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The Deadwere thelast great American adventure", Jerry Garcia

H

always said.Their legendary four-hour concertsencompassed

rock'n'roll,jazz, blues, aciel folk, musique concrete, even reggae.
Bob Weir - Garcia's protege, Deadguitarist from '65 to '95, writer/singer
I ofmany oftheir keynotesongs - talks us through SL'X oftheir best albums ...

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ANTHEM OF LIVE/DEAD WORKINGMAN'S

THE SUN VlARN[R 8R<» J%8
Tile Oead'ssecomlalbum combined studio and
live material ina psyclledelfcau ral collage. The
Intention: tolmproveon an undistinguished
debut, whlle slmulat ingtheeffectsof an LSO trip.
BOB WEI R:Wejust went nuts.Pureandsimple.We
wereInastudiowithaneight·track,andwecoulddo
anvthingwewanted.tt wasn'ta matter ofcarefully
layeringandstacking.The recordingprocessbecamea
bit morelikeJacksonPollockthan,say, Raphael.Ittook
Will', waylonger tomake thanour firstalbum.Wewere
hoist withourownpetardfor quiteawhilethere. It was
monthsinthemaking.Werecordedawholebunchof
gigs,andcotlagedthemover thestudioperformances.
Themixingtookforever,aswehadsomanyoptions.
I was19.Althat pointit wasstartingtoseern likethe
onlyll!eI'deverknown. I'dbeen at itsincel was 16.
That'swhenImet JerryGarciaandwestartedworking
together forthwith.For a 19-year'old,I'dbeenaround
theblock,musicatlyspeakingat least. I cou ldtalk
theory. I couldspeakin ltalianterrnsandInbopterms.
That was thespokenlanguageinthosedays,
Whatthat albumlacked,isthat tnesor gst ndn't have
allthat well-definedathread.Wewere lookingrnore
for "foundart" thanfor preconceivedstuff.Onceyou
start clockingintothestudio- night atternlgtu. for
months- theendeavour getsalin letooworkmanlike,
andtheflashesofinspirationtendtobecameabit more
muted.We didn'tdoanotherrecordIikethat one.It'sa
stand-alonerecord.andamonumenttoitself.
W"'RNER BROS, 197Q
Onthis celebrated double album ,theOead
marked out theirterritory. Highlights included
t he23'minute " Oark Star", theself-explanato ry
" Feedback", and Pigpen's R'n'B showboating.
That record,of course,happened alotIasterthan
AntfJemOfTheSun.Therewasnooverdubbing. We
onlyrecordedoneortworuns[of tileproposed
tri/cklisting ],oneat theAvalonBallroomandoneat
TheCarousel.Hlenwejust listenedtoeverything
fairlycarefuIII' anddecidedwhichtrackstoinclude.
Youcan't reauvnearrne audience,butthey'rethere.
TheLive/ Deadset wasbasicallyacondensationof
ourliveshow,Our showswereonlya11 hour-and-a­
half.maybeapproachingtwohours.Cometothinkof
it. no,theywerefour hours- that's becausewewere
stretchingsongsoot. "DarkStar" waswonderfully
representativsotth at day.Itwasarealapt rendition,
butaswebecamemoreskilledonour instruments,we
were ableto takethat songtonewplaces.It'samatter
ofspirit: howrnuchdoestile musicmoveyou?
Pigpenwasourshowman. Hewaspretty damn
good,but 11e hadacongeni talliver diseaseandhelost
hisstrength astheyearswent on. I healcohol didn't
help. lit first, Pigpenledtilechargeandtherest ofus
weremoreor lesshissidemen.Ashisstrengthbegan
toebb,theres of usstartedsteppingup, Butwekept
hisnichecosy for hirn,becauseweknewit wasn't
goingtobelong. [Pigpen.realname RonMcKernan.
diedin1973.1
DEAD WARN ER ~ROS,I970
Back to nature. TheDeadrelocate from San
Franciscoto Marin County,saddle up their ponies
and deliver acountry-rock classic.
After theSummerOfLove,andthesummerafter that.
thecityhadbecomesomewhat uninhabitableforus.
The Haight-Ashbury haddegenerated.Therewerea lot
ofbad drugsgomgarouao. andalot of peoplebeing
wastedbythem.Soweali movedout totheCourrv
I'dworkedonranchesasakid,andIenjoyedgoing I
backlOthatlifestyle.Iwaslivinganaself,inflicteddust
bowl, raisinghorses.trvingto beafarmer andmusician. I
It stretchedme preuvthin.but therewasa lotofthat
countryaestheticinour musicalroots.
Therewasthiscultural dividebetween rednecks­
whowerepro-America, loveit orleave it - andpeople
whowereagainst theVietnamWar.Thewholegetting­
back-to-the-count rvdecisionwaspartlyagestureto
rneet the redneckshalfway. ' OK,we'lltrvvourwav of
life.We'llrespect,andeven revere, your musical
heritage. We'lltrytoget real good atit: I\nditworked
forawhile,too.Americafell pretty"whole"when wegot
out ot vietnam, andIt had alot to dowiththemeldingof
