Friday Night Fun Tunes
Back in the later days of tape trading, as CDR and shows available on the internet was just becoming popular, right before I went on a major indefinite hiatus from new music, and all through that hiatus, never did I imagine myself as a music downloader.
We're all entitled to change our minds. I sure did. Tonight's listening adventure is something I would 99.9999999% more than likely never have listened to if it weren't for downloading... and then again, that's true for most everything I listen to nowadays.
Iko Iko, Dire Wolf, Down The Road,
Ripple, Good Lovin', La Montana,
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone, Endless Skies,
Who Stole The Show?, Jack-a-Roe,
Strange World, Bagua Osi,
Scarlet Begonias -» Fire On The Mountain
·
Encore 1: Friend Of The Devil -» Not Fade Away
Encore 2: The Other One
Esta muy Spectacularmundo!! (If I've been studying mí español as I do Turkish and French and Russian, I'd be able to appropriately say in Spanish the correct words to describe this show... and probably most of the shows on Mickey's Summer Tour in 2000.) But since I haven't cracked open a Spanish book in well over a couple years or so and my Spanish is a little rusty, esta muy Spectacularmundo will have to do for now....
Upon pressing play on this show, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Well, lots of percussion, I did know that! Iko starting things off was a good tune to get me used to this. Clearly this ain't the Dead or even Ratdog or Phil & Friends... wow, this is the Mickey Hart Band? Right on! A huge and very appreciative smile donned my face, lit up in joy for hearing Mickey bringing the fans these sounds in his very own style.
And talk about his very own style -- during the first minute of the next song you would never ever guess this was the start of a much-loved Jerry-sung tune. Collectively heard about a trillion and a half times by Deadheads, Dire Wolf is noticeable right from the start... not here. The beat was pure Caribbean, mon, a total island sound almost straight outta some tropical beach region with crystal blue waters and umbrellas in your drink. Dire Wolf? Pretty neat to say the least. The crowd musta just been lovin' every second of this!
A couple tunes later it was back to the beach with Caribbean Ripple. An island arrangement for Ripple? Ripple?! Again, I was astounded. This coulda very easily been the encore even in this style but also in this style (sung by Humberto "Nengue" Hernandez) it worked well just thrown into the early part o' the setlist like this. And towards the end of the song the sound seemed to drift west with the setting sun taking us to the Pacific coast of Mexico with sort of a mariachi feel almost as if we were kickin' back in Guadalajara or Manzanillo. Very interesting.
Hernandez sung the next song as well -- La Montana. The lyrics in Spanish helped add such a Latin feel to most of this this show to this point.
Good Lovin' was the last highlight for me until the end of the set. It's kinda strange to not be hearing Bobby on this one but still even with Vince it's fun to hear. He doesn't do a bad job and we were brought back to a sound a little closer to that of the GD or Ratdog. And this is for certain -- Vinny was either channeling Pigpen or he had previously consulted Bobby on how to really cheese it up 'cause that's what he did and on this occasion it was all devoted to dear old mom on this Mother's Day Sunday night.
To close out the show, before the encores, the band really enjoyed treating us to such a sweet Scarlet Begonias. This was pure post-Dead. I'd really truly rate this up there with the best versions by P&F, RD, The Other Ones, and "The Dead." For me, even if there were no highlights to this point, the show would be worth listening to for this Scarlet alone! The Fire that follows, on the otherhand, uh, well, it's Mickey's "rap" version which is despised by some and tolerated by the rest. (Sorry, Mickey.) Lyrical style aside, it's not a bad Scarlet follow-up.
Friend of The Devil for the encore wasn't much to my liking, unfortunately. Some might even think it horrible but I won't go that far. I just didn't really dig Mickey singing it. But no, that wasn't it for the night, a lickety-split segue led into NFA with Vince on lead vocals. Definitely not bad. Can you go wrong with NFA so close to the end of the show or as the encore? I'm not sure that's possible, at least I've never heard it fail to please and that includes those late GD years that some folks don't think too highly of. Perhaps on this night it could've had a more fuller rockin' sound but the crowd added their "Love is Real, Not Fade Away" chanting and clapping and the night was complete. Or was it? We Deadheads know that sometimes persistence can pay off and it did here when out came the band for one last number -- The Other One. Really? For an encore? With Vince singing? I've gotta say, it gave me the biggest smile of the night. Even after reading the setlist beforehand sometimes songs can still have a way of sneaking up and wowing you and this did for me. It wasn't the smokinest O1 ever by any means plus the ending came rather abruptly but it was a treat indeed.
Once again this overall was a pretty good show. I can only imagine the crowd spilling out onto the streets of Philly afterwards with quite a blissful feeling, meandering into local bars or back to their cars, walking amongst a thousand or two pretty happy souls who were just treated to some really nice tunes courtesy of one of those two drummers we enjoyed for so many years sittin' back there behind Phil & Bob & Jerry.
We're all entitled to change our minds. I sure did. Tonight's listening adventure is something I would 99.9999999% more than likely never have listened to if it weren't for downloading... and then again, that's true for most everything I listen to nowadays.
