should i give the grateful dead a chance?

my brother bought 1100 old dead tapes, so, if you are ever in hudson, ny...

I have loads of GB of live stuff anyway.

just started watching long strange trip this weekend. it is really good wow

only beef w/ it so far is that despite so much good footage of performances they don't just let those videos roll, they always cut to an interview or something else so fast

yeah that's a good point, i hope the home video release has like 12+ hours of supplementals, maybe a full show. any news on that?

Watched the first half of Long Strange Trip last night. I think it's quite well done overall, although it jumps from their signing to Warner Brothers to Workingman's Dead pretty quickly.

It initially seems like they skip over some important stuff, but then they come back to it later (Altamont, especially). But yeah, Anthem and Live/Dead aren't mentioned at all, which seems strange. In fact, a lot of important events and people (at least two keyboardists) escape mention completely.

Huh... and this is a long-ass doc, no? What do they spend all that time on?

Jerry being imprisoned by his own success. Such a sad movie.

Wanting to record desert air and city smog is from the Anthem sessions, although I don't think it was referred to specifically. (Nitrous oxide parties were also at those sessions, but likely many others as well.) xxp

What do they spend all that time on?

One of the episodes spends way too much time talking about dosed filmmakers not being able to make a film about the Dead, and another spends what feels like 15 minutes on the crew's nitrous shenanigans. Meanwhile, there's no mention of Mickey's departure/return, among other things.

Yeah so these guys are enjoyable but they're nowhere near the VU on any level

i loved that documentary. it has some flaws but i thought it succeeded pretty well at conveying what is special about this band, their music, their scene

If you don't know a single thing about the band coming in, it's fine. If you are the kind of person who can identify the year of a given live tune by the sound of the keyboard, you'll hate it. It's basically a prolonged episode of Behind The Music.

im one of those 'identify by the keyboard' losers and i loved it! but it was def not comprehensive. need to sample it again.

Yeah, despite the omissions, I thought it was extremely well done. I don't think the omissions detracted, but there were a couple where I thought, "Jeez, it would've taken an additional 90 seconds at most to talk about that."

And marcos otm.

I finished the doc last night, and found myself less interested in the last two segments (Deadheads, and Jerry's decline and death) and wishing for more music. Overall though, highly recommended if you're at all interested in the Dead.

https://ig.me/2gbaN3DgpupAfkK

listening to 2/13/70 for the first time :D

I think it's May 70 that is the peak for the year.

i'm excited to get deeper into it

I think august 68 and may 70 seem to have a number of really impactful recordings. NOt sure when in 69, possibly February when Live Dead was being recorded. I think they drift more into country towards the end of the year.
BUt August 68 and May 70 both seem to be trepanningly skulfuckery, lift the lid etc.

i have the 5/2/70 dick's pick, gonna finally give it a listen tonight

can i just say that the 2/13/70 "st. stephen/not fade away" is absolutely perfect though https://vimeo.com/37563528

2/13/70 'other one' destroys holy shit

https://youtu.be/k2pBgYBI30s

I never get tired of Jerry and Bob on talk shows, one above is Good Morning America, 1980

I've been really enjoying the Day of the Dead tribute record from 2016, especially BPB's lovely cover of Rubin and Cherise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oddNibVais8

And this quite awesome version of Terrapin Station
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPdoWp-PHFU

I was listening to them doing Hard to Handle and I was like, "You know what, these guys did swing pretty hard." Then I went back and listened to the Otis version and it just destroys them. Then I went and listened to the Black Crowes version and goddamn it suuuuuuuucks.

Anyway, I'm in a Dead cover band now, lol. It's fun.

Dead culture is weird -- I feel like it's hard to just be a casual fan, deadheads are so intense about the dead.

Somehow I know you where behind this revive.

Jerry told me from beyond the grave!

The Weir interview in GQ is pretty great imo. Some new revelations hat I hadn’t known (or cared) about. Dude is such an oddball - I am fascinated by his adoption of classic deadhead fashion (Birkenstocks and cargo shorts) in the late 90s. Like dude you never noticed what half the crowd is wearing at your shows? Probably he had and the short shorts and converse weapons were a form of non-conformism.

