I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's album From the Mars Hotel.
Show notes:
- Recorded at CompCon world HQ on the 13th birthday of the podcast
- The Dead's 7th studio album, came out in June 1974
- Watergate hearings were the big news story
- Beer was a lot cheaper back then
- In '74, there was a good variety of rock acts releasing important albums, plus funk
- Mars Hotel had some classic Dead songs
- Phil Lesh sang two songs, which was rare, and Bob Weir had one
- Garcia is in prime form on this record
- The Dead was touring with the "Wall of Sound," a massive "distortion-free" speaker setup
- Playing larger venues
- The cost was so high that they eventually quit touring for a few years
- Maybe the last great Dead studio album
- The Grateful Dead Movie was taken from the final shows of this tour
- Working out new songs in the live setting
- Rivalry between lyricists Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow
- The Dead would play with guest musicians from time to time including Pete Townshend, Branford Marsalis, Santana, Huey Lewis
- The Dead probably got some airplay on FM rock radio in the '70s
- Rock radio has changed a tremendous amount over the years; it's mostly corporate, formatted now
- College and online stations have the most freedom
- Second-tier album in the discography
- Pretty representative of the Dead's sound
- Next: Blues for Allah
Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review!
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.
