Never Had Such A Good Time/The Grateful Dead Thread

[Kudzu Guillotine]

I was a skate punk in high school and The Dead was the the most opposite from that scene. I knew guys that were into them and would go to the shows. It always seemed more for the drugs and partying. I didn't even know any of their songs besides Casey Jones and I had no interest in seeing them. A few years later some close friends got into them and went to shows and followed them etc. I just couldn't stand them. I said no to many chances of seeing them. I even quit a roadie job while on the road partially because the road manager only played live GD shows when he was driving. I was assigned to the crew van and it drove me crazy. My ears weren't ready then.

Many years later, my brother in law gave me Hundred Year Hall from Germany 1972. First song was Bertha and I was hooked. I listened to that album over and over and never looked back. I have all studio albums, tons of live shows and Dick's Picks. I have read quite a few books and seen most videos. I have studied this band. They are one of my favorites now. The Keith and Donna years when Pigpen was still alive are my favorite. I dig all the early stuff too.

I really wish I would've gone to a show.

One of my nephews (who just turned 42 today) was raised on the Dead, Zeppelin, Floyd and others by his parents who would use their music to lull him to sleep using a giant ass set of headphones, grew up to be a punk rocker who hated all of those bands. However in private, he once revealed to me back in the mid-90s that he had a soft spot for Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. Not long after that I put Reckoning on the CD player and he said, "I don't know who's CD this is but if you don't remove it right now, I'm going to burn it". To which his Dad said, "I like the Grateful Dead and I'm going to listen to it" to which my nephew then shut the fuck up. That's why I'll never get all of his punk rock poseuring. Either you like a band or you don't. If you like a band like the Grateful Dead, which can be a very polarizing band to like, then you need to be prepared to take shit for it. I know I have. That same summer I met a "reformed Deadhead" who had his Steal Your Face tattoo marked through with a "no" symbol and then had "666" tattooed on his arm just below it. I don't understand that either.

[Hud]

I was never the same after sliding down the hill at Carter Finley Stadium with god(7/10 /90) thought I was going to wind up in mental institute! I don't know how many shows I went to in all, but had been to 10 in 95' before jer passed. Lots a great shows, a few bland(maybe my mood) I miss the mini vacations.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

I love reading the accounts of that Carter-Finley show online (either at Dead.net and/or archive.org). I was seated next to a friend that was in a wheelchair and they even asked if he wanted to go down with them. Lots of great memories of that show but one that stands out is how, after the storm blew over, that they started "Promise Land" right back off from where they stopped it when lightening knocked the power out.

[dogstar]

I own no albums by the Dead but I did get to see them once in October 1990 in London. I can't remember a lot about it except I was amazed about the number of guys out in the car park selling stuff before the show. They also had Bruce Hornsby playing piano for them at the time. I've checked out the recordings and sounds like great show - they encored with The Weight.

[UTHeathen]

So, this thread begs the question, what is your favorite Grateful Dead song? Not an easy question to answer, but for me it has to be Crazy Fingers. An unusual choice I know, but super heavy lyrics hiding behind a sweet, simple and understated melody. I guess my choice stems from my experience and the tapes from 2.21.93, the first night of the Mardi Gras run at the Oakland Coliseum. They broke out a bunch of new songs, including Lazy River Road and Liberty that special night in Oaktown. We heard from someone in line the next night that both Bill Clinton and Al Gore were backstage for the show. Jerry said later that the Fat Tuesday show with Ornette Coleman sitting in was one of the highlights of his career. Shows at the Oakland Coliseum were like the home court. The boys could sleep in their own beds at night, and the Heads in the house were right there with them from the moment the lights went down. During Crazy Fingers the room was dead (pardon the pun) silent. There was a real sense of reverence. Jerry's solo during Crazy Fingers was the closest thing to perfection that I have ever heard come from a guitar. Ever. Whenever I listen to that show and Crazy Fingers comes on, I stop whatever I'm doing and revel in the sheer beauty. I get shivers down my spine just thinking about that magic musical moment.

