Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: rv_bass on October 25, 2024, 12:51:52 PM
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I read that Phil Lesh has passed on, shine on….
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I just can't...
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But the music never stopped. :'(
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Word is coming out about the death of Phil Lesh. Eric Alper wrote this a short while ago: "Phil Lesh, legendary bassist and founding member of The Grateful Dead, has passed away at 84. His pioneering spirit and deep, soulful playing shaped the Dead’s iconic sound and influenced generations. His legacy of creativity, community, and endless jams will live on."
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Phil was the biggest influence on my approach to bass playing. Rest in peace.
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So grateful for him.
Hoping nothing but the best for friends and family as they move through their grief.
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I’m speechless…
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https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/phil-lesh-grateful-dead-dead-1234809976/ (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/phil-lesh-grateful-dead-dead-1234809976/)
He has meant so much to our Alembic community here, and to me. And yes, thank you Phil.
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Thank you, Phil.
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Today, the inevitable….
Really hard to process this.
My heart goes out to everyone who was close to him.
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Impossible to put into words my emotions today. Phil was truly a musician, through and through. Definitely one of the all time Alembic bassists.
RIP
Bones
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I am grateful that you guys here inspired me to start listening to the Dead and Phil's bass playing. I'm definitely a fan of his playing.
R.I.P.
Jazzyvee
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That is some very sad news..
Through this forum I was introduced to the Grateful Dead. At first I didnt quite get it but then I listened to "Unbroken Chain" and became an instant fan. Thank you Phil for your wonderful bass playing and music.
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The drummer in one of my bands, who's a real Deadhead, let me know.
Phil's bass playing has always had the power to fascinate, entrance, amaze, and delight me. Sometimes I hear something he played - could be old, could be newer, maybe from the studio, maybe live - that makes me laugh out loud with joy, smile, shake my head and murmer "oh, Phil!" under my breath.
I can't claim to play like him (can anyone?) but he has been an influence on my ever since I started playing bass; and of course it's partly because of him that I own an Alembic bass.
Some good words I found online:
... his lines held so much melody that one could listen to a song for his playing alone.
-- NY Times, Phil Lesh, Bassist Who Anchored the Grateful Dead, Dies at 84
“What makes the Dead’s sound so distinct from any other kind of rock and roll may be Lesh’s bass,” Nick Paumgarten noted in a 2012 New Yorker piece....
-- Variety, Phil Lesh, Bassist for the Grateful Dead, Dies at 84
Where I live, sometimes we get thunderstorms where the lightning starts high overhead, thunder crackles and rumbles across the sky for a long time, then comes a BOOM! when it finally reaches the ground; after that, the echoes resound and slowly fade.
Phil, we're left with just your echoes now, we'll be listening to them for a long time. Thank you, and rest in peace and love.
Lightly edited from my post on Talkbass
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Ride on Rider
This world will now be a much poorer place without you ! :-[ :-[ :-[
So very thankful for the time you were here !
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I was on my way home from court around 120 miles away when I received a call from brother Peter, aka Cozmik Cowboy. Karmically, I had Phil & Friends’ Live at the Warfield from 2006 already loaded in the CD player. This one really hits home. On the few occasions when I got to speak with Phil, he always struck me as an incredibly intelligent and caring person, just naturally radiating good vibes. And I blame him for opening Terrapin Crossroads and spoiling me evermore for large venues. You will be missed, Phil. Rest In Peace.
May the Four Winds Blow You Safely Home
Bill, tgo
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Just watched Phish playing Box of Rain (on YouTube)
It still hasn't hit me...
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He lived for an additional 26 years thanks to Cody, his liver donor. Phil was always my bass inspiration.
May I thank you Phil, go with the wild wheat waving in the wind. Your journey has truly begun.
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Thank you for the music and my condolences to all here.
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Sorry to hear of his passing. When I was planning my custom, Mica and I agreed on Phil’s specs. A wise choice. I think about him every time I pick up the instrument.
He brought so much joy to people all over the world for decades. His legacy will live on for many more.
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The Greatest Electric Bassist In The History Of The Universe; there have been many greats, but no one cam close to him. A true genius.
The world is a much bleaker place than it was this morning.
Love and comfort to Jill, Grahame, and Brian, to Bobby, Billy, and Mickey, and to all the millions of us who loved him and boogied to his kinetic thunder.
Peter
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Just received the below from Dead.net.
Peter
Today we lost a brother. Our hearts and love go out to Jill Lesh, Brian and Grahame. Phil Lesh was irreplaceable. In one note from the Phil Zone, you could hear and feel the world being born. His bass flowed like a river would flow. It went where the muse took it. He was an explorer of inner and outer space who just happened to play bass. He was a circumnavigator of formerly unknown musical worlds. And more.
We can count on the fingers of one hand the people we can say had as profound an influence on our development - in every sense. And there have been even less people who did so continuously over the decades and will continue to for as long as we live. What a gift he was for us. We won’t say he will be missed, as in any given moment, nothing we do will be without the lessons he taught us - and the lessons that are yet to come, as the conversations will go on.
Phil loved the Dead Heads and always kept them in his heart and mind. The thing is… Phil was so much more than a virtuoso bass player, a composer, a family man, a cultural icon...
