Instead of being the all knowing Yowza Wowza Grand Whazoos we'd like 'em to be, most artists are just as normal or as screwed up as everybody else or, in a lot of cases, even more screwed up than anybody else. The Moody Blues said it best with, "I'm just a singer in a rock and roll band". Somebody else, whose name escapes me, said, "Love the art, not the artist."

From Fred Eaglesmith's tune, "Alcohol and Pills":

"Janis Joplin, she was wild and reckless.
Then there was Gram Parsons, Then there was Jimi Hendrix.
The story just goes on and on, I guess it always will.
They ended up on alcohol and pills.

Alcohol and pills / It's a cryin' shame
You think they would have been happy with the glory and the fame.
But fame don't take away the pain / It just pays the bills.
And you wind up on alcohol and pills."

i think Tom is just suggesting the artist approach the concert stage with a little more of a professional attitude

of course the problem here is many of the more interesting artists and events occur in an arena of semi-anti professional aura

i mean Jerry, as an example, can anybody picture Jerry in a three piece suit, or can anybody picture a "Professional" zonin' out in a long free form version of the other one (although i am sure the dead had lawyers on the payroll, it is just one of those things you gotta do to protect yourself).

If you ask me its the commercialization and packaging of America's music that makes it lame and tired and tired and expensive to boot "its Elvis's falt damn it".

$15 dollars in a corner bar might be a little low, but i bet you them steamline singers had some soul, somethin' worth seein', I'd rather see that than paying $150 to sit a 100 yards from Mick prancin' on a big stage with a giant big lip logo over his head and a sound system with so many mega decibels that it blurs Kieth's Tele and Mick's vocals into a brown noise that leaves me with no satisfaction

one thing about the dead though, no matter the venue, they had a good, well mixed soundsystem, that was often the most amazing thing to me about their shows, the sound was awesome, Jerry could be sratching out thse little low volume fills (behind a pretty strong rythym Bob Phil Bill and mickey could lay out htere) and he could wind you up steady and slow to his flurshes of patented Jerry notes and the dynamics were clean and sharp and when Jerry was laughin and smilin', well , maybe it was the stoner god makin him feel that way or maybe not, but i loved the way he made me feel!!!! why sometimes i would dance about in a silly fashion and i didn't even care what people thought about it!

the sound man makes the show! (and keeps pete from lookin for his ax i hear)

funny you should bring that up. the time i did see the grateful dead, i was required to wear a uniform and it was suggested i not allow myself to get too carried away in the moment, like with a whole lot of dancing and all. a friend called up and asked if we wanted to sign up for crowd control at the show and i'm pretty sure i'd never heard of that but had no trouble saying yes. it was an odd perspective i guess...a lot was going on...and to make a long story short, for purely practical reasons we all for the most part wound up on the stage with the grateful dead, me after being fished out of tower like structure that was eventually a tower of people...none of the band seemed particularly stoned??, i think this was around 1991.
it was a funny way to get to see them...no complaints.

I wonder how Healy is doing.

kurt...

well, i would have loved to buzz on the sound a little more...but i still ain't complaining.

Apparenty he is fairly well recovered after surgery to remove a sarcoma from his leg... http://jeffhealey.com/home.htm (go to news archive, April 14)

His tour schedule has him crossing paths, though not playing the same venues as Arlo in Scotland and England over the next couple of weeks.

Dan Healy was sound engineer for the Grateful Dead for many years.

kurt...

you got to admit the dead always had good sound, when i saw them in 73 they had the speaker to the sealing set up, man that was great. those i have seen in big venues who had good sound CSN (usually) and Dave Mason and Arlo (I have seen him in a couple of pretty good size venues). those who don't seem to care about the sound and it is a toss of the coin...well, the worst offender here.... Bob Dylan

Talkin' 'bout sound men (or sound person) or engineers - well back in the early 1990s I was at a concert where the guy runnin' the sound board made the hooded singer on stage sound as if he was just makin' Syllable sounds and a grunt and moan here and there

there are no words inside the gates of EEEEE- aha- Gun

There's a freakin' hilarious Gary Larson Far Side cartoon about sound techs at this web site.

http://www.stirlingaudioservices.com/ray.htm

i was at that show, a few times!

"i think Tom is just suggesting the artist approach the concert stage with a little more of a professional attitude"


If they can take your money...then they should be able to play the songs they have been playing for twenty or more years with a minimum of mistakes.

Wasn't it CSN that refused to play at Woodstock until they were paid first?

I think commercialism corrupts the music and more.

Anyways, I received an e-mail from Country Joe! Actually, I think it may have been his wife or daughter or something, it just referrd me to his websites and said he was touring:

Country Joe McDonald home page <www.countryjoe.com>
> Country Joe's Tribute to Florence Nightingale <www.countryjoe.com/
> nightingale>
> Berkeley Vietnam Veterans Memorial <http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/vvm>
> P.O.BOX 7064 BERKELEY, CA 94707