January 24, 2008

There must be some kind a way out of here

Heath Ledger seemed like a nice enough guy. He wanted to surpass signing the Mona Lisa with a spray can and attempt a edgy slant on the Joker/Thief character. Maybe someday we'll find out what he was up to.

Even if he may have preferred Bob Dylan (co-playing him in I'm Not There) or maybe Donovan singing to God, or the 3 solos at the end of Abbey Road, here's a powerful if retro show in commemoration. Or maybe it's just because I like The Other One. It's from San Francisco's Fillmore West, August 21 1968, via the Internet Archive.



Factoid: In the late 60's the Grateful Dead often did the obscure Dylan song "He was a Friend of Mine" that ended Brokeback Mountain, and the co-producer of that performance by Willie Nelson in that movie regularly tours with a post-Garcia Dead band. When The Byrds did the song it was intended to be about John F. Kennedy. As one might imagine, the song seems to have roots in Afro-American Blues.

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