Attics of My Life: The Grateful Dead
I have to start off by apologizing to Zac, Marisa, all guest writers who have contributed to the Greatest Band of All Time, all readers who enjoyed and up until this point maybe even trusted this place. I killed it. I just HAD to go there. I have ruined any credibility we had. I'm sorry.
RIP GBoAT.
Yet, I'm totally serious. This is not a joke in any way. At some point, for some reason The Grateful Dead became the most stigmatized band in the world in the minds of independent rockers the world over. I had the very same negative connotations about the Dead for many many years myself. At some point a little more than five years ago I just decided that there might be something there for me. Well, this isn't exactly true. Jake Longstreth and I had a talk about how the Dead are so stigmatized, and we both held these conceptions to a certain degree, but also were supremely curious. At that point it was declared the summer of 2000 would be Grateful Dead summer.
Grateful Dead summer was filled with mockery, exploration, shame, giggles, arguments, and total inspiration. We soon became these Dead Disciples trying to explain to all of our friends how all the preconceived notions about the Dead are wrong. A lot of our arguments were based on this concept that the Grateful Dead was very similar to Pavement and had totally inspired Malkmus. Jake and I would go on and on about this drawing correlations between Pavement and Dead songs and albums. People were not buying it. We went so far as to ask Malkmus whether he really liked the Dead at a "secret" Jicks show that summer. His answers to our question were not as enthusiastic as we had hoped. So, this whole entry might be in vain. I might not change any one's mind or get anybody new into the Dead, but I need to put it out there. The opposition voice must be heard. No more musical tyrannies.
Many taboo bands or genres have become accepted in the last few years (disco music, the band Yes, being a freaky folker) but the taboo on The Grateful Dead does not seem to lessen. What makes this band taboo? Is it the jamming? This is confusing because this is something that indie rock and underground music has really embraced in the last few years (Black Dice, freakier folks, freer/spacemins like Yume Bitsu). Is it the trips/silly/weird artwork and visual stuff?? This can't really be true because the Grateful Dead art style has totally inspired the raddest and deepest of new art like Paperrad dudes. Seriously. Look at stuff like this, or the amazing animation that opens The Grateful Dead Movie(which is my favorite concert movie of all time). Is it the Deadheads?? Okay, it might be the Deadheads. One does not have to be a cliche to enjoy a band, though.
I'm not gonna give a long history or discography of The Grateful Dead, not that I don't know, because hey I have read a Jerry Garcia oral history biography and it was totally killer. I just think that it might be a tad boring. Let's just say these dudes started playing music together as a bluegrass band in the early 60s. Then they turned into a trippy rock band. They did stuff in SF. Acid Tests. Free shows. Known for "powerful" live shows. Was not able to make that translate to studio albums for a while. Made two country folk rock records in one year, and they were both amazing. Played music for 20 more years.
The Grateful Dead had a period (around 65 to 75) that is really unparalleled by any band in terms of creativity. They made social history. They made very weird experimental records that fused live recordings with studio recordings in a very amazing way (Anthem of the Sun). They made two of the best albums of the 70s in one year (American Beauty and Workingmans Dead) after having been called big dissapointments in the studio for their first three albums. Their hit records (Beauty and Workingmans) were complete departures for the psychidelic rock band. They were focused on concise song craft and recording, and not on explorative performance, and they have some truly lasting songs on them. They toured more than any band in the world and have the most extensive recorded live catalog to show for it and this is the period where they built rabid their fanbase that employed hundreds for decades. They built the largest sound system in the world at the time called the Wall of Sound. They tried very hard to make something different and new and special for every album (which led them to wildly go into debt to record companies for deeper studio experimentation time), every concert, and every thing they did in general. I may never be respected by my peers again, but I'll be damned if The Grateful Dead aren't the Greatest Band of All Time.
YES!!!! I just started getting into the dead about two months ago. Greg Davis posted this link in his blog, and it is full of good stuff. We shall no longer be afraid to like the dead!!!!
Sorry, could not get the link to work. Here it is http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php?cat=Grateful%20Dead
holy cow and crap!
those are all shows for downloading???!?!?! i thought i had a lot already (about 30 dicks picks shows).
amazing link.
thanks so much, blair.
seriously. dead life 2005!
awesome steve
next up phish?
aka the love of my high school years, and no i did not smoke pot, while not til senior year at least.
