If there was a bad echo, they would somehow make it play to the music’s advantage.

They timed the echo off the stadium’s far wall so that it seemed in perfect synch with the song: “Roll away (away….away…) the dew (the dew, the dew, the dew…).” That was my first experience with the phenomenon I’m sure a lot of us have experienced, which is the way the band played the space they were in, as part of the music. And although I knew hardly any of the words at that point, I had the distinct feeling that there was something big going on with the way the music and the words worked together.Īt the point in the show when they launched into “Franklin’s Tower,” (following, I see in retrospect, an interesting chain from Help to Slip to Drums to to Samson to Slip to Franklin’s), the band played with the Oakland Coliseum in a way that I can still hear, if I close my eyes. At that point, I was pretty much completely unfamiliar with the songs-as far as I was concerned, we were going to a Who concert, and the Dead were just the openers. “Franklin’s Tower” is the most memorable song from my very first Grateful Dead concert, on Octoat the Oakland Coliseum, when the Dead opened for The Who. I can’t resist proceeding on to complete the “Help / Slip / Frank” trilogy with this week’s post. (I’ll consider requests for particular songs-just private message me!) Therefore, the best part, I would hope, would not be anything in particular that I might have to say, but rather, the conversation that may happen via the comments over the course of time-and since all the posts will stay up, you can feel free to weigh in any time on any of the songs! With Grateful Dead lyrics, there’s always a new and different take on what they bring up for each listener, it seems. Here’s the plan-each week, I will blog about a different song, focusing, usually, on the lyrics, but also on some other aspects of the song, including its overall impact-a truly subjective thing.

Grateful dead space your face 3 bones