should i give the grateful dead a chance?

https://www.dead.net/playingintheband cool idea even if you don't play along.

The highly-anticipated 2023 summer tour, produced by Live Nation, will be the band’s final tour since forming in 2015.

lol

there is a very absurd irony to the fact that that sentence makes more sense the more you believe that previous "final" tours and shows have indeed been final, and that each new band is truly a new band. otherwise, i don't know which is more ridiculous, the idea that this band formed in 2015 or that everyone should be shitting their pants about this being the final tour

I mean, John Mayer has made rumblings of bailing for a few years now and Billy K sat out much of their last tour, so I'd imagine he's ready to be done.

My guess is Bob Weir is going to focus on his Wolf Bros thing with Don Was and Jay Lane, Mickey Hart is going to fuck around with Planet Drum stuff. Wouldn't mind seeing Oteil and Jeff Chimenti team up with Billy Strings and JRAD for some jam supergroup thing.

https://store.dead.net/dw/image/v2/BHCC_PRD/on/demandware.static/-/Sites-warner-master/default/dwf6ae6197/grateful-dead/ACE/BobWeir_Ace_Cover.jpg?sw=550&sh=550&sm=fit

Ace (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)[2CD]
$24.98
Availability:
Pre-Order, released on: 01/13/2023

Bundle includes:

• Ace (50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)[2CD] (Out of stock)

• Cassidy (2023 Remaster) - Releases 10/5 - ALAC

• Black-Throated Wind (Live At Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY, April 3, 2022) - Releases 10/20 - ALAC

• Playing In The Band (2023 Remaster) - Releases 11/10 - ALAC (Pre-order)

• Greatest Story Ever Told (Live At Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY, April 3, 2022) [Feat. Tyler Childers] - Releases 1/5 - ALAC (Pre-order)

Qty:

Original album Remixed by Derek Featherstone and mastered by GRAMMY® Award-winning engineer David Glasser
Live performances by Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros featuring The Wolfpack
Produced for Release by Bobby Weir and Derek Featherstone
New Liner Notes by Jesse Jarnow

ACE:50TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION pairs a remastered new mix of Bobby’s solo debut with new versions Bob Bobby recorded earlier this year at Radio City Music Hall with the Wolf Bros featuring The Wolfpack and special guests Tyler Childers and Brittney Spencer.

When Bobby started working on ACE at Wally Heider’s Studio in San Francisco in early 1972, he wasn’t planning for the Grateful Dead to be his backing band. It just happened. “I pretty much knew in the back of my mind what would happen,” Weir told Crawdaddy a few months after the sessions. “I go and get the time booked and start putting the material together. Everybody gets wind of the fact I got the time booked and I may be going into the studio. So, one by one, they start coming around…”

It made sense, the band was already familiar with most of the music, having road-tested six of the album’s eight songs, including “Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Mexicali Blues,” and “Playing In The Band,” destined to become one of Weir’s signature tunes. ACE also marked the beginning of Weir’s long-running collaboration with lyricist John Perry Barlow and includes early standouts “Cassidy” and “Looks Like Rain.”

yuck, why are the bonus tracks modern recordings of the songs, rather than studio outtakes of the time? That shit on Workingman's and Am.Beauty was revelatory

https://open.spotify.com/album/3KxT9J6KTuKeXox9BUikZ4?si=wqrgOmiGRMqo20irLavhoQ

This DP (3) seems pretty inspired. 1977. I love that on “Dancing in the streets” both Jerry AND kieth are playing though wah filters. Funky and bizarre in that late 70s way

I think that “Help/Slipknot/Franklin” section is my most played of any Dead selection. I’m generally ambivalent with the Kreutzmann/Hart pairing but they groove hard on that one. Would’ve thought some DFA act would do a double A-side of that sequence in a similar vein.

Anyone have any Recs for reconstruction (79) shows ?

I’ve only really heard a few Reconstruction shows, I believe the 4/8/79 was my favorite iirc. The list below are all Betty Boards, I believe, so if you find any of these in your torrent of choice they probably all sound great:

03.07.79 Rancho Nicasio, San Rafael, California

03.08.79 Cotati Cabaret, Cotati, California

03.09.79 Cotati Cabaret, Cotati, California

04.08.79 Cotati Cabaret, Cotati, California

06.16.79 Keystone Palo Alto, Palo Alto, California

06.22.79 The Keystone, Berkeley, California

07.08.79 The Keystone, Berkeley, California

This stuff is fantastic , why is it not more well known?

https://store.dead.net/en/cosmic-puffy-blanket/081227859626.html
I need this

Half step
Mississippi uptown
Toode loo

I actually had that as my ring tone for awhile but then realized, nope, this is too good to be signaling life's interruptions. Also I'd prefer to let it keep playing rather than answer the phone.

