John A

As far as JK & Jeff are concerned, and sure this is admittedly a blunt assessment, but I don't know that it could be argued otherwise. What I'm saying is there's room for personal preference, but ultimately there is a pith to the "debate". To wit, these are my two basic points... #1 On a surface level, we have a number of subjective categories: their tone, chops, musicianship, configuration of gear to channel Jerry's "sound", vocal abilities, and whatever other list of parameters one wants to include, which all meld into a calculus that I honestly feel equally "serious" Deadheads / Starheads can debate, argue either mild or strong opinions each way, and everybody can be right. #2 On a deeper, more meaningful level, and acknowledging I personally know neither of these men beyond watching them perform Grateful Dead/Jerry Garcia music on stage, I have a palpable sense Jeff more deeply understands the "soul" of what Jerry conveyed through his musical presence; and thereby he's better able to convey it himself. And folks disagreeing with my #2 are wrong. Hey, everybody can't always be right. 😆

For a few years now, a couple serious Deadhead buddies have implored me to listen to these. It's not that I didn't agree I both should do so and would dig them, it's just that there wasn't really anywhere beyond the car it would be conducive for me to do so. And I no longer have a commute. But last week I finally had a perfect opportunity - a solo drive to Santa Barbara which is about 5 1/2 hours each way. I made my way through about 9 hours the podcasts, getting through season one (Workingman's Dead song by song mostly) and diving a bit into season two (same deal with American Beauty). And indeed, this is by and large some damn cool stuff. I thought it would be fun to relate some random anecdotes I learned, and that this could be a thread for others to do so as well. So to get things started with a few tidbits...I got a bunch more, but I'll start with these: ●To illuminate how pedantic these things get, I'd known that Dire Wolf was a reaction to a movie Hunter watched with Garcia, the Sherlock Holmes vehicle Hounds of the Baskervilles. Hunter has been quoted as saying the song was written the morning after they'd seen the film, which we know was sometime in mid 1969. Well, they researched the two evenings the movie was shown on the local Bay Area affiliate, and one of those showings was when the Dead were on the road. So based on the other date, it can be deduced the exact day the song was born. ●The first few versions of Dire Wolf wrere sang by Bobby, which always made me scratch my head. Why would that be? And the answer is simple - Garcia played pedal steel on stage for those versions, and one can't really sing and play that instrument simultaneously. It requires both hands, both feet, and even your knees! So Weir needed to take the vocals. ●Most (all?) of the songs from Workingman's, and some from American Beauty, were written in the house Hunter shared with Garcia and Mountain girl in Larkspur, a small town in central Marin (this is shortly after the band has relocated north from Haight Ashbury). One of the podcasts revealed the address, that Janis Joplin lived near by, and that one could get there by crossing a creek then via a trail. Well, that is Lark Creek, and the trail is the Piedmont Trail, dirt that I've hiked on countless times. And here is said house now: https://www.compass.com/listing/271-madrone-avenue-larkspur-ca-94939/7880713512714033/ You know you're hardcore when despite the wealth of awesome stuff you're learning you occasionally yell into your empty car, "wait, they need to mention this or that fact while in this deep discussion they shouldn't have omitted." 🤣

Pretty solid wide ranging interview. Even my beloved Styx got a shout out! (Everybody needs some guilty pleasures) Surprised there was no overt mention of Eaton, especially because there was banter about how folks JK was playing with had in some cases seen only a few Dead shows, and that JK has only gotten on the bus in '89. Then in comes Eaton, who was essentially royalty in the world of Grateful Dead scholars. Or Scott Larned for that matter. I thought Scott was a driving force for getting DSO happening, but his name I don't believe so even spoken. And speaking of the tradition to Eaton, I'd never seen video of Mike Maraat, and thereby didn't quite understand the degree to which Eaton took the band to a new level. Hell, that upgrade makes the Kevin to Skip transition seem like only a subtle bump. 😆 But I suppose the real point being made was that JK played with Phil and Bobby, and what that was like. And that conversation was quality. JK even claimed to have liked Jill Lesh! 😜 The revelation that his first shout out to the question about the "Grateful Dead peak" was '88 to '90 was hilarious - although he did then mention '73/'74 and '77/'78. I can see how Jeff coming on would have been a breathe of fresh air to the likes of Rob B. 😂

Gee I hope restaurants will continue service on weekdays. Those are typically the best nights to go. Weekends are amateur hour. And don't even get me started about Valentine's Day... 😜

How "huge" can someone be by playing strictly bluegrass? Honest question. What's the ceiling there?

I racked my brain for 10 minutes and had nothing, so I looked it up. Quality trivia right there! I even saw the '93 show and would never have guessed it.

I believe that appeared in every show on the tour. And interestingly enough only appeared a couple extra times - in the NYC run leading up to their departure for Europe.

That 2nd set opening segment of Trucking -> Other One -> Comes a Time -> Sugar Mag is well over an hour by itself! From the official 1995 release entitled "Hundred Year Hall". Now 150 year hall. 😆

There was a Bog Boss Man at the epic 6-16-90 Shoreline show. Man that show was fun. Jerry never left stage in the 2nd set!

That's some bad ass street cred right there, Bill.

I'd heard a story where, through Del knowing Jerry from way back, it was arranged that Jerry was going to buy a banjo that Ronnie McCoury owned. I actually asked Ronnie about it at a Sweetwater show in Mill Valley a few years ago and he confirmed it. The meeting and exchange happened backstage before a Spring '90 Landover show. Ronnie said that Jerry was extremely animated as he and Del traded stories about the bluegrass scene back in the day. As they were leaving, Jerry said he hoped they'll enjoy the show and Ronnie mentioned it would be great to hear them play Cold Rain & Snow. Sure enough, that's what The Boys opened with. Goes to show that at least on rare occasion Garcia did take requests!

