should i give the grateful dead a chance?

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do you mean that you've had long conversations with your neurochemist friends?

― Josh, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

haha i thought jack cole wrote "does bruce russell sell hand-painted toes"!!

i so hope this is the guy i had a crush on at school

― mark s, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i hear the painted toes are collectible. never wash them or they will lose value.

― jack cole, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

''Brain chemistry has a HELL of a lot to do with why some people fine some music interesting and others don't. I did not invalidate my argument, I proved it.''

and how did you carry out yr study? was the sample large enough?

but seriously: yes I agree that by taking drugs you alter experiences to music. But i have never taken drugs and yet i enjoy the dead's music.

Anyway, which drug would make you like the dead? or is it a combination? Can you try it kate and give me some 'feedback'.

― Julio Desouza, Wednesday, 24 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's a bit late to give them a chance, don't you think? I mean -- it's over. You missed the boat. Sorry. You're better off, actually. Look forward, not backward.

― Alex in NYC, Thursday, 25 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

KILL THE HIPPY!

― Chris, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

NO! PUT HIM TO WORK! TELL HIM CRABGRASS CAN GET YOU HIGH AND HE'LL WEED YOUR LAWN FOR YOU!

― Lord Custos III, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...

Give the dead a chance. None of you know what your talking about. The dead are the ultimate band. Thats final. Go listen to Tupac wiggers

― Dustin Cohen, Sunday, 15 September 2002 15:07 (twenty-three years ago)

hey! I like the dead mista...

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 15 September 2002 15:18 (twenty-three years ago)

is that you jody beth??

― simon trife (simon_tr), Monday, 16 September 2002 08:00 (twenty-three years ago)

two months pass...

god this band are shite

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 9 December 2002 10:56 (twenty-three years ago)

If you can see past the stench of a thousand self-righteous deadheads, the early stuff is fucking great. Ropy as fuck musicians flocking around a space-cadet with a flair for the pedal steel, playing lush, deep-fried country, dropping in the acid twists and somehow doing a bang up job. Everything up to 'American Beauty' is fine by me tho 'Workingman's Dead' is timeless, essential and well, fucking great. Can't fault it. Yada yada, the work-outs can start to grate (ho ho) but when they keep it tight, the Dead can write some beautiful stuff. Actually, when they get it right on the jam sessions, it captivates - it's gotta be that guitar interplay that draws the Television comparisons.

― Roger Fascist (Roger Fascist), Monday, 9 December 2002 11:21 (twenty-three years ago)

wrong -- it's worthless hippy wank. kate was right -- better to listen to yer vacuum cleaner.

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 9 December 2002 11:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I just realized that for all I know the Grateful Dead might be the greatest band EVAH: I won't know, for I refuse to listen to them evah.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 9 December 2002 11:32 (twenty-three years ago)

i can think of a number of hippy bands that are better than the Dead w/t trying very hard ... lessee, Syd-era Floyd, early Jefferson Airplane, all those Krautrockers. shit, i'd even sooner listen to the Doors than the Dead.

i'd also throw in Zappa and the Mothers, but they weren't really hippies

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 9 December 2002 11:40 (twenty-three years ago)

re lee renaldo and greg ginn liking the Dead (throw in Elvis Costello, too) -- even very intelligent people w/ very good taste can like crap.

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 9 December 2002 11:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Is it possible for unintelligent people with taste for shit to like the good stuff?

― Roger Fascist (Roger Fascist), Monday, 9 December 2002 11:50 (twenty-three years ago)

I've definitely got the chemical imbalance. Three main reasons I like them:

The jams. Yes, you often have to wade through a fair bit of aimless noodling (which still sounds OK, even if the attention does wander a bit). But that's the price you pay for when they're really ON, when the band really kick off, find a great groove or head off in some unexpected direction. It's because they take the risks that they're capable of producing such great stuff when it comes off.

The synthesis they reach of all strands of Amercian music. In a similar way to The Band, but if anything broader, they bring together blues, bluegrass, rock 'n' roll, r&b, country, jazz, folk and avant garde experimentation. They're the closest anyone's come to achieving Gram Parsons' concept of 'cosmic American music'.

