#mcgaw memorial hall

[the-birth-of-art]

11/1/73: McGaw Memorial Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

photo by Charles Seton

[brn1029]

Time for your Rock Report

On October 13, Geffen/UMe Recordings will release a 50th anniversary Lynyrd Skynyrd box set, FYFTY. The box set features 50 career-spanning tracks representing the best of the best music Lynyrd Skynyrd has offered up to its loyal, worldwide fanbase from the very beginning. FYFTY is available to pre-order now via uDiscover Music and LynyrdSkynyrd.com. A limited-edition version of the collection with a signed litho will be available as an exclusive release available via uDiscover and the band's touring packages. Pre-order FYFTY at https://lynyrdskynyrd.lnk.to/FYFTYPR FYFTY comes housed in the vinyl-size 12x12-inch format, with a gatefold jacket that holds a detailed 40-page booklet featuring opening notes penned by Cameron Crowe along with detailed liner notes and track-by-track analysis by Gary Graff. Additionally, FYFTY is filled with unreleased photos of the original band and the reformed band.

The Grateful Dead have announced they will release a deluxe edition of Wake of the Flood on September 29, marking the 50th anniversary of the record. The deluxe edition will feature some previously unheard songs. The Wake of the Flood - 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, which will be available as two-CD or digital sets, will include remastered versions of the album's seven original songs, along with previously unreleased demo recordings of "Eyes of the World" and "Here Comes Sunshine" that were recorded in early 1973. The second disc will feature live recordings made on November 1, 1973, at Northwestern University's McGaw Memorial Hall. The Grateful Dead originally released Wake of the Flood on October 15, 1973. The band recorded the album following the death of founding member Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. The 50th-anniversary reissue will also be available on limited-edition vinyl formats.

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Dylan on the Devil’s Holiday

An October 31st treat from James Adams! Check out an all-Halloween Dylan mix/essay — take it away, James! 

One of my first acquisitions back in the B&P trading days was a two-disc CD-R set called “All Hallows Eve and More.” It was a recording of Bob Dylan’s riveting performance at New York City’s Philharmonic Hall on 31 October 1964. The show is mesmerizing and ambitious, restless and hilarious. It was a jewel in my bootleg collection.

An earlier LP version of the bootleg was called “Halloween Mask” (or “Halloween Masque,” depending on which side of the Atlantic your copy was pressed). Dylan provided the title by making a funny comment during the show. After a heavy and emphatic version of “Gates of Eden” and a false start on the sex comedy of “If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Got to Stay All Night)” Dylan giggles:

“Don’t let that scare you. It’s just Halloween. I have my Bob Dylan mask on. I’m masquerading.”

Indeed, it was Halloween and that slightly stoned exchange with the enthralled audience must be the most memorable moment in Dylan’s Halloween performance history. In 2004, Columbia released the concert tape officially, making it Volume 6 in Dylan’s Bootleg Series.

The Philharmonic show wins the prize for best costume, but there are many Dylan Halloween highlights. A year prior, he spent two hours in Columbia’s Studio A during “The Times They Are A-Changin’” sessions and left with the fantastic album version of “Restless Farewell.” In 1971, he spent time at Allen Ginsberg’s apartment, jamming with Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, and David Amram and improvising music to accompany William Blake poems. Gregory Corso was there to hang and you can listen to the tape at the Stanford University Library. In 1998, Dylan had a studio session with Joan Osborne and together they recorded an upbeat version of “Chimes of Freedom,” for a television miniseries about the ‘60s. In 1987, Dylan spent Halloween at Barry White’s house. Maybe they discussed whether candy corn is delicious or disgusting?

Most of Dylan’s Halloween highlights occurred on the road and that’s what this mix aims to capture. Collected here is a chronological mix of live* Dylan performances recorded on October 31st  – Halloween. It begins with the 1975 iteration of Rolling Thunder (a night when Dylan wore an actual mask onstage) and stretches all the way to 2013. (Dylan’s last Halloween show occurred in 2018 but there are no known recordings of that Knoxville, TN performance).

I picked what I consider the most interesting performances from each night but the content and sound quality varies widely. Occasionally the performances are scary. They’re always interesting. I avoided selecting duplicate song titles. I included the rare occasions when Dylan acknowledged Halloween from the stage and preserved that “Bob Talk.” There’s even a cheesy Halloween-themed joke!

My favorite Bob Dylan Halloween moment occurred in 1977. Dylan again spent the day with Allen Ginsberg and the two passed hours discussing Dylan’s film “Renaldo & Clara.” The result is a riveting and insightful interview where Dylan uncharacteristically shares deep insights into the meaning and complexities of his art. (“This movie stops time in a way that no American movie ever has and I don’t think will. What we’ve done is hold on to something which seemed to be escapable, and we captured it and made it real.”)

That evening, Dylan, Ginsberg, and Dylan’s partner in filmmaking Howard Alk donned masks and grabbed guitars. Together they roamed the streets of Malibu as undercover troubadour ghosts, presumably blending with nervous trick-or-treaters and impatient parents and offering impromptu performances on dark sidewalks and street corners. Can you imagine?! The idea is stunning.

Dylan isn’t playing a Halloween show this year. He is on the road, though, somewhere between Chicago and South Bend. If you live near there keep your eyes wide while roaming the streets after dark. You might just catch a glimpse of someone wearing a Bob Dylan mask before they slip away into the shadows again.

/

* There is one exception to this rule. Track number 4 is a studio recording from 1985, though the performance is clearly recorded live to tape. I’m not certain it was recorded on 31 October but that date is plausible and proposed elsewhere. Given the quality of the recording and the performance—but especially the title and subject of the song—there was no choice but to include it here.

