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Are You Grateful For the Dead?
There comes a time in a music lover’s life when one must ask oneself a most fateful question: the Grateful Dead… do I or don’t I? My fellows promised me that one day it would all come down to this, that as an informed listener, I would inevitably find it necessary to fully explore the beast of a back catalog and wayfaring, wooly live archive of the Grateful Dead. “Erm… o… kay,” I’d say skeptically, “and then what?” “Well,” they’d say, “you will then have to concede to the band’s almighty power.” I don’t think so!
As a San Franciscan with more angry punk than twirly dance hippie in me, I figured it was not only my birthright, but also my moral obligation, to hate the Dead. For my entire natural life, resisting their supposed lure posed no problem for me, even though from the day I was born the very air I breathed was filled with their jams. I made damn sure that very little could penetrate the stony psychic wall I’d erected to protect myself from hearing them or from consorting with their kind, those dirty followers of theirs known as Deadheads. Yep, them. They who would seasonally perch themselves on my doorstep adjacent the Panhandle and regularly taunt me with the question, “Have you seen Jerry?” “No, I haven’t, you freak!” I’d say, emphasizing the word “freak” while glaring at them as I stomped off to work (you know, work, as in job). At the time, I didn’t fully understand going to see the Grateful Dead, night after night, was their job. As it happened, my job was working as a receptionist for the concert promoter in town, where throughout the day I would receive people with names like “Mountain Girl” and “Bear” with suspicion, a sneer, and an asymmetrical haircut. Like I said, I was surrounded.
But as these stories go, the vociferous hatred—verging on phobia—often masks a shadowy side (or at least a very large, Dead-logo-like skeleton in the closet). And so, I live to report that I’ve had a shift in consciousness, having made the proverbial long strange trip from Dead hater to doubter to full-on believer, but with a few caveats: I’m still not sold on Bob Weir, I don’t own anything tie-dyed, and those dancing bears make my skin crawl. Ironically (or not), it took me leaving the Bay Area to discover just how much I missed the omnipresent and unmistakable sound of Jerry in the air (the local FM doesn’t really program them in the California Southland). And yet, I find I’m still a little nervous to admit to my new friends that I find much to admire about the good ol’ Grateful Dead for fear that even the freest thinking ones will stereotype me as some SF hippie chick. As I get adjusted to this new me, I thought I’d go in search of stories from other latecomers, reluctant converts, certified Heads, and the Dead’s fellow musicians to see just what they had to say about the timeless and mystical push/pull of the ultimate jam band, and its impact on their lives.
Among the Grateful Dead’s musician fans are artists diverse as the band’s three-decade spanning repertoire itself. Sure you say, it’s easy to hear the Dead’s influence on Phish and some of those other jam bands, but less detectable may be the way the GD holds sway over Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo. The guitarist has gone on record as pro-Dead enough times that he may as well be given full-blown Head status. The Youth’s punk forebear Patti Smith (a fan of lyricist Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia’s performances) has also sung the band’s praises. You might even call the Dead a secret influence on Elvis Costello, although his alliance with the Dead isn’t all that secret (he was a fan from way back, once jammed with Jerry and posed on the cover of Musician magazine with him, and recently offered up Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty, Europe ‘72 and Wake of the Flood on a list of essential recordings). And then there’s Black Flag’s Greg Ginn (known to fly the flag in a Dead t-shirt onstage at the height of the hardcore era), and R.E.M.’s guitarist Peter Buck (who in college days could pick a Jerry lead or two). In more recent years, singer-songwriters like Ryan Adams have come out swingin’ in full favor of the band. Adams went as far as to share stages with Dead bassist Phil Lesh. And freak-folkers Akron/Family’s Seth Olinsky and Fern Knight’s Jim Ayre are both completely unrepentant Dead fans.
“In sixth grade we had to write a letter to a famous person as an English project,” says Olinsky. “Most kids wrote to Michael Jordan, I wrote to Jerry Garcia. And he returned an autographed picture of himself that hangs
right now on my studio wall.”
