What was/is the appeal of Garcia and the Dead?

Cafe Society
41

Heh, I fell asleep at one… and was… what a great night.
I would classify them partly as musical archivists preserving historic American music, even if they were currently producing it. I favor the luxurious sounds of Dead Set and still hold that U.S. Blues is one of the best punk songs of all time. Who could not respect a band that stepped back from the corporate to buld theor own label and hire their own people while basically saying that the live shows belonged to whomever would not profit from them?

I have some vinyl bootlegs pressed by fan clubs. Although the recording quality is a a tad rough (a source for future remastering, though) it still amazes me that fans would press their own vinyl and distribute, complete with homemade art, shows amongst their friends. It seems easy now in the digital era, but how often was this the case in the vinyl era?

42

The Dead were cool. I saw them twice, at RFK in 1993 when Steve Miller opened for them and Bruce Hornsby was active in the band.
I also saw them at Buckeye lake in Ohio the same year, apparently one of the meccas for live shows and tapers.
A few memories:
I tripped balls both times. A guy was arrested by narcs selling a plastic telephone bag full of mushrooms right in front of our group at the RFK show as we lounged in the hot summer day along the Potomac River during the Steve Miller segment.
Needless to say, the narcs were all dressed out in tye-dye gear and were relentlessly followed and pointed out by the other Deadheads as narcs as they left the scene. I had mushrooms and LSD in my system and was also hungover and sweating in the hot NoVA heat. I puked.
I also recall during that same show walking with my friend to somewhere, being lambasted by the constant cat-calls of veggie burritos and magic rocks when some guy came out of nowhere and hurled an unopened beer can at a trailing police cruiser.
Needless to say, it seemed as if the police were waiting for something like this to happen, as they immediately leaped out of their cruiser to chase this random dude.
What was funny was the catcalls that accompanied this, as everyone was like “Arrest that guy in the tye-dye!” as he disappeared into a crowd of, well, tie-dyed wearing folk.
The Dead were nothing if not interesting. I wasn’t and still am not a big fan of their music, but the shows while under the influence were obviously designed to be a big mind-fuck, in a good way.
Jerry died while I was strolling the boardwalk at Virginia Beach on my Mom’s birthday (Aug 9th) on vacation the next year and I’ll bedamned if there wasn’tt a massive influx of “RIP Jerry” tye-dye shirts for sale not hours from the news of his death on that very same boardwalk.
The Dead shows were nothing if not the last bastion of free enterprise…“Two Balloons for 5 dollars!” “Veggie Burritos, One dollar” , the criers of salable goods went on and ON throughout the night.
It was a trip, literally and figuratively, and I believe that that was how they wanted it to be.
I’ll never forget it.

43

In terms of the genre of music, I think The Band was better than the Dead.

44

I don’t see the similarities between the two bands’ music at all, but, yeah, The Band were many times better than the Dreadful Grate.

45

Blues and folk-influenced Americana rock, I guess. Not that much in common musically, but sort of part of the same genre.

Way heavier though, and better singing.

46

Really?! Cool - my ignorance is fought! Thanks Biffy!!

Yep - here it is: Quotations Weblog » Holidays

As for two other comments in this thread:

and

I am inclined to go with **Argent Towers ** on this one. This is clearly YMMV territory, and I mean no disrespect to **RealityChuck **or other folks who think highly of the Dead, but I just don’t hear it. I have had friends - knowing I am both a guitarist and a geek who tries to really pick apart stuff and listen deeply - play a bunch of Dead stuff for me. The songs are fine, the performances - whey they are “on” - are solid enough, but I have yet to hear anything that makes me stop and say “whoa - they are musical geniuses!” I don’t hear any:

  • “individual musician technical genius” solos (you may hate the music of Yngwie - I do - but when he solos, I have to acknowledge his technical chops. There are countless other “roots/Americana” musicians who are technically superior than what I hear from the Dead…)
  • new music style that pushes an envelope (you may hate Zep or the Ramones - I love both - but in both cases, they were clearly taking something familiar and pushing it into a whole new territory) - with the Dead, their Scene/sub-culture pushed an envelope, but I don’t hear it in the music - it was just decent, jammy Americana stuff…
  • Profound Band communication - I suspect this is the one where I will get the most disagreement, but this is my POV - even when the Dead lock-in and find something jam-bandy transcendant, I feel like they don’t come close to bands like, well, The Band, in terms of sheer musicianship and musical communication. I hear **Subterraneanus’ ** comment about how the Band aren’t like the Dead in terms of the whole sub-culture, but on a per-instrument throw-down basis (do we need another one of those threads?? :slight_smile: ) The Band was so much more talented - and locked in as a band so much more musically and effectively to my ear…

