Unknown Soldier

Do people actually drink tea in the USA?

Necromancer

Well Hell Yeah!

Green Tea, Sweet Tea..(not so much hot tea)

I personally..like hot tea with a little honey, its good for the vocals.

Nirvana even wrote a song titled Pennyroyal Tea. "Anemic Royalty"!

Unknown Soldier

Well according to Ginger Baker in this song you don`t.


‪Masters of Reality - T.U.S.A‬‏ - YouTube

Necromancer

Well..I will admit that certain song (wherever the hell you got it from) is about as musically "articulate" as Nirvana's Pennyroyal Tea!

Unknown Soldier

I`ll admit they`re not up to the polished standard of say a Steely Dan record. BTW as this is a Grateful Dead thread, you may enjoy some of their mid 70`s jazz infused material which is not exactly a world away from Steely Dan.

Necromancer

That sounds interesting Soldier, 70s Jazz infused? Maybe I'll give it a trial run, so to speak. "Thanks"!

But it is nothing more than complete "Blasphemous"! To even mention.. the Grateful Dead in the same sentence with Steely Dan.

Unknown Soldier

Maybe I should mention the Doobie Brothers then!

Dessalines

It has been known for years that Bob Wier was almost kicked out of the band several times because he could not stay on beat. However, they kept him on....

Look, these guys were always raw. You go listen to "Working Man's Dead? and tell me that the singing there is good. It's not. That is the case on many Dead songs. If you like raw sounding stuff, then fine but it is not in the same class as so many other bands who could sing and play to a click track.

Shall we talk about "Anthem Of The Sun"? What a rip off. Not one redeeming song on the whole piece of vinyl and yet people bought that. Hell, I bought that and frankly it was all trash.

I did actually like some of Europe 72 live but a lot of that also leaves a lot to be desired from the vocal and rhythm perspectives but one makes allowances for that because it's live. However, if most of your studio records sound like live records only worse, then the band sucks. Compare them to the Byrds? Buffalo Springfield? Moby Grape as I mentioned before? Look you can be a band or you can be an experience and the Dead were definitely the latter.

Dessalines

Really? Go listen to the harmonies on Gene Clark's "No Other" and tell me if the dead every approached that? Stack that up against "Working Man's Dead" or the truly execrable "Anthem Of The Sun".... "Alligator running round my door" indeed, and the kazoo what was up with the kazoo, is that supposed to be funny?!!! Hello, that is junk. If I want funny I'll put on a George Carlin record.

Never ever on their best day did they sing what could be called good, much less excellent. Passable at times but not in the league of good harmony groups. The Byrds had harmonies, the dead had people trying to sing. Jerry's voice was thin and reedy, just like his guitar tone. People rave about his guitar playing when all he did was wander around the fret board without much phrasing. He was terrible. But people love it because they got high and it sounded good to them.


As for Wow, it was a ruined album. Ruined as the original band was torn apart by drug abuse and mental illness, What a loss. BTW, I thought Moby Grape 69 was a pretty solid record.


My point wasn't that the Grape were a more long lived band than the dead but they were head and shoulders better musicians and every guy in the band could actually sing.

Urban Hat€monger ?

I already listen to The Fall, the last thing I want is a another band with even more live albums & bootlegs than them.
I think i'll pass on the Grateful Dead.

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