It was during one of those shows that I had an epiphany (I'm sure that I'm the only one to have an epiphany at a Grateful Dead show) about the magic of live music and this is it: At any given moment, somewhere on the planet, there is live music being made. Whether it is traditional folk music in an Irish Pub somewhere, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir filling a hall with a beautiful noise, Indigenous peoples passing down their distinct mythology through music, a mother singing her new baby to sleep, or the Trucker Nation getting their faces melted off in Cooleyville, there is a universal cosmic truth that only manifests itself in the live music experience. This is The Thread that ties us all together. If you're reading this, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Grateful Dead covered a lot of ground lyrically, but of all of Hunter's lyrics, this is one of my favorites:

Midnight on a carousel ride
reaching for the gold ring
down inside
never could reach it
it just slips away
but I try

[Tequila Cowboy]

So, this thread begs the question, what is your favorite Grateful Dead song?

3 way tie:

Eyes of the World
Bird Song
Box of Rain

[Slipkid42]

I second Box Of Rain, but I love Dire Wolf almost as much.

[hendooman]

Love the Dead thread as I started thread jacking the Shonna thread as others did.

Saw them for the first time in 1988, then saw them steady through 1995, saw numerous renditions like The Other Ones, Phil, Bob, Dead...all good, all rocking my face off. Steal your Face tattoo on my ankle, and one on my back window right next to my DBT.

I think like a lot of you have said I think there are a lot of similarities to DBT and the dead. The multiple singers, the never ending tour, the never same set lists, and the never great selling studio albums. What kept bringing me back was Jerry, Jerry, Jerry, he is nothing short of a God to me. Don't get me wrong, I liked Bobby, Phil and the others, but Jerry is what did it for me. It is a little corny but I am slowly trying to make Cooley my new Jerry.

My collection of tapes is strong, but around 2000 I started collecting digital boots. Remember when Archive.org had soundboard shows? I tried to grab about everyone. So if anyone wants to send me a thumb drive I can drop them a Lot of tunes that is for sure, along with a lot of Jerry band.

One of my favorite shows is 9/10/91 Madison Square with Branford Marsalis. Check this first set and picture Branfords horn....

Shakedown, cc rider, train to cry, B t wind, High time, Cassidy, deal....just wow.



I like this thread I will be back...keep spinning the memories.

[UTHeathen]

I think like a lot of you have said I think there are a lot of similarities to DBT and the dead.

I've thought about this a fair amount as well. Almost started a thread about it a couple of years ago. To me, one of the greatest commonalities is the celebration of American Music. Hard to think of drums and space as being uniquely American, but certainly a lot of the GD canon is directly inspired by, if not an actual cover of American traditionals, bluegrass or blues standards. I guess you could throw in experimental Jazz as well as good ole' rock and roll. Jerry was especially influenced and influential, with Old and in the Way, the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, and of course JGB with a heavy dose of R&B and gospel thrown in (just thought about Mississippi Moon and got chills all over again). I don't think that anyone could argue that the Drive-By Truckers are anything but a quintessentially American band that have been shaped by some of the same musical influences that inspired the Grateful Dead.

[hendooman]

I think like a lot of you have said I think there are a lot of similarities to DBT and the dead.

I've thought about this a fair amount as well. Almost started a thread about it a couple of years ago. To me, one of the greatest commonalities is the celebration of American Music. Hard to think of drums and space as being uniquely American, but certainly a lot of the GD canon is directly inspired by, if not an actual cover of American traditionals, bluegrass or blues standards. I guess you could throw in experimental Jazz as well as good ole' rock and roll. Jerry was especially influenced and influential, with Old and in the Way, the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, and of course JGB with a heavy dose of R&B and gospel thrown in (just thought about Mississippi Moon and got chills all over again). I don't think that anyone could argue that the Drive-By Truckers are anything but a quintessentially American band that have been shaped by some of the same musical influences that inspired the Grateful Dead.