popularmusicandcoun try musicidioms.
Robert Hunterwrotelyricsfor Workingman 'sDead. He
couldusefewer woros.andsavrnore.thananvone."Are
youkind?"[on "UncleJohn's8and"]was,lassumed,a
so-rt allusion."Kind"meaning"mykind"."humankind",
Inthecontextof Workingman's Dead, itmeant:"Areyou
simpatico...insolidaritywithotherworkingmen?"
 ..
EDROP '72
Yi4Rt>lFR BROS,J?72
TheDead commemoratetheir1972European
campaignwithatriplelivealbum(!)contalning
oldfavourites, inspirationalensemble playing,
andstunningnewsongs, includingWeir/Hunter's
timeless "JackStraw".
We alwayshadahugecrewandorganisation.It worked
toouradvantagefor themost part- evervonefelt a
spiritofcommunity,andfelt wonderfulgoingtowork,
Butthatmoreor lessinsinuatedthatwnenwewentto
Europein'72,thewholeentouragehadtocomewithus,
Itbecarnea great biggallival1l throughEuropewith
maybe<'\0 peopleontwobuses,It was importantfor
youtogoto YOl/rbuswhentheydidtheheadcounts
everyday,sothatyouwereaccountedfor.'Newere
touristsonourdays off.but mostofthetimewehada
jobtodo.We'dpull intoatownanddoasoundcheck,
thentakeit easyand marshalresourcesIor theshow
So wsdidn'tget out toomuch,Butwehadfun,andthe
audienceswerehighlyreceptive,
Alot of thosesongs wereneverstudio-recorded,
"JackStraw" Istillsingtodaywithmyband.Ratdog.t
don'twatchmuchTV,but onenight Iwashome.it was
late.andanoldversionof Steinbeck'sOf MiceAndMen
cameon. lwasmesmerised ,Wewerecomingoutofthe
Workingman'sDeadphase.andHunter hadthislyric.I
grabbedit.andwecameupwithalittlesketchof
heartlandAmericana,aballadabouttwone'er-do­
wells,It was patternedonOfMiceAndMen.but wetried
toput atwist ortwoonit.Samestory,different context.
TERRAPIN STATION
usingFleetwood Mac's producer, Ke ithOlsen,
theDead move intoAO Rballads, slick fusion
textures and bombastic orchestration son
theslde-long titletrack,Atruecurio inthe
canon - andonethat polarises opinion among
Deadheads about whether it rocksorsucks,
Weweredonerecordingandreadytomix.AndKeitll
o sensaid. "No,waita rnlnute," Andhegotonaolane.
IlewtoLondonandrentedanorchestra.r ns wase
timewhenthedollarwasstrong,andyoucould rent
theLSO realcheap,People intheUS musicscenewere
doingtilisleft.rightandcentre,Wehadanorchestra
anti achoir onthatalbum,Whentheproducerplayedit
tous,wewereof mixedfeelings,but wewerelocked
intoadeadlinebythen,soitgot releasedlikethat.
Whattilefanswouldrather haveheardwasus
plavingtnosetunesonthefirst side- "SamsonAnd
Delilah","Dandn' In TheStreets" - youknow,cowboy­
simple,Butwhenyou 'remakingastudiorecord,you
kindofoweittoyourselftoexperiment.Sometimes
cowboy-simpleisgreat. But sometimes,{know.if
there'sanorchestrathere., IgotalongwithKeith
Olsenfine.Iadmiredhisacuil y,hisacumen,And there
weregoodsongsandthevwerewef-retorded.tt sold
relalivelywell.Wewerealwayssemi-realisticthatwe
weren't goingtobeasrnainsr reamasFleetwoodMac.
asoursubject matterandapproachwerenowhere
nearasprosaic.It wouldhavehadtheunmistakable
shallowringof falsehood ifweweretotrytodothat.
VintageDead:Bob weir
(pa.l eshirt, centre)with
Jerryandthe boys
IN THE DARK
.'.RIS1,\, 19$7
Afteralongbreakfromstudios,duringwhich
JerryGarcia hadserious drugproblems, the
Dead returned witha strong,oftenemotional
album-andasurpriseMTV·backedTop lOUShit
with"Touch OfGrey".
We'd hadour upsanddowns.Jerryhadbeeninacoma.
Butwewerestillplayingconcerts,Ourattendance had
increasedby20 or25per cent.andweweremaking
goodmoney,weweren't allthat enthusedaboutgoing
intothestudio,Y'know,youcou ldgoinandmakea
polishedrecord,but you'dhavetoworkwitil aproducer
and thef nishedeffectwas n't real fulfilling.
ButwehadanotionthatInTheDarkwassounding
good,We'dbeenplayingalot of thosesongsfor ive
orsixyears,Theyweremature,readytogo.whereas
onmost of ourotherstudiorecordsthesongswere
relativelynew,Within TlJeDark,weknewthosesongs,
weweren'tjust discoveringthem.Songsareliving
critters,tn evhaveaninfancy,achildhood.theyget
rambunctiousandthentbevhit amaturephase,
50it wasn't thateye-poppingaconceptwhenthe
albumdidwell.
Bythe'90s,wewerecreepinginexorablvtowards
asituationwherethereweremoreof usdeadtl an
alive,Pigpen.KeithIGodchauxl,l3rent IMydlandJ, then
Jerry,But still.tothisday,there'salanguagethatwe
speak thatnohody elsecanfullycomprehend,And
wemight even get aroundto mountinganother tour
lnthefuture. (!)