# 50 years of the Greatfull Dead and.......



## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

......and I don't even know one song they did.
I know of the band and I know of Gerry Garcia BUT I don't know their music....

How strange is this?
G.


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## djmarcelca (Aug 2, 2012)

Not really strange. 
The dead only had one song hit the top 40 .....touch of grey. 

They were a hippie phenomenon that made it to legend status by constant touring. 
The 60s never stopped for them, they just kept on going. Coupled with really really loyal fans, and pretty much staying with what worked for them, they were an icon of touring acts.


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

You are kinda strange. :sFun_dancing:

Most people have at least heard Truckin'. I wouldn't consider myself a deadhead but have always loved the band. I did go to a few of their shows in the 80's and 90's. I'm pretty sure the only people that don't get them have never been to a show. 

I recommend watching "The Other One", the Bob Weir doc, now showing on Netflix, for a good glimpse inside the band's evolution.


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

Sneaky said:


> You are kinda strange. :sFun_dancing:
> 
> Most people have at least heard Truckin'. I wouldn't consider myself a deadhead but have always loved the band. I did go to a few of their shows in the 80's and 90's. I'm pretty sure the only people that don't get them have never been to a show.
> I recommend watching "The Other One", the Bob Weir doc, now showing on Netflix, for a good glimpse inside the band's evolution.


HEy Sneaky ...I certainly didn't start this thread to diss or praise the band.
Since I have admitted to not knowing any of their music, I was just wondering how strange that was.
Maybe if I heard the song it might bring back a memory but as of now, no I don't know the song Truckin.

G.


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## Guest (Jun 26, 2015)

[video=youtube;pafY6sZt0FE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pafY6sZt0FE[/video]


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## Guest (Jun 26, 2015)

I don't know many songs either, except for the two mentioned.
I may know some that I haven't associated with them though.
If you're like me, your probably more familiar with the 'deadhead sticker'.


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## djmarcelca (Aug 2, 2012)

[video=youtube;_x2m6i4KFqg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x2m6i4KFqg[/video]


One of my Fav's of the Dead.

BTW this is the Casey Jones they're singing about:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones


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## Guest (Jun 26, 2015)

Never heard Touch of Grey? Nothing quite like breezing across the Golden Gate Bridge on a quiet night after a gig in Sausalito with this blaring on the stereo. You can almost...reach out and touch it, it's so there.

[youtube]nCYbRmSlW-M[/youtube]

I'm looking forward the Fare Thee Well show this weekend. Couldn't get tickets but a bunch of us are getting the families together a place in San Francisco to have a BBQ and watch the simulcast on YouTube.



> Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run… but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant.…
> 
> History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of "history" it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.
> 
> ...


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

iaresee said:


> Never heard Touch of Grey? Nothing quite like breezing across the Golden Gate Bridge on a quiet night after a gig in Sausalito with this blaring on the stereo. You can almost...reach out and touch it, it's so there.
> 
> [youtube]nCYbRmSlW-M[/youtube]
> 
> I'm looking forward the Fare Thee Well show this weekend. Couldn't get tickets but a bunch of us are getting the families together a place in San Francisco to have a BBQ and watch the simulcast on YouTube.


[video=youtube;XacvydVrhuI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XacvydVrhuI[/video]
Riding 80 south out of Reno with tunes like this pounding on the stereo of the bike at 3 in the morning was pretty damned good too. I probably have almost everything the Dead ever did on some form of media and more than a gig on a micro sd card....along with other stuff....to play on the bike. Scarlet Begonias is playing thru the head set.
@GTmaker....I've seen the dead twice, years back, once at the PNE in Vancouver. You not knowing the Dead is no stranger than me not knowing a lot of people and groups named in various threads. Here's one for you [video=youtube;671AgW9xSiA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=671AgW9xSiA[/video]


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

laristotle said:


> I don't know many songs either, except for the two mentioned.
> I may know some that I haven't associated with them though.
> If you're like me, your probably more familiar with the 'deadhead sticker'.


Saw a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac....


I used to drive a vw jetta with a Deadhead sticker on the back in the 90s and sold it to a kid in the neighborhood who ended up being our realtor and friend 20 years later. At one point we talked about the car and he bitched about never being able to get the cigar smoke smell out of it. 

I had to break it to him. That was not cigar smoke. Apparently he didn't notice the sticker on the back.


