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smashmark
Chiming in....

having seen the grateful dead almost 200x and the stones close to 100X, there is no comparison to the current bands....

The dead that just played in Chicago is a shell of what the grateful dead was when jerry was alive and well, and its now lacking both heart and soul. Jerry was the driver, the focus, the heart, the soul, the meaning and the hub of the grateful dead. Whats left is a bunch of feuding and directionless musicians coming together to try and recreate and recapture something that died a long time ago. Trey was great, but its not the grateful dead. It's pure nostalgia. you can talk about the songs played, etc, but it doesn't matter because its NOT the grateful dead.

The stones, on the other hand, ARE the Rolling Stones, and these shows are some of the best Stones shows Ive ever seen. I don't understand how they can be, but they are. I went to SD, Pitt and Raleigh, all amazing in their own way and enough differences in songs and performances of warhorses to make each one incredible and unique in its own way. They are playing like a young band with something to prove. It's loud, its fun and its raw. and they are having fun.

Im already trying to figure out how to get myself to Buffalo....

100% correct...

ha...that's about as funny as a truckload of dead babies.

hi! I'd be happy to help you out sir/ma'am! are you familiar with the song, "casey jones"? that was the one that first turned me on to the dead. I'd ignore many of their studio recordings and check out youtube selections with them playing live.
great songs?
1. st. Stephen/ into "the eleven" - amazing, hard, complicated rhythms during the eleven and jerry's guitar riffs are all fast, and beautiful!
2. truckin'
3. china cat sunflower
4. sugar magnolia
5. scarlet begonias
6. cover of chuck berry's "promised land"
7. Tennessee jed
- most of these (aside from # 1 and #4) can be found by searching youtube for the "Europe 72" tour.
hope you like it!

I subscribed to watch all three shows on youtube and I was thoroughly impressed. I'd seen them with jerry in the 90's and to tell the truth, these past 3 shows in Chicago had more energy than those 90's efforts. though jerry's performances in the late 60's, 70's and early 80's remain untouchable in my estimation.

are you kidding?! bob weir's been described by other musicians' as the greatest rhythm guitarist ever! (Sammy haggar for one). he has an unusual approach to timing and chording that created a very specific sound for them. I used to feel the same way but if you focus on and are able to isolate his rhythmic contributions, you'll see for yourself

Haight Ashbury comes to Greenwich!

The three Chicago shows are going to be shown, in their entirety, at the Hollywood Bowl Cinema here in London at the O2 Arena next week. They will be shown on huge HD screens at concert volume. Details here [www.theo2.co.uk]

The ticket price is : FREE ADMISSION.

After all the hoopla of the "final" shows, I heard they're re-reuniting under another name - minus Phil Lesh...

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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Hairball
After all the hoopla of the "final" shows, I heard they're re-reuniting under another name - minus Phil Lesh...

With John Mayer and are called "Dead and Company". Scheduled 2 shows at MSG : Halloween and November 1. [www.jambase.com]

And they will be doing an extensive tour throughout November.....as many as 20 dates.

I can't tell you how odd it is to see John Mayer play with the Dead. I grew up in Fairfield, CT and went to high school with him and he would go out of his way to make fun of deadheads. His band then, Villanova Junction, played Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews covers and he would change the lyrics in songs to make fun of hippies and deadheads. Now he claims to be and always was a big fan of the Dead? Yeah right

If you haven't seen it yet, there is an excellent documentary on Netflix about Bob Weir, called "The Other One".