My childhood in Santa Cruz does not really allow for me to appreciate The Grateful Dead without remembering the trauma of endless drum circles and dreadlocked blondes on Pacific Avenue calling me "Sister," but I do so appreciate the emotion behind this entry. (Plus, I was thinking of doing a GBoAT on The Band, which is probably a way more appalling band to love than The Dead.)
how can you like the band and not the dead. to me the band are east coast dead rip off artists. did you see how much they were trying to glean from jerry in festival express. you could tell they worshiped jerry and the dead in general.
fuck indie rock apologies. you know you have outgrown music as a social signifier when you can start to appreciate the dead for what they really are, not what the dudes at hot topic want to sell you so you can tell your high school chums what sort of dude YOU are by wearing their merch. i can admit and understand that the santa cruz dirty hippy scene is annoying and can lead one to hate everything they hold dear and holy, just as someone from a strick southern baptist or chatholic family may never want to hear how cool the bible is if you read it. i can feel that call. but seeing that jerry has been dead for 10 years, and deadhead-ism has been fading from our society ever since, replaced by the much more disgusting yuppy hippy bullshit of so many crappy contemporary jam bands that will go un-named i feel it silly to still be embarrassed about liking the grateful dead. in our times of deep neo-con war and the true lack of a counter-culture to truly express the feelings of those that dont agree with the shit that goes on in the world, I WISH there were a band like the dead now. i start to appreciate what people were identifying in, what they were projecting onto the band. they were the truest symbol of what the late 60's meant to san francisco, the west coast, and the country as a whole. and beyond all the socio-cultural underpinnings of the band as an american icon, there is a whole lot of really awesome music that any true music lover might find themselves getting into at one point or another.
ive been doing box of rain in the car over and over and over for the last couple of days. such an awesome song. one of those songs with too many words that spill all over those confusing, rambling chord changes, those muted falsetto harmonies and basically everything about that song is just plain weird. that it is considered a "hit" or "classic" speaks volumes to the singularity of the grateful deads approach to music, something i think any and everyone should take a look at
i want to take this opportunity to thank steve for getting me more into the dead via his massive digital collection. and franz prichard for always preaching the eugene-ian fueled gospel of the dead to me for years. for all those late night drives when i found a station doing full live tapes. kboo live dead morning weekend shows. all those that are keeping the flame alive and turning dudes onto their vibe.
if you hate the grateful dead but have never even listened to an album by them: grow the fuck up and get the fuck in. the dead head stigma you remember from childhood no longer really exists in our present day society.
i would recommend the album aoxomoxoa its like a byrds or buffalo springfield album but with more drugs. a real tryyp. so good. sooooo good. yeah
ok
marisa, that comment is really not directed in any sense towards you. i respect you and your life and opinion. i just woke up. sorry for the sloppy writing
wow. forkner. feeling the heat. sweet heat.
yeah, the palindrom album is rad. it is the indie rock record they have. it rocks hard on tracks like st. stephen and china cat and cosmic charlie and it gets weird on rosemary and mountains of the mist.
i downloaded about 20 more shows last night thanks to blair's link.
i was getting so deep in 67 and 68. or as the tapers call it PRIMAL DEAD.
Oh, Adam, of course I don't take it personally. Our friendship is built on sweet heat.
I do see your point and Steve's point. And I suppose my point is that I do actually like The Dead.
However, as a kid growing up in more or less deadhead central, I think I had to completely disavow myself of that whole lifestyle(similarly, I love surfers and surfing but will never be able to get into that sport because it so permeating my childhood) in order to feel like I didn't have to succomb to it. So, even though The Grateful Dead is a band that I genuinely like and admire, I'm not sure I will ever be able to really get into them a la you, Steve, Franz, et al. due to early childhood hippie culture that they in some way have spawned. I am not proud of this, but it's just the case.
