Trolling the Underground : Happy New Year!

This is going to be a much shorter TtU than usual, because this time it is ALL about the music, and NOT AT ALL about discussion.

First off, many of you may not have seen this Blondie/Ramones post from way back. It was my 3rd TtU post! It highlights what these two bands were doing on Dec. 31, 1979.

As for this year, my first offering is from my earliest New Year's boot, and one of my earliest altogether. It comes from the man I trolled immediately after the Blondie/Ramones post, the incomparable Louis Armstrong. While I'd like to share his short,sweet instrumental Auld Lang Syne with you, it was unfortunately marred by an idiotic radio voice-over, covering the entire cut. Instead, I'll play a cut that embodies all that New Year's Eve is about - partying. Here's a rollicking number called Indiana from San Francisco's Downbeat Club 0n 12-31-54.

Besides Guy Lombardo, the musical act that made the most of New Year's Eve is doubtlessly the Grateful Dead. They threw a New Year's Bash almost every year they were around, and can you imagine a better party? I have to imagine, because I never saw one except on TV. One of the most famous was the 1978 New Year's Eve show from Winterland. The Dead came on after the Blues Brothers and the New Riders of the Purple Sage, played until dawn, and then served breakfast to the audience. What a way to bring in the year. Here's one of my favorite Dead tunes, Playin' in the Band, straight from the soundboard on that night. It's a fairly mellow rendition that starts with some characteristically quirky harmonies between Bob and Donna, but turns into a sweet jam.


To everyone reading this, I wish you a happy, prosperous and safe 2008.

And to 2007, I won't miss you. Feel free to kiss my ass on your way out.

Trolling the Underground : MSG 4-27-1971

In my most recent Trolling the Underground posting at Under the Bridge I, I illustrated two of the joys of collecting unofficial concert recordings. The first was being able to hear a show that I had no way whatsoever of seeing first hand. The other was hearing, whenever I want to, the pairing of two acts that don't work together normally, and had just a couple live experiences shared between them.

To kick off this new blog with my first Trolling the Underground, I'm going to explore a variation on that second theme. That's being able to explore the inevitable strange pairings that occur on stage from time to time, like the night the Grateful Dead were joined onstage by the Beach Boys.

This was a weird little event that came in the middle of the show, when the Dead were having a pretty good night. When the Beach Boys joined them, the setlist deviated far from the Dead's already chaotic norm. They did two songs together, Searchin' and Riot in Cell Block #9 (before which the virtues of a new instrument - the Moog Synthesizer - were extolled), when the Dead took a break to go do whatever it was they did during breaks. Things sounded pretty normal for the Beach Boys during that break, where they took over and played Good Vibrations and I Get Around. When the Dead returned, things got fun again.They did three more songs together; Help Me Rhonda, Okie from Muskogee, and Johnny B. Goode. Amazingly enough, it's the second of those three songs that gets pulled off the best. Help Me Rhonda is just painful to hear, and Johnny B. Goode illustrates how two bands can each do a particular song well, but can't do it worth shit when they're all trying it together. It was simply too many cooks for that particular broth.

So it's pretty obvious which song I have to share. How can you pass up the Grateful Dead and the Beach Boys together doing Okie from Muskogee??

After the Beach Boys left, the Dead continued, and made a little more Dead history by performing one their most famous renditions of the blues classic Turn On Your Lovelight. It's a classic showstopper filled with jams, but what made it famous was Pigpen's speech in the middle in which he condemns masturbation and helps a guy and girl in the audience hook up. It's a riot to listen to, so I wanted to share it also, but alas it's too large for online storage, coming in at about 20 minutes.

I hope you'll all enjoy this little piece of weird concert history. Let me know what you think!