Decisions like those have ensured that, decades before today’s obsessional Swifties and K-pop stans, the Dead have cultivated one of music’s most passionate fandoms. They are surely the world’s best-documented band. This year, they’re marking their 60th anniversary with a 60-CD box set, just one of many gargantuan packages over the years. Their 2024 Friend of the Devils box set only covered a single month of live music (April 1978) yet it stretched to 19 CDs.
And I would have slept right through it if I was ever forced to listen to it. Hey - if ya like 'em, that's cool, but I guess I never got high enough to 'appreciate' their style.
Juss' sayin'...
If you're feelin' the groove, click on the flag...
I recall talking to a dedicated DeadHead who said the fans taping had their own feed from from the sound board, no need for mics at the concert at all.
ReplyDeleteThe sentiment on the flag is spot on though. Gratitude is seriously lacking.. Not a die-hard fan, but I do like a lot of their music.
ReplyDeleteSaw them in 1971 at an outdoor show in San Francisco- left very unimpressed. But, my two sons saw Dead &Company in Vegas at the Sphere last March.
ReplyDeleteThe Dead made two excellent studio LP's (Workingman's Dead and American Beauty) and one very good 1971 double-LP, titled simply Grateful Dead, of live performances, but I've never cared for their tiresome over-long live jams. That said, Jerry Garcia was a superb musician, skilled on several instruments: for one instance it was Garcia who played pedal steel on CSN&Y's "Teach Your Children," and he performed wonderfully on many other bands' songs and albums. His Jerry Garcia Band also recorded some fine studio tracks. One of my favorites of Garcia's work you can hear on the collaborative Old and In The Way Bluegrass (or "Newgrass") album.
ReplyDeleteThere is a quote from Jerry Garcia that sums it up nicely. "We're like black licorice. Not everyone likes black licorice, but those who like black licorice, REALLY like black licorice."
ReplyDeleteI still enjoy the Dead, there are lot's of different Dead concerts on youtube, it's not hard to sit at the computer burning time while their music is in the background. When I find one of their concerts that was really good, I'll save it to listen again.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've noticed, the Swift fans have a LOT of money to spend, money moving brings the media...
Swift fans stay at hotels and spend big at least that was I read in the news. I don't know about today but back in the 60s & 70s the Dead Heads I knew didn't usually have hotel money.