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 Anyone see Festival Express with Cage & Sneaky
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| Author | Topic: Anyone see Festival Express with Cage & Sneaky |
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Dave Zirbel Member From: Sebastopol, CA USA |
posted 08 August 2004 10:20 AM
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It's a "rockumentary" filmed in 1970 featuring the Grateful Dead, Janis, FBB, Great Speckled Bird, Buddy Guy, and the Band. Buddy Cage and Sneaky Pete have a few moments on screen, but enough in my opinion. ------------------
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Pete Burak Member From: Portland, OR USA |
posted 08 August 2004 12:07 PM
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It's playing here in Portland on Aug 20th (and so are you, right Dave?!). I plan to see both.  |
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Dave Zirbel Member From: Sebastopol, CA USA |
posted 08 August 2004 12:51 PM
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Hi Pete. Yes, I'll be in Portland on August 20th. Looking forward to hooking up with you! Have you played or seen any shows at Mississippi Studios? Just wondering what the scene is there. Festival Express is a pretty fun movie. I think you'll like it! Not enough steel, though. |
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Bob Blair Member From: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
posted 08 August 2004 05:09 PM
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I was at Festival Express (the Calgary show), and can't wait to see the movie. While the state of my recollection may be dubious, I know there were at least three steel players on that stage over the course of the weekend- Sneaky, Cage, and Jerry Garcia. Garcia played with NRPS in those days, and Cage was still with Ian and Sylvia. [This message was edited by Bob Blair on 08 August 2004 at 10:04 PM.] |
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Dave Zirbel Member From: Sebastopol, CA USA |
posted 08 August 2004 06:20 PM
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Bob, That must have been a blast. They showed a split second of Garcia sitting at a steel on the train but there was no audio of him playing steel. After sitting through the 80 minutes of the Festival Express I was thinking that there must be hundreds of hours of unseen footage. Maybe the director's cut will come out someday. DZ |
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JB Arnold Member From: Longmont,Co,USA |
posted 08 August 2004 07:57 PM
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Cage tells me that there really wasn't that much useable footage-it had set in a garage for 30 years and was in pretty poor shape, and the fact that they did as much as they have with it is a miracle. Here's a sample of what was going on From what I've heard, there's no more film to make a directors cut with. Film does not age gracefully, especially when you leave it outside! I haven't seen it yet, but am looking forward to the chance. JB ------------------ http://www.nrpsmusic.com/index.html [This message was edited by JB Arnold on 08 August 2004 at 07:57 PM.] [This message was edited by JB Arnold on 08 August 2004 at 08:01 PM.] [This message was edited by b0b on 10 August 2004 at 11:36 AM.] |
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Dave Zirbel Member From: Sebastopol, CA USA |
posted 08 August 2004 08:38 PM
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JB-I think in that picture N.D. Smart is on drums and Bill K. is sitting in on the tamorine. At least that it looked like in the movie. An aquaintence of mine who runs the NRPS website said Cage was in town for the release of Festival Express and stayed at his house in San Rafael - AND HE DIDN'T INVITE ME! |
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Winnie Winston Member From: Tawa, Wellington, NZ |
posted 09 August 2004 03:51 AM
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Saw the movie in Wellington two weeks ago. Great film. Yeah there is Buddy and Sneeky, but the best was seeing Janis Joplin. Never saw her live-- although I could have. The 90 minutes of the edited film is all they have. Either the film was bad (age) or the performers were too wasted, or the film crew was too wasted and all was out of focus. Looks like it was a great party. In an interview with the producer of the show, he was asked if they had any trouble along the way. He said that they had a doc travelling with them and got the performers up when they were down and down when they were up. It's an amazing slice of the times, and I'm waiting for it to be released on DVD. Go see it if you have a chance. By the way, it was filmed very early before folks understood how to do music stuff, and the guy who put it together said that synching the sound with the video was a major task. He said they would watch it and say, "well it looks like they are doing this song" and then try to find the sound that would fit. It is an AMAZING production. JW |
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JB Arnold Member From: Longmont,Co,USA |
posted 09 August 2004 06:24 AM
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Dave ooops my bad-I've been corrected. Would that have been Bleetstein's place Cage was at? JB ------------------ |
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Dave Zirbel Member From: Sebastopol, CA USA |
posted 09 August 2004 06:46 AM
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Yes JB. It was Rob's place. Rob comes to a lot of our shows along with Justin Kreutzman. Rob is a big pedal steel fan and he has an S-11 ZB and he said Buddy was showing him some stuff. I would have liked to have been there. But Rob's a good guy. He turned me on to an authorized boot of NRPS in Boston 1972. That's a bummer that there is no more footage of the train ride. DZ [This message was edited by Dave Zirbel on 09 August 2004 at 06:46 AM.] [This message was edited by Dave Zirbel on 09 August 2004 at 06:54 AM.] |
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JB Arnold Member From: Longmont,Co,USA |
posted 10 August 2004 11:20 AM
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From Cage: I’ve done 9 screenings and 1 premier of Festival Express, the one in San Francisco last month - 30 interviews, some with the director Bob Smeaton and audio mixer Eddie Kramer - all this in a relatively short time, with more on the way. However, I come away with a more complete appreciation of the production of the film each and every time. For starters, I grew immensely fond and respectful of both those guys, what they accomplished was in my humble opinion, genius. That was Hunter’s term for the quality of their labor expressed shortly after the premier, I just lifted it from him. The only part that I could find where things didn’t match up was the Burrito’s performance of the Gram tune, different sound track from the vid. Pete’s toying with some gadget on the end of his axe, while his instrumental part is running over him but it works well notwithstanding. The performances by The Band were overdubbed, the vocals I’m told, all except for Levon’s. They were kept as they were performed. I suppose Albert had something to do with the overdub intervention at that time. Albert was a very powerful and persuasive guy. He managed, The Band, Dylan, Janis and Ian & Sylvia at that point and a few others I can’t specifically recall. The Great Speckled Bird performance is original, untouched. Make no mistake, I was a fairly raw recruit and was trying to find “my place”, to fit musically into new situations at that time, to WORK. I was trying not to embarrass myself in front of Amos, who was blowing my mind every third note. And struggling away, I was able to find some neat stuff to play in Ian’s completely different, unique material - the songs which we recorded on the Great Speckled Bird album. Incidentally, I got to see Tyson in January at the Towne Crier up in Pawling, NY. I got to tell him how much I loved him and his music; the chance to play with them was a big step in my life. I also expressed my gratitude for him never once telling me what note, what chord to play in that music, ever. He figured I should be able to make those artistic decisions myself; that’s why I still had the gig. The only way I could ever share the ride with you all, is to be sitting in the same auditorium together with a remote in my hand. I could pause it from time to time, and fill you in on “what happened next”! How can I tell you the emotions I go though when I see Danko, Janis, Jerry & Pig again, onscreen. Sitting down for breakfast with Janis was a freakin’ blast! Watching her final leg kick (trademark) and slow turn/freeze frame to the camera when finishing "Tell Mama" will stand as the last time I will ever see her. After that performance, there is a book’s worth of action waiting to be told; maybe I’ll be able to write it down soon, and share it. Buddy Cage/East Village, NYC 8.10.04 JB ------------------ |
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Dave Zirbel Member From: Sebastopol, CA USA |
posted 10 August 2004 12:06 PM
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How great it would be to be a part of a historical music event like that! Sounds like he has some fond memories of those few weeks. DZ |
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