The Long Strange Trip:
Fare Thee Well!
Everything isn't totally political, like the universal of music.
If the recent concerts celebrating the 50th
anniversary of the Grateful Dead are any indication, they help make the claim that
the Dead are the preeminent U.S.
rock and roll band of all time. The San Francisco sound of the ‘60s and ‘70s – steeped in
drugs and rebellion – rose above Los Angeles, New York or Chicago
as the homeland of the most distinctive and inventive form of rock in that
period. Classic LA rock died with Jim
Morrison and limped on with CSNY and the more commercial Eagles; the Velvet Underground were the preeminent
New York band of the period and disappeared after a few albums; original Chicago
bands like Blood Sweat & Tears, Butterfield and the Electric Flag could not
keep up. Southern-linked bands like
Creedence Clearwater and the Allman Brothers went big, but then Creedence collapsed and
the Allman’s carried on, but not with the same impact. Other bands from San Francisco – Jefferson
Airplane, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone, Country Joe & the Fish,
Quicksilver, It’s a Beautiful Day, Steve Miller, Mother Earth, Santana – did
not quite have the staying power or mass appeal.
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| Grateful Dead in Haight-Ashbury |
Singer songwriters like Dylan and Neil Young were the best
of their class; Springsteen is about the only act that can challenge the Dead,
but he’s still not there.
The Dead’s Fare-The-Well concerts around the country this
2015 summer, ending in a three night stand at sold-out Soldier Field in
Chicago, were a fitting crescendo. The
Dead and the shadows of its long litany of deceased players rose above all this
- carrying its sound and cultural impact through 5 generations. Playing with them at the Chicago concerts were
Trey Anastasio of Phish on lead and Bruce Hornsby on piano, joining original
members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kruetzmann and Mickey Hart, along with Jeff
Chimenti on the dangerous keyboards. The ghosts of Jerry Garcia,
PigPen, Brent Mydland, Keith Godchaux and Vince Welnick hovered over the
concerts.
Why were they the best?
Exercises like this are probably stupid but nevertheless I’ll give it a
try.
Covers: The
Dead were the greatest cover band in the U.S. – doing Dylan, Stones, Beatles,
Chuck Berry, blues and country; and dozens of other roots songs written by others, and making each
one their own. Listen to the Dead do
“King Bee” and compare it to the Stones version, and you’ll know who did it
better. They respected their roots,
unlike musicians who think everything must come from them alone.
Influences:
The Dead combined influences from blues, folk, blue-grass, country, jazz,
Americana and
electronic / experimental music into a unique American amalgam, bar none. Nothing synthetic or sterile about their
approach. They had a repertoire of
nearly 700 songs and only one top-40 hit, which made them a decidedly non-pop
phenomenon. You rarely hear about the Dead from any corporate source, as they started as a completely 'underground' band whose work was promoted by word of mouth. They didn't get much promotion except by the formerly underground press like Rolling Stone, and it went on that way for years.
Drugs: No
other band made marijuana and other drugs an accepted part of their shows. In Chicago 2015 the smoke still billowed.
Visuals: The
Dead were known for their iconographic visuals.
The dancing bears; the skull and roses, the lighting-bolt through the
red, white and blue skull; the Jester; dancing turtles; Uncle Sam skeleton and Captain
Trips. They relied on excellent light
shows from the first to the last. The
Stone’s tongue symbol pales in comparison.
Improvisation:
They perfected the improvised and jazz-based ‘jam’ form of rock. Each concert was similar to a jazz performance
in the sense that base songs were many times used as springboards for something
else. Songs flowed into each other and
transitions between songs were many times improvised. They put the ‘psych’ in psychedelic.
Dancing: Most
Dead concerts had people dancing for hours, like some St. Vitus ceremony. The concerts were the equivalent of a
roots-based ‘rave’ that went closer to public ecstasy than almost any other
band could muster.
Live performances:
The most prolific band in history, playing more concerts than any
other. Ultimately their audiences were
full of people of all ages and classes. The
Grateful Dead itself played 2,318 concerts.
The Dead, Further, Phil Lesh & Friends, Dead & Company, The
Other Ones, Ratdog, Rhythm Devils and other spin-off bands have played many
more. Garcia himself had several bands
like Old & In the Way. As a result
they have the most recorded concerts of any group of musicians, as chronicled
by “Dick’s Picks” and many others. They
had the most loyal live following of any rock band. Nearly 25 million people have seen their
shows.
Technical: The
Dead were the first rock band to control the recording of a studio album, their
second - “Anthem of the Sun.” Owsley Stanley,
of LSD fame, designed their ‘wall of sound’ which linked every instrument to
around 5 to 10 speakers. It was so
massive they eventually stopped touring with it. Sound was always important to the Dead – they
wanted it as close to perfect as they could get.
Industry innovations:
They were the first band to try to start their own label and to sell
tickets to their own shows, to cut out the profiteering middle-men. They were, of course, a money-making machine
if they toured, but played many benefits too.
They had a huge crew that were not just minions and took fan outreach
seriously. They were the first band to allow taping by the audience. They were fluid and welcoming
and so they invited many people to be part of the band – for a long period or
just a few shows. Notable members or players
were Donna Godchaux, Bruce Hornsby, Warren Haynes, Joan Osborne and Branford
Marsalis, but many others came on-stage.
Cultural: They
were a living link between the Beats like Kerouac, Ginsberg and Kesey and the
hippies. Their song “Cassidy” celebrates
Neal Cassidy, who drove the bus named Further in the book “On the Road.” They
attempted to continue this legacy until the end, though members like Bob Weir
became millionaires in the process. Nor
were they spot-light hogs. The had the
sense to walk away from Altamont because they
could tell it was a bad place to be in.
In a way they were part of a ‘cultural revolution’ that
continues to this day. Given
right-wingers still denigrate ‘hippies,’ as do centrists and liberals, those 50
years are proof of a very powerful cultural thrust that hasn’t stopped yet.
Be Kind & Fare Thee Well
The Culture Vulture
January 26, 2016
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