should i give the grateful dead a chance?

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?”

I was on a school bus on the way back from a YMCA camping trip. summer of “waterfalls” on the radio all the damn time iirc

I was at my girlfriend's house. It's twenty-five years later now and we've been married most of that time, and have two kids.

was watching mtv and they interrupted whatever program was running to announce it.

Scarlet > Fire from Cornelll '77 is sounding so crisp I can almost bite a piece out of it

RIP to the GOD

was watching mtv and they interrupted whatever program was running to announce it.

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin), Monday, August 10, 2020 1:43 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was watching MTV and Touch of Grey came on. I was like "wow! maybe MTV is taking a new programming direction and playing some older music?" I had forgotten when they had done the exact same thing a year earlier with Kurt. Then came the news scroll at the bottom of the screen announcing his death. I walked down to the river and cried.

I was eating at a Sooper Salad in SA. RIP

Scarlet > Fire from Cornelll '77 is sounding so crisp I can almost bite a piece out of it

RIP to the GOD

― black dice live ft. jerry garcia (rizzx), Monday, 10 August 2020 09:14 (eight hours ago) link

It's really kind of a sonic monument, and I'm not even always sure I exactly *like* it, but it's singular.

oh man i was sitting on a dude's couch waiting to buy an 1/8 of weed when Touch of Grey came on MTV. it was my then girlfriend / now wife's birthday and I made dinner later and bought a pint of cherry garcia for dessert

lol

I'm really enjoying this cover of Standing on the Moon by Molly Tuttle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTAjConx2tY

I had the opposite experience of joygoat, a deadhead was in my basement to pick up 1/8 and I made some joke about Jerry's diet probably being ultimately what killed him and he had no idea until that moment that he was dead and his smile faded and he just turned kind of pale and he ran up the stairs and out the door.

and he quit smoking weed forever that very day and found the lord

don't have any recollection of jerry's death (I was 11 and living in Scotland) but I have been getting heavily into the dead of late. finally got a working turntable in my apartment (my wife and I somehow own 3 turntables that don't work so we bought a new one) and a good chunk of the records we have belonged to my wife's late father who was a deadhead. at first I was kind of resistant to the dead and really only enjoyed one or two tracks per album, and I find plenty of the studio albums a bit shit - aoxomoxoa, blues for allah are not my favourites for instance, working man's dead and American beauty are my favourites - but I've just been listening to dick's picks haphazardly and I'm a big fan now, most of what I listen to rn tbh.

You seriously had no reaction to help on the way on Allah? Wow

I have a feeling that my insistence on attempting both Help on the Way and the extended version of Eyes of the World may have been what broke up my dead cover band.

I see the expanded Working Man's Dead is now up on Spotify, but it's a shame they don't share the Dave's Picks series there too.

xps. help on the way and crazy fingers are my favourites on blues for allah

Help is a b1tch to play, very busy but emphasis is on the smooth so tough

13yo me was checking American Beauty out from the public library and the nice old lady working at the desk broke the news to me.

That sounds like a detail from a Stephen King novel.

What news

Pigpen died, man! What a bummer!

Anyone ever tried listening to every Dark Star from 1967 up until 1995? Contemplating this project. I think it's safe to skip '67 to '70 though

if yr finna do that don't skip any of them

Yeah 1968 and 69 are packed with must-hear Dark Stars

The surest sign that the answer to the thread question is 'No' is that I've become a fan of the podcast/internet radio show Time Crisis, where the Dead are a pet topic and one of the dudes has a tribute band (with the perfect name Richard Pictures). It's entertaining to hear them talk about GD and defend their cultural reputation etc, and yet any time I actually hear them (especially the live recordings) I'm still instantly repulsed.

I even came around to Vampire Weekend through the show (at least the most recent album), but the Dead are still a giant nope for me.

Haha I didn't realize that someone from Richard Pictures was involved in that podcast. Yeah, that's by far my favorite tribute band name.

