Grateful Dead

[Terry]

Really dig American Beauty and Workingman's Dead.

However, never had much use for this band beyond that. Just found those live, 30-minute jams totally boring. Garcia had talent, but consider this bands in concert lengthy imrovs a bunch of self-indulgent twaddle.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

I have "Undead" and "Aoxomoxoa". I listen to them very, very rarely, but those guys, beyond their frequent endless impros, played like no other band, really. They had their own way of building songs, placing chords where their peers would never think of. Garcia and Weir were the most incredible guitar duet of the late 60s/early 70s, and one of the most impressive in rock history, IMO.
I have to confess that I sometimes skip certain tracks...

[PHOENIX]

I guess i skip all their tracks.

Never cared for them.

[FORD]

And it's just a box of rain
I don't know who put it there
Believe it if you need it
Or leave if if you dare.....

[Jérôme Frenchise]

I particularly dig this one, "Casey Jones". It's based on a true story. During their East-West Canada tour, in 1970, they crossed Canada on a train with Janis Joplin, among others. In between cities, it surely seemed very long...
Garcia, "high on cocaine", once decided to walk up to the locomotive engine, as his mind was made up that that train was too slow. So he went up and shifted the driver from his seat, then drove "that train" for a while...
So this song is about that crazy train story.

"Driving that train, high on cocaine,
Casey Jones is ready, watch your speed.
Trouble ahead, trouble behind,
And you know that notion just crossed my mind.

This old engine makes it on time,
Leaves central station ’bout a quarter to nine,
Hits river junction at seventeen to,
At a quarter to ten you know it’s travelin’ again.

Driving that train, high on cocaine,
Casey Jones is ready, watch your speed.
Trouble ahead, trouble behind,
And you know that notion just crossed my mind.

Trouble ahead, lady in red,
Take my advice you’d be better off dead.
Switchman’s sleeping, train hundred and two is
On the wrong track and headed for you.

Driving that train, high on cocaine,
Casey Jones is ready, watch your speed.
Trouble ahead, trouble behind,
And you know that notion just crossed my mind.

Trouble with you is the trouble with me,
Got two good eyes but you still don’t see.
Come round the bend, you know it’s the end,
The fireman screams and the engine just gleams..."

[rustoffa]

Originally posted by PHOENIX
I guess i skip all their tracks.

Never cared for them.

Pretty much sums it up for me as well.

[Jérôme Frenchise]

“ Originally posted by PHOENIX
I guess i skip all their tracks.

Never cared for them. ”

Originally posted by rustoffa
Pretty much sums it up for me as well.

Well, you'd both gain a little time by not playing the Dead's records at all...
What's the point in skipping every song? :p

[FORD]

O come, all ye Grateful
Deadheads to the concert.
O come, Grateful Deadheads,
And camp in the street.
Bring rolling papers,
Don't forget your sleeping bags.
O come get us some floor seats,
We've followed them for four weeks,
O come get us some floor seats,
To see the Lord.

O come, all ye hippies,
Throwbacks to the Sixties.
Paint flowers on your van,
And don't wash your feet.
Wear your bell-bottoms,
And your tie-dye t-shirts.
O come let us adore them,
We've quit our day jobs for them,
O come let us adore them,
Garcia's the Lord.

[MERRYKISSMASS2U]

Originally posted by rustoffa
Pretty much sums it up for me as well.

same here.

[Wawazat]

I really tried several times to get into Grateful Dead.

Dark Star that "song" many people claim the best dead-tune finally made me give up.

It just get´s nowhere.

[Foozwah]

Also tried to get into them on a number of occasions, but it just never took.

Which is kinda weird, because one of my fave CDs of all time is 'Deadicated,' which is nothing but Grateful Dead covers, done by a weird mix of people ranging from Jane's Addiction to Dr John, via way of Elvis Costello and Suzanne Vega and Midnight Oil. It's kind of all over the place, yet it strangely works.

Even now, occasionally I'll hear a song on the radio and I'll think, odd, I know this song, pity it's being played by adenoidal hippies with shitty production, and then I'll realise it's the Dead, doing a tune that I only know via the (usually far superior) cover.

Of course, others' mileage may vary...

[Terry]

Originally posted by Wawazat
I really tried several times to get into Grateful Dead.

Dark Star that "song" many people claim the best dead-tune finally made me give up.

It just get´s nowhere.

Used to share room and board with a wanna-be hippy who had tons of boots, and he always used to say "Man, the Dead haven't played Dark Star in x amount of shows, and I can't even remember the last time they played St. Stephen," and he had no use for their studio work but would sit and listen to boot after boot of their stuff live...

...Lousy hippies. 'Specially those who acted like longtime Deadheads after getting turned onto the band by the 1987 Touch of Gray single. Bunch a patchouli oil-doused, granola-crunchin' slackers.

[Wawazat]

Been listening to Dark Star for 15 minutes, waiting for a good solo or anything.

All i noticed is plain nothing, that awful noodling doesn´t stop

[Dirty Duck]

Grateful Dead and Phish....christ. I just never got it.