Brent Mydland and Vince Welnick- your opinions?

I really really really really don't like Brent.

 

If it hadn't been for Vince... we probably wouldn't have had Bruce in the band for a few years. Bruce was primarily there to ease Vince's transition (from my understanding). Bruce was fantastic. It all works out...

 

Vince's tenure is my least favorite by far, but that has absolutely nothing to do with Vince.

Vince was a great player and a good, if tortured, guy. He fit the music, and really believed in and embodied the Grateful Dead spirit and ideology as much or more than any member from 1990-95.

Can't ask much more from the guy than that...

 

I am just mindblown that Vince is in the HOF. That just goes to show how there is very little as far as "rules" for getting in. I mean he was a good keyboardist but he ain't Stevie Wonder and he was a very very very latecomer to the group. If he is in then I say CJ Ramone and Richie Ramone belong in the HOF also.

 

It was Garcia's call - he said 'everyone goes in."

I don't have a problem with it.

 

Brent was the best keyboardist and best singer they ever had.

I won't say anything at all about Vince

 

I started to appreciate the GD 19 years after Jerry died, so it's all looking back for me. Although I didn't like his vocals at first, I have grown to appreciate Brent a lot. I don't mind the plinky keyboard sound he sometimes used, but I love his B3 sound and backing vocals. The songs he sang lead on I mostly don't like although there are a couple of exceptions. In the end, I like him way more than Vince and (for different reasons) on equal footing with Keith and Pigpen.

 

I would say Keith and Jerry in those spots you've mentioned, respectively.

 

And I would say TC and Bobby, respectively

 

Bobby, I can see. But, Tom...all I can say is that I think Keith blended perfectly. Tom was there, you always heard him. He didn't seem to blend. But, at least you don't think that Brent was their greatest vocalist

 

Really? I thought Keith was a terrible singer

 

hated both of them...the ones I like are Pig Pen and Keith.. I think they were awesome.. listen to Keith on 72 live shows... just the way it should be.

brents voice makes me want to slit my wrists...

 

I love Bobby, and IMHO TC is awesome I never hear Brent's vocal because I don't dig their post-Pigpen stuff

 

My opinion exactly mimics Serge's. Never could take Brent's vocals and I think his songs are bottom of the barrel. Sorry to be harsh. How some folks can hate on Donna and love on Brent as singers is beyond me.

Vince was always hampered by the increasingly poor state of Jerry's health and playing. The whole band suffered from that, sad to say. I saw some shows when Vince was playing with Hornsby and they were well played---with Jerry seemingly more engaged.

 

Well, Brent sang in tune while Donna often had problems doing so live.

 

While Keith's voice is an acquired taste for sure, and no one would ever have recruited him to be the lead singer of a band...he was able to sing in key. And for the Dead, that already put you ahead of the pack...

 

I like Brent and Vinnie equally. My only complaint is that Vinnies vocals and/or keyboard were often too high in the mix.

 

Keith's playing is actually so highly rated by fans, that he's probably overrated. As far as piano players go, Brent and Vince had chops that equaled or even surpassed him - heresy perhaps, but I believe this (esp. Brent's keys on TOO - he really brought a lot to this). As mentioned, the problem with these guys was one of tone rather than playing - the early days sound like Brent's playing a goddam xylophone. My favorite eras are 71-72 and 89-90. Brent brought a lot of soul to the band. Yes, his vocals could be heavy-handed (as could donna's), and yeah, his songs were wretched, with the exception of maybe Blow Away and his covers of Dear Mr. Fantasy & Blow Away. Vince seems like Brent-lite in terms of vocals. I'm still digesting his playing in the 30 Trips box - currently at 1991, and I suspect the incredible piano playing I hear is Bruce rather than Vince, but Vince could flat out play.

 

It think Brent was the best B3 Organ player the Dead ever had, I wish he used it more. Some of his analog synch stuff was pretty cool in Fall 79 and his solo on Friend Of The Devil on Dead Set is lovely but overall I am not a big fan of 80's Dead.

Vince was good in the Tubes and I will leave it at that.

Sadly it seemed like every keyboard player the Dead brought in except for TC and RH seemed to be on the shy side, with the pressure and personalties in the band, the scene with the drugs and booze no wonder in ended badly for all of them.

 

I meant Keith as their best keyboardist, Jerry as their best singer.

 

I like this vocal. I had no idea Keith sang like that.

 

This is a good example of why I love the Brent era. "Scarlet Begonias" from 3-16-90.

 

Been listening to a lot of Dead lately, and I just can't warm to Brent's voice.
Both seem to be good players. I prefer the late 60's/early 70's Dead.

 

I was born in 1970, became a fan in the late 80s, didn't see my first (and only, sadly) show until 1993.

I love the Brent years but his voice had to grow on me. I do grow tired of the Roland RD-1000 digital piano sound very quickly, which was all the rage at the time (I had one too!!) but I love his keyboard playing.

I saw them with Vince, and while I enjoyed the show very much, I don't know enough about him to have an opinion one way or another. Most of my Dead listening is 1971-77 and the 1989-90 tour.

 

I saw the dead probably 35 times in the 70's and really lost interest at about the time Brent joined. Thereafter, the band members' side projects--particularly those of jerry--were more interesting than the machine that the dead had become.