Shug

The Black Crowes cover Manassas

The Mother Hips cover Dillard and Clark

so what are you looking for here with your original question? Care to share your definition of 'rock'? I mean, I can make an educated guess, based on the bands you seem to like (a lot of metal and punk, from what I can tell) but still, in all sincerity, it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts about what rocks and what doesn't. My guess is you ain't gonna find any Dead songs that fit your definition of rock, they never had anything to do with punk or metal and aggression and anger were very rarely, if ever, explored in their music. And I think that the correlation between rock and temp

DeKalb and Merriweather '84 were both good suggestions, thanks!

Dude, are you serious or are you being facetious? The Dead covered Chuck Berry, fer Chrissakes. It doesn't get any more rock 'n' roll than Johnny B Goode. I'm seriously trying to understand your question, because even the most casual music fan surely knows that the Dead played plenty of up-tempo tunes. If you are sincerely wanting to know the names of their faster songs, then try One More Saturday Night, Sugar Magnolia, Might As Well, Deal, Promised Land, Alabama Getaway, Greatest Story Every Told, Big Railroad Blues, Going Down The Road Feeling Bad, Beat It On Down The Line, etc etc.

Its a bit validating to me to hear Weir with basically the same opinion as me about live Wilco vs. Wilco in the studio. I guess there is an aesthetic that links Wilco and the Grateful Dead, at least for me.

The Mother Hips wrote a song, Smoke, about touring with Wilco on the HORDE tour (they also opened for them at the Fillmore in SF on New Year's Eve in the late 90s, I forget which year. They mention Wilco in the lyrics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toD8iuXizwQ Maybe Wilco being on the HORDE tour has contributed to some peoples' idea that they might be considered a jam band?

I see your point about the limitations of labeling and categorizing music and also about how listening to music should probably be more important than talking about music, but some folks like to both listen to and to talk about music (hopefully not at the same time, especially when at a concert!) I think the human mind is just built to categorize, so its nearly impossible to not do it. Categorizing music can help (and also hinder, at other times) music to get heard by more people, sometimes. For example, in the mid 90s when the jam band scene was arguably beginning to really proliferate wi

Not about whether Wilco is a jam band, but about part of what makes good jam bands (or any kind of band) good, IMO: From the liner notes to the Grateful Dead album of live Dylan covers Postcards From The Hanging: " Folk music is where it all starts and in many ways ends. If you don't have that foundation or if you're not knowledgeable about it and you don't know how to control that and you don't feel historically tied to it, then what you're doing is not going to be as strong as it could be." Bob Dylan, as interviewed by Mikal Gilmore

I guess it all comes down to definitions of words, and that can fall into the realm of opinion, but to me the unstructured or free form music the Dead played in the middle of songs like Dark Star or Bird Song or Playing In The Band or in the Drums/Space part of the show is a kind of jamming. I guess you are using the term jamming differently than I am. I think free form music is a kind of jamming. Both the Allmans and Dead did what you are talking about with pieces of music like Mountain Jam (based on Donovan's song There Is A Mountain) and the Dead's Spanish Jam which wasn't based on an

There are so many different ways people are defining what constitutes a jam band, from length of the songs, the lack of structure in parts of the music, the variety of setlists night to night, and even the behavior of the fan community. But I don't think these definitions quite nail the essence of jam band music. To me, jam bands are based on the idea of collective improvisation where each member is "soloing" at the same time in a spontaneous way, both trying to make an individual statement and to also make that musical statement fit into the single musical statement being made by the band

http://archive.org/details/gd91-05-03.sbd.ladner.8831.sbeok.shnf I'm not usually a fan of Vince Welnick-only shows, but this one has a very good Let It Grow with Jerry playing very articulate and speedy runs. There is something great about Garcia soloing away on the better Bobby tunes (the ones with space for jamming, like Lazy Lightning, Let It Grow, Saint of Circumstance, Cassidy, etc) Got other favorite versions of Let It Grow? Personally, I find the vocals on the '73 and '74 versions a bit off-putting, although I do like having the full Weather Report Suite. I think Let It Grow real