“It’s a dirty secret for those who have yet to come to grips with their unreconstructed inner hippie, but one I’ve never had a problem with,” says Ayre. “The Grateful Dead’s music was foundational for me… and changed my relationship with commerce, community, and culture. I make no apologies.” Early exposure may be the common denominator for the pair’s tight relationships to the band.
The night Elvis Costello sat in with Jerry Garcia in 1989 at the postage stamp-sized Sweetwater in Mill Valley, California, I held my ears closed, hoping for the jam to end. I demonstrated a similar gesture when, as a teenager, I perceived myself to experience the misfortune of seeing the Dead open for my beloved Who. Perhaps I believed that, if I could keep the drippy, trippy sound out of my ear sockets, I wouldn’t be moved by it, as if some part of me recognized that if I let it in, I just might have to let go of all my preconceptions. And if I did that? Well, two things: 1. who would I be without my enmity for them and, 2. if I became a Head, what chance would I ever have of becoming a productive member of society? I don’t do things halfway and so, for me, liking the Dead would be like running off and joining a carnival (and once you’re in, it’s kind of hard to get out). Today I’m relieved to find out that monster resistance to the Dead is not a syndrome from which I alone suffer and that the either/or, black or white, love and hate approach to the band is quite common, especially among those who once identified with punk music and its grrrrr culture.
Jon Houlon, a Philadelphia-based musician and leader of the roots band John Train is a recent changeling who’s experiencing a bit of difficulty with his metamorphosis.
“It’s a truly frightening conversion,” he says, “I’ve listened to nothing but the Grateful Dead for the past few months. I’ve checked out a bunch of books from the library, even those goofy tomes that spell out every single set list, from Phil Lesh’s high school trumpet recital to the Dead’s last show in Chicago. I’ve got my wife sworn to secrecy. I’ve got a handful of friends who will honestly feel betrayed by my conversion. I should’ve never picked up that copy of American Beauty. It was calling to me or something.”
Of course, for every reticent late-coming fan and all the dyed-in-the-wool ones, there are those who might best be classified as ambivalent, or non-committal with a slight bias. Jonathan Segel of rock solid punk roots/alternative band Camper Van Beethoven (often compared to the Dead for their extreme knowledge of indigenous world music, played a bit bent) is one such “fan.” Segel’s ambivalence didn’t prevent him from playing in a pre-Camper band with a bunch of Deadheads, nor did it stop him from turning on a high school friend only to watch him become a Head, lose touch, and years later find him living in Humboldt County. “I never forgave myself,” he says (the friends have recently reunited). He te
lls a story of when he “accidentally” ended up at a Dead gig during their historic two-week run at the Warfield in San Francisco in 1980.
62 Comments
Emory Joseph’s about to release an amazing tribute album to the writing of Garcia and Hunter.
“Fennario – Songs by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter” It’s gonna open a lot of ears that couldn’t get past how they felt about The Dead. Check it out…..
I dug the Dead when I was like 14 years old… in 1966. Used to to see them in the Park for free with the Airplane, Quicksilver, Janis rother or Santana Blues Band.
When I was 16, I went to the Avalon, Carousel, Fillmore or Winterland every weekend for years. I saw the Dead play great and suck too.
I would rather listen to Bird, Diz, Monk, Trane, Cannonball, Sonny Rollins, Miles. For me every thing else is lame… Pop, Rock, Rap op, Smooth Jazz, gimme a break.
So, I don’t think you have to explain, justify or rationalize why you dig the Dead or not or any other kind or music.
The Long Strange Trip Never Ends !
http://www.gratefuldeadbooks.com
great fucking article!
