Much is made of '77 and '72 as the Dead at their "best", but I prefer the Dead when they're most themselves - sloppy, loose, and alternating between rakish goofiness and maudlin sentimentality. '71 is good for that. So is '80. But the Dead in 1978 were an entirely unique beast. Correcting, perhaps overcorrecting, from the previous years' reliability, the lows were lower and the highs were higher. What they gave up in certainty they made up for intensity. I believe the Dead played two shows in Nashville that year, and both of them were barn burners. According to Merriam-Webster, "The 'Barnburners' were one of two competing factions in the New York State Democratic Party in the middle of the 19th century. The name was an allusion to the story of an old Dutchman who relieved himself of rats by burning his barns which they infested." An apt metaphor for what the way the Dead occasionally razed their own sound:
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1/31/2020 09:00:50 am
We had a huge fight after her mastectomy because she doesn't want me lecturing her about proper diet. She says I should focus instead on how I can get hired so I can get a health card and get treated in a nice hospital if i get sick. I told her working graveyard guarantees I will get sick. By the end of December, I am too depressed to even think about keeping my job. My mom had been very consistent in making me feel I am destined for failure.
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Scott BeauchampWriter - Critic - Poet - Editor Archives
February 2021
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