People passing out everywhere from the heat and stadium staff hosing down all the trippy hippies was classic.
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Archive.org is the place to go to relive the concerts you went to and to get thousands of hours of concerts. The concerts off the Dead's Sound Board sound much better than some that Archive.org has off of cassette tapes.

I went to a dead concert in Buffalo in 1973 and recently listened to it and did not remember a whole lot- but was very cool to be listening to the concert I was at almost 40 years later walking in the woods through the snow.

I listen to Bertha when I am driving to fish and it gets me going - or Might As Well.

The Riders can't be the same without lead singer John Dawson who died a few years ago. He had been sick for a long time.

My kids think it is somewhat cool that I am a Dead fan. But they also believe that I must have been high at all the Dead Concerts- but I totally and vehemently deny any such thing.

Jeez, I have seen Etta 5 times in concert and she has always been amazing, leave it to the dead to lower her performance to their mediocre level. God they're awful. Think Im BSing?
Check out Etta with a real band backing her up. This is a rhythm section.....

Etta James - Something's Got A Hold On Me - YouTube

i was there too!!!

[QUOTE=RIJIMMY;978434]Jeez, I have seen Etta 5 times in concert and she has always been amazing, leave it to the dead to lower her performance to their mediocre level. God they're awful. Think Im BSing?
Check out Etta with a real band backing her up. This is a rhythm section.....

What you can't hear in that clip is Etta's high praise of the Dead. I trust her opinion more then yours. Constant complaining works better in the political forum, please leave it there.

(Imagine what this forum would be like if everyone complained about what they don't like?)

waa waa, the original thread said love em or hate em lets hear it. Sorry, but I've spent a life time playing music, many different types. I have a pretty good ear, good music skills and an incredibly eclectic music collection. Believe it or not people payed good money to hear me and for me to teach them to play. Oops, do I sound pretentious? I guess I wouldnt to a dead fan, is there anything more pretentious than the dead? 20 minute meandering, say nothing solos. Garcia said he gives off art like people sweat! WTF, are you kidding me? the dead are a mediocre bar band, nothing more. lets see, the biggest hippie fest of all time? Woodstock. Biggest hippie band of all time? The greatful Dead. Which band bombed woodstock so bad they didnt even make the film? Enough said.
the etta james example is funny, while I was living in the bay area, Johnny Otis (you know who he is, right?) used to host a radio show live at a bar/restaurant. he often went off on tangents on music and politics. he was a great grouchy old man, I loved him. He went off on a 20 minute tirade on how awful the greatful dead are, how lousy garcia was as a guitarist, etc. Why do I bring this up? Johnny Otis is the guy who discovered Etta James. He is one of the leading pioneers of RnB. True story.
You like jam bands, give me the allmans, santana, Trucks band, MMW, etc. Music with soul and talent.
These chumps are hacks, Id be embarrased to play like this!

Grateful Dead - Good Lovin (edit) - YouTube

embarrased to play like JG? you must be great!...and a multi bazillionare to boot with your fanbase- "Believe it or not people payed good money to hear me and for me to teach them to play."

Jimmy's right in stating they played poorly, but not all the time. I got into them real heavy when I was younger but began to lose interest towards the end as a higher number of shows I attended lacked the punch of their early stuff.

Its easy to find fault with some of their material although I feel the majority of their music, particularly pre 1990's stuff, is kick ass.

I've seen furthur a bunch of times in recent years and musically I feel they're as good or better than the dead during their peak years.
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OHHH COOL!!!
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Ahh, if only talent = money in the music industry!
I believe there are countless guitarist that play very differently than JG. So you think they're no good? I would never want to sound like him, ever. Garcia states his influences as early blues, jazz, country, etc. I have many of the same influences and yet I hear very little of the feeling, swing and harmonic complexities in his playing. His playing is dull IMHO. Music is an art, there is no better or best. But if you ask me if I think I am a more creative and technical guitar player than Jerry Garcia, yes, I do. But see, i dont think thats a big deal. I can post COUNTLESS youtube people who are much better. Here is one of my favs from the netherlands, this guy and I trade emails all the time. He is a relative nobody, but yes, he is a much more accomplished guitar player than JG. Big deal. That an $1.75 will buy you a coffee at Dunkin Donuts.


Donna Lee - YouTube

Slapping together an impromptu band for a SF New Years show is a little tough to gauge talent level and certainly not the norm. But opinions are what they are. All I can say is I have seen every type of musical performance the world has to offer. Nothing compares to being at a dead show when they were on top of it absolutely amazing and unless you went and experienced them live you really can't speak to the level of talent they had. To play over 100 shows a year and not repeat a set list is pretty incredible.

Garcia in particular was a member of many bands and played with many musicians in studio sessions etc.

It is its own genre and you are either going to be into it or hate it.

Much like new country music which makes me barf on my shoes.
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I sort of agree, its a genre, but not its own. My opinion, other bands of the same genre are much better. My nickname in college was "jerry" because I was the psychadelic burn out guitar player. All my friends were dead heads and I heard there live stuff over and over. I can tell you it doesnt resonate with me at all. I can sing along to tr#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&, bertha, ripple, etc and they are ok tunes. but nothing compared to tunes by Creedance for example. Then I'll hear "yeah but you never heard Terrapin Station" yawn, yes I have boring emotionless wank. Obvioulsy my opinion, but they are a mediocre bar band, jacks of all trades but masters of none, they are propelled by pompous hippies who believe their music is some new age phenonomon. People love to "belong" so they wear tie dies, have dancing bears on their cars, etc. You can walk into bars tonight all over this country and there will be better bands playing.
I love to piss off dead heads, been doing it most of my life. I always listen to the tunes you guys post and see if they finally sound ok to me, nah. Still empty wank.

