Grateful Dead

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thanks for the '95 shares. I myself am into the '95 era.

Worth the price of admission on 7-8-95 to get a Visions. Got a Take Me To The River in Memphis 95 (the Pyramid is next to the MS River). Caught the same 95 summer shows as SpaceBro. My first time to Deer Creek....and my last.

I dunno man. I think Vince was doing great work as early as summer '92. especially on Picasso Moon. i'll probly take a lot of flack for saying so but, Picasso Moon got better with Vince. it always came off sounding thin during brent's years to me. not sure why that would be. case in point: 6/20/92 Knickerbocker Arena.

got to click on daves picks drop down in music store to find it

I attended the two in Auurn Hills, the night that wasn't cancelled at Deer Creek (very weird and frieghtening experience) and the last two at Soldier Field. The Palace shows weren't too bad. The most passable of the final five I saw. The circumstances at Deer Creek overshadowed the gig itself, and the cancellation of the second night (because of so-called fans) really soured the vibe and scene in a way where I was convinced that the Dead needed to take a break to regroup. I recall the two shows at Soldier Field being dismal, with that Visions of Johanna from the first night being the only moment where Jerry showed passion and delivered a solid effort. The rest of that weekend, Jerry looked like he didn't even want to be there. Not even a shell of what he was just a few short years prior. In hindsight, it was painful to see Jerry go from a few of his last best years ('87-'91) to his deterioration to the end. Of course they still had some good shows left in them from '92 onward, but that was mostly the rest of the band stepping up to cover for him. '93 did have it's share of good shows though. The drpoff from '94 onward was drastic though. I was fortunate enough to see them grow from being the best kept secret in '84 through their true final peak of consistency, but after Brent died, in hindsight, Jerry seemed to lose the spark. Bruce helped bring some of that back, but after he left, it was a steady decline. Ironically, at the time I thought Vince was just finally coming into his own with the band at the very end. All in all, he did better than I gave him credit for, considering the shoes he had to fill. We'll never know now, had the band had taken a break prior to his second collapse in '92, whether Jerry would have bounced back. In some ways it's like he became a prisoner in his own career, which ultimately killed him in the long run. His continued addictions and stress of being "the man" at the center of a massive touring operation became too much of a burdon, as I see it. Jerry did manage to outlive many of his contemporaries though (Jimi, Janice, Morrison, Pigpen ect) and still have a 30 year profesional touring career, going out at the peak of popularity, which itself was no small fete. I'm also reminded of Johnny Winter, who also survived the '60's, and like Jerry, continued to peak, up through the '80's, only to gradually wither away once the '90's came to be. Very sad watching our heroes fall.

My 30th birthday, the Dead's 30th year. Their last show, my last show. So Many Roads, so bittersweet...

I read once "somewhere", Dylan said Jerry did the best covers of his songs.

Loved a lot of them...so many roads, lazy river road, days between were all beautiful and I was happy to hear them whenever played. Towards the end, Bobby started doing Take Me to the River which I saw live once. I think that was well received enough where it could have been a mainstay had the band continued to tour past 95...

What a special song and so well suited for Garcia's style. It occurred to me a while back that Jerry broke this one out when he was exhausted and, frankly, on the brink of death - both times. Played in March and April before his July collapse in 86 and then from February to July before his August death. I think that this was no coincidence and demonstrates just what the song meant to him and how he felt when he was inspired to perform it.