Grateful Dead

Wish they could grab Phil and Friends along with Warren Haynes.

Been playing around with The Dead a touch. Fired up an old computer and rediscovered a file from 2008/09 with a lot of shows in it. Forgot about that. They had some very good shows with Warren Haynes.

And the continuation of the drums thread, they had some awesome drum/space during this 2008/09 period.

Wrote on here years ago about how I felt drums/space was a kind of replacement for Dark Star. As an aside, I think it matches up with "Where's the dog star?" Or, Where is your night time Compass? Many used D/S as a rest room break. In the shows which I saw, I never took a bathroom break at any shows, ever, except one which I plan to write about next year. If I, and we, make it.

It is interesting that Sirius, aka, Alpha Canis Major, or A CMa, is a binary star having Sirius A & B (to keep things easy). I have spent years reading on this type of stuff and believe with many, that our solar system maybe be binary, or bipolar. Is there a planet x out there, some of the math says so. I believe it could be true.

So any way, I think the fellas played around a lot with the next psychedelic jam. Where can that dog star be in our shows. Most of the time, in later years, it was that one hour nugget in almost every show centered around drums/space. Now sometimes that was off and the started the show blazing psychedelia from the get go, for me 1982-09-21, MSG, with Playing>Crazy opener. My point, even when you are way over-dosed, and questioning decisions made, the fellas had a guide star. After all, Sirius A is a fixed star, a Compass. They always lead you out of the psychedelia so that you can go back into the real world, and do your best to function/not get caught.

All of this, points to the true meaning of Grateful Dead, much like the Phoenix rising. Each show day they set-up and take down the System (life/death). They move on down the road and set-up again. Each show, they almost always recreated the Tests, by initiating new partakers to play in the swirling chaos of a show, the chaos of life and death for all of us. Many would come and the experience would overwhelm them, scare the shit out of them. That is, they always maintained the joy and fear of life as we know it. for me, let's say a show with 10,000 has a 5% or 500 new participants, I always believed only 10% of those continued on. Many were just trying to get a bucket list item checked off. Again, the mysteries dark and vast, have never been captured even closely by any other band or other forms of art.

Have a great friend see his one and only GD show on October 8th, 1989. He had a great time, but he was like "look at the dude in a skirt!" Great friend, but never attached or understood. This same friend I saw a Yes show in Nashville April 1984, one of his closest friends went to Hampton GD, that same weekend.

She dont lie, she dont lie, she dont lie...Cocaine. If memory is correct, I think it was on Long Strange Trip, Wiz says he left in 1976 due to the increasing amounts of Cocaine. That it was changing the band and the music. I dont think GD could be GD without psychedelics, cocaine, and heroin. All three stages provide me with differing styles and points of entry.

Have more thoughts on all of this but need to post before computer fouls up and lose it.

G

In the nice little Rolling Stone/Special Collectors Edition magazine, the introduction, by Bobby, includes this quote....."For me, the shows we did in the late Eighties were our peak, our best era." Interesting how the musicians have different interpretations of shows/eras than the fans. I like them all, but since I missed the beginning through late 1973, I only have 1973-1995 as my reference point for the live experience. Would have loved to seem live in the late '60's, but soooo thankful for all the archival music.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that they didn't play any great shows after 1975, or that they are not worth listening to after that date. Chuck couldn't have put in any clearer - and that from first hand experience.
I got Dicks Picks 33 on vinyl earlier this year - 10/9 and 10/10/76. They are both great - 10/9 is really good !

An excellent show, I remember when that first came out.. I was in heaven. It's got one of the better examples of the faster tempo Eyes of the World. That outro jam from He's Gone is special too, and who doesn't like the 77 Terrapins.

Good points all around. I'm partial to 68 through 74 also, but I have to admit I like a good show or even good moments from any era or configuration. Listening to the Jam out of He's Gone from Englishtown as I write this. A great piece of improvisation.

Two things -

On the archive there is a user/member - "Top Hat Crew". Guy has great recordings.

From the guy I've gotten all of his "Terrapin Flyer" stuff. These guys are pretty damn good,,, seem to be out of Utah. Worth checking out in my book.

PS - Like Jim in MD, I say the 80's hold a lot of gold. I only saw during the 80's. The sound may have changed after 75, but wasn't worst. They seem to turn on a dime in my book. As Jim once pointed out,,, if you stop at 75 you miss a lot of great tunes.

Daverock You Nailed it From 1976 onward they lost something. They were still GREAT!! But the shows from 1968 to 1974 were the Best (In My Opinion ) I remember Phil saying something like.......When we came back from the year off (1975) we never got the Magic back that we had before. I saw them 40+ times before 1975 and 60+ after They changed as everything does and they were always Great, but to me pre 1975 was Magical like Daverock says the psychedelic dimension

Coke show

Especially 2nd set

Deadbase sez they left the stage for a short bit after Samson and then did the monster rest of the show.

Hmm.

Yes, that song did benefit from having two drummers. I don't know, but I would have thought heroin, and to a lesser extent alcohol, also led to a simplification in style. Not that I'm saying there weren't still great shows, but they seemed to lose the psychedelic dimension from 1976 onwards. It's not easy to say what that dimension is exactly - it wasn't a formula - but you can recognise it when it's there. And when it's not.

42 years ago tonight I was at the Greek Theatre for an absolute knockout show with the Good old Grateful Dead. This was my favorite Dead show at the Greek, and also my favorite year that the Dead played there. Joan Baez brought a birthday cake out for Mickey Hart and the crowd sang him happy birthday. Where is that Complete Greek box set. Killer Morning Dew, Cumberland, and Other One.

Sampson benefited from two drummers.. if they ever performed the whole Terrapin Station Suite, I'm sure that would have rocked with two drummers. They had less of a turn on a dime, jazzy, all for one - one for all feel post haitus.

No one ever mentions this.. but I suspect cocaine really piled on after their hiatus (pun intended) and this had more an effect than people realize. Not that it was a stranger prior to 1976, but I suspect this substance is more a distraction to the kind of focus it takes to get the full value of having two percussionists, whereas lysergic might have been a better mixer for that kind of sound.

It's all history at this point, but we got Scarlet Fires, Help/Slip!/Franklins, Estimated>Eyes and a louder more forceful GD post hiatus. Sometimes you take what you are given for good or ill.

Looks like a damned good lineup in Mexico this winter. Alumni of the GD, ABB, TTB and Goose playing under the billing of Dead Ahead. If I was lighting up hundred dollar bills to pass the time I'd be on that train, especially after the recent Wolf Bros reviews and the high energy of the last D&C tour. I kinda lost interest when the ticket prices went up and the energy and speed declined. Now I feel like I am missing something, which is a good thing.