The first Dead member i saw live (Phil & Friends Pine Knob ‘02), only got to see him twice because he never came around to Michigan, but i cherish those shows of getting to see the master at his craft. This one hurts.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
RIP Phil Lesh
- Thread starter Neon Scribe
- Start date
Geoff Gould posted this on social media:
Phil Lesh was among the handful of bassists my young self was influenced by the most. But he eventually changed my life.
50 years ago, last week, the Dead were doing the 5-night run at Winterland (of which I attended all of them). As I've said before recently, the first night was the first musical date Martha and I had after she returned from The Peace Corps in Zaire. One thing I noticed was that Phil was wearing a very thick lambswool strap for his new bass. At the time I was working in a materials lab at an aerospace company, and thought, "That must be heavy, maybe we can make it out of lighter materials." You can see the thick strap in this frame grab from The Grateful Dead Movie.
What happened next was that I asked my supervisors if I could show them some samples of materials, and they said yes. I went up to the Alembic store/studio on Brady St in SF, and gave the samples to Ron Armstrong. (Ron, and Gerald Matoi, and Mark Woodward eventually spun off to form Stars Guitars.) Ron took the samples to a "War council" (Board meeting?) at Alembic, and I heard back that they were intersted.
Fast forward to Sep '75, Alembic partners Rick Turner and Ron Wickersham travel down to Palo Alto to visit and talk to me and supervisors about what we do.
More fast forwarding to the Spring of '76. We ended up making a neck mold, and a neck based on Alembic's short scale bass. I spent a week with Rick Turner up in Penngrove (Alembic's location at the time) and eventually soon after, the first Alembic prototype was built. It was tested at the sound check of Return to Forever at the Berkeley Community Theater. It was a perfect laboratory grade setting. Watching Stanley Clarke play his wood-neck Alembic, then he played the prototype. The difference was striking!
Super fast forward: It seems like a good idea, so we go back to the satellite factory to see of we can get more necks, but the higher up brass says no. We are free to pursue it on our own, and Modulus Graphite Products is born.
Forward to 1982, I go down to Guitar Player Magazine with my new 6-string bass, and they take a picture of me holding it in the parking lot. It gets published later, and Phil Lesh calls me up!
We make him a bass, which he plays at the NYE run at the Oakland Auditorium. On the eve of Dec 27, 1982, a very pregnant Martha, our 5-year old son Jesse, and I are guests, and sit on stage behind Phil. The next day, daughter Grace is born. That's why I remember the date!
Over the next dozen years, we made lots of basses for Phil, guitars for Bobby, and even a couple for Jerry. All our kids grew up playing backstage at GD concerts in the kids room. To say Phil Lesh had an effect on my life and family is an understatement. I don't think Modulus would exist, were it not for that time in October '74 when I saw that thick lambs-wool strap.
It's all a dream we dreamed, a long time ago.
Phil Lesh was among the handful of bassists my young self was influenced by the most. But he eventually changed my life.
50 years ago, last week, the Dead were doing the 5-night run at Winterland (of which I attended all of them). As I've said before recently, the first night was the first musical date Martha and I had after she returned from The Peace Corps in Zaire. One thing I noticed was that Phil was wearing a very thick lambswool strap for his new bass. At the time I was working in a materials lab at an aerospace company, and thought, "That must be heavy, maybe we can make it out of lighter materials." You can see the thick strap in this frame grab from The Grateful Dead Movie.
What happened next was that I asked my supervisors if I could show them some samples of materials, and they said yes. I went up to the Alembic store/studio on Brady St in SF, and gave the samples to Ron Armstrong. (Ron, and Gerald Matoi, and Mark Woodward eventually spun off to form Stars Guitars.) Ron took the samples to a "War council" (Board meeting?) at Alembic, and I heard back that they were intersted.
Fast forward to Sep '75, Alembic partners Rick Turner and Ron Wickersham travel down to Palo Alto to visit and talk to me and supervisors about what we do.
More fast forwarding to the Spring of '76. We ended up making a neck mold, and a neck based on Alembic's short scale bass. I spent a week with Rick Turner up in Penngrove (Alembic's location at the time) and eventually soon after, the first Alembic prototype was built. It was tested at the sound check of Return to Forever at the Berkeley Community Theater. It was a perfect laboratory grade setting. Watching Stanley Clarke play his wood-neck Alembic, then he played the prototype. The difference was striking!
Super fast forward: It seems like a good idea, so we go back to the satellite factory to see of we can get more necks, but the higher up brass says no. We are free to pursue it on our own, and Modulus Graphite Products is born.
Forward to 1982, I go down to Guitar Player Magazine with my new 6-string bass, and they take a picture of me holding it in the parking lot. It gets published later, and Phil Lesh calls me up!
We make him a bass, which he plays at the NYE run at the Oakland Auditorium. On the eve of Dec 27, 1982, a very pregnant Martha, our 5-year old son Jesse, and I are guests, and sit on stage behind Phil. The next day, daughter Grace is born. That's why I remember the date!
Over the next dozen years, we made lots of basses for Phil, guitars for Bobby, and even a couple for Jerry. All our kids grew up playing backstage at GD concerts in the kids room. To say Phil Lesh had an effect on my life and family is an understatement. I don't think Modulus would exist, were it not for that time in October '74 when I saw that thick lambs-wool strap.
It's all a dream we dreamed, a long time ago.
