's on
    file in the Library of Congress.
    
    Note that someone gets credit in the liner notes for "prepared piano
    sequences" on John Cage is Dead
    

My brother used to work as a programmer for a mail order clothing company
called J(ay?) Crew.  The odd thing about his place of work was that it
was just a typical apartment in an apartment house in NYC.  I think
his computer was in the kitchen...  But anyway, it turns out that the
apartment building was the same one that John Cage lived in with some
other somewhat famous artist (can't remember, but I pretty sure I'd
recognize the name).  So he used to run into him in the elevator
every so often.  I don't think he every really talked to him, but he
thought it was pretty cool.

disclaimer:  I THINK it was John Cage that he used to tell of,
rather than say, John Cale...  But I may well be mistaken...

PeterT

re <<< Note 531.24 by QUARRY::petert "rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty" >>>

>disclaimer:  I THINK it was John Cage that he used to tell of,
>rather than say, John Cale...  But I may well be mistaken...

eh, John Cage, John Cale.. so one's famous for 4 min. 33 sec. of silence, the
other for ear-splitting banshee noise with the Velvet Undeground, famous
composers, whats the diff'... :-)

(my turn to be confused.. I mix up John Cale with J.J. Cale.. or are these
the same guy?  One was a voila-playing Welchman, the other a blues guitarist?)

 Josh

    JJ Cale wrote Cocaine, which Clapton made famous. His first album,
    Naturally, which came out in 72? is grate...songs called Crazy Mama and
    Nowhere to Run are real good. JJ Cale is from the south.
    
    rfb

    John Cale and JJ Cale are different--I've seen them both in 
    concert. JJ Cale is very laid back and does a very mellow, laidback
    show, whereas John Cale can come across as either a screaming punk
    banshee or as a classical pianist, depending on how he wants to tour.
    Still, I see JJ Cale and John Cale CDs mixed up in one bin or another
    at just about every CD store I've been in.
    
    mike

    from sf chronicle 6/17/96
    
    American Festival Rocks Davies
    Ex-Grateful Dead at Symphony concert
    
    JOSHUA KOSMAN, Chronicle Music Critic
    
    The opening salvo of the San Francisco Symphony's American Festival on 
    Friday night brought an exhilarating clash of dissonances to Davies 
    Symphony Hall -- not only from the performers but throughout the hall as 
    well.
    
    The musical explosions came from the stage, where Michael Tilson Thomas 
    presided over a superbly planned introductory survey of what he calls the 
    American maverick tradition, from colonial times to the present day.
    
    But there were some jarring juxtapositions in the audience as well, as 
    tie-dyes mingled with jackets and ties in an unprecedented influx of new 
    blood to Davies. The first-timers were drawn by  the presence of four 
    members of the Grateful Dead, but they first grooved appreciatively to the
    music of Ives, John Adams, and even the 18th century tunesmith William
    Billings.
    
    The result was as unusual a spectacle as Davies has yet witnessed.
    Scores of  Deadheads congregated outside the main entrance before the show,
    importuning passers-by for extra tickets;inside the hall, they wandered up
    and down the aisles, evidently befuddled by the constraints of a printed 
    program or assigned seating. The air in the rest rooms was redolent of
    marijuana.
    
    All this brouhaha came in response to the first public performance by
    all four of the surviving members of the Dead --percussionist Mickey Hart,
    bassist Phil Lesh, guitarist Bob Weir and keyboardist Vince Welnick -- 
    since the death of Jerry Garcia last year.
    
    They took part, along with the Symphony Youth Orchestra, a few members
    of the Symphony, and four top-notch vocal soloists, in John Cage's 
    ``Renga'' and ``Apartment House 1776,'' two scantily notated works meant to
    be played simultaneously.
    
    The irony was that, for all the audible impact they had on the performance, 
    the Dead members might as well have been four guys named Moe. In the course
    of 36 minutes of Cage, I heard a couple of drum mottoes by Hart, and that 
    was all. No ``Dark Star,'' no ``Playing in the Band,'' not even a 
    detectable guitar chord.
    
