| Author |
Message |
davehouck
Moderator
Username: davehouck
Post Number: 2942
Registered: 5-2002
| | Posted on Sunday, January 01, 2006 - 10:39 am: |  |
Bill, I thought that was a very good description! |
tom_z
Advanced Member
Username: tom_z
Post Number: 259
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 01, 2006 - 12:20 pm: | |
Bill - you may still be feeling the effects of last night but I completely recognize your description.
Glad you like the site. I forgot to mention that the song titles on Deadstein link to lyrics and chords. I can't vouch for the transcriptions but songs I've looked at seem pretty accurate.
I'd like to wish everyone here a Happy Healthy and Musical New Year!!
Cheers,
Tom =) |
lbpesq
Senior Member
Username: lbpesq
Post Number: 858
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 01, 2006 - 1:07 pm: | |
One more point I just thought of that is illustrative of Jerry's uniqueness. Unlike 99% of lead guitarists, (including most that I've played with), Jerry actually LISTENED to the other members of the band, even the bass player!!! LOL Truthfully, it is telling that in every interview I've read, Jerry always dismisses the "guitar hero" mantle and consistently speaks of his enjoying being a backing musician. As you listen to more and more of his work with the Dead and others, you hear Jerrry pick up on bandmates' ideas as much as blazing the trail himself. He was the consummate team player in a field where most in his position are always auditioning for the highlight film.
Bill, tgo |
kmh364
Senior Member
Username: kmh364
Post Number: 1579
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, January 01, 2006 - 2:06 pm: | |
Cary:
Ok, you got a good head start, now get to it, chop chop, LOL! If those tunes don't whet your apetite for more, Jerry and the Dead just aren't for you. Good hunting and listening...we may convert you just yet!
KW Pete:
I went to the Capitol Theatre gig on the same Winter '80 tour leg as the Kean show...I think it was within a few days of that show. It was a great tour!
Cheers,
Kevin |
kilowatt
Junior
Username: kilowatt
Post Number: 42
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 01, 2006 - 4:58 pm: | |
Kevin,
I remember the lovely Capitol Theater in picturesque Passaic NJ. Spent many great nights in that old movie theatre. I remember seeing Weir there and many, many other bands. I really liked that old place!
Pete |
studiorecluse
Junior
Username: studiorecluse
Post Number: 21
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Sunday, January 01, 2006 - 6:48 pm: | |
Thanks everybody, I'll get to it.
Funny thing, flaxattack mentions the concert at Harpur College in 1970. I LIVED in Binghamton in 1970, had I been a convert I would have gone to that show. Ain't life a hoot.
Peace,
Cary |
lbpesq
Senior Member
Username: lbpesq
Post Number: 859
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 01, 2006 - 7:00 pm: | |
My brother was a student at Harpur 67-71. He, his first wife (then girlfriend), and a couple of other friends of his that I knew were all at the Harpur show. (Later, after it was all over, they wound up in a local coffee shop eating donuts with Jerry and the boys at some ungodly hour). It was hearing them all raving about this show that helped push me in the Dead direction. I heard for years about the INCREDIBLE Cozmic Charlie. I used to have a poor quality vinyl record bootleg of the show called "Cowboy Dead", but I never really appreciated this show until the Dick's Picks came out. It is a great Cozmic Charlie, and lot's of other stuff too!
By the way Cary, did you ever have the french toast at the Roscoe Diner?
Bill, tgo
(Message edited by lbpesq on January 01, 2006) |
jalevinemd
Advanced Member
Username: jalevinemd
Post Number: 293
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, January 01, 2006 - 11:44 pm: | |
My folks bought our house in Rye Brook, New York (once part of Portchester) in 1972. The previous owners were quite close with Jerry and the boys. They would stay at the house when in the area, including their shows at Portchester's Capitol Theater in February 1971. They bunked in the room above the garage, which would come to be mine. When we first moved in, the walls and parts of the ceiling, which followed the roof angle, were covered with quotes, song lyrics and drawings...many of which I assume were done by members of the band. Countless nights, I fell asleep staring at the wealth of 60's counter-culture scribbled on the drywall above me, without the slightest clue what I was looking at. Had I known who they were, at the time, I'd never have let my folks repaint.
Oh well...live and learn. |
lbpesq
Senior Member
Username: lbpesq
Post Number: 860
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 8:54 am: | |
Jonathan:
Great story. I fondly remember the Capitol in Portchester. So your parents painted over the Dead's lyrics? They tend to do that kind of stuff. My mom threw out my baseball cards, including a Mickey Mantle, along with my collection of Beatle 45s with covers! "This is all old stuff, he wouldn't want it anymore"! Yeah, right!
Bill, tgo |
flaxattack
Senior Member
Username: flaxattack
Post Number: 867
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 9:08 am: | |
i still mourn my trains bill,.,,, |
jalevinemd
Advanced Member
Username: jalevinemd
Post Number: 296
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 9:14 am: | |
The whole..."I was in labor with you for over twenty hours" excuse can only be used to justify so many mistakes! |
jalevinemd
Advanced Member
Username: jalevinemd
Post Number: 297
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 9:16 am: | |
Bill,
I sent you an e-mail to the wgpanzer@earthlink.net address. Is that still valid?
