Mucha na Dziko

Hm, well, I see the Dead don’t get much love around here. This thread already died like two or three times, from what I see

As I discovered and fell in love with them just in the last couple of months, I thought I might share some of this love here.

I actually never listened to them before. I mean, I knew they existed only because my father had a copy of American Beauty and played it from time to time. So up until this year (or the end of the last one) I’ve only heard stuff like Friend Of The Devil, Candyman and Box Of Rain. Oh, and Casey Jones – I loved this one when I was a kid – the opening lyrics will be forever carved in my memory.

Some time ago I saw there’s a documentary on Netflix titled „The Other One – The Long Strange Trip of Bob Weir”, and as I’ve already watched all of the other music documentaries available there. And here it began. When I’ve heard Jack Straw playing in the background I became absolutely amazed with their music and skill. To be true Jack Straw became my favourite song (I don’t listen to it that much nowadays – but it still touches some deep feelings each time I play it; it was also the first song I asked my guitar teacher to show me how to play).

I never knew that the Dead were so heavily linked to the Acid Tests, Kessey and the others. I knew that they were a hippie band, that’s better live than on records, but I never knew even half of the stuff that happened with them.

I came to really like Bob Weir. Apart from his absurdly good guitar skill, he seemed like a really accomplished, satisfied with his life aging rock star. Most of the old rock’n’roll guard seem to me like they want to act like they’re still 20 our something, when that shouldn’t be the point. And Weir aged in such a manner that instantly made me respect him (and I hoped that one day, when I’ll be 70, I’d age in a similar manner – with dignity and a sense of accomplishment, acceptance of my age).

I first started with American Beauty and Workingmen’s Dead – just to remind myself of what were those records about. And then I went straight away to searching bootlegs, love recordings, etc, knowing that the albums were probably of lesser quality (as everyone said).
The Europe `72 tour blew my mind. As well as the show at Cornell University, and many other tracks from the Dick’s Picks series. I’m not that much of a fan of the Live/Dead album, though from what I’ve heard it’s much revered by many Dead fans. The album just seemed to me too chaotic, uneven. I remember when I played it to my ex-girlfriend and she asked me to turn it off, and asked whether it was one of my band’s acid jams. Though I must say that when I was alone, turned off the lights, smoked a lot of hashish, Live/Dead was quite the astounding listen.

Then I listened to all the studio albums, and as predicted I didn’t like them that much – the live renditions seemed to have much more energy and swag to them – and that’s true for all but one album, that being Blues For Allah.
Damn, what a record.
Help On The Way was my next favourite thing ever. I mean, the melody and playing is great, and Garcia sings in such an angelic voice and gentle manner that it completely blew my mind.

I’ve never listened so far to any of the latter configurations of the Dead (after Garcia’s death), the Furthur, Dead&Company, etc. Is it worth a go?

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