    Instead, there was a long stretch of loosely agglomerated sound, in diverse 
    strands. The Youth Orchestra played ``Renga,'' translating the drawings of
    Henry David Thoreau into sudden outbursts of musical clatter.
    
    At the front of the stage, four strains of American religious music were 
    represented by Pamela Warrick-Smith (African), Benjamin Maissner (Jewish),
    Floyd Red Crow Westerman (American Indian) and Pamela Sebastian 
    (Protestant). Members of the Symphony played snippets of colonial songs, 
    the Dead did something imperceptible, and the occasional flute or drum solo
    wafted down from the balcony along with the protests of a dissatisfied 
    infant.
    
    As so often happens with Cage's extravaganzas, the experience of listening 
    to ``Renga/Apartment House 1776'' was only marginally more enlightening 
    than having it described. The sound proceeded for 36 carefully regimented 
    minutes (two large TV monitors counted them off), and then stopped.
    
    There was more interesting music to be heard elsewhere on the program.
    The U.S. premiere of John Adams' ``Lollapalooza,'' a high-energy six-minute
    blast that crosses Steve Reich with James Brown, made a delightful 
    curtain- raiser. And the Symphony Chorus, directed by Vance George, sang 
    splendidly in the 18th century tunes -- especially Billings' entertaining 
    ``Modern Music,'' with a text that narrates the music's changes in meter and
    key.
    
    But the program's high point was Ives' ``Holidays'' Symphony, among the 
    composer's most poignant exercises in patriotic nostalgia. The four 
    individual pieces that make up the work have each been 
    played by the Symphony (the fourth, ``Thanksgiving and Forefathers' Day,''
    just last month), but this was the first performance of the complete 
    symphony, and composer Lou Harrison was on hand to introduce each piece 
    with excerpts from Ives' writings.
    
    In each of these self-contained sketches, Ives establishes a mood of
    tender reminiscence -- a snowy landscape of strings and bells for 
    ``Washington's Birthday,'' a hot, still summer morning for ``The Fourth of
    July'' -- that is then punctured by exuberant reminiscences of the marches
    and hymn tunes associated with the holiday.
    
    The result is a grand display of hard-headed nostalgia, all blaring 
    dissonances and winsome retrospection. The orchestra played
    with glorious abandon.
    
                                       

"all four surviving members fo the Grateful Dead"??????

does this mean we should be adding Billy to the "REALLY dead people" note?

				da ve

i thought it was rev gary davis that wrote cocaine?

			da ve

> i thought it was rev gary davis that wrote cocaine?

  Well, JJ Cale's "Cocaine", as covered by Clapton, is different from the
  most famous coke-related blues tune, "Cocaine Blues"...
  
  (Walk down Beale St, turn down Main, look for the little girl who sells
  cocaine...  Cocaine, runnin' all round my brain.)
  
  As performed by zillions of blues players, plus Dylan, Van Ronk, Jackson
  Browne fer chrissakes...  - JayC.

duhhhh... :^)  that's right...  boy do i feel like a Homer...  :^)

    along similar lines, I recall in "new" music class our professor
    discussing one of Cage's pieces, called something like "Sonata
    for Seven Shortwave Radios".  It sounded like it might be interesting 
    until you found out all the radios were tuned to the same frequency.
    
    From what I know of Cage and his works, I've always gotten a strong
    sense of playfulness, of not taking things too seriously, of tweaking
    the status quo.  Elements that seem right in line with the legacy of
    the Pranksters and of the Dead.  It seems quite appropriate that he
    would turn up on Mickey's new record.
    
    /rick
    

  I decided to delete .33, my rant about John Cage...  On rereading, I
  wasn't too comfortable with it.  It read like a by-product of a week full
  of stress (as in, every one on my project except me got axed this
  week...), which it probably was.
  
  Generally I try to stick to positive comment, esp. on Friday afternoons.
  8)   - JayC.

    I'm listneing to Mystery Box for the first time;  I'm about
    half-way through it.
    
    I like it a lot!
    
    My first interest in music is always visceral:  how does it make me
    feel?!!   Lyrics come later, if ever.
    