Can you say m-m-m-toasty? The Dead spent every available brain cell chasing sounds you can only hear while very high, and their reward for going boldly where no band had gone before was a brief satori of blazing creativity in the 60’s, followed by a slow self-conscious
decline into musical befuddlement and so-whatness fueled by fame, boredom and heroin, as well as an unconditional love from uncritical and enabling fans. Yes, they wrote some good tunes after 1972, but compare any latter-day video from, say, 1974 on, to the leaping, joyous, youtube gems of 67-70, and you see a band doing a job, doing what’s expected of them, getting paid, no longer young and unjaded enough to give themselves completely to the music. It’s like they went from owning their sound to borrowing it from the library. Strangers to themselves. See the glorious past before you on stage! All hail the brief shining moment that hasn’t been for a long time! Resting on their roses. They couldn’t help getting older, but the self-abuse indicated a terrible self-loathing of what they had become. Not groovy, but deathly. I kvetch because I really loved their early work, but the unending adulation that rewarded some pretty slack performances just gets my goat. To quote the who cares girl (electric koolaid acid test), “Who cares?”
When the band stopped caring, I stopped listening. It didn’t have to be this way.
One would have to be a true hater to not like at least one or two aspects of the Dead’s career. They had a lot of hot streaks from ‘66 – ‘78 whether you’re into their sharp psychedelic explosiveness, awesome folk songs, or the later jazz-inflected stuff. They might have fallen off (at least on record) after Blues For Allah (1975) but it’s not like any other rock giants, um Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd, were killing it as far as songwriting was concerned when the ’80s rolled around. And it’s certainly wasn’t the case that most punk bands who, by nature of their own culture, kind of had to hate on the Dead, had as productive recording careers — the Clash excluded. It’s always great to see some love for the Dead’s music without getting caught up in the hippie-culture baggage.
let the light shine on you – that’s what it’s all about
I really related to this well-written article, having struggled to reconcile my fandom of the band over the years. I WAS, in fact, a teenage deadhead from about ‘85 (Show #1 was Chula Vista) through ‘88, when I went to college, got “sophisticated” and into jazz and got mad at the Dead for what I thought was laziness and/or ripping off their audience when they played the same song three damn times and gave it different titles (”Aiko Aiko”, “Women Are Smarter” and “Not Fade Away”). But I forgave them in time to see my last show in Oakland in ‘91 shortly after Bill Graham passed and they were great. MY favorite album has always been “Anthem”, probably because of it’s proto-punk anarchy and gorgeous feedback. Bespectacled indie geeks may hate on the Dead, but there might not have been Sonic Youth without this record…”Caution” sounds just like “Expressway to Yr Skull” And any fan of Wilco/Jayhawks really does owe it to themselves to pick up “American Beauty” and “Workingman’s Dead” and see where alt country actually began.
this article says it all
She got Weir Dead on. Stay away from Rat Dog shows.
in the end its just a dream!!!! ive’ been a grateful loving dead head for 30 years,,,now living in the french countryside,,, on the road, crankin a sweet shakedown st,, feelin kinda,,, sad that that whole scene kinda evaporated like milk,,, but the best memories,, of a life i ever had,,, jobs,, yeah did that,, vacation was tour,,, lot mo work than a job;; peace on earth Tg
Yeah, If you need a Dead Fix, go see Phil Lesh ds, and stay clear of Ratdog. I’ve seen both numerous times, and Ratdog shows have always been a bit of a let down.
God Bless The Grateful Dead
“We can share the women. We can share the wine.”
What does the Deadhead say when the drugs wear off?
This music sucks.
ps. get a hippy haircut
In 1979 I was an English exchange student, courtesy of the American Field Service (AFS) at Adams High, Rochester, Michigan, probably the most white bread school in the whole USA.
Madonna went to the same school and graduated maybe a year before me. It’s always amused me to hear her claim in interviews that she listened to a lot of black music as a kid because, at that school, there were perhaps two black kids (bought in to make the hopeless football time win one for the coach) and if you listened to disco music you were an absolute outcast. And she wasn’t. This was the time of the disco wars.
I was a skinny punk rocker with an earring – feggit – at a time when punk meant Noo Wave meant The Romantics and that terrible Billy Joel record with ‘It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me’ on it.