Vinyl Me Please is putting out the O.G. mix of Anthem of The Sun in January: https://www.vinylmeplease.com/products/the-grateful-dead-anthem-of-the-sun

listening to the Nashville West record with Clarence White and Gene Parsons… weird how much it sounds like a dead live recording (between jerry-ish guitar moves and the thin undermixed vocals)

DP III is pretty much all I could ask for, may 77, has a help >, the only2 bob songs I like, terrapin, and a wharf rat

What’s with Bob yelling some of the words during Samson and Delilah?

He is on cocaine.

I've been giving The Grateful Dead Movie a chance for the past two hours and I'm still not getting this band tbh. Jerry Garcia is a good guitar player though.

prob not a good place to start, Sunshine Daydream is much better in terms of Dead movies

The ‘72 Veneta show in Sunshine Daydream is A+ and the mix sounds great. Difficult to argue with the vibes
https://i.redd.it/7lseuddg57zz.jpg" class="noborder">

https://i.redd.it/7lseuddg57zz.jpg

Just celebrated 50 years of this gem the other day:

https://archive.org/details/gd73-05-26.sbd.cribbs.17076.sbeok.shnf/gd73-05-26d1t01.shn

Reviewer: jvande - favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite - June 1, 2019
Subject: My First Dead Show
I was a big McIntosh and JBL fan, so the wall of amps and speakers was the first thing that struck me. Framing that were two towers with a female dancer on each one 25 or more feet up. My roommate described one of them as “Water Woman” because of the sinuous moves she had, as if her arms didn’t just have joints but could bend any way she wanted. I couldn’t believe how much energy both dancers had!
My Girlfriend and I weren’t far from the stage but my roommate and his gf sought out a spot much closer that he later claimed had some kind of swirling surround sound thing going on. I wasn’t surprised that could be a thing at such an event, but I also had to consider that it could have been more to do with his state of mind. I believe both are true.
After the sun set behind the band we walked back to my VW Wesfalia camper, cracked open San Miguel Darks from the icebox, and drove to the Mexican Restaurant on the north side of Santa Cruz and continued comparing notes.
¡ One of the most memorable concert experiences of my life !

I can’t help but think that the author may have omitted a detail or three.

Last night I watched the entirety of The Grateful Dead Movie, even though I was looking through my fingers at times due to the extensive footage of hippies making fools of themselves - LOL at this being released in 1977! Musically it seemed such a mishmash of various styles, none of which were played in an especially compelling way: a lot of (frankly) bar band stuff, some attempts to sound like The Band, some tepid funky rock, some lumpy jazz rock noodling etc. I can get on board with Jerry Garcia to some extent - he plays some lovely guitar, though a lot of aimless guitar too, and his voice can be quite affecting - but Bob Weir? In two and half hours of this movie he didn't do a single interesting thing - playing, singing, songwriting. The rhythm section seemed better than the last time I listened to the Grateful Dead, I suspect this was largely due to there being one drummer playing reasonably as opposed to two drummers playing badly. Phil Lesh explaining how he had a different set of amps for each string of his bass (or sumthin') was pretty hilarious!

Bob Weir? In two and half hours of this movie he didn't do a single interesting thing - playing, singing, songwriting.

I'll concede the latter two (and he only wrote music for the most part iirc, not lyrics) but the guy was clearly one of the more sophisticated and unique rhythm guitarists in rock

I love the Dead, and I've never made it through that film. The animated sequence is excruciating, and the performances never struck me as particularly special. But wrt Lesh's super-special bass amplification, part of the problem is that you apparently had to be there for the Wall Of Sound. Dick's and Dave's Picks from '74 are all stereo board mixes, and audience recordings can't accurately convey whatever was special about that PA. I've heard and read accounts from people who were there saying how incredible it was -- particularly Phil moving his bass around "in three dimensions" -- but there doesn't appear to be any aural documentation that reflects that.

The worst thing about the film by far is the hippies (and, no, I don't mean the Dead themselves).

I'll concede the latter two (and he only wrote music for the most part iirc, not lyrics) but the guy was clearly one of the more sophisticated and unique rhythm guitarists in rock

Sure, but it’s that sophistication that I find especially boring.

I just listened to a live “Looks Like Rain” on Sirius FM and thought if anyone else, maybe Van Morrison, sang it I would like it more. Weir is an adequate vocalist (at best) on some songs, but then he writes overly complex stuff like “Weather Report Suite” that are beyond his scope and the results are often painful.

I view weir as comic relief while jerry takes a breather

Looks Like Rain is the most embarrassing lyric in the catalog

Especially when Bobby starts trying to get really soulful with it.

His raspy bullshit ad-libs toward the end of any live performance of Estimated Prophet in the late 80s or later

Weir is more Robin to Jerry’s Batman.

He’s got his moments and a couple of his tunes were among the ones they would really stretch out.

Bob picks up a slide or starts singing Chuck Berry…yikes.

whatever, I love it when they do “promised land”

“Looks Like Rain” is an odd one for me. I really like the one on Europe ‘72 — Jerry’s pedal steel playing helps — but I can’t stand any other version. The post-hiatus renditions are uniformly awful, but I don’t even like any of the ones from ‘73-‘74.

Looks Like Rain is like krypton for a Dead show. Slow dirge sucking all life from you.

I've been giving The Grateful Dead Movie a chance for the past two hours and I'm still not getting this band tbh. Jerry Garcia is a good guitar player though.

― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Saturday, 3 June 2023 bookmarkflaglink

Any Dick's Picks from '68-'70 is good to great. Garcia was a really good guitar player.

With some terrific songs and hard jamming.

whatever, I love it when they do “promised land”

this is their one good 50s number. the rest are snoozy but promised land goes places.

With some terrific songs and hard jamming

Take your word for it, I've never heard anything approaching a terrific song from them tbh. Basically I've got too much other music to listen to.

The animated sequence is excruciating

I would watch a feature-length version of the animation from that movie.

_With some terrific songs and hard jamming_

Take your word for it, I've never heard anything approaching a terrific song from them tbh. Basically I've got too much other music to listen to.

Stfu calstars.

They're really NOT for everyone though, which is why I resisted them for so long, and still struggle with them. I can't think of another band with so many potential minuses still beloved by so many.

Thin singing. Garcia is very effective when he's on, but health and drug problems many times got in the way. Bob is a much poorer vocalist, often dorky or shouty. Donna is famously erratic. Brent is up for debate.

Self-indulgent playing. One person's hard jamming is another's excessive noodling. Not every song needs to be 12 minutes long, and they often struggle to find the zone.

Eclectic influences. Actually I consider this a feature, not a bug, but not everyone gets their combo of rootsy Americana colliding with jamming rock and free-form experimentation (just ask my wife.) A few things that others love that I do not include: Pigpen's blues raveups like "Lovelight," 20 minute covers of "Dancing in the Streets" or "Good Lovin'," most of their country and all of their Chuck Berry covers, and honestly many of their jazz/psychedelic excursions. (Looking at you, "Dark Star.")

All that said, I have still listened to more Dead in the last decade or so than I ever did previously, and I should pull together a similar list of reasons why.

"They're really NOT for everyone though, which is why I resisted them for so long, and still struggle with them."

Well I know Tom D likes free improvisation (like I do) so I think he might enjoy some versions of Dark Star as several other things from that era. I like the jamming in a lot of those gigs, that's what makes the songs -- which I agree aren't great by themselves, they would hardly survive a cover -- the improv does elevate them.

I can't say I want to try much beyond Pigpen. Even if he was alive I reckon what they were doing had a time limit. So '70 or so seems a good point to check out.

'70 was a pretty good year but suffers from a relative drought of soundboards due to circumstances at the time. some of the best '70s performances are on grotty audience tapes

one of the things i do love, one of the things that got me into the dead, was the mixes put together on save your face. sometimes they'll just have these really unexpectedly beautiful moments - what i particularly love is the jerry-phil interplay. some of that is really special. the "europe '72 dark starlets" and the "shortlist: summer of '73 improvisation". oh, i also like "shortlist: 1976 out of nowhere jams" a lot!