should i give the grateful dead a chance?

Do not give the Grateful Dead a chance. I have given the Grateful Dead several chances, and they continue to bore me solid. Friends say "Oh, you're into 60s garage, listen to their first album..." nope, sorry, it's still uninspired hippie stoner jams. Friends say "Oh, you like spacerock, listen to this or that experimental jam album..." nope, sorry, it's still uninspired hippie stoner jam drivel. Friends say "Oh, you have to listen to it on acid to get it." I listened to it on acid. It only stretched the INTERMINABLE boredom to the breaking point where it was a relief to sit and listen to radio static afterwards.

I think that Deadheadism is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. If you have it, you will like them. If you do not have it, then no ammount of "Dude, no, you have to hear this most ultimate jam session that they did on this super-rare collectible live bootleg out-take from 1973..." in the world will ever convince you to find even a modicum of interest.

I know that calling a band "boring" is verboten on this forum. The Dead are not just boring, they are interminable, self indulgent, they noodle, they wibble, they do not drone in a transcendant manner, no they ANNIHILATE any sense of enjoyment of music to the point where I would rather listen to elevator music rather than the Dead. In fact, that is what they are. They are the elevator music of hippie stoner jam psychedelia.

Do not waste your time. Sing along with the hoover instead.

A: God this band are shit.

(Keith Richards tells that gag - which is a bit rich considering that 'Can You Hear Me Knocking' sounds just like the Dead...)

I think they're worth checking out rather than applying some knee jerk reaction. But obviously lots of people don't agree.

Did you even read my fucking post? This is not some knee jerk reaction. This is a carefully thought out aesthetic decision that I have reached after repeated exposure and more consideration that I would give to most bands who repeatedly bombarded me with shit.

Everything about the Grateful Dead is repulsive - the music (yes I *can* judge them on a minute or so), the fans, the mythology.... They're a crystallisation of everything I dislike in music.

The thing is, I love the IDEA of the Dead - the endless noodling jams, those moments of improvisation when they reach the mythical 'zone', the community of fans, all those bootlegs to tick off and collect, the Verlaine-esque sound of Garcia's gtr, the vast quantities of drugs etc etc.

But - their recs just never seem to live up to the rep - before I ever listened to them, I imagined they were like the most mega-cosmic freak out group of all time, but when I finally did spin a few of their albs all I got was wimpy country-lite w/ really terrible singing. They rarely seem to rock out in any meaningful way, their cover versions are just AWFUL (esp. the 'bluesy' Pigpen-led stuff) and Hunter's lyrics are hippy bilge.

Without wishing to sound too alt snooty, Ghost and esp. Acid Mothers Temple do the whole folk-psych rock jam thing w/ so much more passion, imagination and freaky fun.

No, I don't think I recall the Dead ever having extended sax solos in any of their songs.

You obviously never heard Branford Marsalis jam with them, then.

I knew when I saw this thread appear it would be full of the usual "the Dead are the worst band ever" stuff... they seem to be one of a small handful of bands it's ok to heap your worst insults on around here. So I'll do my usual and say yes "American Beauty" and "Workingman's Dead" are full of concise, well-written pop songs, their mid 70's LPs on their own label are amazing ("Blues for Allah" is my pick), and as great a guitarist as Tom Verlaine is, Garcia is better. He's a better vocalist, too. I know that for whatever reason the Dead are a band many people will just never permit themselves to like, so I expect to make no converts.

I think SY owe a lot to the dead in the way that they'd start a song and then they would use that as a basis for a jam and get back to the song.

The singing isn't to everyone's tastes but at a time when ppl are listening to Thom Yorke that isn't such a big problem.

For myself, they don't trouble my interest, and I can't say they will be anytime soon.

You obviously never heard Branford Marsalis jam with them, then.

Nope, and although I'm sure he's, uh, "funkier" than his brother, I can't imagine his jams with the Dead approach the instrumental break of "Can You Hear Me Knocking" (which was, after all, used by many a black "urban" radio station in the 1970s as promo music). Anyway, the point was that the claim that "Can You Hear Me Knocking" sounds like the Dead is way, way off-base.