It took me a while to get used to high school USA, particularly the idea that you could stay on pretty much as long as you wanted until you graduated. I got friendly for some reason with a guy named Greg who looked like Shaggy from Scooby Doo, must have been about 24 and made it his mission to educate me about drugs. Which was fine until we got to acid and Greg revealed that he ‘liked to wait until people were really tripping before putting on these rilly neat devil horns I made in metal shop’. Thanks but no thanks, Greg.
Of course, Greg was a Deadhead.
So I was persuaded into going to see the Dead at whatever the big hall in Ann Arbor is called. I knew Ann Arbor, had made a pilgrimage to the record store Iggy worked in, which he writes about in the immortal ‘Dum Dum Boys’.
The air was thick with smoke, frisbees flew, kids washed down drugs stolen from their parents’ medicine cabinets with peppermint schnapps stolen from the liquour cabinet. And, to my utter horror, there was a carpet on the stage.
The moment the Dead came on coincided with my being passed a joint that I later found out had been laced with Angel Dust. I was paralysed from the first bars of ‘Truckin’ to the end of the last encore, what I think was the worst version of ‘Johnny B Goode’ I have ever, ever heard.
So, no, I could never forgive the Dead. They must have had the worst drummer ever. But I’ve grown to love Garcia’s voice and the stuff he did with Dave Grisman (?) is absolutely superb.
Without a doubt, the best times of my life. Great article. Thanks~
Peace………..
http://boxrain.blogspot.com
We Are Everywhere!!
Closest thing to a religious experience I’ve ever had. Excellent, well-rounded article. Most are either hopeless hack lovefests or spiteful, self-serving critiques. There’s no one quite like the Grateful Dead and there never will be. Thanks for the insightful sharing.
Nice try. Jerry Garcia is more talented then 99.9% of indie rockers past and present. And by the way, freak folk SUCKS!!! Ratdog are a great band in my opinion, certainly better than the vast majority of indie rock.
My mother wanted me to play Ripple at her funeral Mass. The liturgist wouldn’t let me. She loved that song.
We all hear something different when listening to ANY band, don’t we? The GD could spin straw into gold on the best of nights, it into cattle feed on the worst. Othe jam-bands aside, Bill Graham said it best—”they’re not just the best at what they do, they’re the ONLY ones who do what they do.” The GD are still better than ANY of the ABSOLUTE GARBAGE on the radio today.
Here’s something to consider though…why be a hater at all? One mans trash and all..
LOVE to ALL of you!
I liked your little interviews and anecdotes. :)
This article is exactly like every Grateful Dead jam…long, rambling and just won’t end.
lovd this article and being on the dead bus on the european side of the world made deadheadism quite different.. but after more than 35 years listening to the dead (66-75 mind you!)i am thankful for them inopening my ears to anything thereis in my musival world throu old and in the way i got into bluegrass — phil turned me onto stockausen ( as did T.C.)thejerry bands made drive my car for long hauls and if not for the folky 2 albums i guess i would not listen to what we call americana here in euripe.. the dead made me a live taper atape collector and a trader .. they arranged for friends in USA so i can learn that there is a no bush part of the USA… and i love that pig pen inscription on his tombstone so much i wish i will get the same one day—-
“he once was and now is forever ONE OF THE GRATEFUL DEAD…”
thank you
Nice article – well done.
I remember you dude, from high school. The one always hammering me as I walked the hallways, chiding me with ” the dead sucks” or I wish they were dead” well 2 words for you made famous by Nelson(Simpsons)) : Ha Ha !!!!! when I die, bury me deep, put two speakers at my feet. Put some headphones on my head and always play The Grateful Dead !!!!!!!! God is touring w/ Jerry as we speak.
Spooge
There is NOTHING like a GRATEFUL DEAD CONCERT!!!
Peace to all….
Sometimes it’s all about the width of the trousers,other times it’s
watching the sunset and listening to the Dead.
