Come all ye deadheads, come hear Uncle John's Band....

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A nice little song, perfect for the campfire. Some deadheads probably did sing it around the campfire as they waited outside the concert in the freezing cold, trying to think up ways to get in to see their 30th Dead show…

David Dodd’s website says this song is in the grande olde tradition of “come-all-ye” songs. I can’t think of any other come-all-ye songs, except Cat Stevens’ Peace Train. Did Cat get the idea from Uncle John? “Ain’t no time to hate, barely time to wait…” Come to think of it, Cat also came up with not one but two songs about Saturday Night, after the Dead came up with theirs. Let’s start calling him Copy-Cat Stevens…

I just bought a used Dead CD, and I can’t get it out of my head. I want it to last 30 minutes more. I want new lyrics to appear. I keep replaying it over and over (along with Sugar Magnolia and St. Stephen and Friend of the Devil, etc…). I like folky songs with lots of acoustic guitar. I like bongos and marracas and claves and güiros (look it up). I like obscure lyrics in the style of Stairway to Heaven and American Pie and any Dylan song, so we can write our own meaning. I want more Uncle John’s Band. I want to learn this song on guitar and buy some bongos and form my own tribute band, devoted completely to versions of Uncle John’s Band. I want Jerry to come back to life again and the Dead to start touring again cuz I never saw them. Or if Jerry can’t come back to life, I want him to pop his bony self out of the ground and pose for a new album cover, or an ad for a new weight-loss formula. I want, I want, I want…

2

“Hi. I’m Jerry Garcia, and I lost over 200 pounds, on the Cremation Diet!” :stuck_out_tongue:

tclouie, it sounds like you’ve picked up Skeletons From The Closet, a fine little compilation disc. “The Golden Road” is my favorite from that one.

From what you wrote, you’d probably love Workingman’s Dead (which originally brought us UJB), and American Beauty, two albums that came out within a few months of each other, and feature the Dead’s entry into folksy/country type music. I think it was VH1 that showed a one hour special on the making of both those albums.

Also, if you like acoustic Dead, pick up Reckoning. This CD features acoustic renderings of some fine tunes, taken from the 1980 run at Radio City in NY (I was at those shows!) and The Warfield in SF.

If you’re not familiar with them, I’d also recommend String Cheese Incident. Very folksy/jammy/Dead-like music that you’d probably like (and you can still see these guys).

Here are a few links that will take you to some chord sites (or direct you):

http://www.psci.net/dutchman/
http://members.tripod.com/malfalfa1/lyrics.htm

http://www.rockmagic.net/guitar-tabs/grateful-dead/

If you’re ever checking out a music store, “Anthology” is a nice guitar book for Dead songs - I have it, and I like the selection. http://www.guitarspot.com/1300275.htm

3

Goodness. I actually have a “politically incorrect” Christmas album with one song entitled “O Come All Ye Deadheads.” That song is sung to the tune of “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

4

Yup, ya gotta get Workingman’s Dead (if for no other reason than hearing Pigpen declare that he’s a “stone jack baller” and his “heart is true”), and Reckoning. However, there are a couple other discs you might want to look into. Dick’s Picks 8 (you can get it via the web- http://store1.dead.net/site/store.cgi?t1=991596076&t2=112799&cat=&spat=) is a fantastic show, and has a killer acoustic first set, complete with some fine spirituals towards the end. Of course, all hell breaks loose in the second and third discs, after they electrify. Highly reccomended. Actually, any of the Dick’s Picks series is amazing, but 8 is the only one I’m aware of with an acoustic first set. There are a number of other Dead shows with acoustic sets (I have 6.7.70, for instance), but you’ll have to navigate online/tape trading to get 'em.

Fun fact for the day: The Dead were originally set to release American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead as a two-record set. The mere thought of that record makes me go weak in the knees.

Oh, Monty- ya think that’s funny, you need to hear “The Deadheads’ Concert”, to the tune of “The Teddybears’ Picnic”. Hee-larious, I tells ya.

M.

5

Hey, Wolf and Moose, thanks for the tips! I will be following up on them shortly…

Yup, it was Skeletons From The Closet.

Are there any places where masses of deadheads congregate? I’d like to see that, since I never saw a Dead concert.

6

We’re all around in the dark. We’re everywhere, wherever you can look. Wherever there’s a fight so hungry people can eat, we’re there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, we’re there. We’re in the way guys yell when they’re mad. We’re in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready and where people are eatin’ the stuff they raise and livin’ in the houses they build. We’re there, too.