Amazing that over a year after its debut Stella Blue could still find itself tucked innocently in the first set.

I won't leave you drifting down But whoa, it makes me wild With 80 years upon my head To have you call me child

7-29-88 is also the only Playin' that went straight into the reprise since it happened a few times in '76 just after the hiatus. This was my first show after moving to California. Not a bad way to get introduced to West Coast living! (Still didn't quite make up for missing the Greeks a couple weeks earlier, however. Something about wisdom teeth having to be extracted...)

And since Greg pegged a Beatles cover that qualifies, I'll spill another one (Rain) and a Paul M (That Would Be Something). The obscure '85 Weir cover is Kansas City, played the day after the Royals won the World Series. I'm pretty sure the rest have been named, and unless there's something still missing, my list sits symmetrically at 15 covers and 15 originals. Never expected there'd be 30 total entries. Originals: Operator Till The Morning Comes St Stephen Dark Star Cosmic Charlie Comes A Time To Lay Me Down Loose Lucy The Wheel If I had The World To Give Standing On The Moon Truckin' Sugar Magnolia Lazy Lightnin' My Brother Esau Covers: Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl Big Boss Man Next Time You See Me Wake Up, Little Suzie Going Down The Road Feeling Bad I Know You Rider Me & My Uncle Hey Jude Dear Mr. Fantasy (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction Why Don't We Do It In The Road That Would Be Something Kansas City Stir It Up Rain

Originals list is now down to 15. I, and A. Crew as well, have erred. "Mountains of the moon" opens the second line of the first verse. Damn it! edit: and the cover list has now come side by side with 15 as well. Just got a new one. Shit.

Aww, man, neither Satisfaction nor Hey Jude made it to my list. Good ones! So the covers has swelled to 14, because I got 2 more myself. I'll reveal one of them as Stir It Up, which could be controversial because they never really did the whole song. Only a train wreck of a stab it it in Hampton '88. Bobby aborted after about a verse, and Jerry for whatever reason wasn't interested in helping him! But I think it still makes the list.

Dead didn't play Easy To Slip, plus it starts with "it's so", nor did the Dead play Breadbox which is technically called "Move Along" I think anyway, and Ain't Superstitious starts with "well"... Tea, sing Race Is On to yourself again and get back to us. 😜 But, we have Tea with Next Time You See Me, and 2muchfun back again strong with Till The Morning Comes. That leaves just 2 covers on my (new) list, having come up with the obscure 1985 Bobby cover. The other cover hint: while the song starts with the title, it isn't sung straight up but rather in a drawn out fashion. This might get knocked off in 24 hours. Good work by the Starheads. 👍

And with Mountains of the Moon we are now waiting on 1 original and 2 covers (or anything else I may have missed). edit: I just came up with another cover. Hint - it's quite obscure, done by Bobby in 1985. Woe is the OCD Deadhead. 😂

I didn't count Here Come Sunshine because only in the reimagined version that showed up in the 90s did it start that way. And Dancing' doesn't count because it opens with "dancin', dancin', dancin' in the streets" But with Schoolgirl and Boss Man we're down to 2 covers from my list. And with Cosmic we're also down to 2 originals from my list.

Don't Ease Me In doesn't count because "don't ease, don't ease" opens the song. Dear Mr. Fantasy didn't make my list; well done Billy Delyon. So we're now up to at lease 16 original and 9 covers. Thus far by my count 13 of the originals and 5 of the covers have been named. Good work, folks! And kudos to 2muchfun, who has dominated the proceedings. At least 3 originals and 4 covers still to go....maybe more?

For no good reason other than weird thoughts about the Grateful Dead follow me around, I randomly mused this afternoon about Dead songs, categorized separately by originals and covers, where the opening words are the song's title. Nothing came to mind instantly, although after thinking for a couple minutes I had a small list. I thought a bit more, and the list kept growing, but I quickly got stuck. Note there's a handful of examples that almost qualify but not quite, like Attics ("In the attics of my life" opens the song), One The Road Again ("She's on the road again"), and Smokestack ("Whoa-oh smokestack Lightning"). So tonight I was motivated to look trough a list of song the Dead played and see what said perusal might uncover. My cursory research totals 16 originals Grateful Dead songs and 8 non obscure covers that fit the bill. In fairness, I got less than half of these on my own. Anyone want to take a stab at some of these? I'll be interested in one's I missed...

You picked a damn good vintage for a large touring year! Spring tour was no more than solid, at least in my book, but the February shows, the summer tour, and obviously the fall tour were all gold. I saw both Oakland post space Foolish Hearts, but for some reason didn't make it down to LA for those Forum dates. And after seeing what happened with the Dylan appearance on 2-12 I was beating myself up over it. Pretty cool that they essentially let Dylan call the pre-drums sequence, which reads like an extension of the first set and includes the only Monkey and the Engineer since '81 plus an electric version to boot.

And back to our random Dead minutiae of the day…. Foolish Heart was played 3 times after space, in consecutive appearances, about 6 months after it debuted. On 12-28-88 it was Miracle > Foolish > Lovelight to close the show. On 2-7-89 it was put between Throwing Stones and Good Lovin'. And on 2-12-89 it ended the 2nd set after Other One > Stella. And with the experiment obviously over, it went back to its pre-drums slot, seasoned in with an occasional 1st set appearance.

If Billy Strings takes over for Mayer in Dead & Co, is the new band then Dead Strings? 😁 Wait, could that actually happen? 🤔