Completely Conspicuous 499: Live/Dead

I'm joined by guest Phil Stacey as we discuss the Grateful Dead's first official live album, Live/Dead. Show notes: - Recorded at CompCon world HQ - Live/Dead was released in 1969 - There weren't a lot of live albums released then - The band did it as a make-good to the label after some poor-selling albums - Recorded at the Fillmore West - Songs evolved in live setting - At the time, it was unusual to play extended jams - Music fans really focused on albums back in the heyday of vinyl - The first thing you hear on the album is 23-minute "Dark Star" - Now for the tuning section - Phil: Have listened to 250-300 Dead bootlegs - Bootleg tape trading was huge in the '70s and '80s - Archive.org, Nugs.net have tons of Dead shows - On a lot of '70s-era live albums, bands went in and re-recorded songs or parts of songs - Some bands perfectly recreate their studio sound - "Death Don't Have No Mercy" is reminiscent of Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You" - When this album came out, FM radio was in a very experimental place - Some stations would play album sides or even entire records - "St. Stephen" is a standout - Jay: I've been impressed so far - Phil explains the Dead to his kids - Seeing a dude doing coke off his dashboard at a Dead show Completely Conspicuous is available through the iTunes podcast directory. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.