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## Adcandour (Apr 21, 2013)

not that strange at all

I have their greatest hits. I shoplifted it as a kid - 'cause the cover was badass. I was into metal and thought they would be metal. I was wrong.

But that album is one of my all-time favs without a doubt. Fantastic tracks.

...and they have their own channel on satellite radio - that's pretty huge.

I suggest grabbing that album and giving it a listen.


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## Guest (Jun 26, 2015)

adcandour said:


> ...and they have their own channel on satellite radio - that's pretty huge.


UC Santa Cruz has a Grateful Dead archival department: http://www.gdao.org/ -- they do, iirc, the programming for that XFM station.

The singer in my band, his wife's parents are old Dead Heads. Like from Day Zero. They live in Phil Lesh's old house on Mt. Tampalas. We're playing a house party there in July and hoping to brush shoulders with Dead royalty. It's a really strange and beautiful place, California is (sometimes).


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## sambonee (Dec 20, 2007)

Royalty. Word well used. Funny how proximity raises your class. 

I was around dead heads a lot growing up. I fould that most of my heavily involved musician friends respected them however weren't huge fans. I find that their most diehard fans aren't diehard musicans. Don't look too deeply into that observation. I just noticed that many years ago.


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## Guest (Jun 26, 2015)

sambonee said:


> Royalty. Word well used. Funny how proximity raises your class.


And that's _totally_ how these people think of themselves. Like they were the chosen ones because they happened to be living in The Haight when The Dead were. Very interesting stories they have though...


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## GWN! (Nov 2, 2014)

Not strange. I know who the Dead are. I would probably recognize one of their songs on the radio but would not be able to tell you the title. In my case no different from a Canadian band that has been around for 40 years. Rush. Know who they are but could not name a tune from them. Just not interested in their music.


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## fretboard (May 31, 2006)

Still listen to shows daily around here. No question they're my favourite. 

The descent to my guitar room at home;








My kids and I were going through an old box of dead tour stuff years ago when we whipped this together from pics I had taken at shows and whatever ticket stubs we could find;








Some of the backstage passes I was lucky enough to get and use along the way;


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## fretboard (May 31, 2006)

On the road to Richfield, Ohio for a pair of shows in March '93. It was sunny and warm when we left Windsor, ON but we drove straight into the "Storm of the Century" as it was named on the news before we got to Cleveland. By the time we got to our hotel, most everything was closed and we survived for 2 days and nights on what we could find at the local gas station (mainly ice cream bars). First night was cancelled due to the snow. Had tickets to the second night so we were good - except we had 7th row seats for night one, second last row of the upper level for night two... 















Buckeye Lake, Ohio - 7/29/94

Barfed up my lunch at a Subway along the way - took a bite and there was a hair connecting the food in my mouth to the food in my hand. Let 'er fly at the table barf-o-rama style. They were nice enough to ask if I wanted a replacement sub free of charge while mopping up some projectile. Thanks, but I'm good now...

Buckeye Lake held around 60,000 people I believe in the literal middle of no where. Here we are pulling into the parking lot/farmer's field.








Only about a 5 mile walk from where we parked to the gates to get in. Cool place to hang after a summer tour displaced by World Cup Soccer in the US and plenty of football fields and paved arena parking lots.








Bunch of rowdy hippie's waiting for opening band of Steve Winwood and Traffic. A crowd worthy of being every parent's nightmare...








Got pretty close to the front for Traffic, but didn't stick around long. The skies opened up just before they were finished and spent the next hour or dumping on folks with no place to go. Plenty of lightning around but it finally eased up about half way through the first set. How did the band react to such lousy weather? Longest show of the tour.


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

iaresee said:


> UC Santa Cruz has a Grateful Dead archival department: http://www.gdao.org/ -- they do, iirc, the programming for that XFM station.
> 
> The singer in my band, his wife's parents are old Dead Heads. Like from Day Zero. They live in Phil Lesh's old house on Mt. Tampalas. We're playing a house party there in July and hoping to brush shoulders with Dead royalty. It's a really strange and beautiful place, California is (sometimes).


So, are you on the bus or off the bus?

- - - Updated - - -

There was a train in 1970 that went across Canada. It was supposed to stop in Van but the city counsol said no.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Sneaky said:


> I recommend watching *"The Other One"*, the Bob Weir doc, now showing on Netflix, for a good glimpse inside the band's evolution.


Mrs. Greco and I watched this on Netflix tonight. Very enjoyable and recommended.
@Sneaky...Thanks for posting about it.

