Well, that's Dark Star in a. nutshell... But that recording isn't a very good one in my opinion...
I'm sorry to read that, as I can tell you're a good person and I can say "She should have realized". Mine threw me over too (the one that made me that tape) but it was her agenda to, apparently, break as many hearts as possible, which was diametrically opposite to me at the time, more like a laser focus on her. Comments from her, occurring at an actual Dead show, like "what are you, my bodyguard!?" are easily remembered to this day.
It took a while for me to get it, maybe over a year. I saw this guy in the popular bar and I said "where's your beer?". "I aint drinking". A little further inquiry reveals that he too was part of her, er, lineage. I couldnt believe it! But reflecting on it, I recognized some of the campus services she participated in, involving shifts, were in some part to obtains leads toward someone's open heart. She had been hurt terribly coming out of high school and I was part of her "working that out" I suppose.
"Baby Burner" is an interesting concept for an engineer - never heard of it before. She was in my differential equations class and a muse for it; I was able to Ace a very difficult piece of engineering education naturally as a way to impress her. I suppose if you work for Raytheon or some other military contractor, but we at Intel you know helped bring good things to life, like AI targeted advertisements. Hardly burning of babies, yet - better stop before I get in trouble.
We took the night class together, the instructor was from local industry and one of these guys who loved mathematical problems - and luckily for us, his students success. He claimed to have solved the diff eqs used in constructing the ramp for the James Bond movie where he jumped the river in a car, doing that 360 twist, while under contract from Broccoli or whoever it was. How could a teacher beat that to pique a kid's interest?
Her mother looked me up 15 years later just to "check up" on me. She was fishing for info ("Where are you working?" "Do you have a girlfriend?" "Did you buy a house in Chicago?" "Do you have a girlfriend?") and it was pretty obvious she was scheming to have us hook up again. I don't know what happened to Lisa, but she seemed to gravitate towards people that were less than responsible, let's say.
"Baby Burner" is an explicit reference to the military industrial complex. Of course many of my colleagues were fast tracked into military support jobs, but I summarily rejected any offer that had anything to do with supporting the military. All I ever really wanted to do was design hi fi and musician's sound reinforcement equipment.
"Baby Burner" is an explicit reference to the military industrial complex. Of course many of my colleagues were fast tracked into military support jobs, but I summarily rejected any offer that had anything to do with supporting the military. All I ever really wanted to do was design hi fi and musician's sound reinforcement equipment.
I wish I had that kind of self confidence back then. I had a girlfriend when I was 30, who had an Alfa and knew about repair shops. (She made the big $ doing sales forecasts for the large computer company we both worked at). Ever roll up one of the windows without the motor working? You have to turn the handle they give you about 500 times... From what I understand about Alfas - motor, brilliantly executed piece of engineering, rest of the car, junk. Well, at least those little two seater convertibles they sell as "graduation-gift specials"
I worked on an Alfa when I was in college. The guy was spending a fortune on it and I didn't understand why. But then I drove it and I understood why.
The car was ridiculously tiny. My left arm didn't even fit inside. It was a noisy rattletrap. BUT the engine was awesome; after driving lazy American V8s, it seemed to rev forever. And the handling was so sharp that the car was dangerous in the wrong hands.
Up until then I didn't think that a car so on the ragged edge even existed. But then I got to work on a buddy's Porsche 911 and I was even more amazed- this car was the whole package; performance, comfort, and luxury. I've never forgotten how that car drove. Since then I've never looked at American cars the same. American cars are, and were, very stupid, wasteful, and tacky. It actually makes me embarrassed to think about it.
The car was ridiculously tiny. My left arm didn't even fit inside. It was a noisy rattletrap. BUT the engine was awesome; after driving lazy American V8s, it seemed to rev forever. And the handling was so sharp that the car was dangerous in the wrong hands.
Up until then I didn't think that a car so on the ragged edge even existed. But then I got to work on a buddy's Porsche 911 and I was even more amazed- this car was the whole package; performance, comfort, and luxury. I've never forgotten how that car drove. Since then I've never looked at American cars the same. American cars are, and were, very stupid, wasteful, and tacky. It actually makes me embarrassed to think about it.
