what the hell is Bob Weir's prolem?

The Who did something similar, refusing to take the stage at Woodstock until they were paid (other bands were told, "Hey, it's a 'free' festival now, no one's getting paid!")

― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Saturday, June 2, 2012 3:38 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

One thing tht links the two cited events was that both groups were coming off dire finacial situations at the time of the incidents that I assume hadn't become common knowledge to the press or public at the time. In '69, The Dead were way in the hole w/Warners due to going overbudget on both Anthem... & Aoxomox..., plus most of the money that they did have (touring revenue etc.) had been ripped off by their manager (Mickey Hart's dad). They became solvent again by doing Live/Dead and then going the no-frills route on the studio followups, which became their first hit lps.

The kicker re:Weir's comments was that the band ended up playing a free show or two outside venues on the tour to calm down people protesting the shows.

Bob at his worst see 7:49

Yikes. Well, that's why I haven't gone beyond 1973 Dead.

One thing tht links the two cited events was that both groups were coming off dire finacial situations at the time of the incidents that I assume hadn't become common knowledge to the press or public at the time.

True. wrt the Who, Michael Lang et al told the Who's management, "If you won't play for free, we'll announce it to the whole audience." The Who's management said, "Go ahead, Mike. Piss off half a million people." Bluff called, a local banker had to be rousted out of bed in order to cut the Who a certified check. Once other bands got wind of this, they too demanded to be paid.

Bobby gets a bad rap. Deadheads would have you believe he's the luckiest man in all of rock and roll, but, as evidenced by already-mentioned songs upthread, this is not the case. Sure, Bobby hams it up a bit, and in fifty fucking years onstage, still has yet to figure out how to sing INTO A DAMN MIC, but he's a great rhythm guitarist and, with Barlow, has written some of the best, most adventurous (yes, it's true) Dead tunes. He is nowhere near my favorite member of the band (that'd be Keith for nerdy reasons and Jerry overall for 'no duh' reasons) but I hate hearing people slagging him all the time, Ratdog notwithstanding. Once you think of him as the McCartney to Jerry's Lennon, he'll go down smoother for you.

Also, if you stop at '73, you are missing a ton of killer Dead stuff, dude. Hell, '77 might have been their best year (with '81 and '82 not far behind)!!

great rhythm guitarist

This cannot be emphasized enough.

I wish it was easy for the home listener to isolate instrumental parts -- there have been many times that I wanted to just listen to Weir and figure out what the hell was going on harmonically.

"Bob at his worst see 7:49"

"Yikes. Well, that's why I haven't gone beyond 1973 Dead."

there is goodness post-73. you'll see. for instance, i would totally recommend the dead set/reckoning live stuff. there is all kinds of good 70's stuff.

even worse than weir in that clip is the keyboard solo after his freakout with the keyboard on anemic fart setting.

r.i.p. vince

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfjjzZvYnkE&feature=related

Also, if you stop at '73, you are missing a ton of killer Dead stuff, dude. Hell, '77 might have been their best year (with '81 and '82 not far behind)!!

yeah if you don't listen to '77 tours I don't even know what to say, that is some of the best shit out there. I haven't delved into '81/'82 yet, a friend's sent me several '74 shows and they have great moments but I think the repertoire they're working in '74 is so bloated with weak Wake of the Flood stuff which I just cannot get into. But '77? Pembroke Pines? C'mon, now

77 is killer, yeah. i haven't really gone past that year either, though -- which 81-82 gigs should I check out.
and otm about weir being a cool rhythm guitarist. it's weird, in one of those classic album docs, they talk about how weir refused to rehearse (at least in the early days of the band). but the dude definitely figured out how to be the grateful dead's rhythm guitarist! it's not like it's just a gig where you stand up there and play the changes. he had to hold his own with the rest of 'em.

weak Wake of the Flood stuff which I just cannot get into

you are talking challops and I collect my five dollars.

http://www.sfweekly.com/2008-04-30/news/bob-weir-s-cutoffs-not-going-to-grateful-dead-archive/

One thing about late 70s early 80s Dead I think the world was deprived was them some how having one of those Weir or Mydland songs becoming some fluke FM radio hit. Could you imagine some clip of the disco dead coked out of their gourd playing on Solid Gold? It would have been hilarous to see Marilyn McCoo or Andy Gibb sending the cameras to pan over to the Dead playing on a game show set playing one of those doobie jams.