Jonathan |
lbpesq
Senior Member
Username: lbpesq
Post Number: 861
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 1:25 pm: | |
Jonathan:
Yes, it's still a good address. You've got mail.
Bill, tgo |
richbass939
Senior Member
Username: richbass939
Post Number: 525
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 1:47 pm: | |
0 to 70+ in less than 4 days! With a name like "What's the deal with Jerry?" I think we all could have guessed that this thread would get a lot of action.
Rich |
jerico
Junior
Username: jerico
Post Number: 37
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 2:32 pm: | |
Shortly after Jerry passed away, Bob Dylan said of him (paraphrasing here): "There are a lot of spaces between the Carter Family, Buddy Holly and say, Ornette Coleman, a lot of universes - but he filled them all..."
Trying to pin him in one song (especially if it's a Dead song, and moreso if it's a studio take) is tough to do. Listening to the Dead, you sort of get all of his styles at the same time, which might be a bit much for some who've never listened to him/them before.
Personally I think you'll get a clearer sense of his influences and styles if you listen to his work outside of the Dead - JGB and Legion of Mary stuff was much more rootsy (and you'll hear him covering the rythm ground that Weir takes care of in the Dead - not to be overlooked since Weir is a very distinctive rythm player), acoustic bluegrass and folk work with guys like David Grisman, even jazz when Jerry and Grisman did that album with a couple of covers of Miles Davis late in Jerry's career.
Happy hunting...!
Justin |
zappahead
Intermediate Member
Username: zappahead
Post Number: 124
Registered: 10-2002
| | Posted on Monday, January 02, 2006 - 7:08 pm: | |
You are gonna run into a problem by trying to find a single song where Jerry was "brilliant". Jerry was what he was and personally I think recognizing how great he was goes beyond taste in music.
Jerry was very different from the names I saw in the initial post. If you are looking for a guitar god or someone who tore frets up with blistering speed and precision, he really isnt gonna be your guy.
Jerry had an inate ability to strike a cord and connect to people through his music. His guitar playing (for a lot of us) was a huge part of the mix, but Im not sure you can disconnect him from his songs which are not just simply vehicles for him to solo off of.
He did do a lot of things you dont see everyday. How many of the other so called "guitar gods" routinely played as the centerpiece of a band performing improvised music night in and night out? Jerry might not have been able to do some of the things others can do from a sheer technical standpoint, but the guy also did things that some of the most widely proclaimed guitar players could never do and wouldnt even attempt to do.
On his best night he was the best I have seen, thats personal taste, but I think his place in the scheme of things is more than secure even if you dont like his music. His body of work speaks for itself. |
studiorecluse
Junior
Username: studiorecluse
Post Number: 22
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 10:37 am: | |
Zappahead,
Thanks for the thoughts. I don't know where the idea that I was looking for a "guitar god or someone who tore frets up with blistering speed and precision" came from, if that is your view of Carlton and Akkerman then you have missed the best they have to offer.
A guitar hero to me must posses sufficient skill to relay what is in the heart, but skill as it's own reward is a shallow art. Since this started I have listened to more Dead than probably ever before combinded, and I see some of what you are saying about the improve. But doing something different isn't always enough- Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull used to play concerts standing on one foot. That didn't make him a good flautist, although he was/is.
If what is special about Jerry is that he had the yarbles to play off the top of his head night after night, OK, then my question is answered. I think really what I am hearing is that the beauty of Jerry is the way he played as part of a bigger thing. That thing included the music, the band, and the audience. It is remarkable how well the Dead followed each other musically. That is a gift and a fine one at that.
So maybe that's the answer. Maybe the deal with Jerry is the way he became part of a bigger thing, greater than the sum of the parts.
Cary |
davehouck
Moderator
Username: davehouck
Post Number: 2951
Registered: 5-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 11:07 am: | |
Nice analysis Cary! |
the_8_string_king
Member
Username: the_8_string_king
Post Number: 52
Registered: 9-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 11:29 am: | |
I think much of Jerry’s guitar work on the live recording “Grateful Dead” (1971) (unofficially dubbed “Skull and Roses” or “Skullfuck” (Phil’s nickname) ) is brilliant or at least borderline brilliant. I’d especially recommend their covers of “Mama Tried” and “me and my uncle.”
For that matter, the whole band SMOKES on that recording; it's my personal all-time favorite live Dead recording. And, lest I forget, for any who may not know, the recording was done by none other than Alembic! |
kmh364
Senior Member
Username: kmh364
Post Number: 1584
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 11:52 am: | |
Ahhhh! Now you're on to something! You've gotten a good start now...keep on with your journey and see where it leads! Something about the Golden Road To Unlimited Devotion...?!?!?! LOL! J/K.
More food for thought:
Remember what I said about the Harley analogy?
For me, It's about how it makes you feel. Virtually all bikes, like virtually all music, are cool in their own way and are fun...but, to me, the way a Harley makes me feel when riding it is like the way Jerry and the Dead make me feel when I experience their music: unlike most of the others, IT JUST FEELS RIGHT!!!!!
That's as close as I can come to quantifying and qualifying the whole thing in words.
Cheers,
Kevin |
lbpesq
Senior Member
Username: lbpesq
Post Number: 863
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 03, 2006 - 12:44 pm: | |
Cary:
You're getting it.
Bill, tgo |
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