Yah, I remember we used to talk about that back in the day. A friend's family Ford station wagon served as the ultimate example of everything mush. Gas pedal - mush. Steering - mush. Handling - mush. Ride - mush. V8 with valves about a big as your thumbnail. We used to laugh and say the goal must have been to take away as much of the experience of driving, of even a sense of moving as possible. Like being carried about by Mr Sta-Puft.
I've always wondered why Ford even has a rig beyond the "Expedition", that monstrosity called the "Excursion". I read their response somewhere "We have some customers that..." So there it is. Locomotive size mush sells in America.
I cant seem to spin the above idea into something about the Dead. Maybe "I am on my bended knee; Bertha dont you come around here anymore".
Going down the road feeling bad
Going down the road feeling bad
Going down the road feeling bad, hey hey hey, yeah
Don't wanna be driving Big American Cars...
I dunno... but riding in my uncle's Buick Skylark on Italian roads in the mid 60s, blowing by tiny little Fiats and then emptying half the tanks at the Esso station, with US Navy coupons, to fill up the tank, while everybody else had to sell a kidney to get 5 liters.... well, it wasn't so bad.... That Skylark just cruised on those main highways like the USS Forrestal around fishing ketches....
Going down the road feeling bad
Going down the road feeling bad, hey hey hey, yeah
Don't wanna be driving Big American Cars...
I dunno... but riding in my uncle's Buick Skylark on Italian roads in the mid 60s, blowing by tiny little Fiats and then emptying half the tanks at the Esso station, with US Navy coupons, to fill up the tank, while everybody else had to sell a kidney to get 5 liters.... well, it wasn't so bad.... That Skylark just cruised on those main highways like the USS Forrestal around fishing ketches....
This was the goal I believe. My father judged a car by how much of a "magic carpet ride" it was. He considered one finger, zero road feel steering to be the ultimate goal. In reality it's dangerous.
I think this is because early cars were too far in the other direction; slow, noisy, terrible handling, awful ride. Americans were marketed the "magic carpet ride" concept and in the 1950s American manufacturers achieved this. It was considered state of the art in the 1950s I guess, but they milked well into the 1980s. Old timers (like my dad) still wanted it.
I drove several cars that were like a living room on wheels. Once I drove foreign cars (especially Porshes!) I detested American cars.
Who needs a little light engine when you have all the gas in the world to haul around cast iron!
"Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right" I guess they just couldnt see...Rover did.
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Rover put that engine in a whole lot of different models. It was, and is, a sought after "hot rod" engine in the EU. It was used all the way up to 2006. It was used in Rovers, Land Rovers, and the Triumph TR-8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_V8_engine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_V8_engine
Deadhead? Yeah, I suppose....went to one concert in about 79 at Portland International Raceway...myself & the UO college gang...in the proper "intoxicated" fashion.
Hearing the Wall-O-sound track left to right & up according to drum-strikes, is burned into my memory. And yeah, that big American car with the front bench seat stuffed with the lot of us was a treat as well...another feature of times gone by, never to return.
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Hearing the Wall-O-sound track left to right & up according to drum-strikes, is burned into my memory. And yeah, that big American car with the front bench seat stuffed with the lot of us was a treat as well...another feature of times gone by, never to return.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...
Not a Dead Head? Here is a good place to start; https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead. I broke in my new ACA mini yesterday with some excellent 1977 live Dead. My first show was a wall of sound concert at the Met Center in Bloomington MN. That pretty much did the trick. I was a working man though and always went back to work on Monday. I had a 1981 Honda CB900F Super Sport that I would ride to shows on around the Midwest. Before that it was a 1975 DT400 Yam 2 stroke enduro.
My oldest friends are Heads, all in good shape financially and happy in life. If you were too young to be a beatnik you were a dead head.....
My oldest friends are Heads, all in good shape financially and happy in life. If you were too young to be a beatnik you were a dead head.....
A now rare for me physical media purchase that I can recommend. The Dead at perhaps it's apogee. Delicate and nuanced and a nice match with my ACA mini which really brings out the magic. https://store.dead.net/en/grateful-...light-all-music-edition[cd]/081227934699.html