''I think that Deadheadism is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. If you have it, you will like them. If you do not have it, then no ammount of "Dude, no, you have to hear this most ultimate jam session that they did on this super-rare collectible live bootleg out- take from 1973..." in the world will ever convince you to find even a modicum of interest.''

it's bollocks! any band will have it's fans and haters but to dismiss it as 'chemical imbalance' is bullshit. Plus the 'annihalate' line (see dave q's ans).

Personally, the only song of theirs that I can instantly recognize is "Touch Of Grey". I'm fine with that.

If you're still hell bent on checking out the Dead, I'd start with any of the Dick's Picks live releases from 1972 or earlier. Even then, listening to them are like trying to dig for gold in a mine that's been completely played out. There's a lot of shovelling involved for very little payoff.

How is the Grateful Dead any different?

There must just be a neurotransmitter that makes people like SHIT, that is the explanation.

For anyone on the bus or Dead-curious: this The Other One is superb, and the ending-> is something else. March 20 1977

https://archive.org/details/gd1977-03-20.145511.mtx.motb0226.flac16/gd1977-03-20.mtx.motb.0226.d2t05.flac

Thrilled to announce that I’ll be performing the National Anthem for Sunday’s FOX @NASCAR iRACING race on @FOXTV, @FS1 and the FOX Sports App at 1:00 PM ET from the comforts of home. Tune in! pic.twitter.com/p3986M4YhY

— Bob Weir (@BobWeir) March 27, 2020

the row jimmy from this show is probably my favorite xp

Heres Bob Weir singin the national anthem for the Esports nascar race lmao pic.twitter.com/ndYnBzO26y

— Kent (Bene Gesserit) (@kentdunne) March 29, 2020

not as bad as i would have thought but the digital element is extremely bizarre. didn't know they were literally airing a simulation lmao

do we have Rolling Most 2020 Video thread

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYVMyClU0AA_a1c.jpg

This is wild: https://anthology.vinylmeplease.com/collections/anthology/products/vmp-anthology-grateful-dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaQ8r-SwR2c

no 30-year old has looked older than 1972 Jerry Garcia

i took this as a challenge. my thought here is that you gotta go with the former child stars. macaulay culkin. danny bonaduce.

I maintain that 1940s and 1950s movie actors are the all-time champions of looking 50 at 30.

I think Garcia definitely looks early 40s in that clip. Ten years later at age 40 and I dunno, 55? 60?

https://assets.bigcartel.com/product_images/193427782/Jerry_Garcia1_1982.jpg?auto=format&fit=max&w=780

Bonaduce at age 30. I would guess late 40s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88ro5jLUrOA

Culkin at age 30, otoh, still looking young for his age.

https://www.wmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/24/5b572658c51225203f2ba132_GettyImages-83386408.jpg?fit=3534%2C3000

no 30-year old has looked older than 1972 Jerry Garcia

Howard Kaylan looked older when he was 21.

https://townsquare.media/site/295/files/2015/05/The-Turtles.jpg

i guess there's, like, different sorts of aging, and a lot of it is very related to gendered presentation

beards make people look older. particularly long, graying beards. paradoxically they can also cover up a lot of the signs of visible aging in the skin - bonaduce's aging is from living a hard life. one can also see premature aging in a lot of people who do sex work, i've noticed.

my go-to for premature aging is someone like mark e. smith. he also had the classic british poor dental hygiene symptoms of premature aging, but by the time he was 60 he looked about 150 years old. he was also dying and had not been taking care of himself for decades at that point, though. i don't remember what he looked like in '87. i tried looking it up and there was this truly awful clickbait video and i had to give up.

howard kaylan looking old in his 20s seems more of a style thing than anything else

Style and the grey hair, which I'm so pleased he never tried to hide.

I've seen lots of 60 year old men who look as bad as MES!

Richard Manuel at 33 in the Last Waltz gives Jerry a run for his money

can we go back to the box set that revived this? all that shitty colored vinyl, jeez.

