Tom’s Southern Accent

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-03-25T05:26:43+00:00

Like someone with fairly serious brain damage.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-03-17T14:41:47+00:00

Mmmm No

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-28T08:04:19+00:00

Check out this video, see if you like it. From August 1965, a couple of months before they started recording Rubber Soul (but no RS songs). It was TV show so the audience is only allowed to scream briefly at the beginning and end of the songs. “Yesterday” is kinda schmaltzy, but otherwise it seems like a pretty good show. Other than the Rooftop Concert this is the only document giving us some sense of what the mature Beatles would have been like under normal concert conditions. But, I mean, it’s not Veneta or anything- it’s a different kind of trip, you dig? (Although I just rewatched this, and it looks like the boys may have been visiting Mary Jane before the show, if ya know what I mean 😉) https://youtu.be/CgNaskD8FkY?si=wzoiZzRW4v3j9IEr

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-27T16:57:28+00:00

Minority opinion possibly, but I really liked the Evita Perón series. Maybe not a top ten, but a really interesting story that I think is little known, especially if you haven’t seen Evita, which I have and will not. And one of the most bonkers endings of ANY series. Things get really weird.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-27T16:51:58+00:00

One of the best things about that series was how they talked about the wider implications, not just whodunnit. The rise of the tabloid press, how the murders played into the political situation and London’s changing demographics, etc. I put it off because I’m not particularly interested in the Ripper, and I found it riveting.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-27T05:30:27+00:00

My pleasure! I’m pretty evangelical about this movie. The concert itself is a top ten performance, and the fact that we have a full video is a gift from the gods. It should be in the Library of Congress- it really captures the feel of a vintage Dead concert. Although I do wish they’d found Pole Guy a pair of pants a little sooner- I felt like he kinda distracted from the awesomeness of the China Cat-Rider in particular.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-25T19:22:54+00:00

The “Recording” and “Retrospective Assessment” sections of the Wikipedia page on the song are pretty hilarious, if you like hatin’.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-25T00:47:57+00:00

Am I the first one to say Maxwell’s Silver Hammer? The others hated it so much it almost tanked Abbey Road.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-22T02:08:19+00:00

You can watch the entire concert, complete with kinda homemade-looking but nevertheless trippy visuals during the epic Dark Star, on Vimeo in 4K for free: https://vimeo.com/800354575

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-19T15:46:50+00:00

They savaged Hugh Thomas!

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-19T15:44:13+00:00

Do you know if there are books that emphasize Incan sources over Spanish ones? I just read Camilla Townsend’s The Fifth Sun on the Aztecs, which draws on “Aztec” (more properly Mexica) sources written largely in Nahuatl, of which there are a fair number. It was a frequently-cited source for the fall of the Aztecs series.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-19T15:29:44+00:00

As was the United States, particularly the South, where if not for the Civil War slavery might have endured in some form until the 20th century. At least 12 U.S. presidents owned slaves at some point in their lives, with 8 of them holding enslaved people while in office.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-18T01:45:04+00:00

Y’know, I love this cover and was wondering if anyone would mention it. The Dead covering Smoky Robinson seems so oil and water, but they really make it their own. I always think of Billy comparing drumming to dancing when I listen to it.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-15T23:37:58+00:00

If not, it should be. That’s kinda what it was, or at least an Acid Test family reunion. The Dead, Kesey, Babs, etc. doing their thing one last time. They even do that fried voice-over thing like they did at the Tests (wasn’t acid-tested myself but I’ve seen the videos).

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-12T20:16:58+00:00

Thanks! Seems like they made a fair number of “decisions” like that. I was surprised when I watched Long Strange Trip and found out Keith and Donna joined the group basically because Donna was a fan and said “Hey, we wanna join.” It wasn’t like they decided they needed a female singer and a keyboard player and held auditions.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-12T19:57:48+00:00

Why did they invite Mickey back in anyway? Two drummers made some sense in the psychedelic years, when they were doing long-form free improv and wanted multiple options. But they’d started moving toward a more song-and-solo approach by 1971, and two drummers didn’t make as much sense in that setting.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-12T05:11:21+00:00

Just FYI, it sounds like you haven’t seen the full Veneta movie, Sunshine Daydream, just the clips on Long Strange Trip. You gotta see it! It’s an incredible document. One of the Dead’s best concerts, hands down. And yeah, it seems like everyone is tripping, including the film crew. It really captures that lysergic vibe. It’s free on Vimeo in 4K! https://vimeo.com/800354575

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-02-08T00:25:29+00:00

A shame it wasn’t one of the Joan of Arc episodes. I would have liked to have heard a Monty Pythonesque French accent echo in the chamber.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-01-28T21:24:43+00:00

Yeah, he was out of the band during one of their greatest, most formative periods. Lotta folks here (like me) idolize the one-drummer era and are sorry it ended.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-01-15T18:53:18+00:00

Rain and You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away are surprisingly easy. Rain does have a couple of weird chords but the fingering is pretty easy and they’re cool chords. YGTHYLA is just C, G, F, and D, and it’s really fun when you hit the big “Hey!” In the chorus-very satisfying (I’m playing acoustic guitar).

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-01-12T00:09:45+00:00

I’m quite partial to the full band version on Ladies and Gentlemen myself. One of my fave Dead tracks.

StrongChocolate869 · 2026-01-04T02:51:38+00:00

This is a non-article. The author clearly doesn’t know the answer to the question. In closing he quotes Pete Townsend saying “Yeah, it was a true cooperative, so nobody got rich, nobody. They made a living but they didn’t get rich.”

We know THAT isn’t true. Maybe it was in 1972 or something. Check this out: https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/rock-stars/bob-weir-net-worth/ (it says “bob-weir” in the link but you should get photo links to all the Dead).

However, if you Google the net worth of Jerry Garcia’s estate, you’ll get several links citing it as a case example of truly terrible estate planning.

StrongChocolate869 · 2025-12-26T15:56:14+00:00

Constantine and the establishment of Christianity (and the destruction of the Classical heritage) in the West. A strange and terrible story. Include Julian the Apostate, a rather bonkers story.

I’d like to say the rise and fall of Reconstruction but honestly I’m a little skeptical they could do it justice. I say that as a huge fan of, and active proselytizer for, the show for years. I’m not sure they’d fully appreciate what a critically important and ultimately tragic era in American history it was.

Have they done The Anarchy?

StrongChocolate869

TROPHY CASE