Iko Iko, Dire Wolf, Down The Road,
Ripple, Good Lovin', La Montana,
Papa Was a Rollin' Stone, Endless Skies,
Who Stole The Show?, Jack-a-Roe,
Strange World, Bagua Osi,
Scarlet Begonias -» Fire On The Mountain
·
Encore 1: Friend Of The Devil -» Not Fade Away
Encore 2: The Other One
Upon pressing play on this show, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Well, lots of percussion, I did know that! Iko starting things off was a good tune to get me used to this. Clearly this ain't the Dead or even Ratdog or Phil & Friends... wow, this is the Mickey Hart Band? Right on! A huge and very appreciative smile donned my face, lit up in joy for hearing Mickey bringing the fans these sounds in his very own style.
And talk about his very own style -- during the first minute of the next song you would never ever guess this was the start of a much-loved Jerry-sung tune. Collectively heard about a trillion and a half times by Deadheads, Dire Wolf is noticeable right from the start... not here. The beat was pure Caribbean, mon, a total island sound almost straight outta some tropical beach region with crystal blue waters and umbrellas in your drink. Dire Wolf? Pretty neat to say the least. The crowd musta just been lovin' every second of this!
A couple tunes later it was back to the beach with Caribbean Ripple. An island arrangement for Ripple? Ripple?! Again, I was astounded. This coulda very easily been the encore even in this style but also in this style (sung by Humberto "Nengue" Hernandez) it worked well just thrown into the early part o' the setlist like this. And towards the end of the song the sound seemed to drift west with the setting sun taking us to the Pacific coast of Mexico with sort of a mariachi feel almost as if we were kickin' back in Guadalajara or Manzanillo. Very interesting.
Hernandez sung the next song as well -- La Montana. The lyrics in Spanish helped add such a Latin feel to most of this this show to this point.
Good Lovin' was the last highlight for me until the end of the set. It's kinda strange to not be hearing Bobby on this one but still even with Vince it's fun to hear. He doesn't do a bad job and we were brought back to a sound a little closer to that of the GD or Ratdog. And this is for certain -- Vinny was either channeling Pigpen or he had previously consulted Bobby on how to really cheese it up 'cause that's what he did and on this occasion it was all devoted to dear old mom on this Mother's Day Sunday night.
To close out the show, before the encores, the band really enjoyed treating us to such a sweet Scarlet Begonias. This was pure post-Dead. I'd really truly rate this up there with the best versions by P&F, RD, The Other Ones, and "The Dead." For me, even if there were no highlights to this point, the show would be worth listening to for this Scarlet alone! The Fire that follows, on the otherhand, uh, well, it's Mickey's "rap" version which is despised by some and tolerated by the rest. (Sorry, Mickey.) Lyrical style aside, it's not a bad Scarlet follow-up.
Friend of The Devil for the encore wasn't much to my liking, unfortunately. Some might even think it horrible but I won't go that far. I just didn't really dig Mickey singing it. But no, that wasn't it for the night, a lickety-split segue led into NFA with Vince on lead vocals. Definitely not bad. Can you go wrong with NFA so close to the end of the show or as the encore? I'm not sure that's possible, at least I've never heard it fail to please and that includes those late GD years that some folks don't think too highly of. Perhaps on this night it could've had a more fuller rockin' sound but the crowd added their "Love is Real, Not Fade Away" chanting and clapping and the night was complete. Or was it? We Deadheads know that sometimes persistence can pay off and it did here when out came the band for one last number -- The Other One. Really? For an encore? With Vince singing? I've gotta say, it gave me the biggest smile of the night. Even after reading the setlist beforehand sometimes songs can still have a way of sneaking up and wowing you and this did for me. It wasn't the smokinest O1 ever by any means plus the ending came rather abruptly but it was a treat indeed.
Once again this overall was a pretty good show. I can only imagine the crowd spilling out onto the streets of Philly afterwards with quite a blissful feeling, meandering into local bars or back to their cars, walking amongst a thousand or two pretty happy souls who were just treated to some really nice tunes courtesy of one of those two drummers we enjoyed for so many years sittin' back there behind Phil & Bob & Jerry.
Excellent stuff, Mickey. Thanks!
the band:
Mickey, Vince,
Gladys "Bobi" Cespedes
Rahsaan Fredericks
Humberto "Nengue" Hernandez
Rick Shlosser, Barney Doyle
the band:
Mickey, Vince,
Gladys "Bobi" Cespedes
Rahsaan Fredericks
Humberto "Nengue" Hernandez
Rick Shlosser, Barney Doyle
both pics from www.mickeyhart.net
Mickey doing his best Phil impersonation!
Courtesy of SugarMegs.org
(it's all in one long .wma file)
Listen to 5/14/00 Here
and/or right click and
Save 5/14/00 Here
Courtesy of SugarMegs.org (it's all in one long .wma file)
Listen to 5/14/00 Here
and/or right click and
Save 5/14/00 Here
filed under...
: music,
** Grateful Dead related,
+ Mickey Hart - Billy Kreutzmann
1 comment:
esto es muy bueno!!
muchas gracias deadheads!!
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