Where to start with The Grateful Dead?

[quarter23cd]

For the most part I don't have much love for Donna's contributions, but in select situations she is okay. For example, I always enjoy her "harmonizing" in Beat It On Down the Line. When that tune is really rockin', her caterwauling adds an out of control feel that somehow makes that song deleriously happy, imo. Can't explain it. Other than that...yeah, I don't care much for her.

[darkstar]

Jeeeeezus....that part in "Playin'" where she does the screech/wail thing. Makes my teeth hurt.

 

Lammy yer absolutely right about Keith just mimicking guitar parts...he could play though, back in the day.

 

That's one job I would never take, being the Dead's keyboard guy. Kind of the hot seat there, not a good track record for living long after getting that gig. (Though Hornsby and T.C. are still alive)

[LouieB]

,I also heard "That Smell" for the first time last week. A total epiphany.

No offense comrade, but if you needed that song for an epiphany, things must be looking pretty bleak.

 

LouieB

[quarter23cd]

Jeeeeezus....that part in "Playin'" where she does the screech/wail thing. Makes my teeth hurt.

True.

 

GD keyboard player is almost as notorious as Spinal Tap drummer. Definitely not a great track record there...

[darkstar]

True.GD keyboard player is almost as notorious as Spinal Tap drummer. Definitely not a great track record there...

PigPen: alcohol abuse/ liver disease Keith: Car Crash Brent : Overdose Vince: Suicide I believe Not a good record at all.......

No offense comrade, but if you needed that song for an epiphany, things must be looking pretty bleak.LouieB

Yeah...not exactly an upbeat tune huh?

[tongue-tied lightning]

hmm, start with a joint, and go from there

[DrNo]

No offense comrade, but if you needed that song for an epiphany, things must be looking pretty bleak.

 

LouieB

 

I liked it, dude. Skynyrd wasn't half bad back then.

[LouieB]

hmm, start with a joint, and go from there

yea..then a hit of acid and a pile of LPs....

 

LouieB

[Analogman]

I liked it, dude. Skynyrd wasn't half bad back then.

 

I still think their first is the best - and maybe even better than that is this: Skynyrd's First: The Complete Muscle Shoals Album.

[LouieB]

I liked it, dude. Skynyrd wasn't half bad back then.

True...I just never thought of them as an epiphany generating band, especially on that song....

 

LouieB

[darkstar]

yea..then a hit of acid and a pile of LPs....

 

LouieB

 

 

windowpane? Orange Sunshine?

[quarter23cd]

I have nothing to add at the moment. Just enjoying the fact that this thread has stayed near the top of this section all day. Way to go, Wilco-heads.

[Whitty]

I'll make a special mention of Aoxomoxoa too, because it's an album indelibly linked to my late teen years, but has resonated with me ever since. If you're into Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective, or "freak folk" at all (and I must admit I'm not a huge fan of the genre) then you're still listening to the reverberations of Aoxomoxoa. It is a thoroughly psychedelic album, if there really is such a thing, and it absolutely sounds like the 1969 that saw its release.

 

"St. Stephen" has countless live versions that represent it well, but the studio version concisely fits in all that makes the tune such a Dead icon- Bobby's rebel yell, the warbling guitar/vocal unison during the bridge, and all the shifty chord movements and rhythmic jagged edges. The delicate haunting pastoralism of "Rosemary" may have been the hidden jewel of the album if it didn't somehow make the Skeletons in the Closet compilation. "Mountains of the Moon" for my money is one of the great lesser-known Dead tunes. Hunter always claimed that the lyrics were throwaways, and they certainly are of their era with the Syd Barret-like "fol-de-rol"s and other Tolkien-meets-sci-fi imagery, but the harpsichord and guitar combined with Garcia's underrated vocal emotiveness create a very otherworldly, stately quality worthy of a tale inhabited by kings, jade merchant's daughters, carrion crows, and whoever the hell Tom Banjo is.

 

"Doin' That Rag" and "Cosmic Charlie" are just plain weird- folk music gone on a chemically-enhanced detour. The rhythms keep me coming back on this album. The footing sometimes seems to stumble and trip, but always recovers it balance before the next verse. "China Cat Sunflower" may be better remembered twinned with its concert soulmate "I Know You Rider", but the jaunty album version does a fine job of painting day-glo images thanks to Hunter's evocative stream-of-consciousness lyrics. If you feel like compiling an iPod mix of musical oddities, allow me to suggest "What's Become of the Baby" which sounds like Jerry Garcia chanting a poem inside an empty Astrodome while a crew of phantoms messes around with a reverb tank and a busted vacuum cleaner. Also, you've just slugged a bottle of NyQuil. Not for casual listening.