He's the older brother of the guy from Dirty Projectors

"I think it's safe to skip '67 to '70 though" -- I would only do this if working from the principle that they are so widely acknowledged as "formative/great" versions then why bother? If you are actually diving in without that as your guiding principle then yeah, definitely start from the beginning. I LOVE the early Dark Stars, still basically my favorite GD shit.

Ha, I've been doing the same thing. Those really early 3-4 minute "Dark Star" versions from early '68 are interesting in their own right. I really dug a trip through the 1/22/68 version that came out of a killer early "Spanish Jam".

Agree. It was a fascinating progression.

The original, album version of Dark Star is the best one, it just gets gradually worse after that over time.

The original, album version of Dark Star is the best one, it just gets gradually worse after that over time.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive)

the original version of dark star isn't the album version

album version?

somebody on here did go through and make a list of dark stars from every year.. it’s on this thread or the dick’s picks one

It was never on an album, there was a 1967 studio version that has popped up on various comps over time.

It was a single issued around the time of Anthem, since there wasn't a viable candidate from that album aside from "Born Cross-Eyed" (which, iirc, was the flip).

Yeah, that was the B-side.

here's a mix of all the 1972 Dark Stars — https://archive.org/details/DarkStar1972

Lol Jordan, getting into Time Crisis was instrumental in me giving the Dead a serious chance, but I have actually grown to appreciate them more. It is funny when they hear real rough live cuts and admit that they're terrible. I think my favorite Dead-adjacent discovery from TC is Jerry's live albums with Merl Saunders. They cover a lot of soul and reggae - Ain't No Woman and The Harder They Come are great!

Listening to some of the 1968 Dark Stars and they all have this annoying Rhodes (is it?) loop thing going on.

Bohh very annoying! Seems to have dissapeared by feb 11 1969 @ Fillmore East

assume the OP is talking about the Live Ded version which was live at the Fillmore West in February 69. and is about 20 minutes longer than the single version. It's presumably the best known version of the track. But I think the song wasa staple for ages and appeared at nearly every gig before being alternated with the Other One in the early 70s.

xp I think you're talking about Pigpen's ultra-repetitive organ riff, which is indeed super annoying on those early Dark Stars. Check out 10/12/68 for a Pigpen-free version from that era that absolutely slays. The whole show is a top 5 of all time for me--80 minutes of psychedelic lightning.

1972 was the best year for Dark Star. Too many great versions to mention and all are worth hearing, so you could do a lot worse than checking out that 1972 Dark Star mix on the Archive.

The single best Dark Star imo is 8/1/73. Keith is on Rhodes, and the band functions as a single organism channeling high-energy rainbow-hued space fusion. Post-verse they go into quasi-ambient rubato mode with Jerry playing some searing acid-western slide guitar, setting the stage for a brilliant segue into El Paso.

it was Jerry's Birthday if I'm reading the date right. Been a while since I heard that set but think I remember a soul influence on it.
Can remember crossing London by bus while listening to that set but it has bee a while since i actually heard it.

It's an annoying riff, but it's the one Jerry wanted him to play while he and Phil and took the lead in exploring. There's some early versions in January '68 where you can hear Pig really struggling with it (or maybe just bored out of his mind with it).

xp Yeah that was Jerry's birthday at Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, NJ. Soulful is an apt descriptor for that set 2 sequence. There's also a lovely Bird Song in the first set.

Late 68 some of the band were vying for both Pigpen and Bob Weir to be fired from the band.l Which coincides witha number fo sets recorded wthout either onboard which gives way to moe open ended jamming. BUt I do like the behind the beat rhythm guitar thing Weir did.
& Pigpen wasa decent singer. But only a garage/r'n'b keyboardist not one open to endless jamming.
He was sorely missed when he went though i think.

But they brought in Topm Constanten in late 68 to 69 and he was a bit more technical. & then Keith Godchaux in early 71 to do some more open ended stuff, though mainly on piano.

It's an annoying riff, but it's the one Jerry wanted him to play while he and Phil and took the lead in exploring. There's some early versions in January '68 where you can hear Pig really struggling with it (or maybe just bored out of his mind with it).

I see thanks for the insight. So I guess when Pigpen left the riff went with him, thankfully :)