It’s interesting to realize that,
despite widespread notoriety and what can only be described as a cult-like
following, much of the music of the Grateful Dead has never officially been
released. However, every so often, Grateful Dead Productions officially releases
a recording from a certain show or collection of shows. In 2011 three discs
were released, combining music from the stint of the Grateful Dead at the
Lyceum Theater in England during their legendary Europe ’72 tour. The inside of
the packaging is covered with the personal accounts of one Chris Jones,
detailing his experiences at three out of four of the exalted Lyceum shows.
This week, I chose to analyze these liner notes.
Jones is a great source for
information about the Lyceum shows, being that he attended three out of the
four. He begins his accounts by describing his longtime love for the Grateful
Dead, before launching into description of the concert venue and his own
attempts at taping the concerts. Jones’s purpose in writing a personal and
nostalgic account for this official release is clear: to show that the magic of
the Dead’s music has endured timelessly over the past 40 years. This text is
undoubtedly intended to be read by hardcore Grateful Dead fans. Only devoted
fans would truly be able to understand the enduring beauty of the music that is
captured in Jones’s accounts.
Jones leaned almost exclusively on
use of personal anecdotes to convey his purpose. His accounts of his amateur
taping attempts are amusing, and then touching, once he tells the reader that
he is listening to those very tapes as he writes.
In my opinion, these liner notes are
very effective in giving the reader a sense of the timeless influence that the
Grateful Dead’s music has continued to have on listeners, even now, a
generation after the height of the band’s success.
No comments:
Post a Comment