The Grateful Dead may be, in the fullness of time, seen as the greatest American rock band. At this moment, I believe that they are. Shouts of protests immediately leap to mind: “But, but…the three B’s – Beach Boys, Byrds, Buffalo Springfield!” “The Velvets, duh!?”. Indeed, to posit the good ol’ Grateful Dead as the greatest of all American rock bands is a claim likely to elicit hoots of derision from the hipsters, the aficionados, the type of people who argue about who the greatest American rock band was. Many of these same snide hipsters learned irony at the feet of David Letterman. So, to assuage their fears and advance my argument, I present my appreciation in the now venerable form of the Top Ten List. In reverse order. A count-up.
1. The Grateful Dead were not afraid to suck. Bands like the Velvet Underground or the Shaggs sucked sublimely, and largely because some of them had only a rudimentary grasp of how to operate their instruments. The Grateful Dead, on the other hand, did not have to suck. They proved their technical mettle on albums like Blues for Allah and their deft mid-seventies live shows. No, the Dead chose to be the kind of band that sometimes sucked, because when they weren’t sucking they were sometimes amazing, reaching beyond the rock genre, beyond music itself into the pure stream of human communication. They always, almost up to the end, were capable of lifting off the ground in a spectacular way. And that lift, that “Grateful Dead moment”, changed over the years, which brings me to….
2. The Dead were actually several different bands over the course of their career. The band that I hear on Live/Dead is a world away from the one that I started to hear live in 1982, when I was thirteen. That 1982 Dead was a glittering dance – light, angelic. 1970 Dead is menacing, ferocious, go-for-the-throat. As I write this, I realize that my general descriptions of the band’s 1982 and 1970 styles would be the same if I were to describe how I hear Jerry Garcia’s guitar playing in those two periods. The same adjectives. This makes sense because Jerry Garcia was always the prime mover of the Grateful Dead. As regards his guitar playing, wherever it is, so is the Dead. When he skitters, they skitter. When plods they plod. That’s why the Dead went so badly downhill when Garcia’s health started to fail.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Mark Saleski
you'll get no argument from me on this.
the Dead pulled in so many elements of american culture and music to produce a very unique experience.
oh, and Blues For Allah kills!
2 - SFC Ski
Great essay, and I won't argue with the minor points I disagree with.
A related question: Will the Dead ever be recognized for the great country music they wrote? Listen to some of their songs and imagine Willie Nelson or even some of the nu-country guys singing them, you'll know what I mean.
3 - BRICKLAYER
I was just reading last night that Gregg Ginn loved the Dead and saw them 75+ times, and we all know Gregg Ginn rocks harder than everybody (except for you know who).
Can you recommend some releases as a good starting point for a novice? The amount of albums is a bit daunting. I have an old copy of Aoxamoxa (I think that's the spelling), and an old greatest hits on cassette, but I'd like to investigate some of their live stuff. Where to begin?
4 - Mark Saleski
studio: Blues For Allah
5 - Mark Saleski
early live: Ladies & Gentlemen, The Grateful Dead
middle years: i've always been partial to Dead Set
also like Hundred Year Hall
and then, for totally bizarro material: Grayfolded. it's a crazy edit using Dark Star as source material.
6 - RPM
On New Years Eve 1982, Etta James and the Tower of Power sat in with the Dead for their third set and she proclaimed them to best the "best AMERICAN blues band" around, "except for the name" Now, Etta had had a couple of cocktails before hitting the stage, but the set rocked and she loved the Dead. I was a punk in High School, my favorite shirt was a Steal YOur face, with a bullet hole in it that read "I'll be grateful, when they're dead." Then I went to a show and my world turned on it's head. They were the first punk band, they never cared what people thought, they went out of their way to be shocking, yet the most shocking to society was them being themselves, if that ain't punk...
As for starter material, I would look into "Live/Dead," "Europe '72", "Amrican Beauty" for the early (and best) years and "Dozin' at the Knick" for the later sound.
7 - Eric Olsen
and don't forget Skeletons From the Closet for a nice greatest hits package, or jus tgo with the newer Greatest Hits, which is pretty good
8 - Eric Olsen
very nice job Mike, technically I agreed with you when I picked the Dead 4th (and first American) out of my ten greatest rock bands list, though I am not sure I would do the same if you asked me to name the greatest American rock band
9 - Aaman
Perhaps they were enthused by the fine cooking of their chef, Charlie Ayers, who now cooks for google
10 - HW Saxton
I don't think there ever could be any
one single greatest ever done was of all
time type American rock n'roll band.
Regarding british bands the choices are
fairly easy:"Stones,Beatles or The Who"
(add whoever else comes to mind).
