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The Grateful Dead's taste in musicians


kung

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So no one ever accused the Grateful Dead of having good taste in music/musicians. Oh I'm sure we'll get a long rant from someone about Jerry's deep bluegrass roots. But where do these guys find sidemen. I was listening to the Tubes today for the first time, out of curiousity (wasn't Vince Welnick in that group) and it's pretty fucking cheddar. Which left me thinking if this was Vince's only claim to fame what made them pick this tool. Can I get a Samba In The Rain amen on that one brother's and sisters. Then you've got the laughable Joan Osborne who's famous for having had one song on the radio once- a bad song at that. Which is the same with Bruce Hornsby and Mandolin Rain which thankfully the boys didn't hold against him- Bruce I'll give you is a credible sideman. Then there's the spinoffs and toolmongers like Mark Karan, where do they find these guys. Thank god for jamband side projects, where would these guys ever get any paying gigs otherwise. Jemimah Puddleduck Forever!

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To most ears today, the Tubes' sound is dated, like most bands from the New Wave era. I was never a fan of their music, but I found it relevant at the time.

Now, when Vince joined the Dead, the relevancy of the Tubes's music had long since past. I'll never understand the connection with Welnick's place in the Dead.

Didn't Hornsby seek out the Dead?

What about Branford Marsalis? He wasn't very cool at that time, being the lap-dog leader of the Tonight Show's band. Just ask Wynton about what he thought of Branford at that time.

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From all accounts, the Dead didn't really hunt too much for a replacemnt after Brent died. Brent passed on late July 1990, I believe, and Vince was on board by the Richfield shows in September of that year. Of course, Bruce was around for that Fall (and on and off after that), and there's some *great* shows in there but Vince was always struggling to keep up. I always felt kind of bad for the guy, he did try but he got shit on at every opportunity. Also, I place some blame squarely on the shoulders of Bob Bralove, their "MIDI" and keybaords man. His development of sounds for Vince, well, sucked, quite frankly. Remember that god-awful "violin" sound he'd switch on for every Weir cowboy-medley? Ugh. On the other hand, try 12-28-91 for a great, Bruce-less show where Vince makes some tasty piano and organ contributions all night long. It was like, if he was given his space, he could roll with it nicely but otherwise, he was nothing more than a competent accompaniest (sp?).

In the end, he was the wrong man for the Dead and was placed in a no-win situation. Jerry was failing and the Dead began their slow decline. No wonder he got severely depressed after Garcia passed away.

Marsalis I can't say much about because I never caught on to his solo works (and nevermind the Tonight Show stuff, it doesn't matter - BUG!) but I *will* say that the 9-20-01 MSG show is phenonemal. Marsalis brings everyone's game up and the whole show is a treat.

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quote:

Originally posted by MarcO:

Marsalis I can't say much about because I never caught on to his solo works (and nevermind the Tonight Show stuff, it doesn't matter - BUG!) but I *will* say that the 9-20-01 MSG show is phenonemal. Marsalis brings everyone's game up and the whole show is a treat.

The beef with Marsalis at that time was that he was Leno's whipping boy. He went from a legitimate jazz " young lion " to a Tonight Show lackey. That really pissed-off his family and fans in the jazz community. It hurt his jazz credibility too ( at the time ). He certainly is well respected now in the jazz world. It took a while too.

I think the Dead may have aided in bringing him out of his Tonight Show exile. The Dead may be responsible for " clearing " someone's mind for a change.

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For collaborators they've definitely got better prospects. Marsalis could be seen as a merched out Ornette Coleman, but can we get an amen for Ornette's crazy rhythm's and the double quartet arrangements. Also what's that story about Bobby with his head in Etta James lap and she's just come from playing the San Fran dykes ball. Bobby's stretching a bit with Pinetop Perkins though, I imagnie him tousling his hair and making a whinnying moan about 'how into you I was, man'.

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from what I hear,,,everyone was so fukin bummed about Brent that they basicaly tried 4 guys and settled on Vince cuz they couldnt do another audition...they basically said "Fuck it, he'll do"...

whether that wasa good decision or not,,,,time is telling us no...

But what a fukin ride for Vince huh....

Guy went from being basically bankrupt to a very rich man overnight..

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"Marsalis could be seen as a merched out Ornette Coleman, but can we get an amen for Ornette's crazy rhythm's and the double quartet arrangements"

FUCKIN' AMEN!

See Wharf Rat!!!!!!!!!

I feel bad for Vinnie, if you can believe that, but even more, I feel bad for Jerry. Here was a guy that needed to feel a strong connection to the keyboard player, and he couldnt develop that rapport with Mr Welnick. Not to blame Vince, but look at what transpired...........

I'm just sayin's, is all.

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quote:

Originally posted by Tungsten Gruvsten:

i used to have a show from 91 with Huey Lewis on it...granted he's a bay area musician and all but i thought it was strange. He rocked out the harmonica on a bunch of blues tunes...

I have that show it's 08/21/93, Huey plays on Smokestack Lightning, Schoolgirl and Space.

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the other day i downloaded a dead vcd from sharin in the groove. Its the bill grahm memorial i think but not sure but John fogerty comes out to do a couple of ccr tunes and man fogerty's guitar sounds awful. Bad distortion and totally out of tune, also flashing to the crowd and what not. Theres a point where fogerty looks back and looks like he wants garcia to solo, garicia doesnt and fogerty turns his head and shakes it. Definetly wierd vibes between them in this show. Theres also another part that you can see fogerty TRYING to flash his shit and you can see jerry behind him with a huge frown on his face.

It takes a few songs until you see garcia and fogerty finally connect and they are grinning at eachother. Wierd vibes for sure.

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quote:

Originally posted by kung:

Then there's the spinoffs and toolmongers like Mark Karan, where do they find these guys.

I'll give you Karan. He was easily the weakest link at the Toronto Ratdog show.

I was pretty down on Joan until a friend gifted me soundboards of the Red Rocks run. She does a great Pigpen.

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