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Poster:
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august_wst |
Date:
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May 24, 2012 07:19:45am |
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Forum:
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GratefulDead
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Subject:
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Re: 5/8/77 |
I was trading during the mid to late 80's and I don't think this show came my attention until the late 80's as the latest "must have" tape. I have no memory of anyone thinking it was some astounding show (for that matter, I still don't). The real hoopla around these tape was the (all important) "low generation" of them, the clarity of them and just the sound of Phil on a fretless bass. Other than that the playing on it was good, a little above average to most but that's all.
For that matter at the time, the suddenly released Betty Boards were the big attraction to everyone. To suddenly have this huge release of low generation, high quality recordings into a environment of crappy stealth audience recordings was really the big deal for at the time (the taper's section was still new and the venues controlled taping). The term "Betty Board" was a mark of quality that actually got applied to some recordings on people's "tape lists" (remember those things) in order to misrepresent themselves and the quality of their tapes just so they had something to offer the "big fish" in order to lure them in and rip them off in a trade in the honor systems we used at the time (happened to me a few times).
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Poster:
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N Hoey |
Date:
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May 24, 2012 11:03:55am |
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Forum:
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GratefulDead
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Subject:
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Re: 5/8/77 |
"and just the sound of Phil on a fretless bass."
To the best of my knowledge Phil didn't ever play a fretless with the GD. I never saw him use one at any show I saw (starting in '76). He certainly didn't use one in '77.
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Poster:
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august_wst |
Date:
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May 24, 2012 11:29:52am |
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Forum:
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GratefulDead
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Subject:
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Re: 5/8/77 |
Don't know what to say, there are points in that recording that the slides he does sound flawlessly fretless. That was the word at the time too.
Having not been there myself I can't say for sure. Just reporting my historical perspective
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Poster:
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N Hoey |
Date:
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May 24, 2012 11:38:18am |
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Forum:
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GratefulDead
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Subject:
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Re: 5/8/77 |
No big deal, but in the late 70's Phil performed switching between his Rick Turner/Alembic Osage-Orange bass (a la The GD Movie) and Big Brown (sometimes known as The Godfather), the "alembicized" Guild Starfire bass. Both 4 string, both fretted.
I saw him do the finger slides on songs like "Fire on the Mountain" and "Lazy Lightning" on those fretted basses all the time. Anyone reporting that they saw a fretless were um, not seeing clearly for whatever reason.
Attachment: 11094083_ori.jpgAttachment: imagAux1_phil-alembic.jpg
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Poster:
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Headphone |
Date:
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May 25, 2012 10:57:10am |
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Forum:
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GratefulDead
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Subject:
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Re: 5/8/77 |
Delighted to see the term "alembicized" mentioned here! Every day in the 70s we would use that word to describe modifications to all manner of musical instruments, household objects, even bicycles!
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