Nice article…keep ‘em coming
Been a big Dead fan for many years. However, you forgot to mention one member of the band who didn’t quite fit the hippie stereotype…Pigpen. He was a blues rocker, who prefered booze over drugs, and liked wearing a six-shooter around his belt. One of the coolest characters from San Francisco scene who died way too early.
I know this has absolutely nothing to do with the article but could someone please tell me what the fuck “Morning Dew” is about? It’s a beautiful song but it seems to be about a guy who can’t walk his girlfriend out into the morning dew. Hey, I’ ve been there. So what? Please elucidate.
I always thought morning dew was about the apocolypse. . .
The Dead, more than anyone, tore people away from the vinyl, the radio, the 8 track player and into the concert hall for a whole new relationship to music and away from 30-40 years of 9 to 5.
The yellow ribbon type american, wandering zombie-like in walmart, seeing disneyland as the epitome of a vacation adventure, and waving a flag after every invasion of a foreign country, will never get it.
My epiphany was in the graveyard next to Mac Court, Eugene OR 1983, or was it 82. After the show all I wanted to do is fuck and swim in some cold cool water, We ended up in Georges hottub and slept on his front lawn. Tequilla and acid. I was astounded by how clear it all became. Going on twenty five years now. First show was 1974. Paramount. PDX OR.
Bass-boy, the first post on here, has just about got it right. Th eDead have always been a love ‘em “em proposition for me. They were frequently musical incompetants, Their second and thrid albums are virtually unlistenable by contemporary standards, just aimless shit, really. They had a burst of good, cteative stuff up to about 1974, then…I lost interest somewhere around “Wake of the Flood” There were other jam banbs who were simply better ( like the Allman Brothers Band)w= who really refined their chops. The Dead eventually became a stadium act and then a nostalgia act. Bob weir was always too wierd and off-putting to me, and frankly, he sucked at second guitar and song-writing ( hey, I bought “Aces” when it was first released, don’t tell me I didn’t give him a chance to impress me!)The Dead got lazy, drug-addled, in complete denial of Jerry’s drug problems toward the end. Hell, by the time the late 80’s rolled around, half the band was zonked out most of the time. Too many enablers. Some of their stuff just seucked, period. Hey all you cats and kittens out there collecting Dick’s Picks…how many fucking versions of “Bertha” do you need for chrissakes!?!When Jerry finallyu succumbed to his drug habits and bad health, the remaining memebers lost any reason to continue, and voila! the Dead are noe history. What a waste.
Moring Dew was written by the Canadian foklie Bonnie Dobson and was written about the aftermath of a nuclear war. he movie that inspired her to write it was On The Beach (1959) / Dir Stanley Kramer. My father had a bit role in it. – Cheers from Atlanta
WITH TYPOS CORRECTED.
Morning Dew was written by the Canadian foklie Bonnie Dobson and was written about the aftermath of a nuclear war. The movie that inspired her to write it was On The Beach (1959) / Dir Stanley Kramer. My father had a bit role in it. – Cheers from Atlanta
Godhead…
Like Bill Graham once said, “The Dead are not the best at what they do ~ they are the ONLY ones who DO what they do!!!”
nice story..reminds me of taking your friend jaan to her first lesh show..people would applaud a great jam and she looked at me and asked: why are they clapping? did he say something?
When I die, I want them to play Brokedown Palace at my funeral…
I’m a conservative guy, dislike hippies, but all I can say about the Dead is God bless ‘em.
When I was a kid, I enjoyed “Reckoning” and the May 5th 1982 Jerry Garcia bootleg well enough, and liked the great lyrics of the songs and the Jerry’s creative riffs. But I went to hardcore techno and heavy metal to reach the adrenaline pumping highs. Dead songs only seemed appropriate for quiet family times, and Jerry’s squeaky voice was kind of an embarrassment.
Then, recently, I had got an iTunes gift certificate. I thought “What the hell,” and bought Dick’s Picks 18 (February 1978).