Had no idea about the booze and pills. I always thought he was a health nut.

https://www.gq.com/story/bob-weir-grateful-dead-profile

Other people can have all the opinions they like of me, but for myself of all the changes I've gone through over the years, the fact that I now actually actively enjoy listening to the Grateful Dead is the most unnerving to me.

This week I put together a mock Dead concert setlist based on the stuff I've listened to and enjoyed. Heavily inspired by Dick's Picks and Save Your Face, who I've gotten a lot out of when they're not making lengthy arguments in favor of '94 Dead (post '77 Dead is just a bridge too far for me). Anyway, it's not a great achievement, but considering I started out as someone who would listen to "Dark Star" and only "Dark Star" there's a fair amount of Kool-Aid drinking at play. I went out of my way to include a fair number of songs with vocals even though none of those motherfuckers could sing for shit.

Set 1 (1972-1973)

Here Comes Sunshine (1973-12-19)
Bird Song (1972-08-27)
Let It Grow (instrumental edit, 1973-09 Buffalo)
Playin' in the Band (instrumental edit, 1972-09-10, sorry but "Playin' in the Band" is a fucking awful song I hate that happened to inspire some amazing fucking jamming - this was the only version I had around with the vocals edited out)
Wharf Rat (1973-11-14)

Set 2 (1968-1971)

Dark Star (1969-06-14)
New Potato Caboose (1968-10-12)
Spanish Jam (1968-03-30)
Viola Lee Blues (1970-05-02)
The Other One (ending, 1971-12-01)

Encore (1975)

Johnny B. Goode (1975-03-23)

There's some extremely obvious picks here but hopefully at least one or two less obvious picks...

Other people can have all the opinions they like of me, but for myself of all the changes I've gone through over the years, the fact that I now actually actively enjoy listening to the Grateful Dead is the most unnerving to me.

Oh hi, me

This is me as well. In my early 20s, I was deep into post-punk and contemporary bands like the Rapture. I'd have been puzzled at the idea I'd ever dig something like the Dead, if not disgusted, even though I did have a fondness of Sixties rock. Once I hit 30, though, I became a lot more amenable to CSNY/hippie country music, which eased the way into things like Europe '72. No doubt discovering weed at a late age helped me along.

Part of it also had to do with their cultural image, as I suspect is true with many folks. The Dead were lame, everyone knew that, even though I'd never heard a note of their music. It's been strange to see the cultural rehabilitation in the last few years--never thought I'd see Pitchfork doing Dead features, for instance. I remember downplaying to my girlfriend the extent I was getting into the Dead, as though it was an embarrassing kink, and assuring her I wasn't going to start wearing patchouli and getting into the jam band scene.

My coming around on the dead has actually been a very long strange trip from just kinda knowing the greatest hits in high school to outright hating them for a while in spite of/because of living in a house with huge deadheads where live shows were ALWAYS fucking playing, to kind of gradually picking up little snatches of riffs that I liked (the outro from scarlet begonias etc.), to getting into Blues for Allah because it was proggy, etc.

Then recently I got asked by a friend to join a dead cover band and I figured I'd better actually learn the music, and now I'm getting to that level of like "Fuck yeah Cornell '77!" but not quite yet at the point of comparing versions of songs

"How did you get into The Dead?" would be an interesting thread. Would be most intrigued to hear from those who thought they sucked at first and then had a turning point, because that would be me. Jerry Garcia Band (1991) is what did it for me. (Though still not a huge fan.)

I was exposed to the Dead fairly extensively via hippie/jammy friends in college, but never liked them much... then one night in my early '20s I queued up the Skull & Roses album on a CD jukebox in a bar, and it "clicked."

I remember having a distinct moment, not sure exactly when, when the phrase "roll away the dew" just started going through my head a lot, and it gradually changed from this ironic sort of inside joke to "yeah man, I get it now! roll away the dew!" I rolled away the dew.

I was thoroughly ambivalent about them until about a year and a half ago when I saw Dead and Co. were coming through town around my dad's birthday and figured tickets would make a nice present. knowing I was going to be putting myself through 3 hours or whatever of Dead tunes live compelled me to really start digging into their live catalogue and I got pretty damn hooked. The Dead ended up being my most-listened-to artist of 2018 according to Spotify, haha.

