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Title details for Get Shown the Light by Michael Kaler - Available

Get Shown the Light

Improvisation and Transcendence in the Music of the Grateful Dead

by Michael Kaler
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Of all the musical developments of rock in the 1960s, one in particular fundamentally changed the music's structure and listening experience: the incorporation of extended improvisation into live performances. While many bands—including Cream, Pink Floyd, and the Velvet Underground—stretched out their songs with improvisations, no band was more identified with the practice than the Grateful Dead. In Get Shown the Light Michael Kaler examines how the Dead's dedication to improvisation stemmed from their belief that playing in this manner enabled them to touch upon transcendence. Drawing on band testimonials and analyses of early recordings, Kaler traces how the Dead developed an approach to playing music that they believed would facilitate their spiritual goals. He focuses on the band's early years, the significance of their playing Ken Kesey's Acid Test parties, and their evolving exploration of the myriad musical and spiritual possibilities that extended improvisation afforded. Kaler demonstrates that the Grateful Dead developed a radical new way of playing rock music as a means to unleash the spiritual and transformative potential of their music.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Studies in the Grateful Dead

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 1, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781478027324

    • PDF ebook

      • ISBN: 9781478027324
      • File size: 4333 KB
    Kindle restrictions

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      October 6, 2023

      Kaler (STREAM, Univ. of Toronto Mississauga; Flora Tells a Story) is not the first scholar to discuss the Grateful Dead within a religious context, but he's seemingly the first to discuss this aspect of their music from the band's perspective. His thesis is that the Dead essentially functioned as a religion. As evidence, he presents inconsistently reliable statements from band members. Close to three-quarters of the book is devoted to the Dead's music and their improvisatory practice, which the band believed helped them achieve their spiritual goals to be transcendent. Kaler is better skilled with that material than with the ethnomusicology and religious content that comprise the other quarter of the book. Overall, this reads more like a series of articles about the Grateful Dead, improvisatory music, and religious experience, and not as a book with a fully worked out and integrated argument. VERDICT For Grateful Dead scholars only.--Derek Sanderson

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • PDF ebook
Kindle restrictions

subjects

Languages

  • English

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