What was so extraordinary about the GRATEFUL DEAD?

oh hell yeah thats what I’m talking about. I don’t go to a lot of shows any.ore but when I do I’m still in the pit without a doubt lol

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Pits are a blast if the people follow pit rules. At warped tour one year the girls were going insane with crowd surfing. To the point I had to catch one because the idiot behind me threw her and she landed on my head. View was great considering her shirt went over my head and her tits were smashed in my face lol
I had my junk groped so many times by young hot girls, they like us grey hairs that will get out and play with them. Unfortunately I’ve always got my daughter at shows so I can’t take any up on their offers, the kid would tell my wife lol

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Lol I heard that. Gotta live the lowered inhibitions at a rock show

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Dude when I was in my teens I’d go to shows with 2oz of weed, an Oz of coke, a CPL grams of meth, and 50 hits of acid. Omfg the things they will do for party supplies! Got a bj at a crue show, watched ac/DC from behind the security barrier because I smoked a huge spliff with the security guy and gave him a massive line. I’m amazed I’ve lived this long with the shit I used to do lol I’ll say Floyd was the best. At the start of the show they passed a joint the size of my arm off the stage before they started playing.

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Believe me I’m right there with ya. I was a heroin and meth addict for 18 years bro. I’ve been jobless, homeless and have had my head in the gutter. It’s better this way. Before addiction set in it was a lot of fun but then it was all bad lol. Life is better this way

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I was lucky enough not to get addicted. It was rough stopping it all cold turkey. I frequently stayed up for 30-40 days at a time. I thank God daily for my kid because she is the reason I walked away from that life. Sure it was fun making thousands a day and fucking 4 or 5 different girls a day but you are right like this way is so much better

Great show to start with, doesnt look like it’ll get real noodly til deep into set 2.

Bertha and Jack straw to start the show is great for most people to start with.

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I think the last pit I was in was a Les Claypool show in 2000 and that probably doesnt meet the definition of a metal pit bc it was really tame compared to what youre describing.

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Cool ill check it put once I get to the casa!!

When you play live sets “adlib” for as long a time as they did at each gig , at some point during the gig it’s coherent for a while. Check out Pagan love cult they was close neighbours of Bear in Aus .:

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There are some great guitar players plays grateful dead for the for the first time videos on YouTube it’s funny to see them react Jerry would have been a hell of a jazz or blues player :thinking: wait he was lol sometimes in the same song

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I’m going to do my best to describe my impression, and probably fail, but I feel I need to do this with gratitude anyway. As a very young child, I knew the members of the band, as well as the original line ups of Lynyrd Skynyrd, KISS, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Cher, the cast of SNL, Ginger Baker, Frank Zappa and the Mothers, Liberace, and some others, and they were not musicians to me-- they were “the adults.” So I knew these folks as people, like Cat Stevens as he decided to go Islamic. The Village People as a kid doing the YMCA, having absolutely no idea it was queer culture. Freddy Mercury was still around at that time. But this is a Dead thread so why mention it? I guess because while Allen Collens played his guitar eveyday and absolutely gave off the most apparent rock god vibe of anyone Ive ever seen on the planet with groupies in attendance, Mickey, Bill, Phil, and Bob never mentioned being rock stars or musicians at all; Mickey just brought a bunch of Mahayana Buddhists to play pick up basketball- that was what he was known for among the children. If I’m not mistaken, each of these guys is still alive although I know Phil had a transplant. Everyone was sober around us. Fast forward 15 years to the Houston '87 shows, it was rare the Dead played in Texas, the crowd is just like folks say: unlike anything else anywhere else.
But here is the thing: you like roots music of any kind- blues, bluegrass, jazz, rock, electronic, - the Dead have got some. I lost a great friend Cary Winscott who lived for the tour, every year he worked at a theatre ticket department, then left for the summer to go on tour, he died 2009. I use his name because he was probably known on tour in case anyone knew him or traded tapes, but he’s also passed on. I feel he would want to be mentioned quite frankly. Anyway, tunes like “Broke down Palace,” “Ripple,” “Friend of the Devil,” “China Cat Sunflower,” “Althea,” “Birdsong,” all of “Terrapin Station,” they are great music plus as mentioned above “West L.A. Fadeaway” has 2 versions, a ‘good’ Jerry version played at a respectable speed, and the bonus cut which is junked up Jerry playing at roughly 12 bpm, slower than molasses. Jerry lived his life literally worshipped as a god, like the Beatles (if not more so) by an extreme demographic. The Dead were smart enough to get the fuck out of Altamont, while the Stones opted to stay. What kind of pressure is that, to deal with those crowds on a daily basis?? When Brent Mydland came in he reinvigorated the band. To me as a kid with such a different perspective from the adult drugs, hippie idiocy, and questions about being a rock star, it is very strange to me now as a 52 year old. I think a lot of the song writing credits will stand the test of time despite bad live playing at crazy shows. I think they contributed more to the American Folk songbook than the American Rock songbook, but let me say this, despite also knowing Brian Wilson who is a very nice guy, I prefer the Dead at their worst(?)to the Beach Boys any day. To be unable to better statethese thoughts is “why” the Grateful Dead are “so extraordinary.”

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:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap: I think we just became friends :v:

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In the U.K. don’t think I’ve ever heard a dead song on radio

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There is no other band past or present like the Grateful Dead they are a genre unto themselvesI can’t listen to them and havent for several years they wer such a huge part of my life for years I got married and started a family and for me that’s the Dead my youth my wife my children before I managed to fuck all that up there are so many songs and performances that mean so much to me I miss them

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Seems like they didn’t have as much popularity over there, I wonder if they ever toured the UK?

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I think the most extraordinary thing about the dead was there ability to even get on the stage let alone play music after all the drugs and alcohol consumed. The one and only dead show I went to see they carried Jerry out in a chair, and he could still play and sing…

  1. hence the europe 72 album. A couple shows were played in the UK
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Off the top of my head, they played several shows there during their infamous Europe '72 tour and returned in 1990 as well. I know they played in France in '71 but I’m not sure if they crossed the Channel that trip.

You can look all that up online - some Deadheads can be as crazy about statistics as baseball fans. I know because I used to be one of them!

I lived in France in 1989 and the only other people I encountered who knew of the Dead were other Americans.

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