Again - a Dead show was a happening, but I think there is a clear, obvious reason why so few of their albums don’t endure as musical statements vs. bands like The Band…

47

Just as an aside, the Band opened for the Dead at their second to last show at Soldier Field here in Chicago, and they weren’t very good. The Dead weren’t so hot either, but there you go.

48

As others have said, going to a Dead concert was more of a unique social experiment than just a concert. I probably went to 35 concerts or so. You were guaranteed to meet up with old friends who you hadn’t seen in ages. I’m not a huge fan of doing hallucinogens in large crowds, but a Dead concert was the one place you would not feel out of place or self conscious.

I had as much fun at the camp out before and after the concerts as the concert itself. You’d usually set up a little camp in the parking lot and hang out for the entire 3 days of shows. In Ventura, we’d hang out at the beach and swim in the ocean while basking in our pre-concert buzz. There’d be people selling all types of mind altering substances, crafts, food and clothing. I’d always make sure to purchase a balloon or two of nitrous oxide. People would set up funky little cafes selling any kind of food you could imagine. They’d be tons of hot hippy chicks and all sorts of weirdos. Any time there was a Dead concert in the San Francisco bay area or So Cal, I could be guaranteed that at least some of my friends would be there.

The Dead would never repeat a set for all the concerts at a particular venue. The middle of the concert was always the hour long “Space Jam”, a free form jam session with solos by each of the band members. I’m not particularly fond of the “Space Jam”, but it was a good time to wander aimlessly and bond with people and play hacky sack.

One time a bunch of my friends were in Minneapolis for my friend’s wedding. We saw a huge crowd at some venue and it was immediately recognizable as a Dead concert due to the obvious psychedelic “Dead” busses and hippy crowd. We actually had tickets in our hands, but I started to fell guilty and called my friend to tell him that we were blowing off the rehearsal dinner in order to see the Dead. Well, my friend wasn’t really all that down with the concept and I managed to convince everyone that we really should go to the rehearsal dinner. I think my friends are still a little pissed at me.

The day Jerry died was the end of an era, and I knew that there’d never be anything to replace it. Damn, that was a bummer.

49

Well, I first heard the Dead when I was 13 and my older brother bought Skull & Roses when it came out and didn’t like it - but I did! Growing up in the UK listening to chart music on the pirate stations and then Radio 1 meant I hadn’t really heard much like it at the time.
I bought most of the official releases for a few years then my interest waned until years later I was in retail and realised that they were the perfect noodly ‘shop-music’ band! Not too offensive if you didn’t like them, and great long jams if you did! And ‘Space’ for random weird interestingness…
Any time a record-fair was in town I’d end up going along for 1/2 hour and dropping maybe £100 on cds of gigs that looked like they might be good. Then somebody started copying tapes for me… Including one of the only time I saw them, back in 1981. I don’t remember much about the gig, despite having a seat in the middle of the 2nd row, but I did enjoy it. Hearing the tape years later, it wasn’t one of their better shows. (Playhouse Edinburgh Sept 30, 1981)
Drugs never really played a big part in my enjoyment of the Dead - it was getting into the jams and the buzz of recognition as they came back into the song/s.

I remember a poll in a music magazine years ago and one of the questions was ‘band most likely to send you to sleep’ and the results had to be split into two - the guy running the poll had meant it to mean a band you didn’t like and found boring, but, as he said, if somebody voted for the Dead in the other 9 questions and voted for them again for this question, they probably meant it in a good way!

50

Aside from the personal taste stuff, I think you’re selling the Dead pretty short in the invention department (particularly if you’re arguing Zep was more innovative). They were one of the main inventors of psychedelic music early on. They were also one of the first bands to combine rock (and psychedelia) and country/bluegrass, or as you put it ‘jammy Americana’. Sure, ‘jammy Americana’ bands are everywhere now, but so are bombastic hard rock bands and semi-joking punk bands, but you think Zep and the Ramones were inventors.
Who else could have written (before the Dead showed it could be done) “China Cat Sunflower”, “Eyes of the World” or “China Doll”?

