Long Strange Trip - the documentary

[John A]

Saw a screening last night in San Rafael.  I don't want to reveal anything, as of course few people have been able to see it thus far.  It is officially released via Amazon streaming on June 1st. 

But I thought getting a master thread on it would be useful.  I will only say this:  Amir, the director, hit this baby out of the park. What a stunning overall effort.  It is 4 hours that flies by like nothing.  Hell, it could have been 6 hours as there were plenty of things people will point to that were left out. The previously unseen footage he has unearthed will blow folks minds.

Needless to say, anyone who would so much as consider visiting this website needs to see this ASAP. 

[Vic81]

My friend went yesterday also he same the same thing.

[August West]

https://www.yahoo.com/music/phil-lesh-grateful-dead-doc-172749201.html

Phil is always pissing on someone's parade.

No mention of Vince or Tom C. at all, and very little on the keyboardists as a whole. I saw it last night at The Cap. The director introduced the film. Definitely a must see for any head. Loved seeing footage I had never seen before. 

 

[John A]

Yikes Phil did take himself a good piss there.  That said, he comes off well in his interview footage for the film, IMO.

[DesertDead]

He is indeed, Auggie.

I of course love Phil and he is brilliant, but he is, and always has been, a gigantic, arrogant Richard.  He doesn't mean anything by it, mostly.

[Rude]

Pretty great doc. I like the Amazon format which ends each of 6 episodes with a song and extends the run time to around 5 hours lol.  As a true deadhead when they were playing 69 versions of songs as background music during talking about for example Europe 72, it annoyed me a little. I wish they would have been a little truer to the evolution of the dead sound from the mid to late 60s into where the dead transformed their sound closer to what we know now beginning in late 1970. In the mid to late 60s so many bands sounded so similar. In almost a musical Big Bang, all these bands like the dead, Floyd, the stones developed their own voice. You no longer had small variations from the early 60s rock style but the dead had started playing their own whimsical style that became their sound.  When showing the wall of sound and playing a viola or easy wind, I just didn't get why they wouldn't progress with the deads sound in the background tracks so the audience could start to feel the changes. Besides that I thought it was great. 

[sonomajon]

It was well done and a pretty fucking heartbreaking reminder of what we lost...The Barbara Meier segment was really sad...

[John A]

A "musical big bang" - I like that!

 

Interesting how Amazon did the episodes, rude.  There's an official soundtrack out via Amazon also.

[Rude]

The list of songs used at the end of the movie would make a 12cd set. 

 

I looked up the soundtrack and I always find it funny when they say "previously unreleased version of" _______.  All the tracks on there are released. They should say previously unavailable for official purchase. I wonder when the day will come when all soundboards come down off archive. I think it's just a matter of time until the estates of the members wanting to maximize profits demand them be pulled. Lucky for us the cat is already out of the bag and can't be put back in. 

 

I want more Jerry band releases.  Those boards aren't in circulation.  Do a full tour Jerry band release.  Too bad Jerry didn't marry Jill Lesh....

[PoetryGirl]

After watching first part I must stress- 

 

For the love of self, do not go to a LVI trained  dentist for anterior crowns!!! They restore  old people teeth to length of young people teeth- and there goes talking normally out the door 

 

I love how when the clinical psychiatrist claps and disrupts the test subject, he says to the question of how he feels- disrupted- just as I was making progress. Lol

[Michael Doc Watson]

I watched the second set tonight and then phoned my older brother.  Cary told me a bit of personal history which helps explain why I like the Grateful Dead music. He told me that when I was three years old he threw my little bear into the Mississippi River (we lived on the banks across the river from Davenport) and I just cried as it floated away downstream.

 

"Well I taught that weepin' willow how to cry, cry, cry
Taught the clouds how to cover up a clear blue sky
Tears I cried for that woman gonna flood you, big river
I'm gonna sit right here until I die"

 

Peace and Love,

Doc

[ducats]

the bear was singing Black Muddy River 

[Scott Timmins!]

