For you hard core Deadheads

[Britishampfan]

I`m still on the bus, as much as I love the early tracks, Anthem, workingman and Europe 72 just never cease to amaze and satisfy. I totally understand the stoned jam thing, who doesn't like to do that but the truly epic live psychedelic jams came much later after they learned from the acid tests in my opinion, the build up the complete chaos and deconstruction moving as one mind in the moment and reconstruction things new and inconceivable by logical thought, and then they return you safely back to earth. The live shows feeding off the energy of the crowd they captured and shared something that is really hard to define with only words.

 

[Suave Eddie]

Mindbender (Garcia/Lesh)

If only I could be less blind
If only I knew what to find,
Everywhere and all of the time--
It's bending my mind.

Confusion's prince is at my door.
The crown I wear's the one he wore
He's here to bring me down some more
And bend my mind.



My thoughts exactly. Anthem of the Sun is one of my favorite records by anyone.

I might have to revisit Anthem. I bought it when it first came out and was always disappointed with it.

 

[Britishampfan]

Anthem is one of my favorites these days, and I`m mean epic use of the kazoo there on Alligator always brings a smile to my face. Pretty trippy for a studio album especially in its day it's 50 years old.

 

[Suave Eddie]

Mindbender (Garcia/Lesh)

If only I could be less blind
If only I knew what to find,
Everywhere and all of the time--
It's bending my mind.

Confusion's prince is at my door.
The crown I wear's the one he wore
He's here to bring me down some more
And bend my mind.

I'm obviously not hard core enough. I'd never heard that song before. Here's a studio version. It really has that "garage band" flavor.

 

[Suave Eddie]

Anthem is one of my favorites these days, and I`m mean epic use of the kazoo there on Alligator always brings a smile to my face. Pretty trippy for a studio album especially in its day it's 50 years old.

Not exactly a studio album, although classified that way. It "combines multiple studio and live recordings of each song. The result is an experimental amalgam that is neither a studio album nor a live album, but both at the same time"

 

[Suave Eddie]

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/...of-the-sun-10-things-you-didnt-know-2-700628/

 

[wombat66]

I might have to revisit Anthem. I bought it when it first came out and was always disappointed with it.

caveat emptor: I'm not a hardcore deadhead, and prefer them at their most psychedelicized. But I am a fan of beat lit and am fascinated with The Beat mythos, and consider Anthem to be part of the canon; some of it can be read as a eulogy for Neal Cassady, as deep or as shallow as you want to make it.
I also listen to Anthem the way I would listen to 70's Miles Davis (or extended Sonic Youth jams), yr not really there for the songs or virtuosic displays so much as for the trip and the textures.

 

[Tidbit]

Nice to see Anthem getting some love. I think it’s an overlooked masterpiece.

 

[massacre]

I'm obviously not hard core enough. I'd never heard that song before. Here's a studio version. It really has that "garage band" flavor.

Ah, I have an old cassette with this on it! Also has Can’t Come Down and a bunch of other old rare stuff, Jerry & Mountain Girl, etc.
I didn’t recognize the song from the first clip.

 

[Britishampfan]

Not exactly a studio album, although classified that way. It "combines multiple studio and live recordings of each song. The result is an experimental amalgam that is neither a studio album nor a live album, but both at the same time"

True, but that's what it makes it so great. I wonder how much money they spent in the studio, the record company was bleeding I bet, and the engineers were terrified of being dosed every sesh.

Nice to see Anthem getting some love. I think it’s an overlooked masterpiece.

It's absolutely brilliant and satisfying, and I totally agree. The way I feel after listening. Like spring after a long hard winter. The return of the sun.

 

[55hz]

From the Vault II had cool Anthem era stuff along with some very interesting tech fixes.

 

[Suave Eddie]

Here's almost 5 hours of rehearsals with Bob Dylan prior to their tour.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/bob-dylan-the-grateful-dead-rehearsal-session-playlist/

 

[wombat66]

a recently discovered army report
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40932531

 

[Suave Eddie]

Happy Birthday Keith Godchaux.

Check the link in the article for an extended sound check/rehearsal in 76.
Features Jerry playing the Travis Bean. In all the times I'd seen them play with every configuration, I'd never seen Jerry playing that guitar.


https://www.jambase.com/article/happy-birthday-keith-godchaux-grateful-dead-1976

 

[Scott SG]

speaking of gear eras ... one of my favs is the Gibson SG era

 

[Suave Eddie]

https://relix.com/articles/detail/jerry-garcias-pretzel-guitar-resurfaces/

 

[rollyfoster]

I'm a pretty hardcore Deadhead, but I almost never listen to the pre-68 stuff anymore. They were just figuring it out then and it's interesting to have heard some of it, but I never go back to it. It's all pentatonic, and I can listen to myself if I wanna hear an even worse version of THAT! 68, well into 71 is pretty experimental and interesting, but it's when they were testing the outer limits. I listen to some of those shows when I want to hear some deep space, but the older I get, the sooner I expect to experience my own deep space, so I don't listen to that stuff that often anymore either. I sure went through a phase with it, though, some of those 69 and 70 shows are pretty amazingly out there and interesting as hell when you're in the mood.

But basically, the period where Mickey was gone, 72-74 is overwhelmingly my favorite Dead era. I didn't start going to see them and getting into them until later in 77, but those 72-74 shows are one of the only reasons I sorta wish I'd have been a few years older. Most of the Dead I listen to these days is from that period. Man, they had everything going on then. Both tighter and looser rhythmically with one drummer, they were lighter, could turn on a dime. They played space, they played funky, their jams went somewhere fairly defined, but they could still find some wild tangents too. I also love '77 for the tighter, more in the pocket way they'd learned to play. Not as interesting, but tight, funky (hey Disco Dead!), almost (gasp!) professional! They had a lot of good shows through the 80's into about 91 before it started getting consistently ugly. But Jerry was a wreck most of that time except for a brief resurgence after his coma - they were really consistently fun again in '87. But after early '78, I only occasionally listen to a show, usually on an anniversary of some particularly memorable show I was at. Otherwise, I'm locked in between 72-78 anymore...

-Ray

That’s about exactly how I feel.

Mickey certainly made his contributions early on and I do like his percussion a lot....but he just kills me when he gets on a standard kit. Just totally sucks the groove/swing out of things with all those bombastic fills and snare flam.

What did Jerry call it? Sneakers in a dryer?

Was he even “formally” back in the band? I thought he just showed up and nobody really took the initiative to tell him to get lost so he just kind of Costanza’d his way back into the band.

 

[Suave Eddie]

I'm a bit late to this party but I just discovered this 60 cut release of Complete Studio Rarities Collection.
It looks like all 60 cuts have been uploaded to YouTube. Click the link to watch the video below on YouTube and see all 60 recordings.


I haven't gotten through all of it yet, but what interests me more than the very early Warlocks/garage band sounding stuff is some really cool laid back alternate cuts of later recordings, like Peggy-O, Jack-A-Row, Catfish John, etc.

Suave Eddie says check it out.

 

[Suave Eddie]

Here's some interesting cuts from the collection above.

 

[Suave Eddie]

What a cool laid back version of Loose Lucy.