51

I think DeadHeads are more of a cult than anything else. When The Dead were in their heyday, I tried to find anything musically interesting, inspiring, or worth a second look in their recordings. I found none, so I ignored them. Yet I have friends who are fanatics.

Everyone to his own taste, said the old woman as she kissed the cow.

52

Really well put and a fair argument. I do think that Zep was far more innovative, with their fusion of blues, folk, Middle Eastern and a variety of other influences, but that’s a YMMV thing. I just have yet to find a hook into the Dead that makes them compelling - I think kinda like the OP. I don’t hate them or disrespect them like some rabid Dead-haters seem to think it is important to do (and is fine for Dave Matthews! :smiley: sorry, weak jab), but they don’t do it for me…

53

Hi…I’m TSFR and I’m a DeadHead,

Why you ask?..for me too many reasons to list but i will try.

They were unique.

They were risk takers.

They evolved through time, from a Bay Area “jug” band into a top grossing band without selling out to “the man”. (I know some will argue w/ this point.)

I always felt they were in it for the music.

They were a great cover band (especially of Dylan) and at the same time always introducing new material…up to the end.

They took care of their own…at the end supporting a HUGE family.

They were very rarely political in their music (Throwing Stones being the exception)

My first show was 12-09-79 Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Mo…My last show (and theirs too) was 07-09-95 Soldier Field, Chicago, Il…80=/- shows and NEVER a repeat.

I do believe Jerry was the magic behind the following. His “style” was not definable…it was/is truly special.

The list of artists that have played with the Dead is astonishing, as is the list of artist that had members of the Dead play with them.

…give me one more China/Rider…one more Scarlet/Fire…one more Help/slip/Franklin’s …

So many roads to ease my soul…

daniel

54

Very interesting to read all of these remarks as I’m a keyboardist who has been playing in a Dead tribute band for the last year. I joined the band, not knowing more than one or two of their songs, but was just looking to broaden my horizons, so to speak. I really didn’t think I would stick it out as long as I have but it’s been a great experience.

The first thing I noticed was how improvisational the music was. Coming from a jazz background, I really found this refreshing. Improv is a dying, if not dead, art in the world of rock music, with the exception of the jam bands, and yet, it is one of the things that made Zeppelin so friggin great at what they did. For us, I simply love the fact that we never play the songs the same way and that taking chances with the music each night keeps everything very fresh. I’ve played in many cover bands that quickly got stale. Not this one, though.

Also, the music of the Grateful Dead is delightfully deceptive. It all sounds very laid back and, perhaps even cliche, but there are tons of unpredictable turnarounds, odd time signatures, and other little quirks that you really have to pay attention to if you want to play the music authentically.

And perhaps the best thing about this gig is the fans, god love 'em. Loyalty to a fault. We aren’t even the Dead and yet, the same people, from teenage kids to corporate adults, show up week after week in their tye-die shirts to relive a part of their past. They are some of the nicest, most polite, and most welcoming audiences I’ve ever played for. They are there solely to enjoy the music and they pay attention to damn near every note. The first gig I ever did with them, I took a keyboard solo in the first song and everyone in the club broke out in applause. After years of being in bands where the musicianship was high but virtually ignored by club patrons watching a football game on the big screen, it was most refreshing.

Anyway, just wanted to offer a slightly different perspective. This gig has given me a great deal of respect for the music, culture, and phenomenon that was the Grateful Dead. I was the last person that ever thought I would consider myself a deadhead, and yet, I got sucked in royally. I have a much better understanding now of what it was that made them special.

55

Just a great post - thanks for sharing!

56

Cubensis?

57

Nope, but they are friends of ours. We are called Delilah Jones.

58

Went to one concert late in the game, enjoyed it, but didn’t feel I needed more. I did hear a good joke from a friend who was a lot more into it than I:

What did one Deadhead say to the other when both their drugs ran out?

Man, does this music SUCK!

59

How lame…I hope your mommy pisses in your cheerios this morning.

60

ThisSpaceForRent, this is inappropriate for Cafe Society. People are allowed to disagree here, as well as tell what you consider to be silly jokes. If you want to vent about someone’s post, take it to the Pit; otherwise, if you think the post is inappropriate or otherwise broken a rule, be sure to report it and a mod will drop by to take a look.