[Analogman]

I'll make a special mention of Aoxomoxoa too, because it's an album indelibly linked to my late teen years, but has resonated with me ever since. If you're into Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective, or "freak folk" at all (and I must admit I'm not a huge fan of the genre) then you're still listening to the reverberations of Aoxomoxoa. It is a thoroughly psychedelic album, if there really is such a thing, and it absolutely sounds like the 1969 that saw its release.

 

"St. Stephen" has countless live versions that represent it well, but the studio version concisely fits in all that makes the tune such a Dead icon- Bobby's rebel yell, the warbling guitar/vocal unison during the bridge, and all the shifty chord movements and rhythmic jagged edges. The delicate haunting pastoralism of "Rosemary" may have been the hidden jewel of the album if it didn't somehow make the Skeletons in the Closet compilation. "Mountains of the Moon" for my money is one of the great lesser-known Dead tunes. Hunter always claimed that the lyrics were throwaways, and they certainly are of their era with the Syd Barret-like "fol-de-rol"s and other Tolkien-meets-sci-fi imagery, but the harpsichord and guitar combined with Garcia's underrated vocal emotiveness create a very otherworldly, stately quality worthy of a tale inhabited by kings, jade merchant's daughters, carrion crows, and whoever the hell Tom Banjo is.

 

"Doin' That Rag" and "Cosmic Charlie" are just plain weird- folk music gone on a chemically-enhanced detour. The rhythms keep me coming back on this album. The footing sometimes seems to stumble and trip, but always recovers it balance before the next verse. "China Cat Sunflower" may be better remembered twinned with its concert soulmate "I Know You Rider", but the jaunty album version does a fine job of painting day-glo images thanks to Hunter's evocative stream-of-consciousness lyrics. If you feel like compiling an iPod mix of musical oddities, allow me to suggest "What's Become of the Baby" which sounds like Jerry Garcia chanting a poem inside an empty Astrodome while a crew of phantoms messes around with a reverb tank and a busted vacuum cleaner. Also, you've just slugged a bottle of NyQuil. Not for casual listening.

 

 

I like that song Rosemary - and the jams on the re-master are pretty cool.

[quarter23cd]

Aoxomoxoa was one of the first GD records I got in high school, before I was really into the band. I think I picked that one because the cover art was cool. St. Stephen is awesome, of course, but my darkhorse favorite from that record has always been Doin' That Rag.

[Mr. Heartbreak]

"Mountains of the Moon" for my money is one of the great lesser-known Dead tunes. Hunter always claimed that the lyrics were throwaways, and they certainly are of their era with the Syd Barret-like "fol-de-rol"s and other Tolkien-meets-sci-fi imagery, but the harpsichord and guitar combined with Garcia's underrated vocal emotiveness create a very otherworldly, stately quality worthy of a tale inhabited by kings, jade merchant's daughters, carrion crows, and whoever the hell Tom Banjo is.

"Mountains of the Moon" is one of my all-time favorite Dead tunes. Here's a nice writeup on it: Annotated Mountains of the Moon

[mountain bed]

If you'd like to hear the band at the peak of their country/blues/roots influenced songwriting: American Beauty and Workingman's Dead

If you'd like to hear the band showing off their most intricate and musically complex work: Blues For Allah

If you'd like a pschedelic taste of what they were doing in the late 60's that inspired a lifetime of devotion from so many: Live Dead

 

The Dead are still the most misunderstood and unfairly dismissed band of all time. Forget their fans and whatever images you conjure up when hearing the word "Deadhead". Forget what you think they should sound like. Just listen to the music: the ups, the downs, the timeworn tales of misbegotten gamblers and shadowy outcasts, the hurtling blues squall of the early days, the majestic group dynamics of something like "Terrapin Station", and the ethereal, often inhuman strangeness found in the midsts of an epic "Dark Star" or "Playing In the Band". You won't like all of it, and not every jam is a revelation. There's an element of risk with the Dead that makes them addicting. It's completely unfair and wildly inaccurate to callously dismiss them as aimless hippie noodlers.

 

 

Whitty, I'll echo Johnny's sentiments & say that you hit the nail on the head there. I'll come back to this thread later when time allows!

[El Picador]

"Mountains of the Moon" is one of my all-time favorite Dead tunes. Here's a nice writeup on it: Annotated Mountains of the Moon

 

Ever heard the alternate version with the choir girls? It's my favorite. A friend of mine had an original pressing of Aoxomoxoa when we were teenagers and he recorded it for me. I still have the tape somewhere in storage with my other 1000 grateful dead tapes. If it's floating around out there in the internets you should pick it up.

[JerseyMike]

The Dead are truly one of the under appreciated bands of all time by non-Deadheads, and the most overrated by Deadheads!