And I totally admit loving The Band is somewhat appalling. But you cannot deny the brilliance of The Last Waltz, can you? And dude, "east coast dead rip off artist"? You've known me long enough to know that of course I would like the east coast dead rip off version more than the real thing--they totally had better clothes and Martin Scorcese!
speaking as a teenage deadhead, i found myself so many times in my life trying to cover up the fact that i was sooo into the grateful dead in high school. unlike so many of my peers as i got older, i didn't spend my high school years digging deep into the velvet underground, discovering punk rock via 924 Gilman in Berkeley, or buying 7" records of the latest underground-type bands. nope. i was flying the tie-dyed banner. i tried to put in behind me as much as possible, but later on, i just got a wistful hankering to hear "wharf rat". from there, i have re-connected to the grateful dead in a very hesitant, but increasingly strong way. especially the album "blues for allah". i don't know why, perhaps it is all that swirling electric piano and organ. i was always a sucker for bob weir's "sage and spirit", too. anyway, now i consider myself lucky to have been able to see the band 3 times, and experience the deep vibe of going to a grateful dead show. sure, hippies can get a little freaky and ingenuine at times, but the grateful dead scene had more than a little bit of pure magic at its core. slowly, i am realizing that it is just as cool to say you were into the dead in high school as it would be lou reed and david bowie. just in completely different ways. thanks steve for this awesome post. i am sure there are so many of us touched by this music in some way that are kinda sketched out about revealing it to their friends.
p.s. would it be possible to write a GBOAT on my personal hero, neil young? or as i always refer to him, the G.O.A.T? (greatest of all time!)
Matthew, that is so rad. this feels like an awesome support group. Dudes, totally coming out of the closet. But for something there is really no shame in.
YES! Wharf Rat is sooo good. Jake played that song at a show he did at the Magic Marker House during Grateful Dead Summer.
Also, yes to Blues for Allah. I was listening to Sage and Spirit while writing this entry.
Also, yes....you should write a Neil Young GBOAT.
also, I think The Band is really good, and not so much a rip off. They are so much more straight up good ol boy music. They don't have so much tryyp, but they have some amazing albums.
me too! high school deep dead love, I admit it now freely. I forgot how much I loved them, listening to stuff from that link is so awesome right now. Summer creaky-shambly sharp harmonies? yes. Steve, thank you for being man enough to write this.
It's really interesting to me to hear how everybody discovered the Dead. For me, it was just the music of my childhood (along with a lot of other folk/60s music like the Stones, the Beatles, CSNY, Cohen, Dylan, Paul Simon (NOT Simon & Garfunkel) etc etc etc). I always heard it in our house, on car trips, at family gatherings...I didn't even notice it for lots of years. At some point I started noticing it, and even though very little of this music has become MY music that I still listen to, I still have a real half-nostalgic connection to it. But even though I don't even own any Dead, I still really love both American Beauty and Workingman's Dead, a LOT. I am less proud of the fact that I also have a fondness for In the Dark, but what the hell, it's good too. In short: I never bother to listen to them, but when I do I always have a good time.
On another note, one time in high school I went to a Dead concert with my dad and several of my uncles and two of my cousins. In retrospect, everybody but me was probably high, though at the time I was too out of it to notice, and maybe that's why they were all having a good time and I was bored out of my skull. I ended up taking a nap on the grass during one of the space jams. Not a very memorable concert experience, but hey, at least I heard them before the end. I guess.
Yeah, it was initially hard to allow myself to separate my experience of the music from my experience of the fan culture, but I'm glad i did. Still I'm pretty lukewarm on it, at best. I like the American Beauty album a bunch, but I really mostly cannot get into the live stuff. It just seems like they don't really have anything to say.
nothing to say?? that couldn't be further from the truth musically.
adam and i were just talking today about the challenge of getting your feelings across and opening up things without use words (lyrics) and how it is a challenge yet possibly deeper.
i do find some of their lyrics trly beautiful (brokedown palace, box of rain, etc.)
kevin do you know workingman's?? its equally as good as american beauty. if you have an interest in getting into them i would listen to american beauty and workingmans and then the palindrome album. the live albums live/dead, grateful dead, skull and roses, and europe 72 all were officially released as albums and capture the band at one of their peaks.
performance is not always about genius or songs, but sometimes about experience and escape in a relaxation or dancing or something way.
freddy, in the dark is surprisingly good. their late 70s and early 80s albums are bad, but in the dark works really well.
I was so heavily into American Beauty when this GBoAT went up! I was actually thinking how it would be great if someone posted here with just that album as the greatest band oat. You hit something cosmic, Steve.
And thanks for the introduction/recommendation list; I'm sort of a GDead novice, aside from AmBeaut. I look forward to Furthur exploration. (IF you know what I mean!)
