That's a lot of really interesting stuff, thank you for the long reply.
I did see the Dead, a lot, although I only saw JA once and it was after Starship and it wasn't great. Just a cheesy reunion at some protest in DC IIRC.
Now when I started seeing the Dead and following them around it was the 80's so maybe they learned to play by then? But seriously, I don't know how anyone can say with a straight face that the Dead "sucked". They played a LOT of shows over the years, sometimes over 175 in a year. There were bound to be good and bad days. But even going back to 1965 I can find examples of their music that sounds quite polished, rehearsed and professional to me.
With regards to JA again, as far as I'm concerned Jorma Kaukonen is one of the most talented guitar players I've ever had the pleasure to see. I once watched him play by himself in front of small crowd. I was like five feet from him on a street in Baltimore City and he played a 12 song set on a 12 string... It was great and just watching his hands let you know how intricate what he was doing was. Then the rest of his band at the time, Hot Tuna, came out and jammed for another couple hours.
I admit, there were drugs involved back then but I gave all that up over 30 years ago and I still listen to the Dead, Jorma, Tuna, those "obscure" bands we mentioned and, yes even JA. Maybe it's a niche taste these days but I feel their music stands up to the test of time. At least a lot of the music by the Dead especially.
But as Jack Black likes to say, it's all very subjective and my opinions are pretty meaningless in the whole scheme of things; but still fun to talk about and take a trip down memory lane (no pun intended). So thanks again.
Well, keep in mind that Jerry Garcia was, what, 24 in 1965? And I've heard some pretty iffy tapes of what they were doing at that time, but I've also heard quite polished things, too. 20 years of 150-shows-a-year might have improved them.
And as I said, there might be a fair amount of sour grapes going on there, too. A lot of folks have really funky egos. One of the other old dudes I used to play with in Kerrville, TX was Marc Benno... I read a rolling stone interview with him where he claims not to have known who the Doors were when he got hired to play on the LA Woman sessions... I dunno if I believe that, but either way it seems like an easy way to characterize a lot of the almost-famous folks I've played with.
I perform dead tunes pretty routinely (I've been working up Dire Wolf on pedal steel and ac. guit lately)... I feel pretty strongly about the music. You don't have to sell me on the goodness of it.
I did see the Dead, a lot, although I only saw JA once and it was after Starship and it wasn't great. Just a cheesy reunion at some protest in DC IIRC.
Now when I started seeing the Dead and following them around it was the 80's so maybe they learned to play by then? But seriously, I don't know how anyone can say with a straight face that the Dead "sucked". They played a LOT of shows over the years, sometimes over 175 in a year. There were bound to be good and bad days. But even going back to 1965 I can find examples of their music that sounds quite polished, rehearsed and professional to me.
With regards to JA again, as far as I'm concerned Jorma Kaukonen is one of the most talented guitar players I've ever had the pleasure to see. I once watched him play by himself in front of small crowd. I was like five feet from him on a street in Baltimore City and he played a 12 song set on a 12 string... It was great and just watching his hands let you know how intricate what he was doing was. Then the rest of his band at the time, Hot Tuna, came out and jammed for another couple hours.
I admit, there were drugs involved back then but I gave all that up over 30 years ago and I still listen to the Dead, Jorma, Tuna, those "obscure" bands we mentioned and, yes even JA. Maybe it's a niche taste these days but I feel their music stands up to the test of time. At least a lot of the music by the Dead especially.
But as Jack Black likes to say, it's all very subjective and my opinions are pretty meaningless in the whole scheme of things; but still fun to talk about and take a trip down memory lane (no pun intended). So thanks again.