Grateful Dead ...

[Tone deaf]

I like them but I don't think I am their intended audience. If I hear them on the radio I don't change the station though, they're okay I guess.

I was a fan. I don't think that a lot of their music has aged well (to my ear). I will flick the channel if their really hippy stuff comes on or the pop (Touch of Gray) stuff comes on. When I got my first Jeep with satellite radio (circa 2008), I was up in the boonies on hundreds of miles of paper roads, by myself, tooling around from fishing hole to fishing hole. I tried to listen to the GD channel. I couldn't take too much of it. The problem was they play mostly the same songs, which I don't like that much, and the douchey DJs on that channel who talk like they are the Librarians at the Library of Congress...

On my phone and iPod (yup, still have a dedicated 20gb of music in my car), I have Dead Set, Reckoning, and Blues for Allah. That is it for GD on the go with me.

One of my all time favorite album covers:

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Not my cuppa joe, though they have a few songs I enjoy and one ("Ripple") that really moves me. I respect what they do -- I love an improvisational approach to things, and respect the fact that they took chances on stage every night. I just don't care for the results, lol.

 

[MikeyTheCat]

Not my cuppa joe, though they have a few songs I enjoy and one ("Ripple") that really moves me. I respect what they do -- I love an improvisational approach to things, and respect the fact that they took chances on stage every night. I just don't care for the results, lol.

That’s the problem with trying to improvise each show, everyone needs to be having a great night, otherwise you get meh, or worse.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

That’s the problem with trying to improvise each show, everyone needs to be having a great night, otherwise you get meh, or worse.

Yeah, it definitely relies upon that -- and everyone listening. That's why I respect them for that approach -- it's a hell of a lot riskier than playing canned hits by the numbers (By the way, I respect musicians who can do that too, for different reasons).

 

[disaffected]

They have always been like Gump's box of chocolates- never know what you are gonna get. I have not seen them since the early 70s so I am not sure what they were like later. But back then when they were on, they were one of the best live shows I have seen.

 

[truckermde]

Love 'em.

Went to shows right up until Jerry died.

Good times with good friends.

I miss those days...

 

[EasyAce]

For me, these were the Grateful Dead at their best:

 

[CRobbins]

I saw the Grateful Dead a few times over the years.

 

[EasyAce]

That’s the problem with trying to improvise each show, everyone needs to be having a great night, otherwise you get meh, or worse.

That was one of the issues Cream had, though in their case their being over-toured by a short-sighted management probably did as much
to create the inconsistencies that bedeviled them. When they were on, though, they were transcendent as freewheeling group improvisors . . .

So is Phish, whom I admit are the only rock group of the past 25 years I've been able to stomach, and a lot of it is because they're unafraid
of freewheeling improvisation . . .

 

[EasyAce]

I saw the Grateful Dead a few times over the years.

I saw the once, in spring 1971 at the Fillmore East, at a time they were doing "An Evening with the Grateful Dead"---the Dead
opening with a more acoustic set along the line of Workingman's Dead; then, the New Riders of the Purple Sage with
the Dead's Jerry Garcia (on pedal steel guitar) and Mickey Hart playing with them; then, the electric, freewheeling Dead. A
long night but a very satisfying night.

 

[Pappy58]

Dead an Co still sellout every show they play....and look at all the other spinoff's. There is no arguing their influence. Yeah they were a little rough around the edges in some of their live shows, but they played to the fans from the soul, and were'nt concerned about rock star status or riches or any of that.

 

[Tone deaf]

I have seen them with a bunch of visiting friends sitting in, like: Jack Cassidy, Wynton Marsalis, Bob Dylan, Petty and a bunch of others whom I forget. I like the scene, although I never considered myself to be part of it. I was substance free (by choice) through a decent chunk of that time period. We defrayed the costs by selling t-shirts that I had designed and made. Nothing better than being asked (by a cute girl): "Who did the artwork?"

