should i give the grateful dead a chance?

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

It does seem like the Dead are having a moment of sorts. Sometimes I think it's because there's just a lack of similar phenomena in music today -- there's nothing as big as them that's as loose as them, everything is much more professionalized and scripted. Other than other jam bands I guess, and I haven't really come around on other jam bands at this point. Death before Phish.

They feel like a real escape from the worst aspects of our era.

I can't properly articulate it but I wonder if the fact that the Dead aren't a touring band (side projects notwithstanding) is a factor. There's less of a "stigma" of associating with dreadlocked hacky sack players, and a latter day fan can just download shows off archive.org rather than mingling in a parking lot scene. Maybe the Dead seem more "respectable" as a historical act rather than a going concern, where the focus is back on the band itself rather than the carnival trappings?

tbh that had turned into *quite* a carnival in later years. You couldn't have paid me enough to be around that scene in the 80s and 90s.

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), Thursday, June 6, 2019 3:15 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly i'd go see your best local dead cover band and call it a night. dead & co were fun but like i felt like i was mostly watching a dead cover band for 4x the price

the dead are having a moment right now and i think it is largely bc of the amazon prime documentary. lots of folks i know who weren't actually that into them, then watched the documentary and now talk about wanting to take lsd and listen to the dead the whole trip

As for me, I had just fallen hard for a clutch of records like David Crosby's If I could Only Remember My Name and Graham Nash's Songs for Beginners, and noticed the Dead were all over them. I remember listening to Workingman's Dead to dip the toe in, but something about the voices on the first track didn't click with me, and "High Time" killed it off. I gave it another go, though, and the harmonies and guitar solos on the Europe '72 "I Know You Rider" blew me away, along with "Brown Eyed Women" and "Jack Straw". I'd always scoffed at rootsy Americana stuff, so this was a real road to Damascus moment: I suddenly wanted to hear a dozen records just like this.

I dunno how much I count as a Deadhead, though. My appreciation is pretty solidly a specific span of years--I've no curiosity about post-70s, and despite being obsessed with the Sixties, a fair amount of their output in that era is hit or miss for me. I just can't get into the half hour '69 jams where it's a lot of "deeedle-lee-deee" soloing; too busy for me. Though the 1970-06-24 show is the perfect transitional balance for me: that version of "Easy Wind" is one of my favorite things they've done.

i wonder if the internet flattening or erasing all context and meaning has anything to do with it. like not only was i able to avoid the lot scene due to my age i was able to approach the music more on its own terms

the dead are having a moment right now and i think it is largely bc of the amazon prime documentary

these are very, very lame times

"yeah man, I get it now! roll away the dew!" I rolled away the dew.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, June 6, 2019 1:01 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this is so amazing

i wonder if the internet flattening or erasing all context and meaning has anything to do with it. like not only was i able to avoid the lot scene due to my age i was able to approach the music more on its own terms

― global tetrahedron

i don't think of that as the internet, i think of that as _time_

the internet is just the way we're currently scribbling on top of the past

it's definitely true that dead fans in my youth were drug burn-outs listening to terrible music who i wanted nothing to do with.

the dead are having a moment right now and i think it is largely bc of the amazon prime documentary

these are very, very lame times

― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, June 6, 2019 5:19 PM (sixteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i thought the doc was excellent fwiw

the doc was pretty solid as those things go. and i think the dead moment was well underway before it came out!

I got into the Dead when a buddy said dang you like The Band, you should check out Europe 72, it’s just like that, and he was right

documentary was terrible--a long, tedious episode of Behind The Music--but I was more referring to the lameness of Netflix being the catalyst for anyone getting into anything

It’s Amazon Prime, get your OTT services straight

god those lames, getting into a band by watching a movie. paul ponzi was there man, lemme tell you. an original head

I got into Ja Rule via the Fyre Fest doc

My first knowledge of the Dead was in junior high in 1985 or 86 when a friend pointed out a poster in a shop after school and he told me about them and I was scared because of the skulls and they were called "The Grateful Dead," man.

A couple years later I saw Touch of Grey on MTV and loved the video.

In high school and early college I heard the couple of songs they played on classic rock radio like "Truckin'" and "Uncle John's Band" and always loved the latter.

Later in college and just after I had a friend who was deep into the Dead and by osmosis I was exposed to more and more. I got Workingman's Dead, American Beauty, and Live/Dead. For years that was good enough to me. It wasn't until I downloaded my first live show (Barton Hall 77) from archive.org about 10 years ago that I started getting in deep. I still prefer 69-72 and don't go past 77 (except for Reckoning).

My only live exposure to Dead-adjacent bands was in 2000, prior to totally getting on the bus, when I saw Dylan open up (LOL) for the Phil Lesh Band at Merriweather Post Paviilion with my then girlfriend (now wife). The parking lot scene was pretty seedy and I wasn't that into it (I also was a little uptight). We had to drive a couple of hours home, so we left early in Phil Lesh's set. As we left the venue, there were all these decrepit Deadheads without tickets hanging out right outside the gate asking for my ticket stub. At the time I kept all the stubs to my shows, so I just sort of politely refused, said "sorry" and kept walking. The look of disdain on the face of the Deadheads for my not enabling their getting into the show has stuck with me for nearly twenty years.

Dylan open up (LOL) for the Phil Lesh Band at Merriweather Post Paviilion

Unless you meant they were already inside the venue with lawn seats and wanted to be stubbed down to the pavillion.

I actually went to Merriweather Post a few weeks ago for a fairy fest with my daughter. It's weird how much the area had changed. I grew up in Columbia, spending a lot of time at the lake and the mall. Now they've torn down huge chunks of Symphony Woods and put up office buildings.