The Grateful Dead
 

Do you dig the Dead? If so, wat are some of your favorite years?

Hmmm...more like what period didn't I like?

60's - 70's - 80's were all good.

I really enjoy the period when Mickey took a break - no slur on him, it's just nice to hear Billy free to do his thing, lay down the backbeat, etc. And anything through the Wall Of Sound. The couple of years after the hiatus are really nice and spacey, as they find their groove again. I'm also that weirdo who likes the studio albums. Like, all of them. Like, a lot. I haven't heard any live recording that didn't have its moments, but other than 1968-1978 or so it's hard to find a night when everyone's kind of into it at the same time.

Mergeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Wow, The Dead never get discussed on this forum! I really love the Brent Midland years. He had such a coarse yet powerful voice and was an amazing musician. I wish he were still alive. My favorite album is One From the Vault.

Brent's voice freaks me out! I mean, I like a crazy rough voice, for example I love Royal Trux... but any vids I've seen with Brent in them, his eyes are so BIG and his beard and his hair are so BUSHY and it's like watching some tiny frightened woodland creature screaming... or something... one of the GD books I read talked about someone hearing from him right AFTER he died, that it had been a dumb mistake and he hadn't meant it to happen, and that really shook me up

I have never heard a single song by them!

Don't waste your time...they suck...:bonkhead:

Yes, people screaming incoherently is so much better.

Hey thats in my opinion...

They really are an aquired taste. I lived to hate them for the longest time. I'll see what I can do ;)

It's hard to know where to start as no one thing is representative of the whole. Most bits I only like in certain moods. It took about twenty years of hearing bits of different albums at different times in different situations played for me by different people before I looked around one day and said, ok, this stuff isn't so bad after all

I don't like them at all and I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like them either. Despite their spacey rep, their music overall isn't very trippy or experimental sounding. It's mostly rootsy jams with a strong country influence.

Surely you must have heard some of their more popular songs here and there though? "Casey Jones"? "Truckin'"? "Touch of Grey"?

Yeah, but try listening to Side One of Anthem Of The Sun, for example (well, it's the only really odd example I can think of) or possibly the "Dark Star" from Live/Dead ... Yeah, they definitely transmogrified into a "saloon band" after that, tho

"Dark Star" is the only song I've ever heard by them that sounds remotely psychedelic to me. Not coincidentally it's also one of the only songs I like by them.

Not that I know off or I can't remeber them anyhow. There is a whole raft of free stuff on archive. org but I have never really bothered with it lol

the archive.org stuff is by its very nature hit and miss - just about every show ever is up there - maybe not a great place to start... Although the Kevar Stadium show from 1975 where they start with Blues For Allah might be worth your time ... tho it seems to have been pulled from archive.org as it has now been commercially released. Bet you could find it somewhere if you looked around.

Lets be friends. :love:

I don't love the Dead, their endless jams can test even my patience, but yes, I really f*cking admire them. Great musicians all around. The Pigpen era stuff is great.

If you think their usual psychedelic stuff is boring though, at least check out American Beauty, it's a really gorgeous country album, no jamming, and it has some of their more well known songs.

I agree 100% completely.
I have moments where I get the bug to listen to them and it's a craving that bgs to be satisfied.
As far as their country side goes nothing beats Reckoning.
Ill see if I can root out a link somewhere.

Years.
 

I like the dead through the 60's and 70's but after that they kinda got weird sounding with all the extra added sounds and synthesizers. Dont believe me? Well then listen to their last two studio albums.

I've been wanting to get some Grateful Dead for a while.
What exactly should I get?

I just asked a dead head this the other day and he said, Europe 72' & American Beauty are the best to start with.

will do.

Damn this seems to be the first mention of The Dead that I have seen on this site

I actually enjoy them a lot, but you have to be careful what you listen to cause some of the stuff is just really bad.

My favorite album has got to be Blues For Allah

I will be sure to check that one out! Europe 72 is pretty good too!

Certainly. And you can't forget Workingman's Dead...

How many of you love grateful dead your opinion.
 

One of my personal fav bands...How about you guys what are your opinions on them.

I hate hippies, but I love me some Dead. Wouldn't call myself a deadhead, though.

I dig 'em. GD are a bit too folksy for me, kinda past my time I guess. I'm a Phishhead. Do have quite a few Dead shows, lately my favorite show has been 12-28-79.

I say someone close this sucka down. Isn't there an official Dead Thread already?

I'll bite ... I'm that dude that actually likes the studio albums, even ... but a good live set (or 3) when I'm in the right mood is a day well wasted ... and certain of their songwriting (Garcia-Hunter) is brilliant

I would just never listen to a Grateful Dead studio recording.


Give me "The Golden Road" live anthology and I'll be set.

well, I'm a fan of studio recordings in general ... I love live music, but it doesn't always come across well in a recording ... there's kinds of guitar tones in particular that you can't get any other way ... whether it's The Velvet Underground's studio take of "Sweet Jane" with all it's beautiful stilted clunkiness, or (more relevantly) "Stella Blue" (for clarity of delineated groove) or "U.S. Blues" (for vocal and guitar tones) or "Terrapin Station" (for unnatural closeness of perspective) or side one of Anthem Of The Sun (cos it's insane) ... I'm not a fan of badly applied studio technique, just that there's sonic things that happen naturally there if you let them that can't happen in other places

By no means would I disagree that the Grateful Dead brought the 300 pound gorilla to the live idiom, and at their best could take you places you couldn't get to any other way (whether one wants to go to those places is one's own prerogative)

i listened to them a lot in college, but never religiously or anything. been getting back into them recently.

over at archive.org you can download all kinds of shows for free. lots of good soundboard recordings, many available in flac.

this one is particularly nice, with 25 wonderful minutes of Scarlet Begonias/Fire on the Mountain :D
Internet Archive: Free Download: Grateful Dead Live at Barton Hall - Cornell University on 1977-05-08

Seeing that a Dead topic was already in order, I will just post here. I love the Dead, by far my favorite group, their music has so much listening pleasure to it. Favorite album is Wake of the Flood over here.

Just got myself a nice Grateful Dead record.
http://www.recordsale.org/cdpix/t/th...ead%281%29.jpg
My first one! I have a 7" but that's knackered.
Some american bands are hard to get here.
The Grateful Dead is really a problem and you cannot find anything by Lynyrd Skynyrd either :(.

Wow what a record you got there! Good find S__k.

Pretty rare one. No sleeve, but it's very playable.
It was in one big box of records (110 pieces for 50 bucks).
Had some really nice stuff in it. Doors, Led Zep, Fela Kuti, cure, vaughan.

Wake of the Flood is a very good album, but I usually find it doesn`t get mentioned in the same breath, as some of their other studio albums around the same period, such as say Workingmans Dead and Amercian Beauty.

Very true, when you think of the Dead you always think "Live". But I have to say, Wake of the Flood is definitely one of their best studio albums in my opinion. The one I bought comes with the Acoustic Bonus track Weather Report Suite, definitely worth the 9.99$ price tag.

S__k: Wow! That seems like a darn good deal for that many records, enjoy it my friend, it's not every day that you run into Dead records, at least around here that is :rofl: