Hey all - this is my first post here and I hope some of you can help me out or give me some direction. here is the deal: I have been carrying this cassette around with me forever and can't get any explanation about it. Years ago I bought the first dead album at a local record store - in packaging and everything. the case and artwork were right, the cassette was labeled right - everything was correct until I popped it in the deck - there isn't a lick of gradeful Dead on it!! Rather, it was two sides of crazy, weird, trippy poetry with some mellow music mixed in!! I don't know who it is or what it is about. Does any one know anything about this? Please help.
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I went to the Ken Nordine Podcast site and had a quick listen - I think you are on the right track astroman99. The voice is the same, only younger. Any ideas how this ended up in place of the tracks on the Dead's first studio album? I am going to do a little more poking around this evening
OK, so I exchanged a couple of e-mails with Ken Nordine. I transcribed some of the poetry that is on the cassette for him and this is what he wrote back:
I didn't do it. I write my stuff myself.
The poetry you transcribed from Tracks one and two wasn't written by me.
Nor do I recall, your honor, ever having read these words.
Does anyone have any other ideas who might be on the cassette? Here are the tracks that I transcribed:
Track one:
Do you know my friend the sea? He watches everything we do.
You
rolling over in your beach-bank sleep
Me chasing seagulls down the dunes.
You, your skirts held high wading in the water.
The lovers
Those that go alone – he sees them all.
If we ourselves to know,
We should get to know the sea.
Track two:
This is the way it was
While I was waiting for your eyes to find me.
I was drifting, going no place.
Hypnotized by sunshine, maybe.
Barking back at seals along the beach
Skipping flat stones on the water, but much too wise for sand castles.
My castles were across the seas, still within my mind.
There were the beach bars and the other beach people.
Sometimes there were bedrooms on my beach.
I was drifting.
I must have thought the night would save me as I went down in the pillows,
Looked up through dirty windows,
Smiled back from broken mattresses, turned in thunderbirds, and kissed in elevators.
I cried too sometimes from the the acheness.
I loved every face I thought looked pretty and every kindred eye I caught in crowds.
And I was drifting
Before you.
I didn't do it. I write my stuff myself.
The poetry you transcribed from Tracks one and two wasn't written by me.
Nor do I recall, your honor, ever having read these words.
Does anyone have any other ideas who might be on the cassette? Here are the tracks that I transcribed:
Track one:
Do you know my friend the sea? He watches everything we do.
You
rolling over in your beach-bank sleep
Me chasing seagulls down the dunes.
You, your skirts held high wading in the water.
The lovers
Those that go alone – he sees them all.
If we ourselves to know,
We should get to know the sea.
Track two:
This is the way it was
While I was waiting for your eyes to find me.
I was drifting, going no place.
Hypnotized by sunshine, maybe.
Barking back at seals along the beach
Skipping flat stones on the water, but much too wise for sand castles.
My castles were across the seas, still within my mind.
There were the beach bars and the other beach people.
Sometimes there were bedrooms on my beach.
I was drifting.
I must have thought the night would save me as I went down in the pillows,
Looked up through dirty windows,
Smiled back from broken mattresses, turned in thunderbirds, and kissed in elevators.
I cried too sometimes from the the acheness.
I loved every face I thought looked pretty and every kindred eye I caught in crowds.
And I was drifting
Before you.
I think I found out who it is. Rod Mckuen. If you go to amazon, and type his name then click the album The Sea, the first track is called My Friend the Sea, and it has those lines.
When the going gets tough, the tough turn pro.
Wow that's crazy. Take a look at the Record company that put out that other album. Is it by Warner Bros.? Since the Dead's first album was by WB maybe the other album is also and then maybe there was a mix-up at the record plant, and if there was maybe the same thing happened to other cassettes and maybe your not the only person that got a mixed up album.
Just imagine that happening to someone that was trying to get into the Dead, they buy this album with explosions and weird creatures and they think thet the Dead must be like harder rock, and they put in the tape and out comes soothing poetry and their like "WTF???"
Peace.
Just imagine that happening to someone that was trying to get into the Dead, they buy this album with explosions and weird creatures and they think thet the Dead must be like harder rock, and they put in the tape and out comes soothing poetry and their like "WTF???"
Peace.
Not hard to figure out. Google brings it up in 1 search:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Do+yo ... o%22&hl=en
http://www.mckuen.com/flights/220500.htm
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Do+yo ... o%22&hl=en
http://www.mckuen.com/flights/220500.htm
Already figured out Bucko. By me, the super sleuth! 
When the going gets tough, the tough turn pro.