phil lesh & the crying of lot 49 /: pynchon mention in record review

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 + when the post recently brought me diedrich diederichsen's "2000 
 schallplatten: 1979-1999" (höfen 2000: hannibal) into the house, i immediately 
 checked the 'register' for howling names and found among others our man. the 
 reference appears in a review dd wrote for "konkret" about grateful dead's 
 "without a net" in 1990. it says "phil lesh gehörte jenem legendären 
 bay-area-kreis serieller komponisten und fans der kölner schule neuer musik   
 an, der in pynchons roman 'die versteigerung von nummer 49' [sic] vorkommt" (p. 
 419). since i hadn't heard this here or elsewhere in such apodictic form i 
 tried to check the facts in the west-wing of my library and came up with the 
 following: " ... and when they started playing gigs in july 1965, garcia 
 offered the job of bass  player to phil lesh./ lesh had known garcia five years 
 earlier. he had a background in classical music, having been trained in 
 violin, trumpet and composition. he worked for a radio hootenanny show show, 
 and knew ken kesey. garcia wanted him in the band, and the fact that he had 
 never before played bass was irrelevant. in any case, lesh was such a 
 prodigiously talented musician that he learned in two weeks" (the illustrated 
 new musical express encyclopedia of rock. compiled by nick logan and bob 
 woffinden. london 1977: salamander, p. 96). well, sounds close enough, no? yet 
 perhaps not all of you do remember how oedipa maas, in her search for the 
 crucial breakthrough, is confronted with the freakish ideas of karlheinz 
 stockhausen [btw, right after 9/11 i was probably a little harsh on him here 
 when he did his oh so scandalous cross-read of the terrorist attack with 
 ambitious works of art]. it happens in chapter 3, my picador edition has this  
 on pp. 31f:  
        
 " ... oedipa, checking the bar, grew nervous. there was this je ne sais quoi  
 about the scope crowd: they all wore glasses and stared at you, silent. except 
 for a couple-three nearer the door, who were engaged in a nose-picking contest, 
 seeing how far they could flick it across the room./ a sudden chorus of whoops 
 and yibbles burst from a kind of juke box at the far end of the room. everybody 
 quit talking. the bartender tiptoed back, with the drinks./ 'what's  
 happening?' oedipa whispered./ 'that's by stockhausen,' the hip greybeard  
 informed her, 'the early crowd tends to dig your radio cologne sound. later on 
 we really swing. we're the only bar in the area, you know, has a strictly 
 electronic music policy. come on around saturdays, starting midnight we have 
 your sinewave session, that's a live get-together, fellas come in just to jam 
 from all over the state, san jose, santa barbara, san diego---'/ 'live?',  
 metzger said, electronic music, live?'/ 'they put it on tape, here, live, 
 fella. we got a whole back room full of your audio oscillators, gunshot 
 machines, contact mikes, everything man. that's for if you didn't bring your 
 axe, see, but you got the feeling and you want to swing with the rest of the 
 cats, there's always something available.'/ 'no offence,' said metzger, with a 
 winning baby igor smile. a frail young man in a drip-dry suit slid into the 
 seat across from them, introduced himself as mike fallopian, and began 
 proselytizing for an organization known as the peter pinguid society./ 'you one 
 of these right-wing nut outfits?' inquired the diplomatic metzger./ fallopian 
 twinkled. 'they accuse US of being paranoids.'/ 'they?' inquired metzger, 
 twinkling also./ 'us?' asked oedipa."     

 ok, anyone for comments, vomiting, clarifications?! while i was writing this 
 mail, with my mexican coffee & my smoke from morocco, i listened to grateful  
 dead's "one from the vault" [live, 1975] ... beautiful record ... right now,  
 it's the last track, the dead play 'blues for allah' ... peace on earth! kai *