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,793
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
Dang this hits hard. My main gig frontnan/guitarist was in a project with him and they did like 2 weeks of shows together. He got to know him very well, said he was very nice and down to earth
D
One of my heroes. First line I taught myself was Fire On The Mountain. Back when I had slow the turntable down with my finger. Not a difficult line but comparing the studio version to live versions opened up all sorts of roads….
Thanks Phil
Thanks Phil
The day I never wanted to come. Lucky to have experienced him many times and I will forever be trying to wrap my head around his bass lines. Funny, I just bought an Alembic SF-2 SuperPHILter last week on Reverb and it came today out of the blue, a few days early. Cosmic, man.
RIP Phil Lesh
RIP Phil Lesh
One of the founding fathers for sure.
While I'm not a deadhead by any stretch of imagination, I always held Mr. Lesh in the highest of regards.
Rest well sir, and thank you.
While I'm not a deadhead by any stretch of imagination, I always held Mr. Lesh in the highest of regards.
Rest well sir, and thank you.
Lesh - I honestly believe he changed how people approach the instrument. Such an innovator
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,152
- 256,468
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
Phil Lesh, bassist for the Grateful Dead, dies at 84
The musician was a founding member of the influential band and died ‘surrounded by his family and full of love’
RIP Phil Lesh.
Honestly, Phil and the Dead were never a big /meaningful influence on me personally. I was certainly aware of the Dead and the whole jam band thing, and his part in the band, and recognize his influence on the instrument. I also got to meet and talk with him briefly at his club Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, CA (unfortunately now closed) when I did a gig there several years ago (2018 ??). He was in the room when we did our sound check. I introduced myself after sound check, and he was very gracious ... told me to have a good gig. Nice guy!
Sail On brother bassist!
Honestly, Phil and the Dead were never a big /meaningful influence on me personally. I was certainly aware of the Dead and the whole jam band thing, and his part in the band, and recognize his influence on the instrument. I also got to meet and talk with him briefly at his club Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael, CA (unfortunately now closed) when I did a gig there several years ago (2018 ??). He was in the room when we did our sound check. I introduced myself after sound check, and he was very gracious ... told me to have a good gig. Nice guy!
Sail On brother bassist!
Was there ever anything more glorious than Phil hitting that ONE note that started The Other One...(pun not intended, but I'll smile at the synchronicity)?
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,152
- 256,468
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
I can't really consider myself a deadhead and I'm only really interested in listening to the Grateful Dead when I'm in a particular mood. But Phil's playing and leadership is what I point to when I try to explain The Dead to my friends who like me are much more into noise, free jazz, punk, post-whatever, whatever-core, experimental music, and so on. His musicianship was singular, playing counterpoint where you'd expect a walk, dancing all around the root while never touching it, always on-time and in-key and in thousands of performances he never played the same song the same way. Your bandmates think they can do that but they can't. Phil could.
Their much jazzier turns in the early 70s are largely Phil's responsibility (or fault, depending on your take). Space, Drums, Dark Star... on good nights, they're just as experimental and noisy and out as anything, and that they could work this into an hours-long set of bluegrass, country and midtempo boogie is also largely thanks to him. Before The Dead he was into academic avant-garde music, and despite appearances he didn't leave that past behind.
(June 1964: Phil Lesh hanging with his buddies Steve Reich, Gwendolyn Watson, Jon Gibson & Tom Constanten, who also spent a spell in The Dead. Via this post by Jesse Jarnow.)
There are some thematic compilations fans have built from the breadth of The Dead's live recordings, some really jazzy ones, or noisiest moments, or what have you. The action often swirls around Phil at the center rather than the guitarists like you'd expect. If you're not into stereotypical Dead it's worth tracking them down to get a sense of what else the hippies could do. John Oswald's legendary/infamous "Grayfolded" mix is basically an hour and three quarters of brutally edited and overlaid performances of "Dark Star" that emphasizes the band's free jazz tendencies while phasing between claustrophobic tension and vast spaciousness. It's an official Grateful Dead recording and, yep, happened because Lesh instigated it: He contacted Oswald, who was previously best known for his Plunderphonics album (and ensuing legal problems), and invited him to go ham on the Grateful Dead's archives.
Their much jazzier turns in the early 70s are largely Phil's responsibility (or fault, depending on your take). Space, Drums, Dark Star... on good nights, they're just as experimental and noisy and out as anything, and that they could work this into an hours-long set of bluegrass, country and midtempo boogie is also largely thanks to him. Before The Dead he was into academic avant-garde music, and despite appearances he didn't leave that past behind.
(June 1964: Phil Lesh hanging with his buddies Steve Reich, Gwendolyn Watson, Jon Gibson & Tom Constanten, who also spent a spell in The Dead. Via this post by Jesse Jarnow.)
There are some thematic compilations fans have built from the breadth of The Dead's live recordings, some really jazzy ones, or noisiest moments, or what have you. The action often swirls around Phil at the center rather than the guitarists like you'd expect. If you're not into stereotypical Dead it's worth tracking them down to get a sense of what else the hippies could do. John Oswald's legendary/infamous "Grayfolded" mix is basically an hour and three quarters of brutally edited and overlaid performances of "Dark Star" that emphasizes the band's free jazz tendencies while phasing between claustrophobic tension and vast spaciousness. It's an official Grateful Dead recording and, yep, happened because Lesh instigated it: He contacted Oswald, who was previously best known for his Plunderphonics album (and ensuing legal problems), and invited him to go ham on the Grateful Dead's archives.
Earlier today I was jamming along to some Dead tracks. Little did I know that Phil had walked on. RIP Phil. You made a lot of Dead Heads happy.
