Grateful Dead

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Just listened to a few tracks on SiriusXM, Dave's usual preview special. This music is great and special as promised for the songs he presents however they went overboard with adding in fake crowd sounds since it came from a soundboard. Its overbearing, unnecessary, clearly unauthentic and nonstop. Its like listening to an old TV sitcom again once you've gotten used to no phony soundtrack. Please remove else I won't buy it. You've been warned. Thank you.

I can find something I dig in every era of the Dead's music, every year there is something they played I can find I enjoyed..

So predictable you can set your watch to it > New Release, then a flood of narcissism.

I always enjoy reading critical assessments of the band on here from people who obviously know what they are talking about. People who all think the same way - uniformity in any field always turns me off. Indiscriminate positivity does, too. It just doesn't ring true for me. Its quite patronising to label others as "naysayers" or "haters" if they don't like something connected to The Dead.
Recent posts by Doc and Dark Star have surely been well worth reading. Whether you agree with the sentiments expressed in them is beside the point.

you summed up my feelings on it. What on earth would motivate me to listen to a Bird Song that sounds like a cover band doing Bird Song?

Hendrix freak it sounds like it's ok to dump on it as long as there is a description of the dump, yes? Something subtantative I think you said? The Bird Song melody in the 80s and 90s ends on a completely different note. Someone mentioned this a while back. You go to the 70s and Jerry ends on a high note and Bobby ends on low note. Jerry is typically higher in the mix so that's what you hear out of the melody, and it works to much better musical affect than the whole band ending on the low note which sounds yuckers compared to the 70s where Bobby played the same phrase lower to fill out the sound and compliment the main melody Jerry was playing. Jerry still sings the end of those verses on a high note, so it's not even like they're doing it to compensate for aging voices which get lower over time. Everytime I listen to an 80s bird song it's like the melody ends on a discordant note.

How's this for substance. Brent hasn't the foggiest idea how to fill musical space in about 50% of the songs he plays. He sounds great as a chord guy which is great for Hammond playing, but as soon as you put him in front of the Fisher Price, he's just playing notes all over the place, as if he can only hear Phil, Billy, and Mickey. No regard to what the guitar players are doing. When Brent is off the Hammond, timing is good, musical coherence and improv note playing is way off. Did I notice this at the shows? Not really. I always got as close to Jerry as I could and the PA mix the crowd hears at the show is always much better than what ended up released in the 80s. I could barely hear Brent at the shows. I would much rather have a Bruce Vince keyboard combo atmospheric and ethereal. But even the Hammond was overplayed by Brent. Go listen to Pigpen in the WMD Port Chester show from '71. Did Brent have more energy and flexibility on the Hammond than Pigpen? Absolutely. Was it necessary? I guess so since the guitars weren't filling in the sound as they once did. Was it a better version of the band? Not even close. Pigpen knew exactly when to play and exactly when to keep his hands off the damn keyboard. Can hardly fault Brent for that when it came to the Hammond because nobody else was really pulling their weight full time instrumentally by 1987. It came and went throughout most shows. But this is really the whole point why there are a lot of people who don't care for later era Dead.

There's your substatitive Hendrix freak. I wasn't going to post anything at all but just tell me I don't have a right to and I would be happy to provide an earful every time. Have some couth. Your analogy was cringe worthy, as if you were the one exhibiting the show in the middle of the room. Stick to your grease calls and concert stories. Those are good posts.

Note to Space Brother - I am very happy for you. Regardless of my taste in 80s Dead, I know how much you love this. It's been a long wait for you, enjoy this one, enjoy the last one, enjoy the Giants Stadium box, and enjoy the RFK mini box.

I used to have 3/31/87 via WMMR-FM broadcast> VHS-HiFi> cassette (and VHS-HiFi> CD-R) and 4/7/87 via WNEW-FM broadcast> VHS-HiFi> cassette (and VHS-HiFi> CD-R). These shows are not excellent but very good shows in my humble opinion and I had pre-show and post-show DJ chatter on both recordings and on the 4/7 recording had commercials for Ben & Jerry's and a "Club Dead" (on 2nd Ave. in NYC, if I recall correctly). But for the life of me, I cannot find any of the recordings - original VHS or cassette or CD-R clones. Over the years, I heard that the Hartford shows were much better than the 3/31 & 4/7 shows. Replacing good for better ones, I guess.

Happy birthday, Bob Weir!
72

Hey rockers!

Been a subscriber since day one and will continue to do so. We've always had to take the lesser with the greater, that's not a new phenomenon, here and in life itself...........

Having a critical opinion is not being negative. Blind fandom is not a good thing. When somebody says, “Doc I can’t really dig 1971”, I get it (which I do, and accept), but my comeback isn’t “Man, stop being so negative”. Truth be told, as much as I love 1971 shows, not every one of THOSE is worthy of release……

I’m not an armchair sniper. People here know who I am, what I am, where I am, what I do, and what I believe in. Paid my dues and saw my fair share of shows (including some that WERE clearly “bad”), but not an expert. Have never pretended to be, just another guy who loves the music. Ungracious? Certainly not, thankful for all the hard work TPTB put into all this. Selfish? I don’t know, ask the hundreds of people I’ve spread thousands of shows to. Before people throw stones, look in the mirror first. Do I poke fun at DL, you bet, but I don’t attack people who disagree with my opinions about shows.

Some Grateful Dead shows are black and white, but yes most are varying shades of gray. Did I say those Hartford shows sucked? Absolutely not. On the other hand, I didn’t say---and never will---that they’re classic either. What I DID do was to question the selection itself. And from what folks have communicated to me in private, I’m not the only one who feels that way. But from what I’ve seen and heard, I’m one of the few who dares to question it in public.

Which leads me to believe---and I may be wrong----that many folks here just don’t like contrary opinions about shows. Folks, not every Dead show was sweetness and light. Yes, I’m opinionated about the Dead and won’t apologize for that. And yes, I will continue to poke the bear when and where I see fit……………

Rock on rockers,

Doc
Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle stands in the grave

Not sure if this has already been mentioned but now that a 4-disc show is possible for this series for the first time, maybe that opens the door to shows like 5/26/73 and 6/10/73 being officially released? Would not complain one bit...

Jerry back on the East Toast, did not attend and have never listened to Hartford 87, but all the shows that year where just high energy a lot of band and crowd symbiosis going on. For 87 the MSG run should be released as a box set, just saying. Sun going up and then the sun it going down, shine through my window and my friends they come around............