Well, the lyrics express a really heartfelt and sincere sentiment, hopeful and positive about love and how its really the most important thing in life. Coming at the end of an album with an overall dark and depressing mood (to me), its a very nice finishing statement, kinda like the light at the end of the tunnel and never giving up on trying to be happy. It also reminds me of what Jeff later talked about in the Sky Blue Sky interview DVD regarding how on that record he wanted to make a nice personal statement of gratitude and love to his wife, especially after all the "difficult" songs she'

Currently reading Blair Jackson's bio on Garcia (which is a nice read, even with all the stuff already written about Garcia and the Dead) and its got me feeling really appreciative and sentimental about GD music. I listened to American Beauty this AM and when Box of Rain and Truckin' came on I was just grinning like a fool at all the classic lines and thinking about what they really signify. I had a flash of all the smiling faces you'd see at a show when the whole damn place was singing "what a long strange trip its been!". Its easy for me to let that music go in one ear and out the other

It took me awhile to recognize him, but that's Big Al Anderson from NRBQ. What a super group and what a horrendous song and arrangement. And the dancing is so awful words fail to describe it. Truly cringeworthy to me. Its embarrasing that musicians of their stature have this travesty with their names on it. I'm gonna need to watch the Last Waltz five times to erase this from my mind, aarrgghhh!

Don't forget the "earth mama muff" on the back of The Black Crowes' Southern Harmony. Two in a row with pubes on the album cover, must be a record...

I got row 32 for night #1 and row 28 for night #2. Reserved were the $50 tix. No password needed, just logged in to my account at wilco.frontgatetickets.com I decided to go reserved so I don't have to wait in line. Seats are pretty much in the middle of the row, I'm pretty happy with these tix. Hope everyone else got what they wanted.

1. Ronnie James Dio 2. Vivian Campbell's guitar playing on the first two Dio albums 3. Vinnie Appice's drumming in Dio I'm completely serious.

You should go to Red Rocks, don't miss it again. You already sacrificed it last time, going this year should be your reward Can anyone shed light on the unusual front and back GA sections with the reserved section in between at Red Rocks? Do they do this every show? Do you have to wait in line all day to get in the front GA? Is it packed in like sardines in the front GA or could you find a bit of space if you aren't all the way up front?

Awesomely funny, Oil Can!

The thing about the early 70s that for me make them the greatest time period for rock music ever by a huge landslide (especially if you cheat and include 1969) is that there were so many bands that were on an incredible peak of brilliance all at the same time. You had Led Zeppelin, The Stones, The Who, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, The Band, The Allman Brothers, Clapton, etc at the peaks of their creativity and brilliance in performing, recording and composing. For me its just no contest: the early 70s had the greatest rock bands that ever were and likely ever will be at their absolute best.

I'm hoping for a non-festival show in Austin sometime this summer or fall. Kinda wondering, too, if there is room in the May Southern tour for a New Orleans date? I guess we'll find out soon.

"...All the way back in the seventies..." without a doubt, the '70s were the golden era for rock music, especially live rock. In my time-machine fantasy, it'd be going back to 1970 - 1974 or so, I'd see: Led Zepp and Black Sabbath and The Who in 1970 Rolling Stones in 1972 The Faces pre-1973 Humble Pie in 1973 Dylan and The Band in 1974 Grateful Dead in all those years and a bunch more I could dream up I grew up in the 80s, which mostly sucked, except for Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Georgia Satellites, Petty, U2 and REM and a handful of others. (Yeah, there is always good music in every deca

What is the blue ray debacle? Why are springsteen and dylan fans lucky compared to Neil fans?

With Bill Evans on sax?!! Playing a Miles Davis song, rad! I wonder if he was playing Duane's Les Paul again? I love it when the Allmans go jazz.