Hello everybody. Hope things are good in your hood. Just a week removed from SuperBall IX and Trey’s guitar is still echoing through my skull. So I’m going to take this opportunity to add a few things to my original posting last week. That was written under the threat of a deadline, so there were a few points I missed and would like to revisit. So without further ado, I present SuperBall 2.0 review.
On July 3rd, the setbreak music was all American themed songs. Born in the USA, American Girl and Young Americans were among the tunes that were spun. One glaring omission was US Blues by the Grateful Dead. I know Phish has spent most of their career avoiding the Dead comparisons but I think they missed the boat on not playing this one. I bet most people would have gotten up and danced. And does any song speak more to the challenging times that we live in right now?
I also found it curious how many Stones songs they played. Torn and Frayed was great because Exile is one of my favorite albums and I missed Festival 8. I missed it because I was putting on a show featuring Devolver and the Winter House Band. We also got Loving Cup and one of my all time favorite Stone’s songs, Monkey Man, off the album Let It Bleed. The people across the street in the RV camping were actually playing Let It Bleed before the first set on Sat. This album is associated with Altamont Speedway concert, which is generally viewed as the end of the peace and love ideals of the 1960’s. Here’s what phish.net had to say and they said it pretty damn well.
Released on November 28, 1969, The Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed album somehow represents all of the grit, dirt, funk and sometimes despair felt by the flower child generation as the 1960's withered and mutated. The formerly young Utopians that had once practiced "peace, love and dope" had now gathered enough real world experience to realize the reality of it all. Fittingly, the music that fueled that movement turned darker, led by spokesmen like The Stones.
After all, the album opens with the harrowing "Gimme Shelter," includes the gory title track and begins the second side with a tale of murder before finally ending with a coda entitled "You Can't Always Get What You Want" that is somehow uplifting after all that comes before it... Huh?
But directly before we get to that crescendo, we have “Monkey Man.” In an abstract way the song seems to describe the weary physical and mental condition of the band (and the general feeling of an exhausted generation). This after the trials, tribulations and general craziness of the previous five years or so. One gets the feeling that “Monkey Man” is, in a way, a celebration of letting it all hang out and being comfortable with that. Happy with being "a me" in the impending "Me Decade," no matter how misanthropic that might be.
Although played extensively on Page’s Summer 2007 Tour, the song entered the Phish canon on the second day of SuperBall IX on 7/2/11 (though it was teased nearly thirteen years earlier in the 11/2/98 “Moma Dance”). This version tracks a little more than a minute and a half longer than the Stones' album version due to a relatively short Trey-led foray into Solo Land and a slight rave up during the extended ending. However, this debut is otherwise generally faithful to the original; right down to the chunky, signature guitar and bass interplay. Page even does a fine job growling a Jagger-esque "I'm a Monkeeeeeey, Man!!!" at the peak. However, there is indeed room to stretch out within this song. SuperBall IX has opened the door. Let's see where it leads.
Posted on phish.net by Phil Nazzaro
I find it somewhat curious that the boys chose a song off of an album associated with a concert disaster, the Altamont Speedway show. Even weirder is that they were doing a show at a speedway. What’s Altamont? Well according the good people at wikipedia and my own encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll, it was a free concert the Stones threw at the end of their American 1969 tour. They hired the Hells Angles to be security. They paid them with 500 dollars worth of beer. It was a disaster from the getgo. First, the show was supposed to be a secret surprise show in Golden Gate Park. Mick Jagger left the cat out of the bag and it had to be moved less than a week before the event. The stage wasn’t even 3 feet high. There was no barrier between the crowd and the stage, just he Angels and their bikes. And you never want to touch an Angels’ bike. So beatings with pool cues and stompings with boots quickly became the order of the day. Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane was even beaten. The Dead bailed because the vibes were so bad. The Stones did close out the night and a man was killed by the Angels during Sympathy for the Devil. All of this is captured on the amazing concert film ” Gimme Shelter”.
I saw a biker on a chopper after the first set on July 2nd, so it was a rather strange vibe for a little bit. I would like to emphasize that the overall vibe of the weekend was just outstanding. But within my massive craniumial cavity, there was just a little bit of doubt.
I was also surprised by what they didn’t play. As always, I fully expected to hear the Prep School Hippie breakout but alas, was denied again. I saw 9 shows on the first leg and did not see YEM. Other notable missing songs: Bouncin’, Free, Fluffhead, Contact, Theme, Split Open and Melt, Slave, and Guyute, Not complaining about what I did get to see (Peaches!!), just some observations.
Hope everyone’s return to reality wasn’t too harsh. Got a week off then back on the bus for Furthur at the Mann Music Center.
Dave Kemp
BA American Studies
PhD Rock and Roll
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