The dark of the moon, besides….

“Maybe that’s cause it’s midnight
And the dark of the moon besides.
Maybe the dark is from your eyes
Maybe the dark is from your eyes”
-Robert Hunter

Lets separate ourselves from our own little alternate-realities tonight, unplug, and step outside for a minute and enjoy one of nature’s enduring phenomenons, the lunar eclipse…

…and then enjoy some SMOKIN’ vintage Dead.

umm, LOUDER PLEASE……

Grateful Dead – Shakedown Street [12-31-84].mp3

Odd Pairings: The Grateful Dead w/ The Beach Boys: 4/27/1971 @ The Fillmore East

Talk about a culture-clash. Cue April 1971. You’re going to the legendary Fillmore in NYC to catch one of the last rock shows before the doors will be closed forever. And what you witness is Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead sharing a stage with the (mudda fuggin’) Beach Boys. Gotta love it.

Well, since I was still about 6 years from being created, all I have left to document this fabled night is a crispy soundboard courtesy of the Dead’s vault. And I share it with you….

Check out “Okie From Muskogee”, featuring the long-haired ones on vocals (by “long-hairs”, of course, ahem!, I mean the Beach Boys…)

We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee;
We don’t take our trips on LSD
We don’t burn our draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin’ right, and bein’ free.

From a review by Blair Jackson in The Deadhead’s Taping Compendium Vol. 1 1959-1974

The second set starts with a handful of short tunes, all nicely played, and then at mid-set the Dead are joined onstage by members of the Beach Boys for a wild mini-set of rock n roll classics, one Beach Boys song, and Merle Haggard’s right-wing screed, “Okie From Muskogee” (which includes the immortal lines “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee/ We don’t take our trips on LSD…”). If you’ve ever seen pictures of the Beach Boys from this era, you know that in the early seventies they were not the short-haired, clean-cut crew they were in the mid-sixties (and again in the late-seventies), At the Fillmore, they appeared in Caftans and sported long hair and bushy beards– yep, they were heads! The playing and singing is pretty sloppy during this segment, but it’s still a fun ride, a true curiosity that probably belongs in every serious tape collection. Then, the Dead-only finale, with “Sing Me Back Home” and “Uncle John’s” going into a cool “Lovelight” are a nice wrap-up to a show that is all over the map. The “Lovelight” is Pigpen (Ron McKernan) at his best as he tries to play matchmaker for kids in the audience: How does a guy convince the young lovely next to him to go home and go to bed with him? Just ask her and “Tell ‘em Pigpen says it was OK!” Wish I’d thought of that in 1971.
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STREAM IT HERE

GRAB IT HERE
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The Grateful Dead (with The Beach Boys) – Okie From Muskogee.mp3
The Grateful Dead (with The Beach Boys) Johnny B Goode.mp3

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