should i give the grateful dead a chance?

Man, I didn't even know about that. Nor did I know a new Dick's Picks was out .... from '71! Man it's so crazy how they crank those suckers out; if you don't check back often you wouldn't even know that like 5 Dicks Picks had come out since you last browsed the site.

And one Broke-Down Palace I don't like is Will Oldham's cover of it. I was excited to hear that he was doing it, but I wasn't a big fan of the execution, esp. the second half. Oh well.

http://s57.yousendit.com/d.php?id=1H1UAEBDB90GCBSMTALVHSLK4

that would be great, thanks suzy.

OK, the list forthcoming.

02/14/68
02/28/69
02/18/71
04/29/71
08/06/71
08/27/72
09/21/72
02/09/73
02/15/73
06/10/73
11/11/73
11/17/73
02/24/74
06/18/74
06/28/74
10/19/74
10/20/74
02/26/77
05/07/77
05/08/77
05/09/77
06/09/77
07/08/78
06/30/85
09/18/87
07/17/89
10/09/89
03/29/90
09/10/90
09/10/91

'76 was a strange year, though. Caught between two styles for the most part. Although I know it's from 1975, a lot of '76 stuff reminds me of "One from the Vault" - sounds great but a little cautious.

Actually, it also reminds me of baseball fans.

BEHOLD! NY YANKEE BERNIE WILLIAMS AND ... THE JOURNEY WITHIN!

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00009VGX9.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

But it's not like Dead fans are MORE rapturous than any other really rabid fans, at least the ones I know (including myself).* I guess baseball is the best analogy. It's not that baseball fans love baseball more than basketball fans love basketball, it's just that there is a lot more data produced in a baseball game for the fan to pore over.

"Grateful Dead concerts are like baseball games: no two are ever alike. The plays are always different, and there's always fresh hope. Sometimes the game's an all-timer even though individual performances are sloppy; sometimes everybody plays great but the team loses anyway.

Some people thrive on yesterday's moments, and aren't too keen on the way the game's played today. Some have only been fans since last year and don't care what happened way back when. You can cherish the great victories and triumphant seasons and chart them across decades, or you can go simply for the enjoyment of tonight and to hell with the standings. Like all the great teams, the Dead have their pennant years and bleak innings, perfect games and whippings, hits and foul balls, heroes and goats.

To many they're an institution, to some mere child's play, and to others the Grateful Dead is more or less an indispensable part of life. There are those who say the game's too slow, that the brief moments of action and excitement are too few and far between. Like "America's Favorite Pastime," the Dead are both celebrated and criticized, and some people will never see what's to enjoy.

Like big-league fans, Deadheads are as varied as the game is long. There are scorekeepers who record every detail for statistical analysis and a place in the Hall of Fame; camera buffs and video freaks; armchair umpires, die-hards, groupies. Some are bleacher bums who'd be in the stands no matter who was playing; and there are even spousal fans who go because if they didn't, they'd be left home alone. A lot of people attend because they've always gone and really don't care to stop.

It may take a few visits to grasp the subtleties, but if you let yourself into the flow of things, there's something to enjoy from the very first moment you're there. As the old saying goes, the mind believes what the mind believes: Grateful Dead is cerebral if you choose to analyze it, but it's basic and instinctive too. Like the game of baseball."

And this just occured to me - I can't think of any other rock musicians (besides blues guitarists) that are still playing music after six decades.

http://www.rockstar.it/img/Phil_Lesh.jpg

Godspeed, weirdo.

(Result 3: Xgau)

Jack Straw - about rebellion in the sense of escape? or revolution? both?

Wow. It does live up to the legend. Freakin amazing, some of their best playing.

And to think, I thought I hated them live post-73!

Pretty much all of May '77 is worth listening to. That 5/8/77 show though ... just has everything you'd want. Even the band banter telling the crowd to TAKE A STEP BACK is classic.

No one is gonna blame you for taking so long to leave the pre-hiatus '70s comfort zone, though. When I first started listening to GD I loved all that early '70s stuff, heard a bootleg from '87 and stayed away from post-hiatus double-drum line-up for years.

5/8/77 - fiercest Scarlet -> Fire, best Morning Dew climax, REALLY solid 1st set, etc. etc. It's pretty easy to find, too; plus the sound quality is A+.

I think I sent this track to like Chaki and Ian before we all got all YSI'd out, but for all my fellow brethren and sistren here's an insane "Cream Puff War" from '67 -- nine minutes of amphetamine-fueled Jerry blowing his brains out, total punk rock--

stormy i want this again!!!

oooh i want that

The problem with the defenses of American Beauty and Workingman's Dead as "concise" is that the conciseness still doesn't come close to solving their main problems: a lazy-ass sluggish rhythm section, and lazy-ass sluggish singers.

How about "relaxed" and "loping" rather than "sluggish"? Plenty of great bands aren't speed demons.

I still haven't gotten the Cornell '77 thing, even though it seems to be a piece of cake to find.

yea, the relaxed thing is one of the things i like most about the dead. it makes me feel relaxed and happy.

they're over-praised, obv, which lends itself to intense criticism.

I'm no fanatic, trust me, but in a certain time, place and mood they are perfect.

when casey jones came on the radio the other night i nearly cried. it was perfect.

lololololol @ calling bill and phil "lazy" motherfuckers are work horses.

Seriously. Bill is the fucking MVP of the Dead.

How about "relaxed" and "loping" rather than "sluggish"? Plenty of great bands aren't speed demons.

It has nothing to do with speed. Al Jackson and Jerome Brailey are relaxed and loping as fuck. Kreutzmann and Hart always struck me as just plain uninterested and unfocused. I swear, it's like they're high or something...

i like the dead - theyre kinda a downr tho