I got a year of Sirius for free last month and have been about 80% GD channel. I never really paid much attention to Dead and Company, but some of those renditions rip. Bobby is old as fuck to the point of detriment, but John Mayer slings that long guitar dong in a very appropriate soulful, bluesy way.
pretty much how I found the dead 4 years ago was the free xm trial when I got my new truck. Probably 90% of what I listen to if not listening to pods.
I was never really into Mayer until he joined Dead and Co, which caused me to pay attention for the first time. Love his stuff now.
Damn. RIP to a legend. Unfortunate how it all ended between him and the other guys. At least he was still playing and posting jams up until a month ago. What a life.
Got tickets for the sphere 3/21 and 3/22. NCAA tournament at the books during the day, losing my mind in the evening. Can’t wait.
Done with work, drinking afternoon coffee and listening to the soothing sounds of 73 Dead. Perfect for this wintry weather
that was so good, I had there 60 minute from a 6 year old keg a few months ago and it burned like bourbon/I loved it
I was grocery shopping on a Saturday morning at Kroger a few weeks ago and Jerry/Merle The Harder They Come was on the background music. I had to look around to see who snuck that on, but couldn’t figure it out.
If I was a bass player, I'd definitely present myself on stage like John Kahn. For starters, not only does he hang it low and play it like an extension of penis, as any good rock-and-roll bassist does, but he also gives the "yeah, that kind of fucks " expression each time he hits a note and typically has a cig hanging out of his mouth.
That's my favorite, because that song demands a banjo. Also partial to this one. Love Jerry's increasing tension and energy in his solos through the verses. IIRC, he runs through four verses with that bounce that makes Jerry Jerry.
edit, by the way, I was playing along to a bunch of versions of this song on guitar last night, and I gotta say, I don't think there's a bad* version of this tune. The original by Freddie Scott is brilliant, Hank Ballard's version is tight af (listen to those guitar stabs), and there's a duet cover from Otis Redding and Carla Thomas that's also perfect. Those chord changes hit so hard. (*the Grateful Dead covered this song once in 1972 and it doesn't really work. Phil sings on it and he's way flat in comparison to Jerry and Donna and they didn't really meld on the jam all that well. Sounded like they needed to rehearse it more. In any case, Jerry obviously got it worked out for his own band) Edit, didn't realize it was written by Bert Berns.
Rock Scully until the band held a meeting and fired him in the mid 80s - meeting that probably bought Jerry 10 more years on his life. Kahn and Jerry obviously shared a habit, but I always thought Jerry kept it together pretty well on Jerry Band tour; even the 94 shows weren't completely terrible (unlike many of the Dead shows that year and 95 - Jerry looked and sounded terrible most of the time). Obviously, the scene was surrounded by pills and powders and booze until the very end, and I think those summer Dead tours in the later years were the biggest problems for the band (not just Jerry) trying to keep their shit together.
Interesting, thanks for sharing. Only thing I really get through from ‘95 is So Many Roads from the final show. Like you said, that final year was rough on the ears
I saw some shows that summer. They were all pretty bad, but there were a few moments that would shine through. Last Morning Dew at the Knick (might have been my only Morning Dew I saw-- I'd always get the Standing on the Moon shows for some reason). The whole scene that summer was just so bad. I think I went to 3 cities that summer and there was just all this drama everywhere. Nightmare shit.
Played guitar growing up, hung it up for about a decade and picked it back up about a year ago. Never played in front of people before and trying to get my chops in order. Here's a video I just shared in the "People who play music thread" but thought it would be better for this one. It's me a few months ago trying to work out Deal . Had had a couple drinks and got lost on the chord progression for a couple bars in the second verse and then improvised the solo as far as I could before it started to sound like shit. Please excuse the mess in the background. We were in the process of moving out.
In 1992, instead of going to Florida on Spring Break, I went to Detroit and caught the Grateful Dead at Auburn Hills.