I never "got" the Grateful Dead ...

[Mr. Paul]

Later Jerry, so sweet it hurts a little bit

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by KevWind

While I understand the concept of personal tastes being important to ourselves I think the notion that of "getting it " or not, is somewhat self anointed .

It's definitely self-anointed, but I don't think it's as much of an exclusivity clause, like "we're cool and you're not" as some folks seem to be taking it. I know a lot of Deadheads who didn't "get it" for quite a while and then at some particular show, suddenly DID. Kind of all at once. I'd personally heard the Dead a lot before I saw them, thought they were OK, but the first notes of my first show were just an instant, "OHHHH, I get it now!" moment. I was lucky, my first two shows were epic. Not because they were my first two shows - I've heard all the tapes many times, and I only saw a handful of other shows that came close to the first two. The second one was possibly the best concert of any kind I've ever been at. But the first one was enough to hook me good and hard.

So it's almost more of a personal process of going from not getting it to getting it, rather than any sort of "I get it and you should" sort of thing. My wife has been to a few shows - liked 'em well enough but never all that much. I never held it against her - she and my kids are still my favorite people on earth. One of my daughters got it, the other not even close - I love them equally! We don't all like the same stuff.

-Ray

[ewalling]

Originally Posted by johnnydobbers

How can one not love American Beauty or Workingmans' Dead?

I think the question for most of us is not that; after all, these are fine albums. No, the question is more 'How can we love most of the rest of it?'

[Highroller]

Sorry, I'm not reading thru 17 pages of zombie thread. Hope I haven't already commented on this, but even after all these years, I still love Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. And Garcia's first solo album.

Unfortunately, those are a very small part of their total catalog, huge chunks of which bore me to death.

I saw them in the mid 70's - the Blues for Allah era - playing in a big basketball arena. Lousy sound, aimless performance, 20 minute breaks between songs - no attempt whatsoever to do a "show" per se. More like 10,000 people hanging around a casual jam session.

I can see where that might have worked at an outdoor festival, a free concert in the park, something like that. But in a concrete domed basketball arena, let me tell ya - it sucked.

Most disappointing show I've ever seen.

---

[UncleJesse]

Originally Posted by Mr. Paul

Later Jerry, so sweet it hurts a little bit

Love this tune but sometimes I wish someone had hidden Bob's slide.

[russchapman]

Originally Posted by Highroller

Sorry, I'm not reading thru 17 pages of zombie thread. Hope I haven't already commented on this, but even after all these years, I still love Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. And Garcia's first solo album.

Unfortunately, those are a very small part of their total catalog, huge chunks of which bore me to death.

I saw them in the mid 70's - the Blues for Allah era - playing in a big basketball arena. Lousy sound, aimless performance, 20 minute breaks between songs - no attempt whatsoever to do a "show" per se. More like 10,000 people hanging around a casual jam session.

I can see where that might have worked at an outdoor festival, a free concert in the park, something like that. But in a concrete domed basketball arena, let me tell ya - it sucked.

Most disappointing show I've ever seen.

---

Hmmmm....
Let's take a closer look.

Was it 1974?
https://archive.org/details/gd74-05-...957.sbeok.shnf

Or 1977?
https://archive.org/details/gd1977-1...0-01d1t08.flac

Now we can all relive the horror of 1970's Dead.

Of course, for the record, I dig it.

[fenderball]

I've listened to them for many, many years and saw them 20 times from '73-80...so, i'm a fan...i will say, that i sort of categorize them into eras...late 60's to '71...then '71-73 or 74...then after that, like 74-78....i kinda faded out of them after 1980 and can't handle the later stuff very well....(after Jerry got ill) ...here are my thoughts...i have met many people that said they didnt like them, but in honesty, many really had never given them much of a listen...which is understandable....hey, i havent spent much time on metallica....i'm sure they are really good, but in my limited amount of listening, just not my thing....the thing about the eras is this: they covered so much ground, that there is a good amount of good grateful dead music for many styles...my wife is a great example...never exposed to much of it in her life through her twenties...and if you asked her if she liked them, you'd have gotten a flat no...her taste has evolved, mostly through exposure, and now she really likes the stuff on american beauty, much of europe 72 and also workingman's dead...but she does not like stuff like dark star, the other one, the jams...if you like music, there is likely a good amount by them that you would like...many people dont like them just because of their social perception, just like i probably never gravitated to metallica for instance...but i bet if i deep dove metallica's catalog, i'd find quite a few songs i'd like...maybe i'll do that...anyway, they covered a lot of ground very well...and their acoustic sets were also often really good....okay...i'm done