"How did you get into The Dead?" would be an interesting thread.

― While My Guitar Gently Wheedly-Wheedly-Wheedly-Weeps (Dan Peterson)

my answer isn't very interesting - tyler w and the save your face blog.

actually, to make it a little more interesting the first dead-related music i enjoyed was oneida's "heads ain't ready" single back in '08 or thereabouts.

Why in this age of youtube can't I find the clip of Jerry dressed as Santa and Mickey Hart dressed as Spock?

― cia never wore tie-dyes (kkvgz), Thursday, April 21, 2011 9:40 AM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3CcH5m7J6U

OK, someone uploaded it later on that year and it just took me 8 years to remember to look for it again.

I got into the Dead from my dad's records. It was the summer before high school. I had actually been over at a metalhead friend's house and there was a girl over there who was pretending/faking to be demonically possessed. It was kinda a weird scene. When I went home, I guess I wanted to feel more occult vibes, but I was tired of my Metallica and Misfits cassettes. So I went picking through my dad's records and pulled out Skull & Roses. I thought they would be really heavy, like Iron Maiden or something, because of the skull on the cover. The countryish music on side one was disappointing and confusing, but then I put on the 18-minute long The Other One and that was still not what I thought I was after, but I stuck around for the entire 18 minutes of it (which was a really long time for me at that age!) and maybe did get some supernatural vibes after all?

After that, I put on American Beauty, but I started on side B and in a total change of mood Ripple became my favorite song for the next 6 months or something.

i grew up in suburban ohio so the dead were already legendary among the teenage stoners i hung out with, but like you peace man seeing all the iconography as a kid i just assumed they were a metal band until i heard "truckin," and was kind of thrown off by this country-rock kinda of vibe it puff, it seemed so incongruous with the skulls. quickly soon after though i got into the 68-69 psychedelia and that era is what really pulled me in, two from the vault remains probably the pinnacle of the dead for me and just feels so free and explosive. eventually i've kind of become a full-on deadhead and these songs feel like a part of my life. i feel no embarrassment listening to the dead, this music is so good, but when i go to dead-related events, dead
co or cover band shows etc i definitely cringe a little, there is so little that separates this whole scene from a jimmy buffet show in terms of the audience and the alcohol

puff/
put off

Oh yeah! Two From the Vault is like the next record I got into. I borrowed it from the local library and St. Stephen was just so massive to me.

Is Dead & Co worth seeing? I have the opportunity to get my friend's really good seats at face value ($150 each) but I'm always sort of skeptical of still-touring-old-dudes iterations of bands. And also John Mayer, but otoh the guy can certainly play and I guess that would be something to see.

it's pretty painful when Mayer sings (I mean, a different kind of painful than when Jerry sang, I guess) but I thought his playing was really on point, and obviously that's the overwhelming majority of the experience.

I got into the Dead thru their studio albums. The early albums were part of the psychedelic canon that my friends and I listened to as teens; later, American Beauty and Working Man's Dead suited a growing interest in Americana (for want of a better word). It was only much later that I listened to Live Dead for the first time and started exploring from there.

xpost

marcos otm re: Two From The Vault. The beginning of "New Potato Caboose" is one of my favorite moments in their oeuvre.

My becoming a Dead head started here:

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?

― Funky Mustard (People It's Bad) (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, April 26, 2011 9:47 AM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I soon moved on to '68-'72, but couldn't get into post-'72. Turned that corner two years ago, in addition to finally embracing late '70s Dead. Now my cutoff is '88, and the increase in MIDI usage from that point on doesn't make it likely that I'll ever get into '90s Dead.

It's still feels weird to me, though. For so many years I didn't just think they weren't just the worst band -- I thought they were the worst possible band.

Is Dead & Co worth seeing? I have the opportunity to get my friend's really good seats at face value ($150 each) but I'm always sort of skeptical of still-touring-old-dudes iterations of bands. And also John Mayer, but otoh the guy can certainly play and I guess that would be something to see.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive)

Obvious point maybe, but.. Lots of their gigs are available in full on their YouTube channel. Worth a look