I like the way ou put that, they are both true "American" bands. If you think of the evolution of the Dead into the late seventies, they kind of got that "groove" back, speaking specifically of the Shakedown album, kind of reminds me of GGB and TBTD. I wonder if any DBT members were Dead fans? I suspect if anyone was it might be Jay, he seems like a groovy Dead fan.

[uncle rickey]

I second Box Of Rain, but I love Dire Wolf almost as much.

YES. Agree completely.

[uncle rickey]

I wonder if any DBT members were Dead fans?

Well, not for nothing, but at the Midnight Ramble last summer, I stole a peek at Patterson when Levon's band was doing "Tennessee Jed" and he was singing along. He might've been faking his way through it though.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

I wonder if any DBT members were Dead fans?

Well, not for nothing, but at the Midnight Ramble last summer, I stole a peek at Patterson when Levon's band was doing "Tennessee Jed" and he was singing along. He might've been faking his way through it though.

If I recall some of the discussions on the DBTs Yahoo Group correctly, I believe Earl Hicks is a fan.

[beergut]

I too would be considered a "touch head". Climbed on board in late '87 and saw my first shows at the Rosemont horizon in the spring of '88 (senior year of high school) and saw somewhere around 40 shows between then and '94. I find it really amazing how many of us share the passion of both the dead and DBT. I wouldn't be a taper today if it weren't for the dead.

As for tunes:
Ramble on Rose
Candy Man
High time
Standing on the Moon
El Paso
Tom Thumb's Blues

The dead were a phenomenal cover band.
I'd like to see more DBT covers.

[hendooman]

The dead were a phenomenal cover band.
I'd like to see more DBT covers.

Jerry and Bob singing Dylan songs was better than Dylan singing Dylan!

[gerg]

Stella Blue

And the underdog here is Days Between. I used to think it would have been better had it been written earlier and had the chance to get worn in. But it wouldn't have had nearly the context it had rising seemingly out of the ashes when they were looking more and more like artists who were creatively (and in Jerry's case, physically) spent and had nothing left to say. As Steve Silberman put it so eloquently, "[it] slipped between your clothes and your skin like a chill wind out of a grave." A chillingly appropriate Hunter/Garcia swan song.

[Cubfan06]

Wharf Rat
Looks Like Rain

[blackwll]

Listening to the Further stream on archive from NYE. Best they have sounded since Garcia died that I have heard, probably even better than Trey A. playing with Phil and Phriends.

I saw the Dead about 12 times from 1988-1992, mostly in ATL (long live the Omni) but also in NOLA (first dead show) and Richfield, OH (old Cleveland Cavs arena, nice area, camped out at SeaWorld with heads from AL and GA).

[blackwll]

The dead were a phenomenal cover band.
I'd like to see more DBT covers.

Jerry and Bob singing Dylan songs was better than Dylan singing Dylan!

Jerry talking about teaching Dylan his own songs is priceless...

[Tequila Cowboy]

Listening to the Further stream on archive from NYE. Best they have sounded since Garcia died that I have heard, probably even better than Trey A. playing with Phil and Phriends.

I saw the Dead about 12 times from 1988-1992, mostly in ATL (long live the Omni) but also in NOLA (first dead show) and Richfield, OH (old Cleveland Cavs arena, nice area, camped out at SeaWorld with heads from AL and GA).

