Loaded vs. American Beauty

I will also slag off Sweetheart of the Rodeo for similar reasons, if you like

xp

Life really is too short for that

not sure really what you mean - my Dead baggage is essentially the same as Shakey Mo's - I'd hear them and go "oh, Christ, not the fucking Dead." turned out having spent years basically cultivating a reaction-formation based on bullshit social cues was a colossal waste of time & that I'd been missing out on music that I'd really have enjoyed.

I will also slag off Sweetheart of the Rodeo for similar reasons, if you like

lol the singing on that record bugs the shit out of me

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/53/139143421_e433ad8375_o.jpg
this guy was always trouble.

a couple weeks ago as I was moving into a new rehearsal studio I had to pass by not one but TWO different groups of aging fucks with their tie-dyed t-shirts tucked into their dockers arguing about the Dead ("no dude what you gotta hear is that set with just Mickey, Bob, and Jerry kicking it in Marin in '91, so laid back" = ugh I stab you)

not sure really what you mean

I thought you meant you'd spent a few years learning to love them, having to work at it a bit.

genre purity is a wonderful and rewarding pursuit

telling the good from the bad with a given genre = purism?

like, I don't have any problem calling a fair amount of what the Dead did country... it's just shitty country.

i started with what a long strange trip its been when i was 16. just cuz i'd never really listened to them before and thought i should give them a shot. and this was at the height of my punkdom. but, like i said above, also the height of my acidness. i devoured that 2 album set. i couldn't believe how much i loved the songs. black peter, tennessee jed, ramblin' rose, they sounded amazing to me. i stuck to studio stuff for years. and dead set (and reckoning), which is another great showcase for the songs. i still listen to the studio albums way more than i listen to live stuff.

and i love jerry's voice. and old and in the way is a good place to hear dead bluegrass!

as far as rock bands that made great stuff for bluegrass people to play, the dead are right up there with dylan and ccr.

compared with the genuine article compared with the genuine article compared with the genuine article compared with the genuine article compared with the genuine article compared with the genuine article compared with the genuine article

if you wanna argue that their country stuff is better than their source material (Buck Owens, etc.) you are bonkers

xp

I thought you meant you'd spent a few years learning to love them, having to work at it a bit.

no no - it's just that I make a habit of, every few years, checking out something I think I hate to see if I feel differently about it. I recommend this to all music-lovers because there are a lot of dumb reasons for not liking stuff (social cues, meaningless bias, breadth/range of experience i.e. there's stuff that you want to have heard a lot of other stuff before it'll make much sense). and your ears change, your tastes mature or grow or shift, anyway. I saw that American Beauty was getting some 20-anno treatment or something and I was like "give that one a shot, maybe you'll like it" and bang. And then I heard the super-psyched-out debut at a party, and it was like "wait - has this band always been really interesting & I'm just a dick about it?" and it turned out the answer to that Q was "yes."

Shakey Mo they're doing their own thing for Christ's sake not trying to be stuff you wanna be high-falutin' about

I just posted a similar post in the Monae thread re testing one's assumptions.

Maybe we can create an Empire Burlesque vs In the Dark thread to really fuck shit up.

I'm poor and don't like stealing music for free, so testing my assumptions about certain things that I've hated on first listen is not really a luxury I can afford. sorry

it's just that I make a habit of, every few years, checking out something I think I hate to see if I feel differently about it. I recommend this to all music-lovers

Imagine a lot of us do this, or similar, already. But I don't hate the Grateful Dead, they just don't register much either way.

I'm guessing you know somebody you could borrow the key Dead albums from if you were actually interested xpost

I have a hard enough time keeping up with all the music I actually WANT to hear, but then I'm not one of the people around here that gets sent tons of free stuff/downloads whatever they want

xp

I'm guessing you know somebody you could borrow the key Dead albums from if you were actually interested xpost

this is true. the problem is I hate these people and don't want to talk to them.

i'd like to give a shout out to rca special products cuz in the early 80s these were two of my fave things to play:

http://www.arrakis.es/~e.miquel/rnranimal/images/offilp/wildchildlp.jpg

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s596397.jpg

(didn't have a lot of money back then. always looking for budget comps. both on pair records!)

lookit Lou's muscles!

The Dead....I really don't know: I've been giving them a chance every now and then for like 30 years - I'm on my third copy of American Beauty, and still, compared to Sweetheart, Gilded Palace, all the Band records, Moby Grape and so on, it doesn't really do it. I do however, love the first NRPS.