[AndUandI]

Ive tried to like them... I just dont like their songs at all.. to me it just sounds like a bunch of guys sitting around a fire pit trying to sing and meandering around a repeated chord change over and over.. Half the time they sound out of tune to me ... anyhow.. there is a bunch stuff I like that I know many dont so everyone is different .. enjoy their music if you must

[J Patrick]

Originally Posted by AndUandI

Ive tried to like them... I just dont like their songs at all.. to me it just sounds like a bunch of guys sitting around a fire pit trying to sing and meandering around a repeated chord change over and over.. Half the time they sound out of tune to me ... anyhow.. there is a bunch stuff I like that I know many dont so everyone is different .. enjoy their music if you must

…no doubt Jerry had a “pitchy” voice…that accounts for a lot of the “out of tune sound”….but many of their songs are quite sophisticated when it comes to chord structure considering the genre……as for the meandering…that’s what jam bands do….I’m not a big fan of jam bands for recorded listening but the live listening experiences are far more engaging and enjoyable to me….

[AndUandI]

Originally Posted by J Patrick

…no doubt Jerry had a “pitchy” voice…that accounts for a lot of the “out of tune sound”….but many of their songs are quite sophisticated when it comes to chord structure considering the genre……as for the meandering…that’s what jam bands do….I’m not a big fan of jam bands for recorded listening but the live listening experiences are far more engaging and enjoyable to me….

Yeah.. I was never a jam band guy.. even when Im playing with other people I can only jam for so long over one song before I get bored

[Fireside_Guitar]

Originally Posted by Everton FC

What's the temperature out your way? I heard Kamloops will hit 49C (120F) Wednesday. Insane!!

In my part of the burbs in the Lower Mainland it hit 40c + when I looked. The Canadian record for heat fell again in Lytton at 47c. Kamloops was was 45 or 46c crazy hot. There's a bit of relief today as it's only supposed to hit 35c here.
I feel like a melted broke down palace.

[jkilgour2000]

"Never go it"? It's just music.

I don't like the Allmans, but I "get it" lol.

Weird thread.

[Scott O]

Originally Posted by Earthworm

I saw the Dead 30 times and they had a huge influence on me musically. I am not a Deadhead any longer and in retrospect believe that the whole scene was entirely unhealthy. There was a darkness underneath the facade of peace/love. One bad trip at a Dead show turned my life around. Ahhh, but that is another story...

I need to hear this story!

[Jobe]

This topic is not dead yet. Hi, Earthworm. You mentioned the whole scene was entirely unhealthy. I beg to differ. Some of the most kind, loving and intelligent folks I know were Deadheads. While I loved the Dead I was not in their league. They just absolutely loved the music. One time we were visiting my brothers girlfriends sister. She said, "Pete, check this out!" She opened up a curtain that I suppose was designed to be a pantry off the kitchen. The shelves were stocked with bootleg Dead tapes! Whoa! She had the biggest smile on her face. See? She was sharing her joy. She was not a hippy just a bright personality that loved the Dead. It was a healthy joy. Nothing wrong with that.

[zoopeda]

Originally Posted by Earthworm

I saw the Dead 30 times and they had a huge influence on me musically. I am not a Deadhead any longer and in retrospect believe that the whole scene was entirely unhealthy. There was a darkness underneath the facade of peace/love. One bad trip at a Dead show turned my life around. Ahhh, but that is another story...

Striving for peace and love and being spiritually cleansed as a saint who emanates nothing but peace and love are two different things. There is evil and potential evil living in almost all of us. If you take LSD and dive into that observation of a community, you’ll come up with some pretty upsetting conclusions. But if you’d undertaken that same exercise in any other group, you’d have found the potential for badness there as well.

I’d still take a group that strives for peace and love over one that doesn’t. And to expect sublime perfection in the actions of every mortal deadhead is just not realistic. There’s tremendous beauty at dead shows as well, the potential for which is greater than just about any other place I’ve been.

I agree with another poster that something about a band flying without the safety net somehow allows for the best of times and the worst of times. The same can be said of their community of fans.