Doesn't piss me off in the least just one mans opinion
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RI Jerry? :smokin:

Bill Graham once said the Dead weren't really music as much as they were an environment.
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I love dancing bears

great post....I love the honesty!
I use to hate the Dead, ...never got the long jams/solos. I do like some of the more structured songs now and the acoustic/country stuff...they do have some great songs

Bob and Jerry sum things up pretty well here:


Bob Weir on the Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia - New Online Course Rock History - YouTube



Jerry Garcia Interview part 2 - YouTube

i have to admit, I LOVE dirty hippie chicks, hairy armits, patchouly, bong breath and all. Living in San Francisco, my best friends lived in a commune type house a few blocks from haight. We used to party there all the time and man the stories I could tell. I guess weekends were like mini-dead shows without all the bad music. those were some good times.

Closet deadhead if I've ever seen one. Admit it already.
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Jimmy you say:

"Which band bombed Woodstock so bad they didnt even make the film? Enough said"

Jimmy not enough said on Woodstock as it is well known that when the Dead played Woodstock, their guitars were sending electric shocks into Weir and Garcia so bad they could hardly touch their instruments, their sound system went out for long periods and yes because of equipment issues their performance was a disaster.

Look obviously the Dead could not sing too well and technically I suppose Garcia was not a gymnast with a guitar like your Dutch friend above, but did Dylan play great guitar? did he have a good voice?

To me the golden years were from 1970 to 78 before they took their break and before Garcia's diabetic coma. In those years -There was a feeling you get from the music- The building riffs in Morning Dew, the uplifting feeling in Wharf Rat where you felt like you could get up and fly away.

Much of the Dead music is recorded at live concerts through little cassette decks and that makes the music and vocals sound lousy. Hardly any real studio albums. You listen toEurope 72 when there was some fixing up of the vocals and music and it was very good- comparable to CCR in my opinion.

But the most important thing I can say is that if I listen to the Dead on the way to a spot- I catch more fish and when I do catch a big fish if I sing Browned Eyed Women to myself the fish does not get off. "Drink down a bottle and your ready to Kill"

Jimmy not enough said on Woodstock as it is well known that when the Dead played Woodstock, their guitars were sending electric shocks into Weir and Garcia so bad they could hardly touch their instruments, their sound system went out for long periods and yes because of equipment issues their performance was a disaster.

Just so I get this straight - when weir plugged into his amp and totally sperately when garcia plugged into his amp, they were both shocked? two entirely separate amps? So there were plugged into the same outlets? Huh? Maybe they are so cosmically connected they shared the electric vibe...man?
And they had issues with their sound system? Funny I thought the sound system was provided by the venue. They had their own? Weird. I guess the dead were uh, special, not like santana, sly and the family stone, hendrix, country joe........

Do you like Phish, RIJ?

I do, I dont own albums but I enjoy their music. Trey is a cool guitar player. Their songs are very imaginitive and bizarre. I get they're "dead-ish" but I dont think they sound the same at all.

Quote

"Just so I get this straight - when weir plugged into his amp and totally sperately when garcia plugged into his amp, they were both shocked?"

Look the Dead were wasted and bad at Woodstock but the shocks are a fact and part of Woodstock lore.


David N. Bromberg Interview with Jerry Garcia, 1/71
David: Why weren't the Grateful Dead in the Woodstock movie?

Jerry: Well, we played such a bad set at Woodstock. The weekend
was great, but our set was terrible. We were all pretty smashed,
and it was at night. Like we knew there were a half million people
out there, but we couldn't see one of them. There were about a
hundred people on stage with us, and everyone was scared that it
was gonna collapse. On top of that, it was raining or wet, so that
every time we touched our guitars, we'd get these electrical
shocks. Blue sparks were flying out of our guitars.

Three Days That Rocked the World (Sterling, 2009) also tells the tale of what went on from August 15-18th, 1969. Some of it is summarized as "three days of mud and electric shocks." Mickey is quoted as saying "It was the worst we ever played" and Bobby just remembers the "great blue spark about the size of a baseball" that lifted him off his feet.

The Grateful Dead came late on stage because Owsley Stanley (a.k.a. "Bear" - their soundman and electrical engineer) wanted to fix the electrical ground on stage. Also their heavy equipment had squashed the turnable stage. Further, the rain had flooded the stage and the band was in danger of electric shocks[1]. Songs got delayed because of long breaks between them.

As a matter of fact if the electrical system was improperly grounded any electrical device on stage would send a shock to any individual touching anything metal particularly during a heavy rain due to a person covered in water standing in water would be a better path to ground than what was obviously available the GFCI outlet had not been invented at that point. It is fairly well documented that they had a difficult time keeping the stage upright during their set.
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I started off my jam band run with the dead during the early 80's until about 1991, which is when I felt the GD really started to deteriorate.Jerry's health was not good and the playing suffered at times.

I listen almost exclusively to moe. and Phish now. Both bands play really well all the time it seems and I haven't caught either band on a bad night yet. Moe. is a bit more rocking and in your face than GD or Phish, but play insanely good live.

Still a deadhead at heart though...that's where it all began for me. Great Jerry tribute song by RA:

http://youtu.be/LwlW3XSgtzM

I actually like this! assuming its garcia and not some guest, thats the most energy I have heard him play with. Not his usual meandering. the song has some build up whihch they usually lack. It would have been better if it was 5-6mins long. Not sure if you're familiar with the tune, but here is Jeff Becks version from 8 yrs earlier. Very creative song with some amazing playing. Probably my favorite song of his first album. Got to love the wah.

Jeff Beck - Morning Dew - YouTube

this is actually decent too, look slike it predates becks

(Walk Me Out in the) Morning Dew - Grateful Dead - YouTube