Bam! I was changed forever, for the better. Timeless lyrics, hard-hitting, always-different double-drumset fills, screeching, wailing, unearthly spiritual beautiful guitar solos that spoke lifetimes of wisdom without a single word, plus perfectly synchronized piano keys. “Scarlet Begonias” into “Fire on the Mountain”. I felt the warmth of the countenance of God smiling upon me. 29:49 minutes later my musical soul was saved permanently saved, and after a youth of inexplicable pains, now realized why life was worth living.
I say again, I don’t particularly like hippies, I’ve never been to any Dead- or jamband related show, I’ve never taken any drugs.
I just want to let you know that there is something awesome, magical, spiritual about the Dead that you won’t find anywhere else.
So give ‘em a listen. Check out the Speeding Arrow website for some ideas on where to start.
Oh yeah, and this article is very tactfully written, wisely avoiding pissing people off with pure hating/loving by taking a wide variety of outside views.
I have a fantasy that should I make it to heaven, I will be piped through the doorway by Garcia who will be playing the opening riff to St. Stephen, accompanied by Miles Davis on a silver horn.
nothin left to do but smile, smile, smile…
I was 12 my first show in Venita OR at an old race track, we went in a school bus this was 1979 I think, it changed my life forever and I loved people like I never new I could they where all so kind everyone called me cinnamon girl for my hair color I guess, I continued to follow off and on when I had the money and extra time, and soon discovered shakedown when I could use my talents or sewing and cooking etc. to fund my trips all over the U.S. I will never forget those tresured times of feeling the music, love and freedom forever. I heard every word they said.
born in 54 in new york city…saw them for the first time at the fillmore east during a week long stint in april 1971..there was and never will be anything like a vintage dead concert…never a very good studio band but that is why we all had good quality bootleg tapes of their concerts – which they encouraged….but right around 1972 or so we were at a concert in providence, rhode island and they came out of a classic jam and went into the “eyes of the world.” i never went to another concert again but the memories and the music lives on thanks to bill graham, dicks picks and wolfgangs vault. when i get the blues some vintage dead cures my ills.
I was 16 and saw the Dead for the first time at The Fillmore East. It was 4/29/71.Ironically, the Fillmore would be closed in a couple of months, and this was my only time in the Fillmore and the very last time The Dead ever played there, but what a show it was. The New Riders opened for them and I did my first hit of acid. I loved the whole scene of meeting new people and having a blast at each of the many many shows I attended.
I saw the Dead at Winterland 69 or 70…I think 70, Hartford Conneticut ‘72, and most recently here in Boise where I now reside. What, 4 years ago maybe…was it 3? not important. At any rate…the dead has always been a central part of my mental state and emotional stability. rightly or wrongly this is a fact. life is grand.
Why must everything in modern, popular rock music be compared to, measured up to and seen in the light of this vague, nebulous music biz phenomena known as “punk rock”? As if the period from 1974 to 1978 was THE most important time in the ENTIRE history of the universe-It infuriates me when I think about it- Ah but, really, I’m a mellow enough hippie-muso to not let it bother me too much- The record shows that The Dead were a bunch of self-sufficient, literate, American bohemian musos who made great records and played great shows-for 30 years-nothing more, nothing less- what ELSE can ANY band DO? They worked hard touring and garnered a huge following. If you don’t like ‘em, fair enough but recognise they acheived much in their time. It’s not to be dismissed by any notions of being “dirty hippies”.
DG: Elvis has been hearing Dead music for 20 years! On Deadicated there’s a picture of an outdoor show in England in ‘72 and El’s story of “standing in a foot of mud among a small, sodden horde who braved the swamp in front of the stage.”
In 1987, my pal Bonnie Simmons – a pal of Elvis’s – was shopping with Elvis at Village Music, a great record store in Mill Valley, California, and she noticed him picking up a Dead album (Wake of the Flood, I think). She said he might want to check out a live tape or two, and then she asked me to make a tape of some of the Dead’s ballads. I happily obliged, and she gave the tape to him in the van on the way to a gig. That night he announced to an audience in (I think) Davis, California, that he was going to play a Grateful Dead song. He didn’t.