I think that the USA's greatest strength
lies in single performers rather than in
bands.Otis Redding,Ray Charles,JB,Elvis,
Hank Williams,Little Richard,Bo Diddley,
Chuck Berry,Howlin' Wolf,Patsy Cline and
so many others.
FWIW: These are IMO the 10 best American
bands: The Doors,Beach Boys,The Velvets,
Stooges,Creedence Clearwater Revival,
N.Y Dolls,Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers,
Ramones,MC5 and Van Halen.
The Dead just don't figure in my book.
11 - Eric Olsen
that surprises me to certain extent HW - I would think you would find their rootsiness and improv elements appealing.
The rest of your list is pretty great
12 - JerryG
Bricklayer, for a start try virtually any of the "Dick's Picks" volumes sold on Dead.net...no stinkers in the bunch
13 - Dave
The Grateful Dead: The 3rd-best band that Warren Haynes is a member of. ;-)
14 - Lono
The Dead are fanstastic, and I don't have a bad word to say about them! Nice piece, my friend. I have been saying for years, to anyone who would listen, that Garcia was one of the greatest (if not the greatest) rock guitarists of all time. Too bad dude will be remember for being a fat drug addict, because he was a musical genius. I saw the Dead about 15 times with Jerry, and a couple of times this last year without. In fact, my reviews of both the recent shows are buried here somewhere.
I too miss Jerry
15 - Andrew Ian Dodge
In a word...er no. They were a great jam band, but Greatest American Rock Band: hardly.
16 - Mark Saleski
yea...since everybody knows that the greatest american rock & roll band is the Rolling Stones.
;-)
17 - Olompali4
Without question.
The Grateful Dead surpass all as the greatest American Rock and Roll Band.
God bless them.
18 - dyuob
How could they not be the greatest American Band? They do indeed embody all that is Americana. Gret essay.
19 - Taloran
Bricklayer, I would suggest that you begin with arguably the two most "listenable and approachable" of the band's studio albums, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. As they were recorded and released at essentially the same time, they give an excellent perspective on two very different but concurrent sides of the Dead's psyche and sound.
While RPM in comment 6 and JerryG in #12 are certainly entitled to their opinion, I'd suggest you leave Live/Dead and Dick's Picks alone until such time as you become enthused about the band - I think they're more "GD201" than "GD101." Europe '72 as suggested in #6 might be the best place to begin the initiation to the band's live recordings.
20 - Taloran
From the original post - "utterly convinced that the Dead simply does not exist without Garcia"
Couldn't agree more. I wish they'd stuck with the name The Other Ones they started with after Jerry's passing. It meant something to those of us who've followed them over the years - precisely what, I can't say - but it somehow seemed logical - a faint, unexplained remembrance from my early drug-filled days of Deadheadedness. Can anyone please remind me of what that reference means? I've lost it in the fog.
21 - ClubhouseCancer
It's the name of a song. Or a suite of songs. Kinda.
"That's it for the Other One" is the name of the suite of songs that starts the album Anthem of the Sun. It has four or five parts, including a Bob song (the one about "Cowboy Neal" that goes "Coming around again..")
This Bob tune is called "The Faster We Go, The Rounder we Get" on the album, but over the years it's been taken out of the suite of songs and played on its own, and it became known as "The Other One."
This is quite confusing, and yes, you are stoned.
And, in my opinion, the best way to get into the dead is to ask any deadhead friend to give you or make you a tape (always free) of a concert he or she likes. That deadhead will have dozens of these tapes or more. Get one with "Scarlet/Fire" or "Terrapin." If you like this, you will probably like live Dead.
Otherwise, whoever recommended Workingman's and American Beauty was totally right.
By the way, I don't like the Dead, but I used to help edit a Deadhead newsletter/anthology, and I am continually fascinated with the trappings " the obsessive song tracking, the deification of Jerry, etc. the drug culture, everything.
I must again recommend the novel "Tiger in a Trance" by Max Ludington, from 2003. The book is all about the 80's Dead caravan scene, and is remarkable for its accuracy in portraying that.
22 - Eric Olsen
it's too bad that Natalie is away right now - she does an exceptional job of explaining the Deadhead ethos from a drug-free perspective
23 - ClubhouseCancer
I believe I've been insulted. Or at least my sobriety. Duuuude.
24 - ClubhouseCancer
Quoth the bumper-sticker:
Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs.
25 - Eric Olsen
hmm, no: it was more in response to you saying you don't like them but are fascinated by them, whereas she REALLY likes them, and by way of interesting aside, is part of this drug-free Deadhead circle, which strikes me as uproariously funny, but was just a sidenote and not related to any canards being cast in the direction of anyone's sobriety