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Way OT: Experience the horror (Grateful Dead)


OB Dave

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OK, so it seems this forum is harboring a lot of closet deadheads and/or musicians playing in Dead bands, and this just came across my FB feed so I just had to share.

 

The link is called "Experience the horror of 90 solid minutes of The Grateful Dead tuning its instruments." And so far it seems to be exactly what it says, 90 minutes of the Dead tuning up during the 1977 tour. (Obligatory keyboard content: Keith Godchaux)

 

I had no idea this stuff offended so many people's sensibilities. I always accepted these interludes as part of the weird charm of these old recordings. Anyway, love it or hate it, here it is.

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They're just noodling waiting to go on I think, not just tuning, maybe somebody was late, it's strange to hear a band do it, but I bet if others were as recorded as the Dead we would hear the same.

 

I think when the Dead just sing a song they're great, but man do I hate the endless jams, but that stuff sort of made them the huge band they were so it's hard to knock them about it.

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The problem always was, that after tuning, they were still not even close to being in tune.

 

The only bands I ever heard that were as out of tune as the Dead were their contemporaries Big Brother and Quicksilver Messenger Service, the all time champion.

 

It was as if somebody was spiking the water with LSD. Wait, they were...

Moe

---

 

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I think in the deads case they were tuning up their minds as much or more than their guitars. The point that they were still out of tune still stands.

 

BTW, big dead fan here. Not quite a deadhead but I have seen them at least 12 times. You had to be there to really know what its like, a tape or DVD misses at least half the vibe.

FunMachine.

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The tuning and doodling in between songs in the first set (where it was usually defined songs as opposed to one song jamming into another like the second set) usually decided what they were going to play next, as they rarely had a setlist decided before they went on stage.

Nord Stage 2 SW73, Kurzweil PC3LE7, Moog Sub 37, Alesis Ion, Rhodes Stage 73, Moog Werkstatt-01, Yamaha CP-300

-------------

Knock knock

Who's there?

Interrupting synthesizer

Interrup-MOOOOOOOOOG

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I take it as a not so subtle dig at a band notorious for dinking around and taking far too long in between songs onstage.

 

It's also one of those projects where the idea is much more brilliant than the actual finished product.

 

I'm thinking about trying to download it. It's perfect for driving people nuts during car trips. I won't tell anyone what it is, but there it will be when I start the car.

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I'm thinking about trying to download it. It's perfect for driving people nuts during car trips. I won't tell anyone what it is, but there it will be when I start the car.

 

Bill, I'm recording it as I write this. OK, so it will take 90 minutes. I don't have to listen the whole time. :D

:nopity:
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Didn't listen to all of it, of course, but popped in at various points to see if I could hear the crowd getting hostile or cranky. Didn't seem to be happening.

 

At a Dead show with a girlfriend circa 1984, I turned to her and casually said "I'm hitting the bathroom, be back in a minute." Girlfriend, who had no use for the Dead, said she was terrified to be left alone in the crowd. I thought that was the funniest thing ever. There wasn't a hostile or angry thought in that entire stadium.

Gigging: Crumar Mojo 61, Hammond SKPro

Home: Vintage Vibe 64

 

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