should i give the grateful dead a chance?

AB is amazing cause all the singers sound good on it. magic in the studio i guess, cause otherwise garcia is the only vocalist i like.

^otm. i think the same thing about workingman's, too

i dunno about studio magic so much as 'anyone can lay down a good vocal take if they have a couple weeks'. i mean, they don't sound like good singers, just ... not egregiously bad ones? i mean, i enjoy their bad singing + think it fits an aesthetic -- but one of the dick's pickses ends with a version of 'goodnight' which is so wonky i find it hard not to laugh. not laugh in a mean way, but laugh, still.

I wonder if their dodgy live vocals have anything to do with their monitoring situation. They were doing weird stuff with the monitors all behind them and double mics out of phase to cancel out any feedback, etc. But I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't really hear themselves properly. Also drugs.

This just occured to me, but for people who have rejected the Dead for their dodgy, hit-or-miss live performances, browsing the internet archive's selection of Phil & Friends shows. I used to listen to these a ton and they were shit-hot.

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=%28collection%3APhilLeshandFriends%20OR%20mediatype%3APhilLeshandFriends%29%20AND%20-mediatype%3Acollection&sort=-avg_rating%3B-num_reviews

OK, after decades of dismissing them, I finally gave Live/Dead a spin. I kind of dig it. There are moments that conform to my long-held image of the Dead (basically, an aesthetic based around the idea that effort is for squares, man), but those are shockingly few and far between. And "Feedback" is a revelation. What other Dead records are like this?

Check out Two From the Vault.

Will do, thanks.

Live/Dead is great!

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/g/grateful-dead/album-dicks-picks-vol-22-lake-tahoe-ca-223-2468.jpg

Live/Dead is great!

― Dr. Suggestban, or How I Learned to Stop etc. (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, April 26, 2011 12:29 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I'm surprised at how much I'm digging it. I mean, it sounds like the Dead, but they seem to be actively engaged in what they're doing in a way I haven't heard...but then, all I've really heard are the singles and snippets of uber-desultory live recordings from the late 70s on.

http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac156/tparks9243/GratefulDead-DicksPicks-Vol4-Fillmo.jpg

tarfumes, forgot to mention it, but you should maybe give mickey hart's rolling thunder album a listen. i dig it. kinda fucked-up mishmash of stuff and part of me sorta wishes the dead had made a couple more fucked up mishmash albums and just let the tapes roll. it works for them! plus, it rocks! "young man" is the jam.

Cool, thanks! Will check out. Right now I'm really digging the surprisingly garagey DP #22. And Europe '72 is growing on me. I don't care that the vocals were overdubbed after the fact; based on what I've heard/read, I think I prefer it that way.

Basically, I'm kicking myself for not getting into them sooner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JccVYeFz1Bc

http://www.lefthandbrewing.com/blog/shop/images/1636/Dark-Star-and-Cold-Brews-Logo-for-Online-Shop.jpg/
i think this is where i'm going to be on friday! DEAD SUMMER. Colorado is on fiiiiiiire wooo.

I assumed this must have been revived because of the Dawn Of the Dead dvd coming out recently. Found that to be an interesting couple of hours.
Do love the Dead in their early mid flight transcendence. Still mainly into about 67-74 though there are a few other bits and pieces over the next 6 years worth checking.
Think I especially love May '70 and August '68 both months seem to contain several truly great sets.
& there's a date in the Ark in early '69 that seemed to shine throughout. is it 24/1?

http://www.gdao.org/

Testimony of a Deadhead, folded into a first-rate map of the long strange road trip, wake of the flood, and on up to now, man. Like the music, it keeps finding its way back to worthy themes, which flex, morph, but/and can be grooved with:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/11/26/121126fa_fact_paumgarten

Grateful Dead live, Dick's Picks etc - S&D

discussion here^

No you know what fuck this band. Even the studio version of St. Stephen sucks -- they sound like drunk kids jamming in my basement. Great tune but they can't even pull off one solid take of it, and every live version of it is awful.

http://sinbapointforward.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/grateful-dead-nba-shirts.jpg?w=610&h=339

http://sinbapointforward.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/heat-lakers-grateful-dead-n.jpg?w=611&h=282

who cares they're some people who make (made?) music

Studio version of St. Stephen is a tour de force.

See, it's almost a tour de force, and it should be a tour de force, but there's still something weak about the groove, all these spots where instruments get a little off from each other, jerry playing subtly bad notes, like I just can't accept this is the best take they could ever get.

But it's the best take they needed to get, and what they needed ≠ what you need, and that's okayyyy, maaaaan.

It's an awesome take. If you're talking about the intro or the "ladyfingers" section, I mean, they're played with rubato.

i love the live dead version. its on live dead, right? that's the first version i knew cuz it was on the what a long strange trip comp and that was the first dead album i ever bought.

