I saw the Dead in '68 and they were awful. It was pretty disappointing as I'd loved the first album. I still think it's my favorite. I have to admit to warming up to them, but only through the next four or five albums. Once Micky Hart left, I thought they lost it. By coincidence I saw the return of MH at an unannounced gig, well it was billed as Jerry Garcia and friends. That was the debut of Blues For Allah. It was totally enjoyable. The One From The Vault cd is from the next gig, which wasn't nearly as good. A year later they opened for the Who at Oakland. I went late to avoid the crush of 40,000 people and only saw the end of Johnny B Goode one day and missed them completely the next day. Historical note: The '68 gig I saw was a two day fest at the Santa Clara Co Fairgrounds. Pretty impressive line up Big Brother, Steve Miller, Airplane, Youngbloods, Dead, Sons Of Champlin and a couple others. The only problem, Kim Fowley showed up with a barrel of PCP. He was calling himself Hog Man. Jefferson Airplane were so whacked out they could hardly play. Steve Miller lived up to his self proclaimed reputation of being the best SF band at the time. RS Robert Sutliff wrote: > I saw the Dead twice - roughly around the time of Terrapin Station. The > first time I thought they were a bit off and rambling but not terrible. I > guessed I'd seen them on one of their off nights. The second show was around > 3 months later. I quickly realized that the first show I saw must have been > one of their best ever - they were truly wretched and it sounded like they > were playing totally seperate tunes at the same time. > > Another story - I was visiting a friend in Boston around 1989. We went to > the local Tower Records and I saw all these people in sleeping bags laying > in the snow on the sidewalk. I told my friend that it was terrible to see so > many homeless people. She replied that they were just waiting for Dead > tickets to go on sale in another week. > > Deadheads - I salute you! > > But I still don't like the band. > > Bobby Sutliff > > > > > Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 15:12:10 -0400 > > From: Sean Palmerston > > To: > > Subject: Re: audities-digest V1 #481 (10 msgs) > > Message-ID: > > > > > Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 14:00:15 -0400 > > > From: Mike Nicholson > > > The other Dead joke: > > > > > > Q: What did one Deadhead say to the other when they ran out of dope? > > > > > > A: "Man, this band SUCKS!" > > > Can also be applied to Phish, String Cheese Incident, Widespread > > > Panic, etc. > > > > That is perhaps the lamest and oldest joke in music history. Also the most > > untrue. As a fan of the grateful dead circa 1969-1974, all I have to say > is > > that if you don't like it, it's your own loss. Some of their albums of > that > > period are amazing and they were an even better live band. > > > > I don't know how they cut it live present day, but judging from the great > > taste Bruce from Not Lame has in releasing records, if he said it was good > > I'll believe him. I guess I'll be able to chime in more after I go see > them > > at Darien Lake on August 8th. > > -- Ronald Sanchez Director Of A&R Career Records www.CareerRecords.com The Donovan's Brain Web Site www.Donovans-Brain.com