"I thought you meant you'd spent a few years learning to love them, having to work at it a bit."

it took me 30 years of listening to finally LOVE the byrds.

took me twenty years of going back to it to finally understand why people loved exile on main street so much.

took me 25 years since i first heard them to truly LOVE and appreciate magazine.

i still listen to the studio albums way more than i listen to live stuff.

This is pretty important. The Dead's live rep as being these masters of improvisation who created these unique tapestries of psychedelic fire every night has been vastly overstated by both their fans and detractors. The early 70s studio stuff is where it's at for me, including the first Jerry and Bobby solo albums.

(although I think there was a glimmer of hope for them in the late 80s just before Brent died - R.I.P.)

i dunno, sometimes I prefer the jammier stuff, though I'm not an intense collector or anything. actually the official live albums usually do the trick.

it took me 30 years of listening to finally LOVE the byrds.

There's quite a few ahead of the Dead in the queue tho!

i dunno, sometimes I prefer the jammier stuff, though I'm not an intense collector or anything. actually the official live albums usually do the trick.

Well yeah, the official live albums are highlights. But if you try to explore further than that, it can be very scattershot indeed.

I've never heard Loaded all the way through though. I think I'm going to try to track down a copy tonight.

I still don't LOVE The Byrds beyond the obvious stuff. 20 years of trying.

I barely even like the Byrds.

Holy shit I love the Byrds so much.
I think a lot of it is their legacy of inspiration.
A lot of my favorite bands have some serious Byrds worship happening.

byrds are fantastic (tho obviously a few rough spots). Clarence White-era has some indispensable stuff. anyone wanting to be convinced should get that Royal Albert Hall show that was released a few years back.

aw Clarence is the best for sure - ever hear that Everley Brothers version of "Cuckoo Bird"? So nice. Also love him on that Gene Clark and the Gosdins record. The Byrds not so much.

Love Dillard and Clark too.

Can't put my finger on why The Byrds elude me.

dunno, sometimes I prefer the jammier stuff, though I'm not an intense collector or anything. actually the official live albums usually do the trick.

Well yeah, the official live albums are highlights. But if you try to explore further than that, it can be very scattershot indeed

xpost: without a net is an exception. it's a bad official live Dead album

don't think i've heard without a net. what year is it from?

speaking of live dead tho: http://www.arthurmag.com/2010/05/07/grateful-dead-mix-volume-2-by-greg-davis/
a nice overview of how the Dead can be stellar live.

Also love him on that Gene Clark and the Gosdins record. The Byrds not so much.

Love Dillard and Clark too.

Can't put my finger on why The Byrds elude me.

^^^cosign all of this. I like some Byrds stuff but their catalog just seems like such a mess, its difficult to wade through

ew yeah - Without A Net is pretty sad, although Feel Like a Stranger and Help->Slipknot->Franklin's are great.

it's just that I make a habit of, every few years, checking out something I think I hate to see if I feel differently about it. I recommend this to all music-lovers because there are a lot of dumb reasons for not liking stuff (social cues, meaningless bias, breadth/range of experience i.e. there's stuff that you want to have heard a lot of other stuff before it'll make much sense). and your ears change, your tastes mature or grow or shift, anyway.

So tremendously OTM. This is the entire story of my last decade as a music freak.

Loaded is my favorite VU album, and I don't care much for the Dead, so...

underrated aerosmith albums has been all over the money on this thread; American Beauty is seriously fucking good. "In the Attics of My Life" could have been on Pet Sounds and that's like the eight best song on this album.

to, me if you were going to pit AB against another 1970 album, the obvious choice (besides Workingman's Dead which I don't like as much) would be After the Gold Rush.

(for instance, both contain throwaway ditties about the coming of morning)

as much as i love neil, after the goldrush has never been one of my favorite records of his. AB pretty much crushes it. i think the gilded palace of sin is maybe the only record being discussed on this thread i genuinely connect with/love more than AB.

1970 album poll would be hella difficult. Didn't Starsailor and Lick My Decals off come out that year too? Monster Movie (or was that 69)?

byrds are fantastic (tho obviously a few rough spots). Clarence White-era has some indispensable stuff. anyone wanting to be convinced should get that Royal Albert Hall show that was released a few years back.

― tylerw, Thursday, May 20, 2010 5:16 PM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^ this, btw, is OTM. clarence is a god.

xpost
yeah, there's so much 1970 gold...Funhouse, Parachute, Band of Gypsies, Plastic Ono Band

Funkadelic debut too. 1970 was a great year