# Grateful Dead Keyboardists: Keith, Brent, or Vince?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-keyboardists-keith-brent-or-vince/111531>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [May 30, 2002, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-keyboardists-keith-brent-or-vince/111531 "2002-05-30T13:13:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ripple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@Ripple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ripple)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-keyboardists-keith-brent-or-vince/111531/21 "2002-06-01T03:23:22Z")

</div>

Brent.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-keyboardists-keith-brent-or-vince/111531/22 "2002-06-01T03:34:54Z")

</div>

Let’s not leave out **Tom Constanten** , who added some nice touches to the early stuff. Pigpen’s strength was more as a bluesman.

I never saw Keith, but like his piano playing. Out of the three, he has the strongest studio output.

I saw Brent alot, never really liked his songs, but loved the way he played with Jerry. He really made that B3 wail. He had an excellent voice, too.

I only saw Vince and Vince plus Bruce Hornsby a couple of times. I always had the feeling that Vince was just ‘sitting in’ as opposed to being a full-fledged member like Brent was.

I got some of the DVDs and the ones with Brent really send me back.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mr.Duality](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.duality/32/4098_2.png) [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-keyboardists-keith-brent-or-vince/111531/23 "2002-06-01T14:49:37Z")

</div>

I’ll vote for Brent.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Bruce Hornsby play throughout entire tours? In the world of music, I think that should qualify as ‘full time’ band membership.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ripple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@Ripple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ripple)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-keyboardists-keith-brent-or-vince/111531/24 "2002-06-01T21:44:37Z")

</div>

Bruce played with the Dead from 09/15/90 through 03/24/92. He played in 110 of a possible 121 shows during that period. He also played in about 8 shows after 3/24/92, mostly in the DC area.

He was there to help Vince get his feet wet, and I tend to consider him more of a guest than a member. 110 shows is nothing in GD terms. Others may see things differently. I don’t know what Bruce himself thinks about all this.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ripple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@Ripple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ripple)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-keyboardists-keith-brent-or-vince/111531/25 "2002-06-01T21:49:06Z")

</div>

Make that 110 out of a possible 131. My bad.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grateful-dead-keyboardists-keith-brent-or-vince/111531.md?page=1)