Cheers

Dave


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## Guest (Jun 27, 2015)

Electraglide said:


> There was a train in 1970 that went across Canada. It was supposed to stop in Van but the city counsol said no.


[video=youtube;P-aqggapuLA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-aqggapuLA[/video]


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

laristotle said:


> [video=youtube;P-aqggapuLA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-aqggapuLA[/video]


I missed a chance to go to Calgary to see it. It was supposed to come to Van but that didn't happen. I wonder if there's dvd's or VHS of it.


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## Milkman (Feb 2, 2006)

I'm sort of ambivalent about the Grateful Dead. It seems like stoner country to me. I listened to some to see what the fuss was all about, having only heard the stuff played on FM radio.

I don't hate it but..not my cup of tea.


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## Guest (Jun 27, 2015)

Electraglide said:


> I wonder if there's dvd's or VHS of it.


yes there is. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372279/


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

Anyone watching the pay-per-view tonight from CA?


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## Guest (Jun 28, 2015)

Sneaky said:


> Anyone watching the pay-per-view tonight from CA?


(raises his hand)

Have it on here now.

- - - Updated - - -



Electraglide said:


> So, are you on the bus or off the bus?


I don't even know that that means, sorry. ¯\(°_o)/¯

We play Dead tunes in my band:

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/iaresee/fw1803-sugaree-jam[/soundcloud]


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## Scottone (Feb 10, 2006)

Sneaky said:


> Anyone watching the pay-per-view tonight from CA?


Yep, watching it now


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

iaresee said:


> (raises his hand)
> 
> Have it on here now.
> 
> ...


It's from The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Tom Wolfe's story of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. There is a bit in the book about their meeting with the Dead and one of the Pranksters was married to Gerry Garcia for a while. One of the sayings is, "either you're on the bus or off the bus". I found The Acid Test and On The Road in a campground out of Revelstoke in 1968.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Had to crank up the B3 for that ..thanks ...


iaresee said:


> We play Dead tunes in my band:
> 
> [soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/iaresee/fw1803-sugaree-jam[/soundcloud]


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Exactly. I can't listen to them for any length of time at all.



Milkman said:


> I'm sort of ambivalent about the Grateful Dead. It seems like stoner country to me. I listened to some to see what the fuss was all about, having only heard the stuff played on FM radio.
> 
> I don't hate it but..not my cup of tea.


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## Guest (Jun 28, 2015)

Electraglide said:


> It's from The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Tom Wolfe's story of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. There is a bit in the book about their meeting with the Dead and one of the Pranksters was married to Gerry Garcia for a while. One of the sayings is, "either you're on the bus or off the bus". I found The Acid Test and On The Road in a campground out of Revelstoke in 1968.


Ahh. Yea, I'm probably not a bus rider, but I like the music I hear coming from it when it drives by.


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## fretboard (May 31, 2006)

iaresee - slap your favourite The Other One on and the bus reference should make more sense.

Escaping through the lily fields, I came across an empty space 
It trembled and exploded, left a bus stop in its place
The bus came by and I got on, that's when it all began
There was Cowboy Neal at the wheel of the bus to never ever land


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

Why do I get the feeling that Phil is the only reason this is not a trainwreck? 

[video=youtube;bbEPj1nlqBU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbEPj1nlqBU[/video]


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## Guest (Jul 4, 2015)

shoretyus said:


> Why do I get the feeling that Phil is the only reason this is not a trainwreck?


Yea, so mixed feeling about all this after watching the Santa Clara streams. I didn't order the Chicago streams despite really wanting to hear Ripple and Touch of Grey...

Bob keeps killing the jams. I'm not sure he's in to it one bit at all.

Trey sounds like Trey and that surprised me. I thought he'd change it up enough to sound a little more Jerry, but nope. It's Trey through and through, just over Dead chord changes!

All the brilliant moments I heard came from either Trey or Hornsby -- those two guys are so f'ing good it's nuts. They're also really, really, really practiced right now. Both of them have been touring heavily for the last few years so they're on their game. The rest are good, but it's not got that "I've been long jamming for years I can do this all night" kind of feel to what they're doing.

It's far from bad. I still enjoyed it and I'll buy the Chicago shows when they go up for download. But...yea...this ain't the Grateful Dead. Not by a long shot.

I'd pay to see a Trey/Hornsby collaboration. I think that'd be brilliant. Like Jerry and Merl Saunders:

[youtube]6V4SrD-thnY[/youtube]


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