It's really a radical song. Redefines what a rock band does.

yah timellison otm, St. Stephen rules

Just picked up Workingman's Dead and the original/first mix of Aoxomoxoa. Man. Sounding pretty fucking great tonight.

Watched 'Sunshine Daydream' last week (show in Oregon from '72). Great stuff. Wish it were longer. Lots of audience nudity, though.

You guys are forgetting Shakedown Street. The title song, fire on the mountain and good lovin are excellent.

When they were making ABeauty, here was Phil Lesh's idea for the album: record the Mojave Desert air for 30 minutes, then record the Fisherman's Wharf in SanFran (I think) for 30 minutes. And that would've been the album. Lesh was non-plussed when the execs didn't go for it.

― Suzy Creemcheese (SuzyCreemcheese), Tuesday, August 2, 2005 3:22 AM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I thought that was Weir with Anthem of The Sun
& why Dave Hassinger walked away from producing the lp.

ii. can anyone recommend a live thing post gaining godchaux where you can really HEAR godchaux? he seems to make so little difference to what they're doing in the jams, whereas on the records he's a massive component of the sound

― thomp, Wednesday, April 20, 2011 5:39 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If anybody is looking for an answer to this now, there is plenty of Keith Godchaux audible on the Sunshine Daydream official release. One thing that stood out to me on listening to the set.

Agreed. Also, it's nice to hear from another Keith fan. Dude gets no respect among Deadheads; even Bobby is held in higher regard!

I get that he wasn't exactly Mr Personality, but the era he was with the band (and, err, awake) is my favorite era (approx 72-77) and I love when he's audible in the mix. After years of ODing on Jerry (easy to do) and listening for Phil's insane shit, these days I love the jams where Keith is super prominent. It's kinda crazy how much love Brent gets in some circles while Keith is rarely acknowledged for seriously bringing the Miles (as opposed to, say, the Kenny Loggins. Hey-o!).

I've read, I think, almost every major book published on the Dead and I still don't know much about the dude. Even the above mentioned (and otherwise terrific - one of my top ten shows) Sunshine Daydream DVD contains, I think, a single frame of Keith playing? Like, if you didn't know any better you'd think the piano was being played from behind a curtain. His one close-up in The Grateful Dead Movie might go a long way to explaining things: he's sorta lost in the music, notices the camera, and grimaces pretty openly. Ha! Dude did not want to be a star. I could go on but I've ranted too much already.

Oh, one more thing: his lone songwriting contribution, "Let Me Sing Your Blues Away" is like Little Feat meets Canned Heat. Massively underrated song on Wake Of The Flood. I think they only ever played it live 6 or 8 times or something. If you've never heard the studio version, check it out.

As a Dead newbie, Godchaux's playing was a revelation to me. I think I posted this on another Dead thread, but if there's a missing link between Nicky Hopkins and Andrew Hill, it's Godchaux.

He's pretty prominent and great throughout 1972 recordings. Gets progressively lower in the mix as time goes along and that's prob a good thing by 1978 or so

A friend of mine makes the case for yes:
http://21hoursaday.wordpress.com/2014/04/06/a-haters-guide-to-the-grateful-dead/

i'm going to say, "no!," and i am unanimous about this.

http://www.southernfriedscience.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/inigo-montoya-you-keep-using-that-word-i-dont-think-it-means-what-you-th-3b4b2920-sz625x625-animate.jpg

No you know what fuck this band. Even the studio version of St. Stephen sucks -- they sound like drunk kids jamming in my basement. Great tune but they can't even pull off one solid take of it, and every live version of it is awful.

― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Sunday, March 24, 2013 10:55 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wronnnggggggggggggggg

and hurting i think you're friend is pretty much otm, even if would pick different examples to illustrate the inroads he suggests. hating bands for their fanbases has always struck me as stupid, even if i get the sentiment behind it. i commented similarly on the bob marley island albums poll. (but in any case, i don't get the sentiment wrt the dead but that's because i love hippies).

though i disagree with some of the stuff in his postscript -- e.g. i love when the dead dabbles in bluegrass, i love 'trucking' and many other weir-sung tunes

LOL the first link is to Anthem of the Sun

Every time this thread appears I have the overwhelming urge to post
NO!
resisted till now...

Grateful Dead Movie on some cable channel right now. Fuckin Jerry man, always hanging on that major 7th at the wrong times. Shitty soloist imo.

Haw, I tried to tune into that but apparently am not subscribed to that channel. Palladia?

Yeah, I'm way over listening to the Dead for the solos. Beat parts of that movie are the animated sequences and the section where Phil gets super excited backstage over some unintentional feedback from his bass.

I enjoyed how dorky and awkward Phil came off. They really all kind of look like groovy engineering students or something.