Can Live Recordings

A thought or two about CAN and improvisations. Thought about posting this on the other thread but maybe it would be better here.

I have never been a Grateful Dead fan, mostly because it was too much ... just a song. But recently, I started wondering what their improvisations and extended pieces sounded like, and so I went on an excursion looking for the long pieces, so I could compare these to some of the material that is listed under the "__autrock" because, either of these, were far out and neat in their own way.

So far, the thing that stands out the most, is that the GD was able to extend an instrument out, and JG was very good at adding a different note and off to the races they went. It was actually very smooth and beautifully done, and even if it only went "free" for a couple of minutes, it was pretty to listen to and very different altogether, although, it did not veer from the main piece to the point of "nothing" and blowing away the main piece ... let's say that the theme was still there in one way or another ... and they blended well in bringing it back.

The European norm, in these areas, was never to come back to a "song", and continue on, and end when it ends regardless of how. It's really hard for you and I to justify and discuss the two very long pieces in "Tago Mago" (original full sides of the double LP) because as a "song", it had no real beginning, or middle or end, or bridge, or anything that we recognize as "music" ... it just was there, and seemed to work just fine, and we don't spend the time discussing its musical organization or how it was put together. 

We know from Holger's comments, that it was all cut and paste, from 20 hours or so of material and I imagine that some parts were selected because they were tighter together than others, but how in the end it all "matched up" well, that made a long piece, is what you and I will probably wonder. And later, CAN was able to do "Bel Air", also a long piece that was really smooth and had really nice transitions, and to my ear (NOW) this one is almost like a GD piece ... it starts out easily and it moves through its imagery and then comes back to the "beginning". This is not the case in "Soon Over Babbalooma" with the two long pieces that also go together really well (Chain Reaction and Quantuum Physics) and have an astounding drum touch between the two pieces ... which was a transitional style, that the GD was known for, btw, with 2 drummers after their moments in the light. The softness, yielded to the flowing synthesizers that took the piece to the end.

This write up is in its early stages, as I am only now (can you believe it?) listening to GD, something I never really did, though I new some of the songs, and always enjoyed some of them, like Eep Hour (JG solo album), Unbroken Chain (magnificent with an outstanding middle section that tells you how the GD went to open improvisations in a song), and a couple of other things, but I have yet to hear things like "Dark Star" and other long pieces.

I do not believe that the Europeans all copied some American music, but in the instinct to create, I would say that some folks were studious enough to KNOW, what someone else was doing, and the folks in a couple of music schools, mroe than likely knew what was being done, and compared notes. Thus, all of a sudden, Holger's suggestion that everything was cut and paste, was a way to be reactionary to what was already a sort of "formula" for some music in those days. And I have not yet, checked the Allman Brothers Band, whose couple of early albums should be in the collection of ALL progressive music fans for its improvisations.