The songs. As with the music, they've made a conscious attempt to create/embellish mythic American tales. Whether it's from their own history ('Truckin', 'The Other one'), classic myths ('Casey Jones', 'Staggerlee'), new tales ('Friend of the Devil') or well-chosen covers ('Mama tried').

And yes, they do sound good on drugs as well.

If anyone's not been put off by the 90% slagging they get above, then apart from the recent box set you'd get a good range of what they're about by getting 'Workingman's Dead', 'Live Dead', 'Hundred Year Hall' and the 'Grayfolded' collaboration with John Oswald as mentioned by Chris above.

― James Ball (James Ball), Monday, 9 December 2002 12:44 (twenty-three years ago)

sorry i'm still not sold. it's all crap. every last note of it.

(i'm usually not this irrational and flat-out dismissive, but if you can't already tell i see no redeeming qualities to the Grateful Dead's music whatsoever)

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 9 December 2002 12:51 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

I love them. Listening to the So Many Roads version of "Eyes of the WOrld" right now, and as Alex Chilton said my life is fucking right.

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 18 January 2004 09:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm in Vermont right now. The answer is still, and ESPECIALLY NOW still "No!"

― HRH Queen Kate (kate), Sunday, 18 January 2004 12:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Here's what I don't get. The defenders keep saying "oh, but when they're on they're brilliant." Sure, fine. But there are so many other psych-jam bands, especially these days it seems, where the hit-miss ratio is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-50 (Damo-era Can would be a good example of this). With the Dead, it's more like 10 percent good, 90 percent crap. So why make the investment of time for so little payoff? It seems to me there are probably dozens of other bands out there doing better if tangentially similar stuff that succeed far more often.

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Sunday, 18 January 2004 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

well it's now official, I actually like a dead album. "anthem of the sun" is pretty great. i'd tried before in the past, giving "workingman's dead" a few chances and it just didn't click. also oddly enough, after d'ling "anthem of the sun" I turned the tv on and what I guess was "closing of winterland" was on pbs. I even enjoyed that too! I'll be checking out "aoxomoxoa" and "live/dead" next. let the stonethrowing and witchburnings commence!

― eman (eman), Friday, 4 March 2005 05:38 (twenty-one years ago)

well it's now official, I actually like a dead album.

now you must die, then! ;-)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 4 March 2005 06:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Should I give peace a chance?

― Bimble... (Bimble...), Friday, 4 March 2005 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm afraid that outside of "St. Stephen," which is actually phenomenal, you're going to be disappointed with Aoxomoxoa. Live Dead is cool, though.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 4 March 2005 06:35 (twenty-one years ago)

A friend of mine used to hang out with these burnout kids who only listened to the Misfits, metal, punk, etc. The weird thing is that they all really liked the Grateful Dead song "Mexicali Blues" -- the one about violating the Mann Act, among other things.

― Heidy- Ho, Friday, 4 March 2005 06:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I like this thread title because it sounds like someone's trying to decide whether to hire the Dead as office assistants. "Right, the hair's a little long, and their eyes seem a little...unfocused. But they're nice enough lads. How badly could they screw up making coffee and collating quarterly reports?"

(me, I've been on a slow conversion for several years from antipathy to grudging appreciation to modest admiration. which I admit started with a crush on a hippy chick.)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 4 March 2005 07:04 (twenty-one years ago)

(and I recently bought that Jerry Garcia Band After Midnight set from 1980 or so, which is tight even when it wanders and I like at least as much as the limited amount of Dead stuff I have)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 4 March 2005 07:05 (twenty-one years ago)

xxxpost to Tim - 'st. stephen' is indeed good, but so far i'm also kinda digging 'cosmic charlie' and 'mountains of the moon' despite their cheesiness. and 'china cat sunflower' sounds almost like the thirteenth floor elevators with an organist!

― eman (eman), Friday, 4 March 2005 07:06 (twenty-one years ago)

"China Cat Sunflower" is totally one of their best. and a live staple for years to come.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Friday, 4 March 2005 07:13 (twenty-one years ago)

i'll have to tread carefully though, lest i end up placing orders here and here.

― eman (eman), Friday, 4 March 2005 07:20 (twenty-one years ago)

nah, you seem like a smart guy. if you're smart, you'll end up placing orders here!