 

[Roberteaux]

I like them quite a bit... but they're like every other musical group I can think of: I really enjoyed a lot of the material they recorded, didn't like some of the other stuff so much-- and there were some songs I absolutely, positively hated... with some such songs appearing on Dead albums that I favored above most of their other releases.

Nobody bats 1000...

Never went to see them live. Never was into the "jam band" approach for a major group at a live concert. I never went to shows to savor the improvisational excellence of a group, so much as to hear them play songs that I liked on a record-- with the song arriving in a form that I can actually recognize.

I also dislike being among a crowd without actually being paid to be there.

Mainly, I liked "Workingman's Dead", "American Beauty", "Europe '72", and "Wake of the Flood" the most of all their releases, though I can honestly say that I always liked *something* on every single album they did... and in the days before youtube and so forth, liked those songs enough to buy the albums they appeared on, even if I thought the rest of the album was kind of a snooze or was otherwise kinda crappy.

I enjoyed the collaboration between Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia quite a bit, while especially enjoying Hunter's excellence as a lyricist-- though Bob Weir also wrote some great stuff and is one of my favorite players. When I go to learn a Dead song, I'm more interested in what Weir was playing than what Garcia had to offer.

I don't mind it when other people express hatred or contempt-- or whatever-- towards the Grateful Dead. I'm flat-ass indifferent towards the aesthetic values and tastes of other people to begin with, and find vivid expressions of contempt for a musical form to be on a par with some bratty little kid whining that he doesn't like broccoli, or something like that.

--R

 

[Left Paw]

One of the greatest to perform from the late 60's to present day...

You mat not dig them , but must respect the accomplishments, IMO , YMMV.

Perhaps you can enumerate those 'accomplishments' ?

 

[Roman4405]

Give me one album to listen to. I’ve tried but never seem to find something that connects, I’m open minded but so far haven’t seen anything that really interests me.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I enjoyed the collaboration between Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia quite a bit, while especially enjoying Hunter's excellence as a lyricist-- though Bob Weir also wrote some great stuff and is one of my favorite players. When I go to learn a Dead song, I'm more interested in what Hunter was playing than what Garcia had to offer.

Hunter is the sleeper in that band. If you don't pay attention, he still gets the groove just right. If you do pay attention, there's a lot to be learned.

 

[SixAngryStrings]

Damn hippies..

 

[Roberteaux]

Hunter is the sleeper in that band. If you don't pay attention, he still gets the groove just right. If you do pay attention, there's a lot to be learned.

I'm 100% certain that you meant Weir, though you named Hunter up there.

Did the same thing myself in the post you quoted-- just edited it a moment ago!

But for those who do not know, Robert Hunter was a lyricist only, not a performer... though he was inducted into the RnR HoF along with the rest of the Dead-- something that was never done for a non-performer before or since. Bernie Taupin is probably miffed...

Anyway, yes-- Bob Weir is a surprisingly innovative guitarist... one of the most unusual "rhythm players" out there. That guy gets all kinds of cool stuff going beneath Garcia's soloing, and he really does nail the groove in a unique kind of way. I tend to view him as a generally under-appreciated guitarist. He's kind of the Dead's version of Izzy Stradlin.

I think one of the niftiest parts I ever heard Weir playing was his bit in the Dead song, "Eyes of the World".

I found a youtube lesson that covered Weir's part, and couldn't help but admire the sheer ingenuity of his devices in playing. Formulaic, he ain't.

--R

 

[TheX]

You mat not dig them , but must respect the accomplishments, IMO , YMMV.

Must? Not really.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm 100% certain that you meant Weir, though you named Hunter up there.

You're exactly right, I'd meant Weir ... crumbly-head syndrome strikes again. Thanks for the check-up.

But for those who do not know, Robert Hunter was a lyricist only, not a performer... though he was inducted into the RnR HoF along with the rest of the Dead-- something that was never done for a non-performer before or since. Bernie Taupin is probably miffed...

When Taupin writes verse as moving as "Ripple", I'm good. Hunter did the fantastical there -- he nailed jello to the wall. Not being sarcastic, either. He got the ineffable into words, and that commands my respect.