There are a lot of great live recordings of the Grateful Dead out there. However, one of the most catchy for those unfamiliar with the music, is the Second Set from Cornel University, May 8, 1977. That's a good starting point for those skeptical of the musical merit, the excitement, and red, nay, white-hot brilliance of a good amount of the live shows/recordings of the Dead (much Dead material listened to may, however, subsequently seem disappointing if viewed to strictly from the lens of Cornel '77). Anyway, this show, freely available on the Internet Archive-- www.archive.org-- may very well convince, even the most skeptical of listeners, of the incredible peaks which the Grateful Dead reached during their live performances (during many points in their history)-- peaks which few other bands have managed to attain during a live concert (see, Hendrix, Band of Gypsies (New Year's Eve, 1970 as another example of greatness).
The Band are East Coast Deadhead rip-offs? I think you'll see that the Band's first two albums and work with Bob Dylan inspired the whole "retreat from psychedlelia" phase that so many West Coast acid-rock bands through at the end of the sixties. I'm just sayin
Deadheads are still around!!!!!!!!!! Jerry Garcia (RIP) died when I was like 2. Now I can't get enough of the Grateful Dead!!! I have the freaking shirts, hats, stickers, ETC. Plus, my bestest friend ever is an even worse Deadhead than me and she was born the year he died I think! So don't be fooled into thinking the actual awesome hippies are gone!!!!!
Is Jerry Garia grateful to be dead????
I can't find to many people these days who like the dead, really... Most of them just old hippies who saw them in concert and work dead-end jobs now. The Grateful Dead really is an acquired taste I guess.... But who could not love those ADORABLE dancing bears!?!?! (How they came about was originally they were stamps and hippies put acid on the back of them so when they licked them...) Anyway, and who doesn't enjoy "Touch of Grey" or lyrics like "Driving that train... High on cocaine... Casey Jones you better watch you speed... Trouble ahead, trouble behind... And you know that notion, just crossed my mind!" (Which was also a true story... "Casey Jones")
I think that the ncounter culture was dead wrong and could hav emade much more progress if they stoped smoking so much weed and dropping so much acid... The real change come with education and clarity. Not living in a fog of smoke. The dead is perhaps respnsible for more birthdefects and fried parents than any other movement in history.
The hippie mocement is/was lame. Listen to NOFX The Decline if you want to challenge the government. Intelligent and insightful. The hippie fad was and will always be a lame excuse to get high.
tag
I think that the ncounter culture was dead wrong and could hav emade much more progress if they stoped smoking so much weed and dropping so much acid... The real change come with education and clarity. Not living in a fog of smoke. The dead is perhaps respnsible for more birthdefects and fried parents than any other movement in history.
The hippie mocement is/was lame. Listen to NOFX The Decline if you want to challenge the government. Intelligent and insightful. The hippie fad was and will always be a lame excuse to get high.
tag
I think that the ncounter culture was dead wrong and could hav emade much more progress if they stoped smoking so much weed and dropping so much acid... The real change come with education and clarity. Not living in a fog of smoke. The dead is perhaps respnsible for more birthdefects and fried parents than any other movement in history.
The hippie mocement is/was lame. Listen to NOFX The Decline if you want to challenge the government. Intelligent and insightful. The hippie fad was and will always be a lame excuse to get high.
tag
I think that the ncounter culture was dead wrong and could hav emade much more progress if they stoped smoking so much weed and dropping so much acid... The real change come with education and clarity. Not living in a fog of smoke. The dead is perhaps respnsible for more birthdefects and fried parents than any other movement in history.
The hippie mocement is/was lame. Listen to NOFX The Decline if you want to challenge the government. Intelligent and insightful. The hippie fad was and will always be a lame excuse to get high.
tag
Forget about the stupid gangster hippies of the 1990s and just appreciate the music. The gangsta' hippies ended up ruining the scene, running around being greedy and stupid, etc. Living cariactures trying to act as "hippies", but failing to remember what the "hippy" spirit embodies - cooperation, good times, safety, etc. A lot of the later era tourheads were actually living on plentiful trust fund accounts, but still were happy to beg to eat, "SPARE CHANGE FOR A BURRITO, BRO!!"
Good thing the band kept more and more separation between themselves and the scene that ultimately ruined deadland.
Forget about the stupid gangster hippies of the 1990s and just appreciate the music. The gangsta' hippies ended up ruining the scene, running around being greedy and stupid, etc. Living cariactures trying to act as "hippies", but failing to remember what the "hippy" spirit embodies - cooperation, good times, safety, etc. A lot of the later era tourheads were actually living on plentiful trust fund accounts, but still were happy to beg to eat, "SPARE CHANGE FOR A BURRITO, BRO!!"