//

Track List:

1. Isis – 1975 – Plymouth, MA – War Memorial Auditorium 2. Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat) – 1978 – St. Paul, MN – Civic Center 3. Masters of War – 1981 – Kitchener, Ontario – Kitchener Arena 4. Baby Coming Back from the Dead – 1985 – Los Angeles, CA – Cherokee Studios 5. Ballad of Hollis Brown – 1989 – Chicago, IL – Arie Crown Theater 6. Wiggle Wiggle – 1990 – Charlotte, NC – Ovens Auditorium 7. Gotta Serve Somebody – 1991 – Wichita, KS – Civic Center 8. Man in the Long Black Coat – 1994 – Washington, DC – Warner Theatre 9. Blind Willie McTell – 1997 – Tuscaloosa, AL – Coleman Coliseum 10. Love Sick – 1999 – Chicago, IL – University of Illinois Conference Center Pavilion 11. Country Pie – 2000 – Evanston, IL – Welsh Ryan McGaw Hall 12. Mississippi – 2001 – Madison, WI – Kohl Center 13. Positively 4th Street – 2004 – DeKalb, IL – Convocation Center 14. Band Introduction – 2004 – DeKalb, IL – Convocation Center 15. Thunder on the Mountain – 2006 – Madison, WI – Kohl Center 16. Gonna Change My Way of Thinking – 2009 – Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom 17. Queen Jane Approximately – 2010 – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre 18. Forgetful Heart – 2011 – Hamburg, German – Boxen Arena 19. Beyond Here Lies Nothing – 2013 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Heineken Music Hall

[alaspooryork]

Title: The Quiet Characters: Carolina & Wash. Word Count: Just over 700. Notes: Once upon a time in late April, @annefiction wrote a thing, and I fell in love instantly. It was speculative for season 15 at the time, and though it was quickly confirmed to not be canon, it’s one of my favorite fanworks to come out of 15 so far--so much so that I didn’t make it 10 days before I began writing this. A million kudos to @anneapocalypse for taking this little surprise in stride, encouraging me to polish it up and get it posted, and generally being awesome.

I implore you to read “Don’t fucking do that” first. Credit goes to Anne for one of her timeline theories in the [spoiler] mention. Finally, for anyone curious, here’s the original song Wash is playing. And yes, there is ambient noise in this recording. You aren’t crazy.

He’s playing again. 

Carolina knows Wash can play the guitar. She’s watched his fingers, calloused and sure, skip over the strings, watched the shy hint of a blush tinge his cheeks as he let his bangs hide his eyes from the gaze of his audience. He used to play before, on the Mother of Invention. Back when he had friends to play for. Before the Project tore them apart.

When Caboose presents Wash the weathered and creaking acoustic instrument in the New Republic base on Chorus, Carolina pretends she doesn’t know what the sudden thickness of Wash’s voice means. She hears notes carry out of the room he shares with Caboose and Tucker on occasion during her patrols—always quiet, always late at night.

But in the silence left in the wake of the disappearance of the Reds and Blues, the quiet strumming is unspeakably loud.

Carolina doesn’t always enjoy silence. It presents an undesired opportunity for what's between her ears to crawl out from the back of her mind. Silence reminds her of an empty home with two ghosts inside, waiting for a third that will never return; of the bottom of a frozen valley; of the fist that seized her throat a second time the day she asked Wash what happened to Maine, and the answer was, "he’s gone." 

Of the endless space between those words and the rest as she pried when out of Wash: "A few days ago."

Carolina could’ve stopped it. Maybe not all of it--just one version of Tex could have been too much, she’s halfway willing to understand that now--but she could have stopped Maine from sinking to the bottom of icy waters.

Always too late.

There’s still no sign of Hargrove’s ship, and the people of Chorus no longer brace themselves for the worst. They’re moving on. The Reds and Blues will soon be hailed as heroes of the fallen kind. Lost in the furthest reaches of space, unlikely to return. Chorus has a world to rebuild, a civilization to shape from crumbling ashes. Sim troopers or not, this world must spin on.

But there are two among them who cannot let go.

Carolina is losing all memory of when attempting to sleep at night didn’t feel like lying down with a weight on her chest. Three weeks ago, they were at war. The only thing to fight against now is the prevailing sense of empty despair that follows her down the halls. Anger sank its hooks into her skin long ago, but it's always burned bright, fierce.

They have Epsilon.

That flame has died down.

She’s smoldering.

It’s yet another shared coffee break, another day she and Wash will talk about anything but the fact that it’s four in the morning and their friends are still missing. She’s never said anything about the lonely notes that float into her room, but she carries them with her, all the way to the tiny break room that serves as a caffeine dispensary when there’s no access to the mess hall. The notes seep out of her without her notice, and it isn’t until Wash’s steps halt behind her that she realizes she’s been exhaling them under her breath.

“Shit.” She looks over her shoulder. Wash is flushed to the tips of his ears. “I didn’t realize—I didn’t mean to keep you up.”

“I was awake.” She shrugs. “Besides, it’s nice. Better than the quiet.” Which is perhaps more of an admission than she would generally allow, but there it is, hanging in the air. Still and true. She leans against a counter and watches the words sink into him.

He fidgets. “You, uh. Don’t have to listen through the wall. If you don’t want to.” He looks like his skin is crawling. It probably is. Carolina can’t help the huff of laughter that escapes her at his obvious discomfort. He’s always been shy about this—but he’s still offering.

“Maybe I won’t.”

It’s days before she hears the low plucking of guitar strings next door again. But when she does, instead of lying there in the dark, Carolina gets up, pulls on a sweatshirt, pads to his door, and knocks twice.

“It’s unlocked,” comes the quiet response.

She lets herself in.