There will be a lot of tributes, and they will all say important things. But for us, we’ve spent a lifetime making music with Phil Lesh and the music has a way of saying it all. So listen to the Grateful Dead and, in that way, we’ll all take a little bit of Phil with us, forever.
For this is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago…
- Mickey, Billy and Bobby
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Thank you for sharing the thoughts of the last 3. That was moving.
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Thank you for sharing the thoughts of the last 3. That was moving.
You're welcome; it certainly moved me.
But I must point out the T.C. and Donna are also still with us - so "3 of the last 5".
Peter
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Phil's 1st "band bio", 1965:
Bass player, Phil Lesh, was well-known to two generations of American youngsters as the lovable Miss Frances of "Ding Dong School". Lesh's remarkable ability at characterization was further demonstrated in 1960, when he campaigned for the Presidency in several states under the name of Richard Nixon. Lesh grew up on a nutmeg plantation in southwest Luoisiana, and his interest in music stemmed from his childhood habit of humming musical radio commercials to himself as he worked in the fetid bayous. However, Phil later received classical musical training, and he spent two years as featured singer with the San Francisco Opera, handling such varied roles as the leads in Aida and Falstaff Entering rack-and-roll because of the social stigma attached to operatic performers in this country, Lesh quickly established himself as the outstanding big-beat interpreter of the songs of Stephen Foster. In his non-performing moments, Phil sculpts miniature figurines of major San Franscsco political figures, a common pastime of the city's "hippies".
His 2nd; still '65:
NAME: Phillip Chapman Lesh
HEIGHT: 6'1"
EYES: Blue
HAIR: Blonde
BIRTHDATE: March 15, 1940
BIRTHPLACE:[size=78%] [/size]Berkeley, California[size=78%] [/size]
INSTRUMENT: Bass
"Born in a jail cell, the last of a line of at least three generations of horse thieves. Thereafter, history took over leaving me bewigged, latered, and ready for the axe. (The axe fell and I was killed, of course.) What you see is but a mere shadow of my former self, incarnate in 3,000,001 eras of eons and kalpas as the one and only Chicken-Licken, Magistrate Auspiate and Ex-minister Plenipotentiary From The Land Of Mayonnaise."
"Fortunately, however, I was able to extricate myself from the clutches of the Graet Kumquat, who had confined me in a no-dimension under the alias of Adzerbadger, The Sugarless Gum King. Wending my way through the galaxy's largest parking lot, I comandered a 1902 Blitzen, driven by none other than the Max Post Lingo,propriator of the great copulation site of helidor. After a pleasant, but exhaustive visit to his domain, he was kind enough to furnish me with a one-way ticket on a fly-by-night pterodacty, which left me off at the corner of California and 1965, so there you have it...... all there is to know."
Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Peter (who will add that spelling, grammar, etc., is all Phil's)
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Thank you Cozmik
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I’ll be playing my Alembic-loaded Tele with the “Reddy Kilowatt” sticker at rehearsal this afternoon.
Bill, tgo
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Just received the below from Dead.net.
Peter
... For this is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago…
- Mickey, Billy and Bobby
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Emotionally stun,gratefully quite numb.Beholden for what was shared heart mind and soul.Eternally from a Dark Star never forgotten.
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Jorma's blog from Friday: https://jormakaukonen.com/blog/2024/time-spares-no-one/ (https://jormakaukonen.com/blog/2024/time-spares-no-one/)
Peter
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So many beautiful memories and kind thoughts from his peers. What wonderful musician and person.
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An obit from Premier Guitar magazine (who lean heavily to covering metal players and using "tone" as a synonym for "distortion"): https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/bassists/remembering-phil-lesh (https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/bassists/remembering-phil-lesh)
Peter
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An obit from Premier Guitar magazine (who lean heavily to covering metal players and using "tone" as a synonym for "distortion"): https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/bassists/remembering-phil-lesh (https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/bassists/remembering-phil-lesh)
Very nice piece; thanks for the link!
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Did you pop over to the Dead House Bill?
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Big Steve shares his memories of the ultimate Psychedelic Warrior, Phil Lesh
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Did you pop over to the Dead House Bill?
No. I’ve been there before, but it‘s just a house in an area where it’s hard to find parking. My Dead band rehearsed last Saturday. We’re learning Robbie Robertson’s “Broken Arrow” to play at our next gig in a couple of weeks. It was one of two songs on which Phil regularly sang lead.
Bill, tgo
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I wanted to add that Phil and his music led me here. Before I got my first Alembic in 21 I was telling my best friend how happy I was with my bass collection. He off mentioned, "Hey, what about Phil man? You don't own an Alembic". I agreed and found my fretless Orion that eventually became one of four Alembic basses. And this wonderful community of people. I'm so thankful for this gift, Phil!!
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Oteil Burbridge has a nice post on Instagram, which includes my now favorite quote from Phil: "Never play it the same way once!"
https://www.instagram.com/p/DBk--5_RvHV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== (https://www.instagram.com/p/DBk--5_RvHV/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==)
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Just got this in my email today. It may be of interest to you guys.
https://relix.shop/products/phil-lesh-december-2024-relix-collectors-issue (https://relix.shop/products/phil-lesh-december-2024-relix-collectors-issue)