Funny thing is they 'did' kind of try to go for it (pop golden ring), but they were just way to funky for something like that too stick. There is definitely some Fleetwood slumming on some of those records, but their material is just too obscure to catch.

i remember hearing this on the radio after it came out. should have been a smash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvi8P-pMHuA

that album was almost but not quite top 20 when it came out and alabama getaway was the only chart single but it was way up there in the 60s.

lo0l that video

It definitely could have happened, as the Dead did try to tap into some serious Doobie Bros. action on that record and using Keith Olsen (Fleetwood Rumors) on Terrapin Station.

You could definitely cast Brent Mydland into the Michael McDonald role if it would have taken off.

You know that is exactly what Clive Davis was hoping would have happened.

The tunes are good and catchy but not 3 minute single tight.

There probably could be a good book (or fine Mojo article) written about the early days of Arista and their enforced Pop moves on Dinosaur band signees (Dead, Kinks, Allmans).

you are talking challops and I collect my five dollars.

naw man. let's be real about this, I'm not gonna monster-post it but look at the tracks on Workingman's Dead and look at the tracks on American Beauty and then look at the tracks on Wake of the Flood. Precipitous drop in the quality of the songs. "Stella Blue" is good live number in the '74 shows but here's Wake of the Flood:

"Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:45
"Let Me Sing Your Blues Away" (Hunter, Godchaux) – 3:17
"Row Jimmy" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:14
"Stella Blue" (Hunter, Garcia) – 6:26
"Here Comes Sunshine" (Hunter, Garcia) – 4:40
"Eyes of the World" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:19
"Weather Report Suite" – 12:53

if you can compare that tracklisting to the two studio albums that precede it & say with a straight face that the material's as good, well friend somebody's got challops but it ain't me

I actually love 80s and early 90s Dead (and yeah obv coked-up late 70s Disco Dead is untouchable). psych fans and hipsters have kinda been taking a while to come around to 80s>90s Dead shows, I think because they were going way beyond psych conventions and into some pretty weird/poppy/slick territories/textures (although they were always like that, never a convential/formal psych band and yet way more out-there), often toying with all these odd and sometimes questionable synth and midi sounds. but now that people have opened up to yacht rock etc in recent years, I think they're probably more equipped/open now to dig into this stuff. and, I mean, between and around the all the yacht jams and synth ballads there's this really swirly, celestial kind of sound they go into in this period that imo is the Dead at its most profoundly psychedelic

and xxxp, really agree that Weir is one of the more interesting rhythm guitarists. maybe it can be partly tied to his dyslexia, but that man has the most original and illogical approach to rhythm... almost this Thelonius Monk sense of timing - all spastic jolts and skronks and splatterings of texture out of thin air

also, I always kind of dug his vaguely Cowboy-ish vocal persona, and he actually does these really interesting microtonal things in his singing, where he'll kind of lean against a note and start to bend it just below pitch, or sliding in and out of tune in this kind of liquid way.

xxp: if you're talking about the album, yeah, ok

xxp: if you're talking about the album, yeah, ok. but most of those songs work really well live, in my experience. I mean, Mississippi Half-step and Row Jimmy are monsters. Even Let It Grow (from Weather Report Suite) is one of Weir's better numbers. Only one of those I don't really care for is Sing Your Blues Away.

outsider artist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeF-W2XNWjU

best use of bob's weird bird:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvPdI0USSPk

What's the problem here, exactly??

"Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:45 - GREAT SONG
"Let Me Sing Your Blues Away" (Hunter, Godchaux) – 3:17 - HOW YOU GONNA HATE KEITH'S ONE VOCAL CONTRIBUTION EVER? THIS SONG RULES
"Row Jimmy" (Hunter, Garcia) – 7:14 - MASTERPIECE
"Stella Blue" (Hunter, Garcia) – 6:26 - MASTERPIECE
"Here Comes Sunshine" (Hunter, Garcia) – 4:40 - GREAT SONG
"Eyes of the World" (Hunter, Garcia) – 5:19 GREAT SONG
"Weather Report Suite" – 12:53 - ONE OF MY BOBBY'S BEST

Sure, the live versions are better - it's the Dead fer chrissakes! - but I'd argue that the closest the band ever came to making great studio albums was the trio of Grateful Dead Records releases, and this is the best of the bunch. Love this album. Add "Althea" and "Help On The Way / Slipknot! / Franklin's Tower" to this and you have pretty much all my favorite Dead songs (which, admittedly, have nothing to do with my favorite Dead 'jams').

American Beauty? Yall can have that shit. :)

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m55fnoMRmw1qzy30io1_500.jpg
last night! we had pretty great seats, actually. fun show. sweet "rain and snow". cool solo version of "me & my uncle".

the shorts ain't as short as they used to be

he was wearing a fanny pack tho.

"OK, thanks, everyone. The next song...wait, where are my keys?!...oh, right, in my fanny pack. So, the next song we're gonna do..."

just want to mark the moment I first heard somebody assert that "Here Comes Sunshine" is a "great song"

c'mon Mr. If Assholes I am not getting you! "Althea" and "Slipknot!/Help on the Way/Franklin's Tower" are two of my all-time all-times, those are killer killer tunes. "Stella Blue" can be really good live, it really opens up but..."Eyes of the World"? that's like the most egregious grafting of a chorus onto a verse where the two didn't fit...ugh down with Wake of the Flood

did i mention that i like wake of the flood? i mean i definitely play it more than shakedown street or terrapin.

dude if you had been there in vegas in 93 during this crazy lightning/wind/rain storm and the dead starts playing "here comes sunshine" and the sun totally bursts through the clouds and covered us all in divine light oh man

but assholes goes to far with the contrarian american beauty hating. i mean come on. everyone knows that album is almost perfect except for pigpen. and even pigpen is needed cuz there can't be a perfect dead album.

assholes to aerosmith: my dark journey into internet message board culture by scott seward

heh. yeah, huge deadhead here and I just never really got the appeal of Pigpen. he just sounds like someone's doofy big brother trying to do a weak blues impression for the first time at some open mic night

there's a part in the classic albums doc i just watched where they talk about pigpen and weir being repeatedly fired from the band in the early days but "they just wouldn't leave."

Yeah, I know Pig's heart was in the right place, loving those old R&B tunes, but I just can't listen to him.

I like the way he does "Smokestack Lightning."

xxp lol yeah, it's true. Weir just wouldn't get it together in the early years, and Pigpen - just a heavy drinking biker type - never had any interest in psychedelics, and during the long jams started getting lost and bored and would just plink a few notes at the keyboard looking morose and confused

just want to mark the moment I first heard somebody assert that "Here Comes Sunshine" is a "great song"

Dude - the version on Dick's Picks 1 (Tampa) - you don't think this is the Dead at the peak of their powers? Are you sure you like the Dead?

And yeah, the Rock Scully book (hardly the best book on the band but worth reading if you like tabloids) goes pretty deep into the Pigpen / Bobby 'problem' (as it is identified repeatedly).

I can't hang with the Pigpen era much these days though the rave-ups are what got me interested in the band way back when.

77-82 is my favorite, especially if you just pretend that 1977 ended and then 1979 began. Of course, this would eliminate the year of my birth, but, you know, the Egypt concerts. Yeesh.

But really, I love all eras of the Dead - one of my favorite bands ever.

http://facesofweir.tumblr.com/

So not gonna happen...

http://24.media.tumblr.com/e3cf5324879f468ffb2ae1e4745d4fd7/tumblr_mjzcp24k6v1s9142do1_500.jpg

are you so sure, dude?

yeah i bet "it" happened a whole bunch for bob back in the day

can we be shown weirdos + bob weir

I know the Dead did some shows w/the Beach Boys back in the 70s, so it could exist, but a pic of Weir & Mike Love could destroy the universe, or at incite an instant mustache.

lol
can't believe i can't find a picture of bob weir and mike love... what a stupid world!