Why is Workingman's purple?

because P S Y C H E D E L I C B A N D S O F Y O R E O N C O L O R E D V I N Y L

also, "shut up and give us money"

Really crisp mix. Chicago June 76. Lesh bass tone is deep af

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/03/16/gd-gettyimages-453967204_wide-5c1bd95d5c06385ec379f0c082b10647232cd317-s700-c85.jpg

Damn “mission in the rain,” cool sh1t

https://liveforlivemusic.com/news/grateful-dead-355-hour-playlist/

355-Hour Spotify Playlist Puts Every Official Grateful Dead Live Release In Chronological Order

(up to 362 hrs now, playlist link in story)

No Drums & Space flavor?

https://www.stereogum.com/2088441/grateful-dead-deodorant-announced/news/

have any of yall listened to the 50th Anniversary Editions of Working Man's Dead, American Beauty? What did you think?

The 50th thing just adds a live show from what I’ve heard. Or were the tracks remastered ?

Ya told me goodbye....how was I to know...you didn’t mean goodbye

They haven't announced the American Beauty one yet. Maybe in the fall? The WD reissue (out next month) just has a from '71, and the album itself may have been remastered: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/grateful-dead-workingmans-dead-50th-anniversary/

"Has a show from '71"

No studio stuff, although some has issued in the past, like the somewhat disappointing original of "Mason's Children" on So Many Roads(?).

Yeah, So Many Roads. Not so much disappointing as just tentative and reserved, doesn't slap like the live version on the prior expanded WD CD.

...and the studio stuff is actually getting its own digital release. Story within: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/grateful-dead-workingmans-dead-reissue-angels-share-1011483/

tl;dr: It's all rehearsal and in-progress versions of stuff already on the album, all part of a vault score of similar material from some (but not all) of the other studio albums. Also, a deluxe American Beauty is in the pipeline, but whatever included studio extras are of a lower quality than this batch.

Workingdudes is their best studio album imho. Love dire wolf

“tl” is right... that’s a long f’in article

^^The drums & space sections were pretty unnecessary.

lol

I listened to In The Dark recently and a enjoyed it quite a bit

For this Fourth, I'm doing what I intended last tyme: listen to 50th Anniversary Editions on YouTube---although skipped the debut and went to Anthem, one I'd never heard at all, unlike the debut.Liked the '71 remix better overall, seemed like the stereo imaging was more centered, deeper focus, something, on sub-audiophile headphones. "Alligator" maybe fave in both mixes. May skip the bonus (show) disc (familiar set list, incl. several Anthem titles, also I caught some of the use of live in studio), and go on to the one I can't spell. I'm gonna come back this one fer shure.

Red & white, blue suede shoes. I’m Uncle Sam, how do you do?

Of course knww most of the songs on Aoxomoxoa from show tapes, but omg original context: at first this version of "St. Stephen" seemed too quaint, like an early Van Dyke Parks outtake w more guitar--but fairly soon, sonic shrooms started to tilt me down their gullet---will have to come back to it---advantage of music to other drugs: sometimes you can dream the same dream twice and better---may never get to '7i redo, as described by wiki

...Garcia and Lesh went back in the studio in 1971 to remix the album, removing many parts present on the original release, including a choir singing on "Mountains of the Moon", many difficult-to-identify sounds on "What's Become of the Baby", and an a cappella ending for "Doin' that Rag," dropped for an earlier fadeout. The remix also uses different vocal takes on some songs, most noticeably "Dupree's Diamond Blues." The result, with the same catalog number (WS1790) and perhaps brighter sound, but with much of the original's experimental character removed...nooooo

But yes, as with 50th Anniversary Anthem of the Sun, good have orginals and revisions at hand if you want 'em.

if you like The Band but can’t get down with “Brown Eyed Woman”, you are posing

Country funk for the win

Oh yeah 50th anniversary had both versions of the lps they rejigged in the early 70s on the same disc and s live set on a 2nd.
But that is only the 2nd and 3rd lps.
So are you getting less playing time on everything after.
& did they add a live set to Live Dead

if you like The Band but can’t get down with “Brown Eyed Woman”, you are posing

― brimstead, Friday, August 7, 2020 4:20 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

real talk

R.I.P. Jerry, 25 years today

I remember where I was

I was in Juneau, AK and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Called my dad and he asked, “did you hear the news?”