(Hey, Colonel, welcome! Good to see yet another well-informed Dead fan on the SDMB…between you and the Wolf, you’ve directed tclouie everywhere I would’ve.)

7

(That was well put, Ike.)

Some towns have “Club Dead” type places - check around. Aside from that, most current jam bands have a similar atmosphere at their shows. Similar, but just not quite the same. Like many a bumper sticker and T-shirt has said, “There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert.”

In terms of number of Dead Heads, plus the scene, your best bet would be to catch a show by Ratdog, Phil Lesh, or Steve Kimock. Widespread Panic’s show scene is close, but the music is a bit different.

For listings of who is playing where, even at small clubs in your area, check out http://www.jambase.com You’ll probably wind up finding some groups that you never knew about, and you can catch their shows.

Also, there is an officially sanctioned Dead project called Terrapin Station, which will be constructed in San Francisco: http://www.dead.net/cavenweb/terrapin_site/

And welcome aboard Colonel!

8

I have that song somewhere! “O Come All Ye Deadheads”…

Dire Wolf, when you talk about those shows that are “similar, but just not quite the same”, are they the same in that the good music and good vibes are present? Or is the drug culture seem to be the main reason people are there?

I love the band, but I think that late in its existence a lot of youngsters who heard “In the Dark” went to a lot of shows simply because it was a place to score some drugs, rather than because it was a place to hear great music. :frowning: I just hope that’s not true everywhere, even now.

I also don’t follow them too much outside of the tapes I have because no one I know follows them! You know, liking the band automatically puts a stigma on you in most “mainstream” circles, because “mainstream” people seem to hold the Dead and the Dead scene in disdain. I know, I shouldn’t give a damn what others think, but because of the grief - spoken or not - I get from mentioning that I like the band, I don’t mention it anymore. :slight_smile: And because no one else I know likes them, I don’t go to any functions that involve the old Dead scene or bands that are similar…

9

What video would you recommend to someone who has never enjoyed the Dead live?:rolleyes:

Thanks

Quasi

10

I am a veteran of close to 70 Dead shows plus another 30 or so Jerry Band, Bobby & Rob, Ratdog, Phil & Friends, etc shows. It was a hell of a time tripping or sober. I still keep in touch with many of my Deadhead friends but, of course, we don’t see so much of each other anymore. Thanks for bringing back some memories.

tclouie, too bad you never caught a show. I can tell that you would have gotten it right away.

Haj

11

Hmm… “not quite the same”… The few jam-band concerts I went to (most recent being String Cheese in Eugene, OR during their last tour) have been similar to what I imagine a Dead concert would be like. The sense of community and shared enjoyment of the music is strong, as is the drug use. However, much like Dead shows, drug use isn’t the focus, and sober individuals are just as prevalent as stoned hippies. The main reason I consider Phish, String Cheese, etc. to be different than the Dead is the music that each band plays. The Dead are unique in that they draw from a huge number of musical genres, styles, and thoughts. Each band member has a rich and varied musical vocabulary, and in that fusing of ideas, something magical happens. It’s hard to explain, but the Dead (especially live) is much more than the sum of its parts. That’s (IMO) where Phish and SCI fall short of the Dead. What you see is generally what you get (hmm, that should touch off a nice little debate…).

About the “mainstream” culture… yeah, there are a lot of people who just don’t get the Dead, and consequently dump on the scene, the people, and the music. Personally, I think an acceptable defense is to look at “mainstream” music today and realize that a vast majority of it is soulless trash, which is recorded, produced, and sold merely to make somebody rich. Just because 99% of my fellow lemmings are headed over the cliff doesn’t mean that I need to follow. However, if one is willing to put conformity and acceptance over the joy of inspired music, well, I guess that’s your decision and/or cross to bear. Personally, I live/work/play in an isolated society that disavows any resemblance to normalacy anyway, so I can get away with just about whatever I want (and do!).

Hmm… videos? Sadly, I’m not hip to the VHS, at least where the Dead are concerned. If Greatful Dead Merchandise doesn’t sell any and you can’t find any on Ebay or the web, you may be out of luck. But, for what it’s worth, the Dead’s magic was almost always aural- they didn’t put on much of a stage show (usually). Hell, Jerry barely moved during the Dead’s sets.

I’d like to stimulate some further discussion by performing a slight hijack:

IMHO, the Dead just aren’t as cool after Pigpen died. They were still awesome musically, but something in their soul died after poor ol’ Ron kicked it.

Your thoughts?

M.

