Grateful Dead

dead.net the official site

To me there is very little that connects seeing the band live to sitting at home listening to a live recording. To recap I saw them 5 times in 1981 and 1990. Loved all 5 shows, and they didn't play any songs that I didn't like. Some songs, that I hadn't been so keen on -Row Jimmy comes to mind - made much more sense in real time than it did on live recordings, or on Wake of the Flood. Drums and Space in 1990 blew my head off. It doesn't do that now, unfortunately. More interesting than mind blowing
On 10/30/90 I thought it was great when they broke into "Lovelight" - an actual song off "Live Dead". Sadly, I don't have this response now - in fact I have no interest whatsoever in hearing a Bob sung Lovelight now. Or a show from 1990, for that matter. But that doesn't mean for a second that it wasn't great at the time, being there.

Like everyone on here, I guess, there are some songs I have heard way to often, simply because they are played at shows which are brilliant overall. To skip them feels a bit like skipping a dull chapter in a novel - you want to, but it makes you feel a bit guilty if you do.

Can one train a dog to poop on the floor (or sofa) each morning at exactly 3am?

I thought it was just me that got borderline PTSD when a show ended with Throwing Stones>NFA encore: US Blues. Miracle and Mexicali are on my list with many of the late era new songs mentioned.

Fortunately, there are so many great songs they either wrote or covered that really made it difficult to have a bad time at a Dead show. There was almost always something special. So time your bathroom breaks with skip tunes, stay away from the brown acid and let the good times roll.

Before shows some of the folks I would travel with would voice out what they thought we were going to hear mixed with dream setlists and the occasional song that they best not play that night or else (in the spirit of that Sideways quote, "I am NOT drinking any f***king Merlot"). We are a spirited bunch aren't we?

But I cant stop laughing.

Dog poop at 3 am

Isnt that a simon and garfunkel album title?

One search later:
Wednesday Morning 3 a.m. is the album title

Your mishap happened at...wednesday morning 3 a.m.

Too funny

Lovelight. Not my favorite, but I’ll take it over the typical throwing stones>not fade to end the show if for nothing more than a change of pace. I never really got into the 30 minute versions either.

I can tolerate LLR. I’ll admit I have a soft spot because my inaugural show ended the first set with that right into a China>Rider. It grew on me over the years and I much prefer the latter day, more amped up versions. The early iterations sound like something Engelbert Humperdinck should be singing.

Definitely skippable are most, OK all, of Vince. Corrina, Victim, Easy Answers, Eternity. . . You see the pattern here.

I actually liked a lot of Brent songs when I saw them live. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ve aged well. In fairness I probably haven’t either.

Passenger and Miracle are two older songs I never enjoyed.

As others have said, 12/30/1986 was an awesome show. Easily in the top five of all the shows I ever saw. Yes, they did have speakers outside for those who were not fortunate enough to get tickets. I thought it was a West Coast thing, but evidently not.

....while I was getting a glass of water.
My bad. I forgot to let them out before I went to bed.
Rain is welcome in Cali, but what the southwest REALLY needs is snowpack on the western slopes of the Colorado rockies. For several winters in a row.

That and Charlie's description of responsible cat ownership cracked me up.

Thanks for that.

I, too, reserve the right to Slide Filter whenever necessary.

I generally do not have problem with the cat, and living in a 120 year old rodent-free Victorian, I have a few things to be thankful for. I keep the litter fresh and clean and they keep the mice (and river rats) away.

I'm really in the mood for 1/2/1970. What a great and often overlooked release.

So weekend was Friday watching 12/30/86. Saturday was listening to MaryE's first show which I enjoyed immensely, and then later in the evening I watched 12/31/85 which was a national tv broadcast that started at midnight Oakland time and 2am here locally when it was on. I still really enjoy that video, wish they would release that whole show video, "I'd buy that for a dollar." Then Sunday the 1st, I watched "Ticket to New Years," which I also attended that 4 day run. Then Monday, I watched most of "The Closing of Winterland." So lots of Dead watching, and I enjoyed all of it. I also went thru a couple of shows from the MSG box, nice!

G

Happy New Year again!!!

