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