The next night in San Jose, he announced it and he did it! He played “Ship of Fools,” and into the middle of it he dropped “It Must Have Been the Roses.” Bonnie told me that Elvis had told her the “Roses” part was from memory, that he had known that song years ago.
About two years later I did have the pleasure of introducing Jerry Garcia to Elvis and to our mutual guitar hero James Burton in the basement of Sweetwater, a great club around the corner from that great record store.
I remember, when I gave in to punk in ‘78, feeling like I should then not like the Dead. But I couldn’t help it! Hah!
If you listen you will always get it!
As a practicing head for over 3 decades the dead was a major part of many different facets of my life. The phrase “Dead For Life” always has and always will be mine.
Saw them first at the Winterland shows when they made the movie…then at Day on the Green #3 at Kezar stadium where they played all afternoon, about 1976..then Snack Sunday at Kezar, bizarre fundraiser where a lot of acid etc was distributed, and Dylan and Neil Young appeared as well as Santana, the Starship, Graham Central Station…then at a concert indoors at the Coliseum in Oakland where Starship and Santana also played, a veterans benefit at the then-new Moscone Center in SF, saw Jerry w Merle Saunders at the Keystone Berkeley, what a tight, fun enjoyable live band they always were. Glad I got to be there. I miss all the hippies-there was a sense of history somehow…there really is nothing like a Dead show!
Peace and Love to my bros and sisters.
I am a young Grateful Dead fan. I look to their music because it has so much more passion and care in it then any music today. It saddens me that i will never be able to see Jerry in concert, but phil, bob, and warren do a great job keepin the Dead alive!
I’ll forever be indebted to college roommate Tom Merrill who turned me onto the Dead over 30 years ago. Got a big thick stack of tickets stubs and a hard drive full of recordings now. WALSTIB for sure. I will always be a Jerry’s Kid.
Always funny to hear anything along these lines about the most beloved GD. A convert from “punk”, with it’s ” all we need is three chords, volume and an attitude” mindset. Folks who are intertwined in that would have to feel massively threatened by the sheer incredible musicality of any one or thing possessing the command of he instruments that people like the Dead or the Allmans etc., had to have. I guess it would have to be part of the rationalization to dismiss the group mas ramblers and the fans as dirty, just as any group marginalizes any other group they don’t like. The story has a happy ending, even somewhat touching, but don’t judge Bob Weir on his solo stuff, realize that he and Jerry had an intense and symbiotic relationship on stage, and it was so much and so big of a part of the bands sound as anything else. peace y’all
The Grateful Dead in The Seventies was a special space in time, I was obsessed with them, like no other group, I did listen to other groups, not many. What was it? What made them different?
I really cannot tell you, but they were really good musicians playing as one and they introduced the idea of a jamband, where the present wasmore important than the studio CD, live concerts were better anyday, and Jerry Garcia was a guitarist that blew me away, with his bluegrass style on an electric guitar. His secret was his simplicity, and his tone. And there was always the interaction with the crowd.
And their true love for their fans, it’s like if you get them, you either love them or don’t like them. I love them.
In God’s Love
Jim
I was into the Dead in the mid 70’s and then drifted away until the mid 80’s. I got to see them each year in Vegas from 90-95. I am glad I got back into the groove.
I am now 40 years old and have been listening to the DEAD for 25 years. I’ve listened to it all and always seem to keep on listening to THE GRATEFUL DEAD. I dont have to be high to listen like some people say. They were pioneers and real people doing real things. Ya the drugs didn’t benefit the band at all. But guess what they survived 30 years. Yes losing some on the way. But unfortunately thats life. I will continue to listen and recommend the DEAD to all. And hey everybodies different but how can you not like the GRATEFUL DEAD. DEAD FOR LIFE FOR SURE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PEACE AND LOVE TO ALL.