Phil Lesh Appreciation Society: Enter the Philzone...

[joe vegas]

man, that Crosby record is brilliant, almost like a "lost" Dead project.
Phil, Casady and Garcia are at their peak throughout.

Tightbidness, my understanding is that Phil went through a formidable array of filters, but not synth modules, in the Seastones live segments, while Ned Lagin worked with an array of synths which he had an active hand in customizing. i've read that Ned processed Phil's tracks somewhat in the Seastones studio sessions.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

Is that the bass Phil used on American Beauty? Killer tone.

Ed.: Now I figured out "FOTD." So, yes would be the answer. I deal with several varieties of acronym soup for work, so sometimes my brain doesn't click on genre #37 of acronyms. But I wonder if his parts were recorded from his rig or was there such thing as bass direct back in those days? Probably not; and the rig probably added some round grit to that tone captured on AB (ha!).

From what I understand from interviews with Steve Barncard, who engineered American Beauty, there was a low end mic, a high end mic and a DI. The mics were mixed to one track.

""Phil [Lesh] wanted a good bass sound, and that was going to make the difference," Barncard explains. "My boss said, `Get a good bass sound, Steve, and we've got the Grateful Dead.' Well, Phil was using two amps--he was using the exact same rig as [Jefferson Airplane bassist] Jack Casady, and I was familiar with Jack's rig. He had a big amp for the low end and the thud, and then a little amp for the buzz that's in the middle. So between those three inputs [two amps and a Dl], I was able to make a bass track that worked for him."


Here's the tracking for Truckin'.

track instrument
1 Garcia's electric guitar
2 piano
3 kick drum
4 Drums Left
5 Drums Right
6 snare
7 organ
8 bass amps
9 bass direct
10 Weir's lead vocal
11 Garcia's acoustic guitar
12 Weir's acoustic guitar
13 Weir's electric guitar
14 Lesh's backup vocals
15 Weir's backup vocals
16 Garcia's backup vocals

 

[BluesWalker]

His song writing was meh imo.

I have to agree his songwriting was so-so. I always enjoyed playing Phil's bass line to his tune Tons of Steel. I think my favorite Brent tune is the very, very dark Gentlemen Start Your Engines. Since the Dead only played it once, I never heard it until after his death when the So Many Roads box set came out. I guess it showed his decline and foreshadowed his tragic death.

 

[SethD]

Tightbidness, my understanding is that Phil went through a formidable array of filters, but not synth modules, in the Seastones live segments, while Ned Lagin worked with an array of synths which he had an active hand in customizing. i've read that Ned processed Phil's tracks somewhat in the Seastones studio sessions.

Thanks. I would have loved to have seen that live, though I may be in the minority. The tapes my friends played back in the day did not include those interludes.

 

[uglyrumor]

My understanding is that the Seastones interludes were not recorded, and that in fact Ned Lagin was not connected to the board, so couldn't have been. My first shows were 1974, and to tell the truth, my memories are spotty and/or enhanced by listening to recordings, as that was a time of high use of psychoactive substances. I have never heard a recording of Seastones live, although I possess both versions of the album and a copy of the CD. Had my head been a little better situated....

 

[FretlessMainly]

DP 12 (Providence/Boston, June '74) has a Seastones.

And thanks, Edwin!

 

[SethD]

My understanding is that the Seastones interludes were not recorded, and that in fact Ned Lagin was not connected to the board, so couldn't have been. My first shows were 1974, and to tell the truth, my memories are spotty and/or enhanced by listening to recordings, as that was a time of high use of psychoactive substances. I have never heard a recording of Seastones live, although I possess both versions of the album and a copy of the CD. Had my head been a little better situated....

 

[joe vegas]

yes, archives.org has a lot of the '74 shows with the seastones segment, either indicated as such or labeled "phil and ned". some boards but also a fair amount of auds. there are a few from europe also- i heard one euro audience tape last year where the audience was starting to get rather impatient with the seastones segment- it could be quite intense and definitely wasn't rhythmic compared to the rest of the night!

 

[uglyrumor]

Like I said... (...) or didn't say! I didn't think about the auds...that makes sense. I was very much "in the moment" in those days. I do remember reading or hearing that Ned was not connected to the board, though, and everything I heard in those days was fact!

 

[edwinhurwitz]

yes, archives.org has a lot of the '74 shows with the seastones segment, either indicated as such or labeled "phil and ned". some boards but also a fair amount of auds. there are a few from europe also- i heard one euro audience tape last year where the audience was starting to get rather impatient with the seastones segment- it could be quite intense and definitely wasn't rhythmic compared to the rest of the night!

I can only imagine the impact of being subjected to high decibel battles between aliens and giant insects while in a highly subjective state!

 

[edwinhurwitz]

Here's the updated Showman/200S combo. They actually line up a bit better than the picture shows. The head was a little to the left on top of the cabinet.

 

[joe vegas]

Here's the updated Showman/200S combo. They actually line up a bit better than the picture shows. The head was a little to the left on top of the cabinet.

Jeez Louise !! Dazzling.
Courtney Pollack would be proud!

 

[edwinhurwitz]

Jeez Louise !! Dazzling.
Courtney Pollack would be proud!

He did a great job with the dyes! I sent him a pic.

 

[moonliner]

Edwin, that's fantastic! We seem to travel similar paths.... One of the reasons I wanted a bigger, older speaker cab was so Courtenay could make a grill cloth. Since I'm trying to recreate Phil's Starfire I felt I might as well get Courtenay involved!
That looks fantastic.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

Edwin, that's fantastic! We seem to travel similar paths.... One of the reasons I wanted a bigger, older speaker cab was so Courtenay could make a grill cloth. Since I'm trying to recreate Phil's Starfire I felt I might as well get Courtenay involved!
That looks fantastic.

Yeah, he's great to deal with, does stunning work and is very reasonable. The closer you look, the more you see. He also did one for my keyboard player and I can't wait to see that one mounted. It's a beautiful mandala.

 

[moonliner]

Yeah, he's great to deal with, does stunning work and is very reasonable. The closer you look, the more you see. He also did one for my keyboard player and I can't wait to see that one mounted. It's a beautiful mandala.

Just like great music, the closer you listen, the more you hear.
Did you tell him colors and basic form/structure and he nailed it out of the gate, or did it take a while to get what you wanted?

 

[kohntarkosz]

I can only imagine the impact of being subjected to high decibel battles between aliens and giant insects while in a highly subjective state!

I'm sure I read somewhere that they were using tiny delays between speaker stacks to create 'halophonics' effects. This would add a pretty cool dimension live if it is true.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

Just like great music, the closer you listen, the more you hear.
Did you tell him colors and basic form/structure and he nailed it out of the gate, or did it take a while to get what you wanted?

Nope. Just told him the dimensions and he went for it. I told him I wanted it bright and psychedelic and he took care of the rest.

 

[wisconsindead]

excellent looking cab edwin. Been wanting to get one of his dyes since I found out about him through the Sunshine Daydream release.

 

[j-raj]

Looks like we are over a 1000 posts, here is the continuation thread.