BTK yall be safe now ya hear. This storm is a beast. I know rain is needed but not that much that quick. All in California and the desert areas prepare. It cost so little to have a manual can opener and $20 of canned goods to make it a few days.

Any way, have to go back and read last couple of days to catch up, but here are some quick answers.

DeadVikes thanks for the warm return. It is appreciated greatly. Unfortunately, my own health which is pretty good, is clashing with folks health which is not so good. Won't get into details, but I refer to them as my progenitors, as the love has always been cold as ice. Yet now I have to eat up my own time watching after them (although with a lot of others help also). I will try to post more often.

Question of why 12/30/86 and 7/16/88 are important to me. AJS had the correct answer, because of the guest drummers during drumz. But it was the whom, in who were the guests. On 12/30/86 it was Hamza El-Din (&Jose Lorenzo) and on 7/16/88 it was Baba Olatunji. Both such huge influences bringing depth to Billy and Mickey's poly-rythmic structures during drumz.

So roughly here was weekend schedule. On 12/30/22 I watched 12/30/86 on the me-tube. Very nice video (probably band created) and soundboard synced up. I had watched once previously but this time it really hit me. That one show, along with 12/27/86 represents one of those closures and new beginnings. Both of those shows have the more heroin induced jams of the late Keith/Donna era shows. I did not get into 12/28/86 as we were shut-out. Maybe someone here, like BTK, can remember when they put the speakers outside for any stragglers and the Shakedown Street crew, which was small. The 12/31/86 sounds like more of the changing sound coming in 1987. Intense upgrades in computers and technology, less in the slow methodical heroin induced jam (I love both). But this time watching 12/30/86 was way more meaningful, to really see and focus on Hamza, and tie him back to Egypt and the tar and talking drum. I do love from "From Egypt with Love" and Ollin Arageed, that rhythm is intense and right up my alley as a former want-to-be drummer. So for me to realize 25 years later that I saw both Hamza and Baba creates a warm feeling all over. I do recommend if you have not seen the 12/30/86 on me tube it is worth a watch, although I think in is labeled 12/31/86, which it is not.

BTK - thanks for the kind words of friendship and comradery, they do mean much.

I have several days worth of reading to catch up. I just wanted to make sure I remember to finish previous thoughts, as that is getting harder and harder to do.

Ok, will post and read to edit. I know I need an editor, kind of like young reporters today whose story telling/reporting is not good.

G

You don’t have enough urine or fecal material in your house and you want more.

You really dig randomly finding cat puke all over the house in a variety of unusual and unexpected places.

You don’t like to sleep through the night and want something to wake you up every couple of hours, but you don’t want to have a baby.

You feel like it would be cool to have a greater potential exposure to Toxoplasma gondii, because it sounds like such an interesting parasite, and Toxoplasmosis sounds so fascinating. (See e.g., the wolves of Yellowstone and toxoplasmosis, google it, you’ll find the articles and it is interesting).

You enjoy finding the back half of mice outside your door on a regular basis. They always eat the head, never the back end, go figure.

You enjoy watching them slowly destroy a wooden post on your stairway railing by using it as a scratching post. It’s a long-term project for them, but you can see the steady progress, just another way to measure the passage of time.

Your wife and children left you out of the decision and you’re not quite enough of a cold-hearted bastard to get rid of them. The cats that is, not the family members, none of them have peed all over the house.

We have two cats. They are indoors and outdoors cats, and in theory they are using the great outdoors as a latrine, but that is not always the case, especially if it is too far below freezing outside. One cat peed on the living room couch on 4th of July a couple of years ago late in the night. Everyone else was asleep so I took the opportunity to take the giant couch outside for disposal. It was a large couch, and I am not large, but I picked up that cat pee contaminated couch and got it down the stairs and through the front door, barely, and outside without waking anyone up. Wife woke up in the morning like, wtf, where’d the couch go? The couch did not come back inside. Now I try to keep the cats in a travel carrier or outside on 4th of July to avoid a repeat.

Edit: Don't get me wrong, I like the cats, but they don't make it easy sometimes.

Songs I skip: Corrina, Easy Answers, Looks Like Rain(though sometimes I do fast fwd to Jerry's solo), Easy To Love You.
I also apply a Slide Filter whenever necessary.