Phil Lesh, the Grateful Dead’s bassist, has died at at the age of 84.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/phil-lesh-grateful-dead-dead-1234809976/
I’ve never been a massive Dead fan – their noodling sometimes wandered too close to Jazzville for me – but they did have some great songs, and they certainly had a unique sound.
I recall a great article in Q from the much-missed Tom Hibbert about the Dead on tour and the legion of fans following this weird band of hippie-era survivors from city to city. Their live jams didn’t float my psychedelic boat, but I can appreciate the talent required to entertain so many Deadheads for so many years.
RIP.
Bummer, man
I liked the Dead and I liked Phil Lesh. He was a great player , his bass would often sort of flat along the top of songs.
Not a prolific writer, but wrote my favourite Dead track on my favourite Dead studio album:
A fine bass player with a very recognisable style. He was also a big fan of unheralded, and in some cases unrecorded British Classical composers and helped some of them financially through the Dead’s Rex Foundation.
https://slippedisc.com/2015/10/how-the-grateful-dead-backed-little-known-british-composers/
What a remarkable, moving story. Thanks Vince!
Very sad news…an integral part of The Dead’s sound
Sad to hear this. While I don’t think I quite qualify as a Deadhead, I am a big fan – my subscript to Dave’s Picks is an annual Christmas present to myself. Phil Lesh was a huge part of their sound and, I think, wrote one of the songs that even non-fans will concede is quite good, Box of Rain.
His Seastones electronica project had a more selective appeal.
Here he is with Box of Rain:
Can’t pretend I was a Dead fan but I always thought Box of Rain was a great song.
R.I.P Mr Bassman
(It is a bit scary these days with so many people I ‘grew up with’ becoming extinct)
His last concert it seems
I saw the Dead 34 years ago at Wembley Arena, a week after seeing The Sisters of Mercy at the same venue. It was a period of transition for me, away from NME/MM-rated bands towards a more open approach to music. Once I got over the novelty of seeing the Sisters live 5 years since they split and I discovered them, The Dead were far more entertaining.
I was hoping for comments from @DuCo01, as the AW’s go-to Deadhead. Maybe later?
Sure I’ve told this “true” story before. Wembley Arena, The Dead. At some point they start playing Dark Star. After a hard day at the pit face a tired old me falls asleep. Two hours later, I awake. They’re still playing Dark Star.
so THAT’S what a transitive nightfall of diamonds is! I always wondered.
“I was very impressed with T.S. Eliot around the time I was writing Dark Star,” Hunter said, and one line was clearly influenced by a line in ‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’ – “Let us go then, you and I, when the evening is spread out against the sky.” “Beyond that, that’s just my kind of imagery…. I don’t have any idea what the ‘transitive nightfall of diamonds’ means. It sounded good at the time..”
It more than fits the song; it makes the song really go out into the unknown.
Are you sure it was 2 hours, not 24 hours? Maybe they let you sleep through to the next concert.