A Apolitical Blues

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History

Part of the party in the 70s involved turning backs on the consciousness-related matters and purportedly shared goals of “60s culture.” That shift was presaged by several late Beatles tunes, and in a sense mocked by tunes including Lowell George’s “A Apolitical Blues.” Even the title, with its odd alliteration, mocks the dozens of “Fill-in-the-blank Blues” numbers spewed throughout “the sixties,” an array of half-seriously titled marriages of blues grooves to an audience’s attention. Here, the singer has the blues so bad, he doesn’t want to talk to anyone – from John Wayne to Mao Tse Tung. He just wants to play and sing.

Phish, to note, has mirrored that approach – supporting particular causes, including environmental issues and voter registration, but rarely from the stage, where most of its attention and energies are focused on the music at hand. Phish has played these “meanest blues of all” just once during their cover of Little Feat’s Waiting for Columbus on 10/31/10, with Page growling out the vocals.

Phish, ”A Apolitical Blues” – 10/31/10, Atlantic City, NJ

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