Yes, I'll agree with that. Sometimes a Great Notion was really good, though I just read that last year and I haven't read Cuckoo's Nest since the 1990s. That example came from a list of 'novelists whose first novel was their masterpiece.' Change it if you want to 'Flaubert's first novel was Madame Bovary,' I can't even name a second novel from that guy. But much of what I like about Mexicali Blues is its twisted take on the conventions of the genre as meditation on the human condition. I might agree Cassidy is better, and in terms of 'best country songs by the Grateful Dead' I'd give Dire Wolf, High Time, Friend of the Devil and Cumberland Blues some credit, but still think Mexicali Blues takes the title. I also like Looks Like Rain better than Music Never Stopped, including the jam parts.
During some ‘78 TMNS’s, I believe that the band actually achieved levitation. Your fave “streetcats making love” could never.
I love Iron Maiden even though I don't own any of their albums and almost never listen to them. Every time I do listen to them, I love it, and I love that they exist. They're possibly the perfect metal band.
Based on my experience, almost every Deadhead I know doesn't listen to those bands at all. I would much more expect to hear music by the artists you mentioned (or their 80s/90s equivalents) while walking through the lot at a Dead show than King Crimson or Jethro Tull. I happen to be a huge fan of those old classic prog bands, but I've gone years or decades without listening to them at all. I went through a big "prog" phase in high school and early college, which was then supplanted by getting into the Dead. I pretty much stopped following most of those bands (except for King Crimson) at that point and barely ever listened to them, but in the last 5-10 years I've had a definite resurgence from the Big Four (Crimson, Genesis, Yes, ELP) down to some of the minor-league players (I bought some Camel and Nektar albums from our own @Bill Cormier recently). Great stuff, but definitely not to everyone's tastes, and not something that I've found crosses over to a lot of Deadheads. In my experience, I've found a few Deadheads who like some prog rock, and a few serious prog fans who like some of the Dead's music, but not a lot of fans who are deeply into both.
I was into "prog" when I was in Junior High and High School- the glory years of Pink Floyd, Tull, Yes, ELP, Genesis, etc., the peak era for those bands in terms of their own creativity. By the late 70's all those bands were undergoing personnel changes, and changes in artistic direction that were less than satisfying to me, and The Bus Came By And I Got On. That said I still visit my old favorites, and especially with Yes and Jethro Tull my interest was re-kindled by Steven Wilson's re-mixes of core catalog albums, especially Tull's early material like Benefit which now sounds like music and not distorted noise. Of course the frequency of listening does not compare to the vast GD catalog, but it's there. NEKTAR - The best and most musically and lyrically fascinating of the second-tier Brit bands of the 70's. Their core catalog is utterly amazing to me, still and always. Remember The Future is a true classic, the story of a blind boy who makes telepathic contact with an Extra-Terrestrial being named 'Bluebird,' and from whom he learns of the vastness of life in our Cosmos. Interestingly, there is a sub-section of this concept album entitled "Let It Grow."
The first Looks Like Rain I heard was I believe the version from Without A Net, by then they were going into a few minutes of jamming over the 'all my life I've seen rain' bit, and Garcia had developed a melody he would play during that section, that's really well-performed on that occasion. This was another layer in my appreciation of the GD, that they could turn whatever this song that just happened was supposed to be into this other thing, that was completely different. Music Never Stopped is on a very short list of GD songs I just never cottoned to. I'm not opposed to it as such, and it's as good as nearly any other choice in it's role as the first set-closing rave up jam, but as far as its place among their best works I give it short shrift, I'll admit. Meanwhile I'm listening to 3-13-92 at the Old Barn, this one could be good for any detractors or agnostics of the 90s to check out, particularly the Bird Song. Phil keeps trying to take things off the rails, and eventually succeeds (c. 8:30 on the Charlie Miller SBD,) as reality first bends and then disintegrates entirely, the only thing holding it on point being Garcia's guitar line, as they slowly come back into place. Garcia turns in a great solo on Way to go Home, and then a nice Crazy Fingers to start set 2. He seems to be on point in this show.
I would never have guessed this of you, goes to show you don't ever know... For me The Music Never Stopped was a more successful and lyrically layered tale in the "happy hippy summer sunshine open your heart and dance for joy" genre originally staked out by Sugar Magnolia.
This is mostly how I feel about them. I do have a couple of their albums in digital form, and listen to them rarely rather than almost never, but otherwise exactly.
The Deities have been generous with the Summer rains, and the true beauty of the Land of Enchantment is on full display.
9/5/79 at MSG (Charlie Miller) is sounding really good this afternoon. Late summer shade, couple brewskies, and some good jams.
You and I are on a similar wavelength. I am a massive Crimson and Tull fan (well, Tull up through the very early 80s I guess). Like the dead, I buy everything they sell, and can listen to it endlessly. Love some Gabriel era Genesis. Yes - good stuff. Not a big ELP fan though for whatever reason.
Does Phil ever touch the level of narly nastiness he achieved in ‘69 and ‘70 in any other year? No. That’s the best damn bass guitar tone my ears have ever heard.
This could be construed as hyperbole, but it ain't. The April 1, 1984 Dew is very much the real deal. Jerry brings it and then brings it again and then...It rivals SPAC 1983; more from a Jerry perspective than a Phil perspective, but there's more than one way to skin an improvisational cat. There; I said it. Probably shouldn't have, but so be it. Well, I would say that Phil has had gooey great tube tone over the years, and the Smith in '90 and '91 was as great as any other time, but yes, that EB-3 sounded great.
Visit some other GD Internet sites (Deadnetcentral, Lossless Legs, etc) and you will notice that many if not most of the Deadheads posting there are also prog fans
Wasn't able to get a 2019 RSD vinyl pressing of "The Warfield" Oct, 9/10 1980 until a week ago from a member here. I love live acoustic albums and this is a fine way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Have a new set of speakers that this album is making sound incredible.
Yeah, it does seem more common online, as the current conversation certainly attests to. For instance, Duane Day, who founded the BUDD mailing list and is a real old-time internet Deadhead, is a huge Genesis and prog fan. He's been involved in so much tape trading that he may have moved the dials just on his own. When I started getting into the Dead in the mid-80s, my college-age Deadhead friends were more likely to be into Talking Heads or David Bowie than any prog bands. Walking through the parking lot, you'd probably hear more "classic rock" (Hendrix, Floyd, Zeppelin, etc.) than anything else non-Dead. EDIT: And a lot of Bob Marley! I heard a lot of Bob Marley in GD parking lots.
