KARL MAX
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The Constanten constant
Nov 23, 2007, 10:06
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Being a psychonaut I do have a ton Grateful Dead stuff, of course the most appriciated are the holy trinity of the original mixes of Aoxamaoxoa, Live dead and their masterpiece Anthem of the Sun. The constant factor in these is the sonic genius of Tom Constanten. Not offending anyone but without him the Dead falls in to just too much boogie-inspired, going nowhere good-timey white man blues fluff. At least to my ears. All my suspicions were confirmed when I caught the Dead live in the early 90's and also saw Constantens band at the Wetlands in NY. The Dead sounded tired (though their lightshow was great!) but Constanten shone like a diamond. Getting Constantens records have proved to be a bit of a challenge though...
Anyone in here familiar with his output and willing to spill the beans on what to get and what to avoid?
Most grateful but not dead for any pointers....
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Stevo
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Edited Nov 23, 2007, 11:19
Re: The Constanten constant
Nov 23, 2007, 11:18
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Not that familiar with Constanten solo work but do know he collaborated with/joined the Henry Kaiser Band in the late 80s/early 90s. They used to do Dark Star nightly I think.
Would also say that I think you're missing a lot of great stuff by the pre-retirement Grateful Dead if you only concentrate on the Constanten period. I think a lot of the jamming from the year after he left (Feb 70)
is far trippier than even the stuff he was involved with. May 70 seems to be pretty consistently high for one.
The period 68-74 to me is the high, Constanten was only onboard throughout late 68 and 69. He'd guested a few times before that too but was only a member for a year and a bit.
Most of the freeflight material escapes the boundaries of whiteman's blues and some of the playing inside even the cowboy songs escapes it too. I always think of that freeflight material as some of the closest anybody in the US got to matching the better krautrock.
Stevo
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