Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, & Ned Lagin—Seastones Performances, 1973-1975
In 1975, Ned Lagin released Seastones, an album of quadraphonic electronic music on the Grateful Dead’s Round Records label. The LP was recorded between 1970 and 1974 and featured guest performances by members of the Dead, including Jerry Garcia (processed electric and pedal steel guitars and voice), Phil Lesh (electronic Alembic bass), and Mickey Hart (processed percussion).
A year prior, during many 1974 Grateful Dead concerts over several tours, including Europe, Lagin performed a middle set of electronic music, including parts of his Seastones composition. It was something new in the Dead’s cosmic orbit—just Ned and Phil on a combination of computer-controlled analog synthesizers and an electronically processed bass making the strangest and most intriguing noises together. To keep things even more interesting and creative, some sets included Jerry Garcia playing guitar filtered through effects processors and Bill Kreutzmann on drums; these sets occasionally segued into the final Grateful Dead portion of the show.
Five live performances of Seastones occurred outside of Grateful Dead shows: November 28, 1973, June 6, 1975, September 19, 1975, November 15, 1975, and November 22, 1975. We have tapes of three.
The first of these recordings is a show played at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts in 1973. The one-off gig with Jerry, Mickey, Phil, and Ned was billed as "An Experiment in Quadraphonic Sound," and served as both a benefit for the Kundalini Yoga organization, 3HO North, and the first live unveiling of the Seastones material. This is historically relevant given that the 1970-1975 recording, mixing, mastering, and practice sessions for the Seastones LP remain mostly undocumented. The two-hour set is pure experimental space. The quartet forges ahead, combining the elements of electronic genius, intuitive improvisation, and incomprehensible weirdness. Ned Lagin’s wizardry is front and center, and the passages are slow and methodical.
The second tape is of a show at Dominican College in San Rafael. Billed as “Ned Lagin, Phil Lesh & Friends - A Concert of New Electronic Music,” the performance is aces from beginning to end. David Crosby is in the fold, playing electric guitar on many of the tunes. Of all the 1975 Seastones outings, this one might be the holy grail. It’s loaded with gorgeous stereophonic biomusic conversations, with Lagin processing Garcia and Crosby in an avant Dead odyssey that’s better than the official Seastones LP. The hour-long set is delightfully disorienting at high volumes.
The third tape was recorded at the La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas, CA. It’s the last public performance by Lagin. Ned and Phil perform Seastones and other compositions. They play early and late shows. The early set exists in trading circles on one CD. Heady stuff, with plenty of blips, bleeps, and synthesized noise.
The 23 versions of Seastones Ned performed with Phil and with other members of the Grateful Dead in 1974 were a perfect addition to the shifting sonic landscape of the Dead’s music scene. At some concerts, Seastones would form an entire set, and at others, it would segue into songs such as Playing in the Band or Dark Star. During the fall European tour, there were some notable collaborations between Lagin and the band, including a 69-minute Seastones > Eyes of the World > Wharf Rat medley from London that’s probably my all-time most-played sequence. If you haven’t heard it, I suggest you check it out.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the excellent Seastones soundcheck from Dijon, France. Ned was joined by Phil, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir, and Jerry. It’s very out there, just the way I like my Lagin-Lesh jams. And if you want to hear the Ned and Phil set from the regular performance on that night, you can find it—along with the whole Parc des Expositions show on the 30 Trips Around The Sun: The Definitive Story (1965-1995) box set.
Really interesting stuff. Not really my cup of meat, but I bet seeing these shows live was pretty awesome, especially with the addition of the proper substances. . .