 

My picks would be:

 

Studio:

 

Workingman's Dead- a great, laid-back, country-blues-folk record with great storytelling.

Aoxamaxoa (sp?)- a very underrated record that, production-wise, was well ahead of its time.

American Beauty- the polished brother of Workingman's...

Ace- actually a Bob Weir solo record with The Dead backing him, but features some Dead classics like "Cassidy", "Black Throated Wind", "Mexicali Blues" and my personal fave, "Looks Like Rain" featuring Garcia on pedal steel.

Mars Hotel- Well produced with great songs, especially "Unbroken Chain"

Terrapin Station- a little taste of "disco Dead". Worth it for "Terrapin Station" alone, possibly the most underrated song of all time.

 

Offical live releases:

Hundred Year Hall- from the Europe '72 tour, but a better recording. A killer "truckin"

Reckoning- The Dead at their finest in a rare acoustic setting.

Live Dead- Hippies my ass! The Dead rock on this one...

One From the Vault- "Ladies and Gentleman...The Grateful Dead" and BAM! Help>Slip>Frank from the "CD Release Party" for Blues For Allah.

 

Its strange that there have been so many Dead threads recently. I was a hardcore Deadhead in the early '90's but became disinterested after seeing too many bad Other Ones, Ratdog, Phil and Friends and The Dead shows. But in the last few years I have had a few experiences that have bought me back:

1) singing "Shakedown Street" with the late Vince Welnick at a show for my freind and sometime bandmate Lizzy, who occasionally sings with Phil Lesh.

2) joining Phil and Friends for "Brown Eyed Women" and "Lovelight" during a rehearsal at SOB's a few months ago and then joing them for a meal.

 

Since then, I have taken to singing and playing in a Dead cover band, Garcia Later, on my downtime when I don't have any of my own gigs. Its been a long strange one for sure!

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

you seriously like donna's backing vocals? ugh, i cannot stand her

 

She's definitely not my favorite--her vocals pale in comparison to the others' musical abilities--but I do like what she brings to some songs, like Scarlet Begonias and Fire on the Mountain, as well as a very nice version of The Weather Report Suite I have, I think from 1974. I think a lot of the reason that era appeals to me most is also that I like those setlists best.

 

Part of what I love about the Dead is the different eras and the different line-ups they had. That makes it tough for someone to start listening to them, too, though, because there's just so much to choose from.

[Analogman]

Its strange that there have been so many Dead threads recently. I was a hardcore Deadhead in the early '90's but became disinterested after seeing too many bad Other Ones, Ratdog, Phil and Friends and The Dead shows. But in the last few years I have had a few experiences that have bought me back:

1) singing "Shakedown Street" with the late Vince Welnick at a show for my freind and sometime bandmate Lizzy, who occasionally sings with Phil Lesh.

2) joining Phil and Friends for "Brown Eyed Women" and "Lovelight" during a rehearsal at SOB's a few months ago and then joing them for a meal.

 

Since then, I have taken to singing and playing in a Dead cover band, Garcia Later, on my downtime when I don't have any of my own gigs. Its been a long strange one for sure!

 

That's pretty cool.

 

Here's a jam I rather enjoy: @ 12 minutes into the Dark Star on Dick's Picks Vol. 2: Ohio Theatre, Columbus, OH, 10/31/71.

[Lammycat]

She's definitely not my favorite--her vocals pale in comparison to the others' musical abilities--but I do like what she brings to some songs, like Scarlet Begonias and Fire on the Mountain, as well as a very nice version of The Weather Report Suite I have, I think from 1974. I think a lot of the reason that era appeals to me most is also that I like those setlists best.

I agree that she did bring something nice to some tunes (WRS, Passenger, etc.) but I dislike her parts in Scarlet, Playin', and any other where she's relegated to the cat screeching warbling. It's grating.

 

I saw her a few months back in her Donna Jean and the Tricksters band. Age has thankfully allowed her the good fortune to lose the high-end wail and she sounded really nice. She had another gal with her and they complimented each other nicely. This is what I imagine her sounding like when she did backup vocals for Elvis, Otis Redding, etc.

[Atticus]

Hundred Year Hall- from the Europe '72 tour, but a better recording. A killer "truckin"

 

I've probably listened to that more than any other dead production

[IcculusDC]

Aoxomoxoa was one of the first GD records I got in high school, before I was really into the band. I think I picked that one because the cover art was cool. St. Stephen is awesome, of course, but my darkhorse favorite from that record has always been Doin' That Rag.

 

I'll second you on "Doin' that Rag". A really well crafted, catchy tune.

 

I am also a big fan of Two from the Vault recorded live over two shows in '68. Garcia rips all over the place. Awesome, raw, psychedlic jamming.

[Analogman]

Then there is this one: So Many Roads (1965-1995).

 

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