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Friday, 4 March 2005 07:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i remember this thread -- ha ha ha. oh where have you gone benton? did gygax! ever finish teaching you how to drive? did you give up pavement for the dead?

― jack cole (jackcole), Friday, 4 March 2005 07:36 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

This afternoon Phil Lesh was signing books in the lobby of the library where I work. It was our regular closing time, but his fans were still lined up, extending slightly outside the building, when I left. I guess they have lots of practice waiting in line.

― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Saturday, 30 April 2005 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

was this at abt 4.20pm, by any chance?

biggest change in my life since I stopped posting to ILM regularly = FINALLY getting into the Dead in a BIG way (nothing past 77 tho') - and so I wish to disown/delete my lame post waaay upthread - thee Dead really are THE great kosmic American guitar band, wonky vox and all

― Andrew J L, Saturday, 30 April 2005 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Yup, that was it (but there were still people lined up at 5PM). I'm not one of the real Dead-haters, although there was something a little comic about seeing the library temporarily taken over by Deadheads.

― RS_LaRue (RSLaRue), Saturday, 30 April 2005 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Viola Lee Blues is the only worthwhile Dead song out there.

just saying.

― candylad, Saturday, 30 April 2005 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Their biggest celebrity fans are Ann Coulter and Bill Walton. Not since Rush has a band's fanbase told you so much about the music.

― Cunga (Cunga), Sunday, 1 May 2005 03:54 (twenty-one years ago)

and Manson is a fan of the Beatles! oh noes!

― Amon (eman), Sunday, 1 May 2005 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I have learned much from both Coulter and Manson, FWIW, and I prefer the Dead and, most days, Rush, to the Beatles.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Sunday, 1 May 2005 04:25 (twenty-one years ago)

i was just trying to point out the silliness of the whole fanbase = band thing that Cunga alluded to.

― Amon (eman), Sunday, 1 May 2005 04:29 (twenty-one years ago)

yay andrew!! (nice to see you again, btw)

it's unfortunate that I've not had the chance to explore more of their music since 'live/dead'. in fact the only dead-related thing I've heard was Garcia's playing in ornette's 'virgin beauty'.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Sunday, 1 May 2005 08:45 (twenty-one years ago)

They were really two different bands. PigPen was their founder and even though he didn't play that much as time went on he kept them honest with a certain amount of street/biker/proletarian cred and sang with rocker conviction. Their shows in those days were 5-7 hours long, a communal acid trip / stream of consciousness they shared with their audience. Live Dead and Anthem of the Sun were great albums aimed at people with non-pop attention spans (no surprise MTVers can't get with it). After Pig died they pretty much wussed out and their fan base shifted from street hippies (punks of their time) to trust fund college types (either despicably bland or blandly despicable). Workingman's Dead (good) and American Beauty (caving into CSNY prettiness) represent the transition.

― steve ketchup, Sunday, 1 May 2005 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

oh rubbidge cunga.

― Masked Gazza, Sunday, 1 May 2005 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

steve ketchup otm

― Amon (eman), Sunday, 1 May 2005 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

steve totally oversimplifying. The Godcheaux years were good - adventerous, fucked up, often beautiful...

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Sunday, 1 May 2005 16:51 (twenty-one years ago)

god this band are shite
-- Tad (llamasfu...), December 9th, 2002.

hehe....British sigular/plural band-verb agreement issues amuse me.

― PB, Sunday, 1 May 2005 17:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never heard any studio recording of these guys, but I'm really quite fond of some of the various classic boots that some fans have turned me on to.
What more or less sold me on the band was the 69-03-01 boot, which can be downloaded here: http://www.gdlive.com/shn/gd69-03-01_sssb.shn/
Worked as a great intro to me for that '69 period (previously I'd only heard Europe 72, which is rather different)

― Øystein (Øystein), Sunday, 1 May 2005 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

What's funny about the Dead is that some of their improvisations from the early 70's don't sound very different than the jams on Tago Mago. Yet nobody dares to speak of the two bands in the same breath.

― Keith C (kcraw916), Sunday, 1 May 2005 17:16 (twenty-one years ago)

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nice, bookmarked for later

― Serfin' USA (sleeve), Friday, 29 May 2026 19:23 (one month ago)

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