Did Brent Mydland's death kill the Grateful Dead?

The Dead, especially after their '87 comeback, seem to have really relied on Brent's presence and he really seemed (IMHO) to hold the band together. Afterward he died, it seems like Jerry's heart stopped being in the band and turned fully to his Grisman collaborations, and Brent's death also seems to have led to Jerry falling back to drugs. I don't know the history of the Dead intimately so I could be wrong about all this. But I'm watching a 1989 live show and the whole band sounds so tight, Jerry looks so healthy and is with it and playing well, the show has a lot of energy, and they'd put out a great comeback record and were in the process of making a followup...Compare it to a '90s show where Jerry is barely singing and playing very lazily and the band as a whole seems dispirited and down...

What do you guys think?

 

without knowing jerry's health i can not say he just started singing/playing sloppy/lazy because brent died

 

Brent brought a lot of vitality to gigs. I'm not big on his self-penned tunes, but there isn't much room for debate that he suited the band to a T.
I don't think his death killed the band, but it ended a glorious chapter and the one that followed wasn't quite as good.

 

the only 3 brent penned tunes that he sings i like are "blow away", "we can run" and "easy to love"

 

I just feel like Jerry's attitude (outside of some great shows '93-95) after Brent died was like "This is over." I mean they'd lost Pigpen, and then Brent, two guys he was genuinely really fond of...If you look at it, after Brent's death is when he stopped focusing musically on the Dead and released the Gristman albums. After Brent's death, 5 years, they never formally recorded a single song, after recording two back to back with Brent. That says something.

 

They sure weren't the same band after that. Another thing to consider in the same time frame is the in-ear monitor system. I feel that once they did that the connection with the audience was extremely limited. Maybe both play a part in the demise of the quality.

I am a big fan of the late 80's to 90 shows. What a roll they were on.

 

What does the in-ear monitor system have to do with the connection to an audience? Not good with tech stuff....

 

I really liked Just A Little Light.

 

I like Tons of Steel

 

No, Brent's death didn't kill the Grateful Dead. Jerry Garcia's death did.

 

In-ear monitors are like advanced ear buds where you cannot hear anything that isn't an input on the board. It gives musicians a studio like experience on stage. Unless you have mics pointed at the audience in your monitor mix you will not hear anything but what you want in YOUR personal mix. To my knowledge that wasn't the case. In this scenario there would be less crowd feedback on your performance and less energy going between crowd and players.

Make sense?

 

Yeah that one too.

 

I'd forgotten about "Blow Away".
Strange thing is, now that the song is running through my synapses, I'm hearing Sting doing a cover-version!

 

Yes, total sense, thanks. I was just never aware how they worked. But that makes sense. While helpful, I wonder if in-ear monitors totally kill the live experience for musicians too? I mean, hearing the audience reaction I imagine is part of the high of performing live. And also, the various sounds from the crowd would help guide future shows.

 

It did for me. I hated them. A total disconnect.

 

looks like everyone agrees though "i will take you home" was a real clunker so no one listed it as a favorite

 

+1

 

Brent's death could be considered a major nail in the coffin when it came to Garcia's love affair with the Dead. And Garcia definitely did seem more inspired by his collaborations with David Grisman in the years before his death.

But the fall-off in his performances, according to eye-witness accounts (Steve Parish, Dennis McNally) mostly had to do with drugs. This started around '82, got better after Garcia's coma scare in '86, and then got worse again around 1991.

Did Brent's death disturb Garcia to the point where he took solace in even more drugs? No one could read his mind, but it couldn't have helped matters.

For a detailed look at what went on behind closed doors with Garcia, I'd recommend reading Steve Parish's book "Home Before Daylight." As the '90s progressed, Garcia's health got so bad it's amazing he was even able to travel, much less play music convincingly. Brent had become more of a force in the band by the late '80s, and when he died, it thrust more of the musical load back on the other members. Garcia was not physically able to handle much more.

So your observation is correct, but there is a larger context to it.

 

There has been word that they were considering firing Mydland before he died, and that they asked Hornsby who turned it down because of his solo career.

 

I believe if Brent had been alive when Garcia had passed in 95, they would have found a new guitarist and kept truckin on. Brent was their most prolific songwriter by 1990 and his role n the band was gettin greater and greater. After he passed they were largely running on fumes, though the fumes were fairly potent for the short while they had Hornsby on board, and those of us in the East got to continue seeing Hornsby as part of the band in a decent number of shows frm DC to NC even after he stopped touring with them.

 

'I believe if Brent had been alive when Garcia had passed in 95, they would have found a new guitarist and kept truckin on'

no way, no jerry, no dead.

 

2002 Grateful Dead Family reunion with The Other Ones
2003 The Dead
2004 The Dead
2009 The Dead
2015 (for all intents and purposes) The Grateful Dead
beg to differ

All I'm saying is with Brent still there they would not have felt the need to take 7 years off.

 

I am a big Brent fan, but the run of shows in the Fall of 1990 just after Brent's death with both Bruce and Vince (with Vince, IMO, buried in the mix, and not yet singing any leads) were inspired stuff. While some of Jerry's demons that fueled his drug abuse may have had something to do with the monster that the Dead had become, I don't think a particular set of personnel had anything to do with it.

 

Got a source for that you can share? News to me and I have followed these guys pretty closely for 35 years.

 

The Dead really tailed off in quality after 77. Brent had a few good tours: 79/80, 89/90 and the Hornsby year was interesting, but most of the rest is somewhat depressing.