Joe Boyd and the Dead Debate
Pat Buzby
2007-05-22
In winter, a good book is a gift. There’s no good weather to serve as a diversion, no baseball, and leaving home can be more trouble than it’s worth. One valuable book that showed up this past winter was Joe Boyd’s White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. Boyd is on the quiet side as producers go. He’s a handsome guy, but he’s less flamboyant than Phil Spector and has fewer widely-known hits than George Martin. However, if you’re curious about British rock and folk circa 1967 to 1971, you probably have a few records or CDs with his name on them. Pink Floyd did a lot to start my musical quest, and Boyd produced “Arnold Layne” and might have worked on Piper At The Gates Of Dawn but for record company politics. I went through a phase of collecting Incredible String Band records in the early 90’s, have always admired (thought not always enjoyed) Fairport Convention’s early albums and Richard Thompson’s Shoot Out The Lights, and have had more Nick Drake in my rotation than usual lately because my wife likes him. As well, Fables Of The Reconstruction is a dark horse favorite for me among R.E.M.’s records. Boyd was involved in all of the records above, most often contributing by staying out of the way, making subtly capable use of studio resources and letting the music happen. He wrote his book with a similar spirit. Some Amazon reviewers have commented that it’s too short. However, short of discussing what the artists ate during the sessions, it’s hard to think of what could have been added. Boyd’s memory is good, he still enjoys the music and he doesn’t give himself excessive credit. He has a few opinions, though. Since Boyd was involved in the psychedelic scene, it’s inevitable that the Grateful Dead will come up at least once. The book includes a passing reference to their music being “simplistic.” When Boyd appeared on Sound Opinions, the Chicago Sun-Times’s Jim DeRogatis, a reliable Dead-basher (there’s an amusing exchange between him and Dennis McNally in his book Turn On Your Mind), brought up the question of how San Francisco’s psychedelic bands compared with London’s. Boyd replied that he thought that while the Dead’s clothes and artwork was psychedelic, their music was simply a continuation of the American jugband tradition. The Sound Opinions producer inserted an excerpt of “Cold Rain And Snow” from the Dead’s first album to reinforce the point. Granted, almost everyone is a psychedelic piker compared to Syd Barrett, who personified the form, and who gave up the later decades of his life to do so. Nonetheless, an excerpt from Anthem Of The Sun or Live/Dead might have told a different story. It is also worth considering that Floyd had some interest in American traditions (judging from the fact that they named the band after two blues musicians), but based on the admittedly limited available evidence, they would have likely had so little skill at emulating them that it’s a good thing they found themselves a different sandbox to play in by the time of their meeting with Boyd. Boyd, who has seen his Nick Drake productions sell far more copies in recent years than when Drake was alive, has learned some firsthand lessons about music not giving up its secrets quickly. As Dead fans know, their music could take time to yield its secrets. This simplistic fare was, in truth, quite complex: complex enough to encompass jugband music, simplistic music, and (at times) just bad music. And to encompass psychedelic and stimulating music at other times. As mentioned above, Boyd has a few opinions. Fortunately, he’s mature in expressing them. Also, a debate now and then is not a bad thing. In fact, like a book, it can be a welcome diversion during winter.
Back to Columns/Patrick Buzby
|
Exclusive:
The Secret Life Of Conor Oberst