    The disk has a great groove; it makes me want to get up and dance.
    I will say that Mickey ought to stay away from the mike, 'cause he
    sure hasn't translated his rhythmic sensibility to his voice yet...
    But the line about Garcia snuck up on my and grabbed me by my
    tearducts.
    
    Interesting note: Vince gets writing credit in about half the songs...
    
    I personally don't think it's "too pop;"  if it manages to get
    airplay, it's another step in exposing "world music."  I'd sure like
    to hear a lot more stuff like Mystery Box on the waves, rahter than a lot
    of the stuff there now.
    
    I give it 4.5 (out of 5) dancing skeletons!
    
    /bruce

    so I go over to Hoot's this weekend to borrow his lawnmower and he asks
    "heard this yet"? showing me the Mystery Box CD.."Ya" I say
    'people are sayin it's "poppy"" He says "No, more like Sade"
    ..after yardwork and 4 Sammies, Patty, Hoot and I have a pitcher and 
    a half of Cold Fat Tire off the tap at Meadow Muffins and head back to 
    Hoots for a listen...my take...Sade mixed with Peter Gabrial World
    Beat.
    I LIKE IT! 
    Now it might have been that last half pitcher of Fat Tire,
    but we listened to this twice and I don't think there's a "throw away"
    Song on the whole CD. Probably one tune I relate more to than ya'll is
    Sange de Cristo...Blood of Christ...cause I hang out sometimes, and
    used to more often, in the Sange de Cristo mountains here in Colorado. 
    Down the Road of course is way cool and is the most "different" from the
    other tunes. Anyway, we won't have *any* trouble dancin away to these
    tunes.
    
    rfb

    note;
    that's a pitcher and ahalf *A PIECE* of Fat Tire...didn't want ya'll to
    get the wrong idea....%^)

 
 Only the Strange Remain   (Hunter/Hart)
 
 I've been searching in sectors both private and dark
 With the eye of a witness -- silent and stark
 Seen everything that goes on in the night
 Things that are twisted and hide from the light
 Things that live under the rock and the stone
 Flesh like a fever on a platter of bone
 Blacker than blackness and whiter than white
 Things that live only on the edges of sight
 
 So, I pack my sack with a fistful of fire
 There are cutthroats and thieves in this night of desire
 Who steals this treasure must contend with its flame
 Where only the strange remain
 
 Only the strange remain
 Only the strange remain
 Only the strange remain
 
 Looking deep and then deeper into every face
 Past beauty and wisdom, past gender and race
 I see a lone hungry wolf in a shining blue flame
 And only the strange remain
 
 I'm dying of thirst with a drink in my hand
 Praying for something that I don't understand
 One foot on the gravel, one foot in the sky
 Too reckless to live & too careful to die
 
 When the moment has passed
 With death at the door
 Will I still look for answers
 Will I still beg for more?
 Will I slip into silence or ride with the pain
 Where only the strange remain
 
 Yea, yea, yea
 Only the strange remain
 Only the strange remain
 Only the strange remain
 
 Tell me friend, have you noticed of late
 How only the strange remain?
 I'm speaking about the cream of the strange
 Not the merely weird, out of sight or insane
 No, only the strange remain
 Only the strange remain
 
 They keep on talking just to rattle their teeth
 A light coat of surface and nothing beneath
 They're fishing for answers with love as the bait
 Related to something that time doesn't date
 Soon as it's spoken, it no longer applies
 Words twist and stutter & deliver up sighs
 
 If truth is impossible, so is the lie
 There's no in-between, you can't swim, you can't fly
 At the uttermost link at the end of our chain
 Only the strange remain
 Only the strange remain
 
 In the dark heat of silence the strange remain
 Yea, only the strange remain
 
 Only the strange remain
 Only the strange remain
 Only the strange remain
 

Subj:   HotWired Mickey Hart


     snipped from HotFlash:
     ----------------------

     >The Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart joins HotWired's Steve Silberman in
     >Pop Talk this Wednesday - check the Club Wired listings below for
     >details.

     >http://www.hotwired.com/club/