I'm not one of these guys who can write smart things about music. I don't have a music critic's vocabulary and I can't detail what's going on in music I enjoy.
Here's what I do know. When I am working and I have on XM Radio's Deep Tracks (Channel 40), band after band can be pleasant background music that I'm not paying close attention to, but every time the Grateful Dead comes on, they arrest my attention.
I was never a Deadhead. I went to a handful of their shows, but I never really related to the scene. I felt no connection with the skeletons, dancing bears, tie dyed clothes, spinny dancing, or any of the other activity and paraphernalia that surrounded Grateful Dead shows.
Every Grateful Dead show I attended, I went to sober. So I never entered into the psychedelic dimension of a Grateful Dead show.
In fact, when I went to hear the Grateful Dead in 1987, 1988, and 1990, I was very unfamiliar with their music. Unlike the Deadheads I went to these shows with, I didn't recognize songs and couldn't anticipate what was coming next.
I had no Dead cred.
I'm still not intimate with the Grateful Dead's catalogue.
But, when I hear Jerry Garcia's guitar floating or doodling or growling through the air of my office, I snap to attention. When I hear the Grateful Dead bring country, blues, bluegrass, rock, folk, and jazz inflections to relatively simple songs, and when I hear them build a musical cathedral out of small country church, they absorb me, and I stop what I'm doing and feel the pleasure of their sound.
That's all. I've expended my talent for writing about music. But, I wanted to get this down. I'm not a Deadhead.
I just love the Grateful Dead.
5 comments:
I enjoy the way you write. I really enjoy the things you choose to write about.
Happy Halloween!!!
I bought most of my Grateful Dead albums at second-hand stores. I was never a Deadhead, but there's times when their music sounds good. Their second album, "Anthem of the Sun" is one of the strangest, most wiped-out records I've ever heard. I like the Dead's more focused, concise material. Boy, can they drift; I read once that they played the same note for 10 minutes at a concert. I do believe the Dead were better "live" than on any of their studio albums.
I guess I need to get out more. I don't know if I have ever listened to the Grateful Dead.
I'm a deadhead from the mid 60's. My younger brother turned me on to them. I don't have a favorite because I can name ten or so as my number one. They are fun to listen to with a story behind each one. They have a tall tale if you will. Monkey and the Engineer,China Cat Sunflower, Know you Rider, Not Fade Away, St. Stevens, Bertha, Jack Straw, Playing in the Band, Big Boss Man,Box of Rain, Franklin's Tower, El Paso, Most people don't know the songs because they are not played on the radio like other groups. They would always played Casey Jones (which I named my Irish Setter after)and Truckn (They played it over & over & is why they are not at the top of my list). Although the dead has always had a sell out crowd in their concerts. I've been to several myself but back in the 70's. Great era.......
Deadhead55from El Paso.
Post a Comment