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Hound Dog
I can't tell you how odd it is to see John Mayer play with the Dead. I grew up in Fairfield, CT and went to high school with him and he would go out of his way to make fun of deadheads. His band then, Villanova Junction, played Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews covers and he would change the lyrics in songs to make fun of hippies and deadheads. Now he claims to be and always was a big fan of the Dead? Yeah right

Wow, that is pretty interesting to hear. It sure seems like a strange match to me and while I like a lot of Mayer's guitar work, I'm not quite sure how well his style meshes with GD music. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

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Hound Dog
I can't tell you how odd it is to see John Mayer play with the Dead. I grew up in Fairfield, CT and went to high school with him and he would go out of his way to make fun of deadheads. His band then, Villanova Junction, played Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews covers and he would change the lyrics in songs to make fun of hippies and deadheads. Now he claims to be and always was a big fan of the Dead? Yeah right

This may interest you: [bridgeport.ct.schoolwebpages.com]

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Hound Dog
I can't tell you how odd it is to see John Mayer play with the Dead. I grew up in Fairfield, CT and went to high school with him and he would go out of his way to make fun of deadheads. His band then, Villanova Junction, played Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews covers and he would change the lyrics in songs to make fun of hippies and deadheads. Now he claims to be and always was a big fan of the Dead? Yeah right

Actually, Mayer only claims to have discovered the Dead in recent years and has become fascinated with their music. This only makes sense to me that as he grows up he'd get past the fluff of his own pop music and would dig into something with more "substance."

I saw Mayer sit in with Phil Lesh & Friends this past spring and I was surprised at how well he made it work. He's studying the music, the approach and gestalt of it all and I'll give him the benefit of the doubt at this point....he's young enough and taleneted enough that IMO he might well pull off something interesting and worthy. With Otiel in them mix this isn't going to sound like the Grateful Dead, but it has the potential to be an interesting take on the catalogue....

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I saw this in a recent interview, the kid has his head screwed on straight
regarding how heis approaching this:

RY: You seem really excited for this chapter. What is it about the music and the band members that brings that out of you?

JM: The first thing that excited me about it was that it felt to me like what musicians used to experience in the jazz world in the ‘50s and ‘60s — when they would do time in other people’s bands and they would come up through those bands.

To me, this is no different as a guitar player in this band than it would be for any instrumentalist to be in Miles Davis’ band. If you were in Miles’ band, you got your own band after that. It meant something. You became a better musician forever because you learned from Miles.

That’s the way I see this. I can learn from these musicians and then always have that on any other project. It feels almost like taking a year off to go to school or taking four years off to go to college. It’s another lesson.

When this is said and done, I can’t imagine not being a better musician, whether it’s technically or philosophically, and that really inspired me.

As a solo artist, I have my pretty set paint colors to work with. And this guarantees that the palette that I have to make my own music will keep widening and diversifying. And that’ll mean I can keep putting records out where I don’t repeat myself because I have new vocabulary to work with. I don’t ever want to get to that place where it’s the same vocabulary, just in a different order.

And with this band, oddly enough, there’s a real youthful energy to this right now. It’s really youthful. Everybody is sort of putting on their parachutes and we’re going to jump.

For my whole career, I’ve only wanted to do that — I’ve only wanted to take the thrill ride part of it.

Now I also want to go through my career in the scenic view. I want to go up the coastline and look at the water and I want to take extra time to do it because it’s really all about that trip. It’s not about getting records out on time. It’s not about making sure that the cycles fall where they’re supposed to. It’s really about a journey and I can’t think of a better journey to take right now.

I’ll always remember how to make John Mayer records. I don’t think I’ll forget [laughs]. That’s always going to happen, so that’s why it was very easy to follow this path wherever it leads.

Nobody’s quite sure where the future is going to take us and that’s all I ever wanted to do when I made music. Ever.

I want to be reliable but I don’t want to be predictable. How about that? Reliably unpredictable is exactly where I want my career to live. You don’t know where I’m going to go, but you’re sure I’m going to give my all to you.


[johnmayer.yuku.com]



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 2015-08-12 05:02 by Woz.

Great interview Woz, thanks, indeed sounds like he is doing it for admirable reasons. Before he started getting into the seriously pop music he is most known for I've seen him truly rip up Jimi Hendrix covers and other music with more "substance". I always got the feeling he was doing all that pop just to find some commercial success.

With an attitude like he portrays here, it's sounds to me like this could produce some interesting music.

That's my take.....plus at the Prudential Center in 2012 he sure did rip it up on Respectable! He and Kary were sitting a few seat away frome me which was an added bonus!