Good thing the band kept more and more separation between themselves and the scene that ultimately ruined deadland.
Forget about the stupid gangster hippies of the 1990s and just appreciate the music. The gangsta' hippies ended up ruining the scene, running around being greedy and stupid, etc. Living cariactures trying to act as "hippies", but failing to remember what the "hippy" spirit embodies - cooperation, good times, safety, etc. A lot of the later era tourheads were actually living on plentiful trust fund accounts, but still were happy to beg to eat, "SPARE CHANGE FOR A BURRITO, BRO!!"
Good thing the band kept more and more separation between themselves and the scene that ultimately ruined deadland.
Forget about the stupid gangster hippies of the 1990s and just appreciate the music. The gangsta' hippies ended up ruining the scene, running around being greedy and stupid, etc. Living cariactures trying to act as "hippies", but failing to remember what the "hippy" spirit embodies - cooperation, good times, safety, etc. A lot of the later era tourheads were actually living on plentiful trust fund accounts, but still were happy to beg to eat, "SPARE CHANGE FOR A BURRITO, BRO!!"
Good thing the band kept more and more separation between themselves and the scene that ultimately ruined deadland.
Forget about the stupid gangster hippies of the 1990s and just appreciate the music. The gangsta' hippies ended up ruining the scene, running around being greedy and stupid, etc. Living cariactures trying to act as "hippies", but failing to remember what the "hippy" spirit embodies - cooperation, good times, safety, etc. A lot of the later era tourheads were actually living on plentiful trust fund accounts, but still were happy to beg to eat, "SPARE CHANGE FOR A BURRITO, BRO!!"
Good thing the band kept more and more separation between themselves and the scene that ultimately ruined deadland.
Forget about the stupid gangster hippies of the 1990s and just appreciate the music. The gangsta' hippies ended up ruining the scene, running around being greedy and stupid, etc. Living cariactures trying to act as "hippies", but failing to remember what the "hippy" spirit embodies - cooperation, good times, safety, etc. A lot of the later era tourheads were actually living on plentiful trust fund accounts, but still were happy to beg to eat, "SPARE CHANGE FOR A BURRITO, BRO!!"
Good thing the band kept more and more separation between themselves and the scene that ultimately ruined deadland.
Forget about the stupid gangster hippies of the 1990s and just appreciate the music. The gangsta' hippies ended up ruining the scene, running around being greedy and stupid, etc. Living cariactures trying to act as "hippies", but failing to remember what the "hippy" spirit embodies - cooperation, good times, safety, etc. A lot of the later era tourheads were actually living on plentiful trust fund accounts, but still were happy to beg to eat, "SPARE CHANGE FOR A BURRITO, BRO!!"
Good thing the band kept more and more separation between themselves and the scene that ultimately ruined deadland.
Forget about the stupid gangster hippies of the 1990s and just appreciate the music. The gangsta' hippies ended up ruining the scene, running around being greedy and stupid, etc. Living cariactures trying to act as "hippies", but failing to remember what the "hippy" spirit embodies - cooperation, good times, safety, etc. A lot of the later era tourheads were actually living on plentiful trust fund accounts, but still were happy to beg to eat, "SPARE CHANGE FOR A BURRITO, BRO!!"
Good thing the band kept more and more separation between themselves and the scene that ultimately ruined deadland.
NOFX sucks.
i dont like listening to bands where the guy singing sounds like a chick. or screams
get a life.
grateful dead/phish/james brown 4 life.
NOFX sucks.
i dont like listening to bands where the guy singing sounds like a chick. or screams
get a life.
grateful dead/phish/james brown 4 life.
NOFX sucks.
i dont like listening to bands where the guy singing sounds like a chick. or screams
get a life.
grateful dead/phish/james brown 4 life.
NOFX sucks.
i dont like listening to bands where the guy singing sounds like a chick. or screams
get a life.
grateful dead/phish/james brown 4 life.
first of all i think this site is very cool and
informative. now on to the dead, i've been a head
since the summer of 68 and having been fortunate
to have caught them live over 200 times all i can
say is :it was a trip" in more ways then one. the
nights they were "ON" were incredible! the dead
were one of if not the greatest live bands EVER!!
They were a talented band and spawned an interesting subculture which,unfortunately, was overrun and collapsed.