Finished watching it last night... Very good. If you've read any of the biographies and books, the story and timeline is pretty standard stuff. If anything it skims over quite a few things, but what movie/documentary doesn't compared to a book? There was a lot of familiar video and pictures, but a lot of stuff I've never seen before too. There were also some nice, insightful, yet honest interviews with the people who were there. I get the impression any animosity that was there at some point, is water under the bridge today. Good on them for that.

.

 

[TnJed#48]

I tried not to binge watch so I could enjoy it over time but it was done well enough that I could not resist. 

I think Trixie summed it up the best when she talked about Jerry just getting some fucking rest!  

The scene of Barlow at Pigpens grave...I said to my wife..why are people leaving picks for a keys player not 2 seconds later Barlow said the same thing....lol

Overall I felt it was well done and makes me grateful for the happiness the band, the music, the scene and the thing they built that continues to live brought to my existence in this life.

 

[Island Bro]

Ditto for me on the previous two posts. Even though much of the doc is review, it is content that I never tire of as I continue to attempt to make sense of this musical beast (the GD) and continue to witness how I find meaning in new ways through this music even after decades of listening to it. 

 

I'm about halfway through the episodes and watching it with my wife who isn't a deadhead but she is thoroughly enjoying it. We were talking about listening to Jerry speak and how incredibly gifted he is in being able to string words together for describing even the most abstract of things...and she noted that Jerry's wisdom is so often just right there in front of him and able to be expressed...couldn't have said it better myself. 

 

Curious how the flick is for those who have little direct connection or history with the music,,,it seems well done enough to perk the interest of anyone who has any interest in musical history, the psychedelic experience, or the development of hippy culture in America.

Plus ya gotta love the intermittent black and white scenes of the guy being analyzed in an office while on his LSD trip...😄

 

[gr8fulpair]

Yea I hear ya Huck, that guy looked like Ward Cleaver and was tripping his ass off in a fucking office. I couldn't stop laughing at those scenes. I absolutely loved the whole film. I could've lived that scene so easily if only born 15yrs earlier. Oh well, very happy indeed to have gotten what I got. This Doc brought it all back like a big tidal wave. And I soaked it up. 😍😁

[PoetryGirl]

I absolutely love that Europe 72 segment's story about the guy in charge of recording getting pulled off his task for the more basic and essential one of fixing the mic. He stays for the show because he doesn't want to go back to the truck. And what unfolds is that beautiful Morning Dew. That he gets to hear AND see.  No human tweaking- everyone where they need to be and the rest is history. Just makes me laugh and happy!! 

 

Gone are the days we stop to decide - we just ride. 

[GoingBackTo Where....]

not sure if I read everyones post on this topic, but am i the only one that is a little peed about pigpen and how he was treated. 

I feel I am the mix, though before the seperation in my life I was not. Late night drunks suck.  so why room with them.  trippers get into their world much differently than those masking the pain they carry through drink.  

 

it saddens me no one wanted to room with pig.  I imagine his drunk got annoying to the trippers.  I don't like drunks.. I am not sure drunk, but I do drink, more than anyone should.  

I also imagine pigpen got drunk, and drunks do suck.  Barlow talked about what a sweet man he was.  he said it in s way that it seemed intimate.  not suggesting anything other than, barlow really seemed to express s lot more emotion than words about pig.   

 

I can see myself in a reflection of pig.  Emotional pain makes people do s lot of unhealthy things to hide or escape the turmoil inside.   I am not sure what caused Pig to carry so much weight.  it seems he passed it on to Jerry, in my mind only, but it seems leading is not always the best for ourselves.  it takes a lot of sacrifice, sacrifice we give, but don't always want.  

 

I have a new outlook on pig's life.  

 

love it when Rob pigs out.  his contrabution to the music should never give way to the other keys, as he Influcenced the hell out of the boys!!

 

[ducats]

Pig was the first leader of the band

[GoingBackTo Where....]

and leaders are usually liked.  I did not get that feel from the documentary.  I know they loved him, but I wonder if the social nature of alcohol made him more apt to lead in public.  I can talk your ass off with drinks.  be funny, witty, what ever the moment needs, but if I am high, woaaa...I am not trying to talk to a whole room of people starring at me!!  no way,I can't talk, it comes out like I write.  

 

anyone know any good books that detail more of pigs life and involvement with the band?