--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote: > > I agree the Dead has the energy of the "live" band sound; bluegrass jams are often like that - they are sooo goood in person and just don't translate as well to albums.
Why I think many people "missed" the Grateful Dead and don't understand them is that 1) they're musically naive, and think only in terms of "pop songs" that are so simplistic that they can comprehend and appreciate them, and 2) they missed the dynamic of what I call "seven people soloing at the same time." Lesser bands -- and I would certainly class Eric Clapton and many of the others named in a previous post in that category -- were easier for some people to "get" because their music was simpler, and written to a formula. Simple time signature, simple melody, a bass line that rarely changes, and then occasionally one person "takes a solo." Not to mention the songs themselves being "songs," by which I mean they fit into the radio format, being short and not requiring much of an attention span. The Dead weren't like that. At their best -- and I am the first person to admit that they were *not* always at their best -- it really wasn't one person "taking a solo." It was all 7 or 8 of them soloing at the same time, each of them riffing off of each others' thoughts and ideas as if they were in some sort of psychic mind-meld. Phil Lesh was the most classically trained musician in the group, and there are those who class him as possibly the best bassist that rock has ever seen. He wasn't limited to the dumb, repetitive (but memorable, which is what the rabble seem to look for) bass lines that proliferate in rock 'n roll. Phil played entire melody lines in counterpoint to Jerry and Bob's guitars. And the two guitarists didn't have to "step back" and allow the other to "take the solo." That was too simplistic for them. One would take off and "go somewhere," and the other would just intuitively "get" it and start a counterpoint solo and melody that just weaved in and out of and meshed *perfectly* with the other's. There were times when it was as if you were literally watching and listening to One Mind onstage, all soloing at once, each of them in their own "musical space," but at the same time acutely aware of "each other's space," and completely in synch with what they were playing and where they were "going" musically. If you can get into that sorta thing, The Dead were a magical group to see performing live. Bringing in the issue of "Well, they only had one or two 'hits' on the charts" is completely irrelevant. First, the "charts" appeal only to the lowest-common-denominator masses. Second, did Miles Davis or John Coltrane ever have a 'hit' on the "charts?" Did it ever concern either of those latter two guys for an *instant* that they never had a 'hit' on the charts? Don't be ridiculous. They were musicians. At their best, the Grateful Dead were, too.
