| Subject: Reply to Rob |
Author:
Bootsy
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Date Posted: 10:44:00 08/31/05 Wed
As I write this response to Rob's reply I'm enjoying a bowl of Rocky Road ice cream, it sooths me like the violin soothed the monster. Just kidding, but it is really really good. I suggest you get some before reading this. Chocolate, Marshmellows and Almonds Oh My!
Rob, I want to thank you once again for chiming in and I respect you for doing so. It takes guts and shows you are a decent guy. However, I don't agree with everything you've had to say and I'd like a chance to address your remarks if I may.
First I'd like you and everyone else to know that I have had and still have dialogue via email with some people that are big fans of yours and although we see things differently we have managed to find a common ground where we can passionately disagree, yet still see where each other are coming from and even helped each other see things in a different light. Why is that so hard for everyone else? I won't name their names as I would not want them to be alienated or shunned for associating themselves with such an evil, hateful sociopath such as myself. But I think if you asked them about me, they'd have some nice things to say. With that said...
"What
>bootsy doesn't get is that DSO does NOT COPY any show
>in any way. The concept of playing "shows" for us is
>mearly a set list. It would be against everything the
>music is meant to be if it were "copied" as boosty
>suggests. The beauty of the music is that it's based
>around improvisation. The heart and soul of the music
>is the freedom to play it as you feel at that moment.
>If it's forced or planned it fails. We play the music
>from our hearts not from our heads."
I myself did not hear the improv. It sounded to me like you guys were playing a show that you picked out and there are many others that feel the same way. If you say it ain't so I'll believe you. But why then do you even bother telling people what show it was afterwards? Forgive me for being so blunt, but as far as I'm concerned it is planned and does fail. That being said I do believe that you guys play from the heart and are talented musicians and I have said thir previously.
"We don't try to look, sound, act like the Dead it's just how it is.>Every show is different from the next."
Sorry Rob, but check out your own web site, particularly under the photos and bios of the band. They put the person you are supposed to be in parentheses after your own names with a picture of you guys. But it appears you guys changed that since I first posted. Anyway, John's photo is him with a famous Garcia facial expression. Am I wrong? Maybe you're right, maybe it is just how it is, but then why bother naming the band member you are supposed to be portraying on your own website with a bio about how you studied Bobby for years? Or a photo of you looking like that person?
"Another thing
>about the Dead that many forget is that half of their
>material were cover songs from other artists. Some of
>our favorites Morning Dew, Going Down The Road, I Know
>You Rider etc were all covers."
I'm very aware of this and actually mentioned it in several of my posts followed by saying that I'd like to hear you guys play those covers your own way, because you guys can play. If you look you will see these comments over and over. Also, I'd like to point out that the boys played covers the way they played, not copying the tune, they made a cover theirs in a way by playing it the way they played. I think you guys should do the same. They covered them for a reason. They're great songs. Also, I'm probably wrong, but I thought Dew was actually a poem that Garcia put music to, but now that I think of it, yes the woman that wrote it also sang it I think.
"Each
>night we get to explore the music and take it
>different places. The jazz community has been covering
>each others songs for decades. It's a priviladge to be
>able to play this music."
You're right and again, the Jazz community, of which I'm very, very familiar does play covers of even their contemporaries, but each musician or ensemble does it with their own interpretation as the boys did. That's what makes it special. Would love to hear you guys do the same. I love hitting a small jazz club in Manahattan and seeing a bunch of guys that are not the big dogs shredding a Stella By Starlight or a Cantaloupe Island or a Mingus tune and hearing them do it the way THEY do it. A friend said it best right here in one of these reviews, I'm paraphrasing. You guys have the talent and you play so well, you're playing fantastic music that has so many improvisational possibilities, why not open the door and step out into them.
"The thing that Bootsy doesn't
>get is that being a Dead Head is a way of life, a way
>of thinking. The music was just one part of it the
>other part was and is the people. The beauty is when
>it all comes together. Who cares if you know the title
>if it moves you emotionally THATS whats important!
>Those open enough get it and will continue to come
>back the others will miss it but that's also a part of
>life."
Dude you have no more right to tell these people or me what a Dead Head is than I do. I was man enough to admit it. Now can you? I know exactly what it is to be a Dead Head, because I live my lide each and every day as one. Without having to posture myself as one or scream it fromt he roof tops. Besides you could ask 1,000 different Dead Heads what a Dead Head is and you'd probably get 975 different answers and I would expect you to know that. I even said in a few posts that I'm sure you guys are true Dead Heads. You don't know me or who I am. For all you know we hung out at a show or two and had some laughs together or bumped into each other in the parking lot from time to time.
"The music was just one part of it the
>other part was and is the people. The beauty is when
>it all comes together. Who cares if you know the title
>if it moves you emotionally THATS whats important!"
One of your fans I've been emailing with said it best about this very topic...Me: "I tried to use a little tough love and I guess it back fired. God how many times did I
have the older tour heads go off on me about shit when I was on tour?"
DSO Fan: "This is probably related to the all-too-common occurance of email not really capturing the exact emotional inflection of its writer and the reader over-reading it."
I want EVERYONE to be a Dead Head, imagine what a world it would truly, truly be. All I want is for them to get into it for the right reasons and learn about how and why it happened and continues. Not just to rush to see a coverband portraying the real thing and pretend that you are there. Most of the people at the show I saw were under 30 years old and it was evident that they were there for the wrong reasons. I used the Mexicali thing as an example. Maybe it was wrong. Probably was. I would not have wanted someone to do that to me at a show back in the day. But maybe that kid will listen to the music now and learn about it instead of worrying more about his clothes and whether or not he's pulling the correct dance moves. Sorry, there goes that tough love thing again. I dived headfirst into the Grateful Dead community at 17 and met a lot of cool people that brought me along. I have brought many people along and still do. I just want them to love it for the right reasons. And I personally don't think what you are doing is right and I'm not the only Dead Head that thinks so bro. Sorry if you thought differently.
"Those open enough get it and will continue to come
>back the others will miss it but that's also a part of
>life."
Kind of an arrogant statement. Don't you think? Not that many of mine have not been. If they don't get what the DSO is doing then they don't get it? Or don't get what the Dead was doing? We're kind of singing the same tune on different street corners. Guess we're both throwing stones. No Grateful Dead pun intended.
"When the old Grateful Dead family come out to
>see us (Kidd, Betty, Mountain Girl, Donna Jean, Harry
>Popick the list goes on) that's our biggest jury. They
>continue to come out because the feeling is the same
>and they would know certainly more so then Bootsy."
True I guess they would not more about that than me. However I've already stated several times why they do and I'm not going to drag the Family through the mud. I've met a lot of them over the years and most were very decent people. I've said what I have to say about this.
"Imagine if nobody ever played other artists music
>after the original stopped? What a sad thing that
>would be! Peace"
Never said that nobody should. Just think each person should interpret it in their own way. You can think what you want of me Rob, but I am a very creative person and I'm seriously anti-establishment and always have been. I live in the man's world as little as possible and make my own way. I've found a way to use my creativity and many of the lessons I learned from being a Dead Head in my life every day. Not all of my ideas are original, but if I don't put my own spin on them or allow my creativity to flow into them, I'm not creating, I'm just recreating. Peace man. Seriously. Bootsy has TONS O LOVE for all of you and all that know me, know that.
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