It did sound good but I still say the best post Jerry Dead experience was the several year Phil & Friends line up with Jimmy Herring and Warren Haynes. That was truly something.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Jerry Garcia Documentary In the Works (Rolling Stone)

[hendooman]

Jerry Garcia Documentary In the Works (Rolling Stone)

Great news, can't wait to see this. I knew it has always been tough to get the Garcia estate to release rights, nice to see someone is going to get to do it with their permission.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Bill Kreutzmann: Jerry Garcia 'Wasn’t Really Happy' During Grateful Dead's End

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Business Is Booming for the Grateful Dead

[sactochris]

I'm just really glad that I was there, and that I got to experience it first hand, and not just as some kind of nostalgia trip long after the fact. That was actually my main motivation in going to my first show. It was like a sociological experiment that I then decided to repeat another 157 times.I like to think that I managed to hang on for the full eight seconds. My first show was 25 years ago this month.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

As I've probably already mentioned, Workingman's Dead was one of the first albums I ever purchased as a kid back in the early to mid 1970s. Even though my older brothers and sister were all into the Dead my desire to own that record was my own, it didn't come from them. For whatever reason, mainly that I didn't like to attend concerts alone, I didn't see them in concert until 1989 when they played Greensboro Coliseum. I only saw them three other times after that, all of which are memories I hold very dear but nothing was quite like that first show. I remember hearing them tuning up, waiting for the concert to start, then suddenly the first notes of "Hell In A Bucket" rang out over the coliseum and everyone began to dance. If you weren't dancing, you probably got knocked down. That went on for the entire length of the concert. "Hey Pocky Way" from this show can be heard on the So Many Roads box.

[Hud]

This thread inspired me to throw on Live/Dead last night, and god damn, it just pops. Say what you will about Bear but the man knew what he was doing.

The most scared I've ever been meeting anyone was meeting Bear. It was in a good way, but it was still very intimidating. I had read about him in Rolling Stone when I was in high school. I loved the story about the Wisk bottle. Very cool. He didn't come across as being very friendly in a traditional sense but he was gracious about responding to any questions people would ask of him. This was in late 1990 in San Franscisco at a JGB show after he had gotten really into making and selling jewelry and was starting to do rather well at it. He had the Brass Steal Your Face belt buckles that at the time cost $200. I wonder what those go for now.

Met a guy at a Unknown Hinson show a couple weeks ago that told me he was Bears nephew. I didn't really believe him, then he showed me his belt buckle like you mention, that signed to him....

for $450 you can get ALL of 'Europe 72' .....22 shows-70 hrs of music-73 disc set!

http://www.dead.net/node/50111

[sactochris]

This thread inspired me to throw on Live/Dead last night, and god damn, it just pops. Say what you will about Bear but the man knew what he was doing.

The most scared I've ever been meeting anyone was meeting Bear. It was in a good way, but it was still very intimidating. I had read about him in Rolling Stone when I was in high school. I loved the story about the Wisk bottle. Very cool. He didn't come across as being very friendly in a traditional sense but he was gracious about responding to any questions people would ask of him. This was in late 1990 in San Franscisco at a JGB show after he had gotten really into making and selling jewelry and was starting to do rather well at it. He had the Brass Steal Your Face belt buckles that at the time cost $200. I wonder what those go for now.

Met a guy at a Unknown Hinson show a couple weeks ago that told me he was Bears nephew. I didn't really believe him, then he showed me his belt buckle like you mention, that signed to him....

for $450 you can get ALL of 'Europe 72' .....22 shows-70 hrs of music-73 disc set!

http://www.dead.net/node/50111

Having the buckle doesn't make him Bear's nephew, but you never know.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

This is the third of the four Grateful Dead shows I saw between 1989 and 1995 and one of my very favorites of the four. There were lots of highlights on this evening but two of them were covers, their sublime version of Dylan's "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again" and the Beatles' "Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds", which came completely out of left field. The latter still sends shivers up and down my spine, just as it did on the night they played it.



Set 1
Jack Straw
Stagger Lee
Wang Dang Doodle
It Must Have Been The Roses
Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again
Tennessee Jed
Let It Grow

Set 2
Here Comes Sunshine
Playin' In The Band
Box Of Rain
Crazy Fingers
Drums
Space
Spanish Jam
Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad
Throwing Stones
Not Fade Away

Encore
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

[LuthierJustin]