PS: Thanks for the warm welcomes to the board, and may y’all have many more wonderful hours of bliss involving the Grateful Dead.

12

(wiping a tear from his eye)

Couldna put it any better, Colonel. That’s why the Dead were so stylistically diverse and musically fascinating…Jerry had come out of the folk/bluegrass world; Phil had studied at Mills College with Darius Milhaud and was into Stockhausen and other avant-garde musical figures; Pig was a blues shouter; drummers Billy and Mickey were stone jazzbos. And Bobby was into those fucking “cowboy songs.” Somehow it all came together, stewed up in the psychedelic cesspool of '60s San Francisco. Phish never impressed me overly.

Well, some of my favorite individual performances, like the 1966 “Know You Rider” from History of and that stunning 1970 “Hard to Handle” from The Phil Zone, would be inconceivable if Pigless. On the other hand, those 40-minute “In the Midnight Hours” and “Lovelights” sometimes get skipped on the CD player.

The nice clean lines of two of my best shows, the May 1977 Cornell concert and the September 1977 Englishtown concert, are partially due to Keith Godchaux’s insistence on sticking to the grand piano. Pigpen’s acid-y Hammond organ would’ve completely changed the sound, and subsequent keyboardists’ affection for fancy electronic equiptment would’ve mucked them up completely.

(Dire Wolf: Thank you. I stole it from Tom Joad’s speech in Grapes of Wrath. Apropos, dontcha think?)

13

Quasimodem: Try The Grateful Dead Movie. Released theatrically in 1976, it was made at an October 1974 concert, and features fine trippy animation and lots of crowd scenes.

14

That’s kind of what I was hoping; it just seemed that as the band grew more popular, a lot of people just went to be part of the drug scene, not the music scene. Pity!

Couldn’t agree more. They were a rare group that was better live than in person and worked so darn well as a cohesive unit that even when Jerry did his solo stuff, he couldn’t compare with the band as a whole.

Yes, but people who follow most pop music may not feel the same way. You and I may know it’s soulless trash, but I bet that music’s fans don’t, and they’ll turn up their collective proboscis at something that’s not “of the norm”.

As for videos, I like Backstage Pass. The Grateful Dead Movie and So Far are also cool, and I’m sure there are some bootlegged videos of actual concerts. Come to think of it, while the band gladly allowed tapers to record their shows on audio, did they extend the same privileges to people recording on video?

They fell backwards a little, maybe, but I think what was the biggest consequence of his death was that the band drifted a little further away from blues; with no Pigpen laying down haunting, growling lyrics to blues numbers, they didn’t need to play that kind of songs.

15

“Come all you pretty women…,” from Candyman, is another good example of Hunter pulling out this traditional introductory statement. Another variant is the “Let my inspiration flow…” invocation of the muse in “Terrapin Station.”

Like many that have already posted to this, and related, threads, I appreciated the band for the great, rich vein of musical traditions that they mined. American and English folk music, jazz (hearing them play a little snippet of “So What” in Hampton in 1988 was a unexpected treat), straight ahead rock and roll, blues, and just plain old mind frying noise (thanks, T.C.), all got put in the great big pot that was the local EnormoDome and mixed liberally with fans, newcomers, critics, and various and sundry chemicals. The results could be amazing, disappointing, transcendant, lame, and every variation in between (and often within the same show). You had to hold on tight and keep your ears open or you might miss something.

The thing that kept me coming back even though a particular show may have been less than ideal (Hell in A Bucket opener, Row Jimmy in the first set, bad mix, Phil telephoning his bit in, a break that lasted forever, Drumz and Space that just sort of sat there, Not Fade Away complete with really annoying audience participation at the end, and a snoozer of an encore) was the possibility that they could, on any given night, hit it right on from the opening number all the way through the “Good night” from Bob. When they did hit, when the wheels spun round and came up all cherries, there was nothing that could compare.

I’ve read various interviews where each of the band members lamented Pigpen’s passing, and the band certainly did change. Europe72 is a good example of the transition, IMHO. Pig had been the front man up until this time, and I think the trip to Europe was just way too much for him to handle physically. I’ve heard tapes of the tour and, while he does a few terrific numbers, you can already hear Keith and Donna coming to the fore. Add Merle Saunders after the fact and Pigpen is very much a non-entity. Still, nobody could growl “King Bee” like him.

