Maybe you did just have to be there at the time. All I know is that I've been friends with a lot of deadheads in my life, and as a result I've given the Dead more chances to win me over than probably any other band out there and still they have just never done it for me.

I was there at the time. Not knowing anything about the band other than hearing their name pop up a lot, I bought a double live album around 1973. That was my first try getting into them. Thought it was ****ing TERRIBLE. Met a hardcore Deadhead years later who had hundreds of boots. Tried again with a few versions of Dark Star. Same result.

Simply not my thing.

EDIT: Janz and me, brothers from another mother.

What about, like, every version of Dark Star at once?



Pretty much the only Dead I **** with.

Do you like the song Ripple?

I want to go on the record as a completely unapologetic Dead fan. I love them.

You’re not going to top that but damn I swear to God they have some incredible somg writing and studio albums.

Maybe my problem is I'm just not into somgs.

m>n

Just listened to the studio version.

I mean, competent song. Got all of that GD "Americana" vibe going for it. But.... The chord progression is as old as dirt. Singing is sloppy. Doesn't float my boat one bit.

This song represents what I don't get about the Dead. They created this stew of folk, gospel, country, American rock and pop, a bit of shuffle and ragtime, and other stuff on their studio albums and wrote some cool tunes (just not my cup of tea). Then live they'd take the songs and try and expand them with jams. If you were wasted and in the audience it would work. But listening to them at home they were mostly a mess. Aimless is the word I'd use. **** worked about 50% of the time. Maybe less.

Now take Zep's "No Quarter". Studio version was 7 minutes long and sounded like nothing before it. Please explain to me what genre they borrowed from back in 1972 when they recorded it. Totally original. Then live, the song could be anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes long with tons of jamming, but the band would return to key motifs to keep the "song" intact. Opposite of aimless.

Laundry is done. Time to fold and put away.

I'm no Dead fan, but I certainly wouldn't call a lot of their work aimless. They absolutely utilized motifs within their improvisation. They're just not very interesting players.

This utilizes motifs as well, I guess Zep must be ripping this off too (1968)