I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's first official live album, Live/Dead.
Show notes:
- Recorded at CompCon world HQ
- Live/Dead was released in 1969
- There weren't a lot of live albums released then
- The band did it as a make-good to the label after some poor-selling albums
- Recorded at the Fillmore West
- Songs evolved in live setting
- At the time, it was unusual to play extended jams
- Music fans really focused on albums back in the heyday of vinyl
- The first thing you hear on the album is 23-minute "Dark Star"
- Now for the tuning section
- Phil: Have listened to 250-300 Dead bootlegs
- Bootleg tape trading was huge in the '70s and '80s
- Archive.org, Nugs.net have tons of Dead shows
- On a lot of '70s-era live albums, bands went in and re-recorded songs or parts of songs
- Some bands perfectly recreate their studio sound
- "Death Don't Have No Mercy" is reminiscent of Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You"
- When this album came out, FM radio was in a very experimental place
- Some stations would play album sides or even entire records
- "St. Stephen" is a standout
- Jay: I've been impressed so far
- Phil explains the Dead to his kids
- Seeing a dude doing coke off his dashboard at a Dead show
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The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.
