The Steel Guitar Forum

If you weren't you REALLY missed it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjVlA2E_fOI

Oh, yeah! Next to that, the Black Crowe's cover sounds absolutely castrated.

IMHO, Nothing touches the original Otis Redding version!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZxN9iQM7OY

You bet, Tony!

i think i 'was' there!

Great tune... of course Otis' version is the definitive, but both the Dead and the Crowes bring a little something different to the table.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for all the 60's R&B stuff.

The dancing lady at the beginning of the Dead clip doess't hurt, either

I saw the dead in 1972 at the University of Colorado. One of the great concerts. Unfortunately, it was after Pigpen was gone from the band.

I remember very vividly when I received a copy of the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Death from a mail order service in England in the early seventies. The pictures on the rear cover had that special atmosphere!
And the record too.

I watched this video.....I guess enough drugs will make anything sound acceptable.

I guess enough drugs will make anything sound acceptable

Well, you really can't judge the Dead from a snipit of one concert. Remember that this was probably 8 minutes of a 6 hour concert. The Dead were an experience and you really don't know what it was like unless you were there. I've heard them when they were amazing and I've heard them when they were out of tune. That is the chance you take when a band is so open to improvisation. But when they were good, they were great.

I saw them live in 1972 in a small theater in Waterbury CT. A great show! The ultimate jam band. They played for several hours... we finally left about 1:00am, and they were still playing. I remember one of the fans yelling "play the Old stuff!" I guess he meant the stuff from the 60s albums.

The Dead recorded almost every concert off the board, and they encouraged fans to record the concerts too. This Site has streaming audio of Thousands of dead concerts, including the Waterbury show I went to Sept. 24, 1972.

I went to the site and listened to some cuts of the live concerts. Man this band is really weak. I have a stack of DATS that my DH buddies gave me of live shows they recorded, all of them are so boring.

Yes they did a zillion concerts and had a zillion fans and some sort of experience going on, but musically...this is very lame stuff. I heard nothing of really any musical depth at all. No strong solos, no strong vocals, no strong anything.

What is all the hype?

That's the beauty of music and all forms of art. What appeals to some may not appeal to others. I'll admit.. nowadays I have little interest in the music I enjoyed 35 to 40 years ago. That was then and this is now, but it was a lot of fun back in the daze.

I guess if I had heard them 30 years ago when I knew less, I would have thought they were playing more!

Jerry Garcia leads were some of the strongest playing in rock history combining jazz, blues, coiuntry, soul, and rock. He is recognized as such in the rock community. Their rythm section (two drummers) including jazz drummer Mickey Hart were waYYYY beyond anything in their early days. Masterful playing. To call the Gratful Dead "weak", I just don't know what you are listening to. Garcia's leads were extremely complex as was the whole band. I agree that they had some great and some mediocre shows (like any act), and some of their stuff was lame. Chris Ivey, I was probably standing next to you!

I think the title of the thread says it all: you had to be there.

Bill, I know where you are coming from, but I got to say this, I have played guitar for 45+ years, and never really liked the Dead that much, but now I admit that there are times that I listen to the Dead and I am totally floored! I never like the vocals, with some nod to Garcia's, am not a big fan of the whole jamband thing, but man there ae these spctacular moments of groove and rhythym and musicality. Try this, listen to "touch of Grey". The structure of the song is great, the lyics are fabulous, and the solo is quirky, chromatic, and inspired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmT6udys ... L&index=54

jp

As usual, I repect all disenting positions. I was part of the counter culture and still am in some ways (attitude). Thats why I play steel guitar. I think that parts of it were naive and the drugs were down right self destuctive. Its a different generation now, and looking back I have some fond memories of boogying to those San Fransisco bands. It was a more innocent time. A more compassionate time. A very artistic time. With age brings wisdom.

I'm enjoying this thread. It brings back memories of a band I played steel with, here in Austin, during the 1980's. We were doing the jam band thing before that term came into use, and dipped heavily into the Grateful Dead "songbook" ("Dupree's Diamond Blues", "Jack Straw", "Me and My Uncle", "Mexicalli Blues", "Wharf Rat", "Althea" etc) . We'd even do the same extended jams with multi-song segues that the Dead did during their shows. For example, we'd do "China Cat Sunflower into "I Know You Rider", and "Scarlet Begonias" into"Franklin's Tower". Let me tell'ya, it was particularly fun during the segues. Like the Dead, all of our band members knew each other's musical idosyncracies and could home-in on what ever trait dominated a segue. So, during the song transitions, we'd "throw-the-bones-and-pick'em-up-where-they-land", so to speak. It made for interesting no-two-alike transitions. The audience may not have been as into it as we were, but we were having big-time fun. Oh, the name of the band? The "Dreadful Grapes", of course!

Here's a link to the Dead doing "Scarlet Begonias":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMyaTJF_pLg

And "Jack Straw":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHRRjt2lU_4

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Ive played in Dead cover bands for years...Ive spent some incredible evenings gigging with Tampa's Uncle Johns Band, and the Glass Camels from Jacksonville FL. Garcia gave us some great stuff...IMHO most of it from the early to late 70's, before the diabetic issues he had to deal with..For what its worth, I still post Garcia's licks on YouTube along with the pedal steel posts, and they still get hit every day..

I was never a big dead fan. Im not much for extended jams (unless it is the Allmans) But i think i like them more now than i did back in the day, I liked other Garcia projects like NRPS and Old and In the Way much more than the Dead but as was already said - the coolness of music is how different things appeal to different people.

What goes around, comes around. The wheel has arrived at the ivory tower:
http://library.ucsc.edu/gratefuldeadarchive/gda-home

I am so glad that my parents had the good sense to move to the S.F Bay Area in the 60's. My youth was spent in the post-Keasey La Honda/Skyline/Peninsula/Stanford/S.F. world, and many hours seeing the Dead, the New Riders, and lots of other great Bay Area music from that time. The Dead and The New Riders made me want to play guitar, and made me aware of the pedal steel. It's great to see the UC recognize their significance.

Dead Schmead.....I like the untethered girl in the intro.....

I have one of Dick's Picks long ago and if there are more shows as HAPPENING as this one, I want them. Talk about a bandful of mindreading musicians in the groove, song after song?! I bought it in my endless search for the ultimate Loser, and wound up with a whole show of top shelf telepathic awesomeness.
The Dead rightfully garnered all the bad bumper stickers, but when they were 'on'...

Too bad the Dead's girls weren't into razor blades...

WORST band ever!!! Having a personal connect to the band, I had the much sought after "All Access" pass and was forced to attend countless shows. If I was lucky, I'd be able to sneak out before the music started. Absolutely NO instrumental skills, pitch crazy toneless voices, and the most insipid songs ever put to vinyl. And to top it off, not exactly the nicest people you'd ever meet probably because they believed all their press.........