I was listening to a Dade County Coliseum Show from 1973 this weekend and Keith is just all over the place, Ike. Playing great little fills, adding little touches here and there, and then really rolling on a few numbers (Big River in particular). His later playing (from 1976 on) was drastically different. Pretty much exclusive use of the Fender Rhodes eletric piano and very litte of that. A good friend of mine who saw them in late 1978 said that someone actually had to walk Keith out to his bench and sit him down and put his hands on the keyboard. Have you ever noticed how old he looked? Ancient, ancient, ancient.

Well this certainly has wandered all over the place, hasn’t it. The Grateful Dead Movie is OK, but if you can get your hands on a copy of Sunshine Daydream, a film of the Venetta Creamery Benefit in the summer of 1972, do it. The music is much, much better.

16

One of the coolest things EVER was drumming under the overpass at RFK shows.

There is a car/foot path connecting two parking lots that goes under the highway over pass. Drummers would congregate and drum for hours before the show. Dancers would show up. Instruments would pop up from nowhere. That’s where I first saw a dijeridoo (it worked well with the drums.) The concrete embankments and the overpass made for some incredible resonsnce. It filled the soul. You could feel your bones vibrate long after you left the area.

sorry, I know that didn’t add anything, but I miss the overpass. Drum sessions in the open just don’t compare.

17

First off, I loved reading your response. (Actually, I loved reading everyone’s responses, but that’s beside the point.) Just out of curiosity, do you have a date of that Veneta benefit? Could it be August 27? If so, I have that concert on CD and would die to see it performed.

Ahh, Veneta. There’s been a lot said about it on other forums and by those more knowledgeable than I, but that concert is so good, it’s spooky. It is one of the few Dead shows for me that has a firm psychic location- every time I hear that show, and especially the Dark Star->El Paso jam, I can’t help but imagine a huge Western sunset fading into darkness. My reccomendation to anyone who wants to get interested in the Dead and has some spare time- find that show and listen repeatedly. It’s a fairly common show to come across, and even though I’ve listened to it dozens/hundreds of times, I still find something new and fresh expressed whenever I slide that into my CD player.

Oh, and as long as I’m babbling, a couple other shows to find:
April 8, 1972 (Wembly Empire Pool, London)

May 18, 1972 (Somewhere in Munich- I love every show from the Europe tour. If anyone knows how to get the Olympia Theater, Paris show, I’d give my eyeteeth. Also get Hundred Year Hall- it’s commercially available. Excellent.)

February 11, 1969 (Fillmore East, NYC- It’s also available commercially, in a fairly cheap two-disc set. The second CD’s St. Stephen->Eleven->Caution(Do Not Stop) jam is my vote for best exaple of psychedelic music ever- the thing just kills)

May 14, 1983 (Greek Theater, Berkeley- a friend of mine claims it as his favorite, and for good reason. To quote him: “The only thing I can attribute this show to is the presence of acid. Lots and lots of acid.”)

M.

18

You bring up an interesting detour, spritle. Drumming under an overpass is a good illustration of one of the many things that you might only see at a Dead show, and helps fill in the blanks for anyone who never got to go to a show.

I have countless non-musical memories of the whole experience. The RFK bit reminds me of Giants Stadium, which also had a passageway connecting 2 parking lots, but it went over a highway. It was a tunnel walkway, wrapped in corrugated metal, with a wooden plankway. Any time I crossed that thing, without fail, at some point the mooing would start. Like a big herd of cattle we were. It was funny, and just one of those nice things to recall.

19

8/27/72 was indeed the Veneta Fairgrounds show. That was a kick-ass show.

It is indeed available on quite a few sites. http://www.gdlive.com has the whole show (which is listed as “unknown” for the location of the show.) And Moose, they also have 4/8/72 and 5/14/83 in mp3, and 5/18/72 in .shn

plnnr, I had no idea there was a video of that show! I also would have mentioned The Grateful Dead Movie earlier, but if Veneta is on video, you’re right, the music would be much better. I just checked dead.net, and they don’t have it.

20

Well, after further inspection, I have to correct myself. The last Dead show I mentioned in the above post should have been July 13, 1984- I was looking at the wrong date at http://www.deadshow.com , which, by the way, has a huge number of fantastic dead concerts as realaudio files. An excellent way to hear new Dead shows, especially when you’re away from your tape/CD collection.

Oh, and as long as I’m thinking about it, I officially nominate the second set of 7.13.84 as the coolest Dead setlist of the '80s. It goes something like Scarlet->Touch->Fire->Man Smart, Woman Smarter->Drums->The Wheel->Stella Blue, and finishes up with some uninspiring finishers. But, man, the first hour of that set… out of this world.
M.