Comments on: New Riders’ Marmaduke, RIP

By: Heavy “Primal Dead” from October 12, 1968 | ARTHUR MAGAZINE - WE FOUND THE OTHERS

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:44:53 +0000

[...] massive Dead mix • Headneck Bonanza: Doug Sahm live in 1972 with Leon Russell and the Dead • New Riders’ Marmaduke, RIP • Listen to the Dead: An Arthur primer featuring Ethan Miller, Animal Collective’s [...]

By: Arthur Email Bulletin No. 157 (July 31, 2009) | ARTHUR MAGAZINE - WE FOUND THE OTHERS

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:56:02 +0000

[...] Wolves in the Throne Room, Brightblack Morning Light and, of course, New Riders of the Purple Sage (Marmaduke, RIP). Go here to get caught up: [...]

By: Spaceman

Spaceman — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 00:18:18 +0000

If you want to listen to some more New Riders. Clandestine Sound Lab has put up 12-02-1971 Boston Music Hall concert. They opened for The Grateful Dead. This is a soundboard recording from Jerry Moore’s collection. So, you know it sounds great. http://clandestinesoundlab.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-riders-of-purple-sage-12271-boston.html

By: Headneck Bonanza: Doug Sahm live in 1972 with Leon Russell and the Dead | ARTHUR MAGAZINE - WE FOUND THE OTHERS

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 19:55:10 +0000

[...] celebration of recently departed hippie-country music pioneer John “Marmaduke” Dawson of the New [...]

By: David Gans

David Gans — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:14:51 +0000

“Marmaduke and his band sound just like what they were: hippies who loved country music.”

Exactly. Well said – thanks!

And: I totally agree with Michael Simmons: please don’t overlook Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, who might have been the best band on Earth in the early ’70s.

By: Akasha Makenna Lovelight

Akasha Makenna Lovelight — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 15:51:47 +0000

Too many of the old favorites going down! Sky Saxon and now Marmaduke. He was on the stage at the reunion of the summer of love and we all thought he just might make it without Alana. May you three Rest in Peace

By: Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:41:10 +0000

Speakin’ of stoner classics…”where life’s such a groove you blow your mind in the morning”….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th7yaYqEKSA&feature=related

By: Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 04:19:58 +0000

David – Hicks is a relative of those bands but the Riders, Cody, The Wheel were steeped in Hank Williams country (and the latter two in Bob Wills), whereas Dan’s more of an old jazz cat. His version of “I’m An Old Cowhand” IS killer though! I’m probably splittin’ longhairs…

I know whatcha mean about Doug. Sir Douglas Sahm may be the single most underrated American musician of the 20th Century. Bob Dylan certainly believes that. In a sane & just world, there’d be no war, we’d have universal health care, and Sir Doug would have his own national monument.

Dig Doug with Kris in the stoner classic Cisco Pike:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22E1ToIe42Y

Best, Michael

By: David Parmenter

David Parmenter — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:29:13 +0000

Where to put Dan Hicks, with or without the Hot Licks? Lots of country/western in his songbook.
While I rue the passing of Marmaduke, (I lived in “The City” with a deadhead back then, so any time anybody remotely or closely related to the Dead had a gig, I was there) I confess I unexpectedly burst into tears when I heard of Sir Doug’s death. Still miss him.

By: Gnat

Gnat — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:06:33 +0000

Wow I can’t believe Kim Fowley is connected to this history, fabulous.

By: DANIEL CHAMBERLIN

DANIEL CHAMBERLIN — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:28:07 +0000

Headneck! That’s brilliant. I love Commander Cody, though I never associated them with the West Coast scene. They were so adept at their sound that I always assumed they were from Texas. But you’re totally right. Ditto on Sir Doug. Thanks for writing, Michael.

By: Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:17:07 +0000

Dear Daniel – Thank you for your soulful remembrance of Marmaduke and the Riders. Posthumous tributes tend towards hyperbole and I’m as guilty of this as anyone, having written far too many obituaries the last few years (not an assignment one really “enjoys”). I saw the original NRPS several times and they were always a gas, but as far as “Best Hippie Country Bands from the West Coast psychedelic rock and rustic folk scenes”, I’d say you’re leaving out Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen (although you do indeed namecheck him), as well as the original Asleep At The Wheel. While Cody & the Airmen formed in Ann Arbor and AATW in West Virginia, and they were originally from all over the country, both did indeed first come to national attention once they moved to Berkeley and played rock and folk clubs, making them West Coast bands to a degree, and both “merged roper with doper” (dig “Seeds and Stems Again” by Cody f’rinstance). With all due respect to you and the late, great Marmaduke, I just hope people remember these bands while George Frayne (a/k/a Cody) and Ray Benson (AATW) are still with us. There was a cool handle we used back in those days to ID ourselves that’s lost currency along the way and that is “headneck.” The Riders, Cody, and The Wheel were probably the three great headneck bands (of course, one can argue for Sir Doug as well, but he was so eclectic that it’s hard to pin him down). Thank you again for this heartfelt tribute to Marmaduke. Best, Michael