Dead Songs in Depth

    
Nice.
  

    


     When it's right...it's Right.

It sounds like a very inspired wedding ceremony and a grate way to
begin a marriage!

did you play any other Dead songs ?
  

    
And which Terrapin was selected?
  

    
They wanted to go with the standard studio version off the album in
order to keep the length down from some of the more incredible jammed
out versions.

Some other dead and dead-related stuff played at the wedding: They
Love Each Other (JGB); Not Fade Away (GD); Hypnotized (Kingfish with
Bobby Weir); Jump for Joy (Kingfish with Bobby Weir); Lousiana Lady
(NRPS); Turn on Your Lovelight (GD); Shady Grove (Jerry and Grisman). 
And lots of stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting because the playlists are on
my home computer.

It was not a hippie jamfest, so we had to please the older folks, and
those in the younger crowd not into the Dead.  So this stuff was mixed
up thoroughly with a lot of other stuff as well, from Elvis to
electronica.
  

    
Late one night in Jakarta I played the studio Terrapin at volume on my
big JBLs for a neophyte. His jaw just about hit the floor. Maybe it is
better unadorned by strings but the studio cut still does the job.
  

    
I think the strings added just the right touch in the context of a
wedding.
  

    



Jeff Wagner writes:



     I have always interpreted terrapin as achieving a point in life of
having a hard outer shell. A place of self sufficiency and imperviousness to
whatever life can throw at you.
     Does it involve love... you bet! With love all is possible!

         Jeff
  

    
If anyone is interested, here is an mp3 of Robert Hunter's Terrapin
Station from his long out of print lp Jack O' Roses

http://rapidshare.de/files/14167430/Robert_Hunter_-_Terrapin_Station.mp3.html

click the free button, type in the 3 digit code and download to your
harddrive.
  

    
Thanks, Tim!
  

    
Wow. Thanks!
  

    
Thought I'd slip this in about

"Statements just seem vain at last."

"A ritual [of the ancient Aryan peoples, predessors of Indian
religion] often ended with the brahmodya competition to find a verbal
formula that expressed the mystery of the brahman. The challenger asked
a difficult and enigmatic question, and his opponent answered in an
equally elusive manner. The match continued until one of the
contestants was unable to respond: reduced to silence, he was forced to
withdraw. The transcendence of the brahman was sensed in the
mysterious clash of unanswerable questions that led to a stunning
realization of the impotence of speech. For a few sacred moments, the
competitors felt one with the mysterious force that held the whole of
life together, and the winner could say that he was the brahman" (The
Great Transformation, by Karen Armstrong; 2006, page 24).
  

    
Beautiful. I think that same sort of trip shows up in Captain Marvel,
circa 1975. No kidding. It was the same period when Dr. Strange did his
"Through the Looking Glass" adventure. Somebody has been cribbing your
notes, or mine ;-)

This sort of stuff seems to pop up in the strangest of places, now and
again and again.
  

    
You must speak on of this Capt. Marvel and Cr. Strange please. 
  

    
Oh, these were characters re-invented at the height of the Marvel
psychedelic era. I think both started with Stan Lee, but then a bunch
of crazies, including an artist and writer named Steve Englebart (?)
got his hands on them, and what had been 2D exploded into amazing
spaces.

During the years around 1973-1976, the Marvel Comix universe got
seriously weird and quite literary. It tapped into new possibilities in
graphic story-telling, as well as the most ancient history of
story-telling. Dr. Strange was a Magi of the esoteric arts. Captain
America dropped acid and split into two, each with his own alter-ego,
and that was just the beginning. In a universe next door, Warlock gave
up the ghost and lost his corporeal being and thus saw the Light… and
the Dark.

The entire trip seemed to me at the time about the primacy of images
vs the distraction,at best the necessity, of words. Of course, I was in
college and often a tad disposed to see things that may or may not
have been there ;-)

Go to your local comix store and seek out these works. Spend a nice
afternoon with that wise-guy who tells stories. A good, goopy Terrapin
would make a nice sound-track, perhaps, but I'd go for something more
meditative, given the solemn nature of the text swirled in a vortex of
images that speak volumes to young and old alike. I think they cost 35
cents back in the day. A real bargain.
  

    
Some day someone is going to do some serious work on the comic-book
connections in Hunter's lyrics. But it can't be me--I never followed
the comics!
  

    
Oh, yeah. Maybe <almanac> can remind us of the artist that was
illustrating Hunter lyrics for The Alamnac. There's also a cool
connection to the first revival of "The Twilight Zone". I thin Hunter
did a script or two. One that I remember was called "Nightcrawlers";
real good creepy stuff a'la EC Comics, more than Serling's stuff.
  

    
Dr. Strange was actually pretty damn wierd much earlier than 1973/74,
which is one of the reasons Country Joe name-checks him in the
anti-Lyndon-Johnson song "Super Bird."  Which song also includes a line
that is, unfortunately, just as apropos now as it was then, if not
more so:  "Gonna send you back to Texas, make you work on your ranch."
  

    
I guess i've got some comic reading to do
  

    
Get to work ;-)
  

    
can you burn em on a CD or something :). Speaking of which, I need
some new old shows. And I've got CDs to send to somebody.
  

    
Bryan, I can burn you some shows.  Any in particular that you are looking
for?
  

    
I really enjoy '73 and '74 shows. What I have now consists of all the
Dick's Picks. You can email me with the shows (or some of the shows)
you might have of that era: bamfinney@peoplepc.com. That would be cool.
  

    
I also have had more success with sbd shows. It seems the timing and
general quality have been real good.
  

    
I'll send ya a list - I've got a fair  number of 73-74 shows
  

    
Awesome! That seems like such a simpler time musically. I can hear all
the instruments. Not like some of the 90s shows where there are almost
too many sounds to separate things out. (of course taht's just my
opinion. Sometimes I am in the mood for all that.) I look forward to
the list. Thanks.