Wednesday, July 22, 2009



Bob Weir: Bombs Away

When I was young and in the early stages of the rituals that accompany fandom of the Grateful Dead - filling blank tdk's with live recordings from Avalon Ballroom or Barton Hall or Anchorage, memorizing the time line of keyboardists, learning to turn my nose up at studio recordings, etc, etc - I got two albums that I assumed, because they seemed to be unknown, were woefully overlooked and were bound to contain hidden depths. And so I bought two cassettes in quite quick succession - The first was Ned Lagin's (helped out by Phil Lesh, Jerry Garcia, David Crosby) Seastones, a tape I had read 'helped plants grow.' I assumed it was psychedelic, organic, mood music. Instead I recall - and Mike can vouch for this - an electronic nightmare. Undeterred, I followed that up with Bob Weir's 1978 Heaven Help the Fool , containing the above track, which opens the album. And I knew, at the sound of that synthesizer, that there weren't to be any hidden depths on this one.

Enjoy!

9 comments:

Mike said...

Seastones is genius. The 12 bucks or so that you paid for it was good money to us back then - still is - that's what made the first listen of that album so amusing. Then I gave it to Rich or Preston and you never saw the album again. It may well be genius. I would to listen to it today. I bet I would enjoy it much more than I did 20 years ago.

Mick said...

No hidden depths maybe but I enloyed it. By the way, when you were doing your pairings experiment a few weeks ago one of my ideas was to pair Grateful Dead's Eyes Of The World with Rainbow's Eyes Of The World.

Sheridan Dupre said...

Is Seastones genius? I also would like to hear it again. Perhaps someone out there can post something from it? You're right, of course - it was spending my hard earned money on that, then popping it into the stereo, and then experiencing...confusion, deflation, mild outrage, hilarity pretty much in that order.

Mick, you should post that pairing. I don't know if I've even heard the Rainbow song.

Mike said...

Remembering that car and that stereo... Seastones must be one of the few tapes that wasn't torn to shreds.

Jazione said...

shout out: Deke Bailey!

Liberty said...

Thanks for posting Bombs Away, lots of gems off this album.

Seastones......safe at any speed!!!!

Nazz Nomad said...

drugs are bad, mmmkay?

Richard B. Simon said...

David Gans does an annual weekend-long Dead marathon on KPFA in Berkeley. A few years ago (ten? Nine?) he played a set of live stuff with Ned Lagin sitting in -- and it is some hairy, hairy stuff. David was kind enough to send me a disc. Then I lent it to my friend Eric, and I've never seen it since ...

Mike, I think I remember that tape -- but I don't have it!

Richard B. Simon said...

http://dttw.gdhour.com/marathon.010203.html

Interview with Ned Lagin
Ned's #1 (5:25)
Ned's #2 ( :41)
Ned's #3 (23:45)
Ned's #4 (8:25)
3/17/75 (Ned's birthday) at Ace's

Eyes of the World->
jam->
Wharf Rat
9/11/74 Alexandra Palace, London
Grateful Dead w/ Ned Lagin