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Grateful Dead - What do i need to know?

PaulThePlug

By PaulThePlug,
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Dad3353 Grand Master

Dad3353

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A difficult one, as their repertoire is so vast in styles, and evolves over time and concerts, so there's no 'definitive' GD album (nor concert...). If choosing for other than sentimental reasons, I'd recommend, for their musicality and 'ease of access', 'Music From The Mars Hotel' and 'Blues For Allah'. I'm constantly harking back to 'Anthem Of The Sun', but there's some 'experimental' stuff there that might deter those wanting a clear run. Of course 'American Beauty' and ... No, no point; the list would be too long. If neither 'Mars Hotel' nor 'Blues For Allah' hit any spots, try Abba. 9_9
Hope this helps (but it probably doesn't :$ ...).

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Bunion Grand Master

Bunion

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They led the hippie explosion with LSD fuelled jams on stage where most of the crowd were tripping too. 
I think they became more well known from the acid test parties (google it) 

If you look at the face of Jerry Garcia at the beginning of this video he looks out of focus and in another place. 
There was no lead to a lot of their live stuff as you can hear as the video progresses they just followed whoever stepped up at the time. 
looks like a great gig 🤪

 

 

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Nail Soup Grand Master

Nail Soup

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I was bought up on the idea The Grateful Dead were as bad as music can get, and was just one endless noodle. I guess many of the punk generation can say the same.

They don't seem to get any radio play or anything, so I never actually heard them for many years.

So when I did finally (and accidentally) hear a bit it wasn't as bad as I expected. Sounded a bit Americana if I remebr correctly.

Not really heard them since, but one of these days I might follow up one of the suggestions.

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lonestar Experienced

lonestar

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I’ve recently recorded Truckin’, Franklin’s Tower, Sugar Magnolia and Touch of Grey for an album project. first half here

I was never really a DeadHead but really liked Jerry’s melodic guitar playing and the whole hippy Californian: hey it’s all going to be cool, tune in turn on trip out vibe(see also Spirit)! However having learned  these tunes I’ve  also discovered what a lovely melodic bass player Phil Lesh is.

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BigRedX Grand Master

BigRedX

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9 hours ago, Nail Soup said:

I was bought up on the idea The Grateful Dead were as bad as music can get, and was just one endless noodle. I guess many of the punk generation can say the same.

They don't seem to get any radio play or anything, so I never actually heard them for many years.

So when I did finally (and accidentally) hear a bit it wasn't as bad as I expected. Sounded a bit Americana if I remebr correctly.

Not really heard them since, but one of these days I might follow up one of the suggestions.

 

I had the opposite experience. I got into music in the early 70s and the Grateful Dead were definitely one of the bands that you were supposed to be into if you liked less mainstream music. Several of my school friends were big fans, and I loved the album cover designs (especially Blues For Allah), but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get on with the music. It was pleasant in it's own way, but there was little in the way of sing-alone tunes, heavy guitars, or the right kind of weirdness for me. Luckily punk (and post-punk) came along and gave me exactly what I had been looking for musically. Nothing I've heard by the Grateful Dead since then has caused me to really change my opinion.

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spongebob Mentor

spongebob

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I love the Pigpen era, odd bits after that. For me, Pig was their anchor, and when they lost him, the band certainly moved in a different direction. 

 

Alarmingly, the studio albums certainly dipped in quality as well post-72 IMHO.

 

Everyone hears things differently, and I think that's the best thing. Some may hate the earlier stuff, and gravitate to the mid/latter period. 

 

They were uber-cool, and such a great unit....as seen on the Festival Express film. 

 

I do like Blues For Allah in places.....but I think they really suffered as Garcia's heavy drug use got worse. From the books I've read, around '74 or so, when he was making the GD film....coincides when they leave my realm of interest.

 

I'd recommend Europe '72 as a good starter. Nice mix of the jamming, blues, and pretty much what they did up until that point in time.

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EssentialTension Grand Master

EssentialTension

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9 hours ago, Nail Soup said:

I was bought up on the idea The Grateful Dead were as bad as music can get, and was just one endless noodle. I guess many of the punk generation can say the same ...

I recall some 'deadheads' becoming 'punks' overnight. At least they shared some anti-establishment credentials, or so they claimed.

I always liked American Beauty and Workingman's Dead.

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FinnDave Grand Master

FinnDave

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3 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

Paging @FinnDave ...

 

I thought I heard something...

 

The Grateful Dead - where to start? I have played with two GD  cover bands, first was The Grateful Dudes, a Leicester based 6 piece (lead & rhythm guitar, keys, two drummers and bass) which is probably the top of the Dead bands in the UK. I was with them for two years and then left due to the amount of travelling involved. I now play with a lower key Oxford based band called Frankin's Tower. Again, two guitarists, two drummers (usually one on bongoes and the other on Cajon), bass and a female singer. More fun than the Dudes, but not the bigger venues that they played. Both had a similar repertoire.

 

So far as listening to the Dead goes, personally, I have listened to the studio albums once each. I have a fair sized collection of Dead CDs on the shelf in front of me, the vast majority of which are live recordings. They tended to record every gig (approx 2,500) and a good many have been released officially. They also actively encouraged audience members to tape their gigs, even to the extent of providing a 'tapers area' so they would get a good sound balance. This led to an active tape trading culture, now largely replaced with on line recordings.

 

Widely considered their best live recording was Cornell University May 8th 1977, which is available as a 3 CD set and is of consistently good quality. Get a bunch of Dead Heads in a room (or a field) and they'll argue all night about better versions of various songs, but for a single package, Cornell is the best place to start, in my opinion.

 

They are still going though their tape archives and releasing new live CDs, the Richard's Picks series (named after Richard Latvala, their archivist until he passed away), Road Trips series & the current Dave's Picks (named after the current archivist). I am a subscriber to Dave's Picks and receive four per year, the most recent was a few weeks ago and is number 39. I missed out on the early Dave's Picks and they now fetch silly money on ebay.

 

The easiest (and definitely the cheapest!) way to listen to the Dead is via sites such as https://relisten.net/grateful-dead which has recordings of just about every gig they played, likewise https://archive.org/details/GratefulDead?sort=-publicdate

 

It's important to remember that though they tend to be remembered for songs such as Dark Star (very long, very spacey) and Playing in the Band, known to DeadHeads as PITB, a more straightforward song that could include lengthy jams before returning to the main theme, their sets also included a good many short, simple songs - Chuck Berry songs, country songs by Johnny Cash & Merle Haggard - just about anything. The Dead's versions of Dancing in the Streets is worth hearing as well - and great fun to play on the bass.

 

That's enough typing, I'm going to stick a CD on and pick up my bass.

 

 

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FinnDave Grand Master

FinnDave

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2 minutes ago, pineweasel said:

Interesting to read about Live Dead 69. Not your average tribute band, it includes ex-Dead member Tom Constanten and other associates like Mark Karan, who played in Bob Weir's band RatDog.

 

They are playing Europe '72 in full on this tour so that would be a good place to start. 

I saw them in 2018, poor Tom Constanten did very little - sat there looking uncomfortable. The band was OK, but no magic was happening.

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