Gimme Shelter
August 23rd, 2006
I’d be pissed if I got knifed for a crappy Stones show, too. Nowadays, it’s presumably safer but they charge $500. Most sensible line in the movie comes from Phil Lesh, after hearing that the Jefferson Airplane got beat up by the Angels: “That doesn’t seem right.” Most revealing: “It’s nice to have a chick every now and then.” That’s Mick, the egomaniac whose fault it all was, about Tina Turner’s performance.
Searching for the Sound
June 12th, 2005
Phil Lesh’s autobiography isn’t as idiosyncratic as Dylan’s, but it’s almost as fascinating–even if you’ve heard most of the GD legends & lore laid again and again. How many accounts of Altamont, the first Human Be-In, the Acid Tests, the Discovery of the Name, and the Lunar Eclipse at Gizeh can you take, really? As far as I’m concerned, this stuff is always delicious–and Phil’s got a unique voice that comes through loud and clear, adding a new persepective to things. The book starts out as lots & lots of fun, everybody trippin’ the Haight and forging the group mind with psychedelic abandon…. and then, of course, the inevitable decline takes over the second half, as the drugs isolate the band members from each other and Jerry’s health begins to fail. His liver transplant and the years since 95 are covered but don’t get a lot of space.
His final words: “There never will be another band like the Grateful Dead.”
