“Revelations” serve as a mini essay / blog that may be converted to a Podcast Episode and or published to print. Written by Magico777 * Copyright 2022
Welcome to Revelations on Psychedelic Rock & The Grateful Dead
Psychedelic Rock was born when analog effects were first used in rock music. The effects such as using Delay, Compression, Distortion, Chorus and other effects allowed musicians to add textures to music in real time. These textures created a mood and tone giving more emotion to a guitar solo but also to add depth to other instruments such as the bass guitar and rhythm guitar.
The equation for playing psychedelic rock music consists of: improvisation + using effects + reacting (as a musician) to the music being played. In essence, all musicians feed off each other, unrehearsed. It takes experience and sophisticated skills to navigate through and create such music. The Grateful Dead were one of the pioneers in creating the psychedelic music genre. Let’s listen to one of their songs entitled “Dark Star” which will then morph into a cover song called “Morning Dew”.
These live, open ended, improvisational instrumentals gave The Grateful Dead their distinctive authenticity in Rock Music. Legions of fans followed The Grateful Dead for decades and decades while they toured almost non-stop since they started as a bona fide rock act in the 1960s.
The interesting aspect to The Grateful Dead is that they have lasted for the ages and a derivative (off shoot) of the original band is still touring called Dead & Company.
Throughout the history of the Grateful Dead the band has gone through several line ups and members.
With as many as 5 band members singing lead vocals (which included – Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Brent Mydland, and Rob McKernan aka Pigpen) who all took turns at singing different songs, the Grateful Dead broke the mold of having 1 lead singer that represented the band’s face. With the Stones it’s Mick Jagger, with Led Zeppelin it’s Robert Plant, with Pearl Jam it’s Eddy Vedder, etcetera, etcetera.
This rotation of lead singers caused a lot of indirect confusion to first time listeners who gave the Grateful Dead their ear and time to check them out.
Many times people who listened to The Grateful Dead without knowing anything about the band, typically stumble upon a song and do not realize that there were multiple people who sang lead vocals. What ends up happening is that the newbie listener who has no real back story or background of the band, well they end up basing their first impression on their first or second listening experience.
Each singer was extremely different than their counterparts – so converting new listeners to fans in many instances had typically been: hit or miss.
Often times when people are asked about their opinion on the Grateful Dead, they will either be extremely oversold on the Grateful Dead (meaning they have had religious experiences listening and or following the band and love them) or they won’t care for the Grateful Dead too much. Many others will also say “I don’t get The Grateful Dead”.
Let’s listen to a Jazz great, Branford Marsalis and his experience with playing with The Grateful Dead.
The glory of The Grateful Dead has never been in their recorded works but more so in their live performances. The Grateful Dead did not want to pursue becoming a commercialized band during the course of their careers which means they did not want to cater to being radio friendly or dolled up for fame. Instead, The Grateful Dead focused on touring, constantly, nearly non-stop, to garner fans and spread the glory of their music as an experience that will be far different than the “same old same” template that a listener would expect to hear from a studio album.
The Grateful Dead loved to experiment with adding effects (live on the fly – which means adding effects while playing live music) and improvising their songs from their recorded / studio recorded songs.
These improvisations captivated their audience and provided a ‘religious’ or ‘enlightening’ experience for their audience. Those who are new to listening to The Grateful Dead should always try and find a Grateful Dead “Mentor” who knows the band, their history and the band’s list of songs and covers because their amount of songs and history is extremely extensive.
It is best to have a Grateful Dead Mentor provide a Rx (prescription) to new listeners because the band has evolved into a new band called “Dead & Company” and between the original Grateful Dead converted to Dead & Company, the brand of the “The Dead” can become fairly confusing.
VODKA N’ COFFEE’s Rx: It is important to have the right person introduce The Grateful Dead to new listeners.
Among the 5 original lead singers they mostly sound like:
Bob Weir / Rhythm Guitar = Elvis Presley
Brent Mydland / Keys = A Raspy Kenny Loggins (deceased)
Pigpen / Organ = Whiskey Bluesman (deceased)
Phil Lesh / Bass = Monotone with not a lot of gusto or vigor in the voice but he has some beautiful songs such as Unbroken Chain and Box of Rain.
Jerry Garcia / Lead Guitar = Soulful voice – hard to emulate and unique. (deceased)
Below: A bone marrow sample of The Grateful Dead’s pioneering of Psychedelic Music. Take a quick listen –
Vastly different from the Rolling Stones, who always cruised at 33,000 feet above sea level (using an airplane analogy) and remained at that level. The Stones, would never ever deviate from the flight path. Jerry and The Grateful Dead didn’t want to use a flight path, they would rather be renegade pilots and fly the plane by reacting to the air space, wind, weather, and turbulence – that was the difference between The Grateful Dead and most Rock bands.
Implementing and mastering: improvisation + tonality of sound + sound effects comprised a Return On Investment of pure glory to all who experienced The Grateful Dead in concert. The live performances converted many listeners and concert goers to lifelong fans.
Jerry Garcia was the Tom Brady of The Grateful Dead and very few can ever fill his shoes.
However, for those who are interested check out Dead & Company with John Mayer who has been subbing in for Jerry songs and his guitar work on Grateful Dead Songs.
John Mayer has a thumbs up from VODKA N’ COFFEE.
In closing, it was not only Jerry Garcia that made The Grateful Dead an amazing psychedelic rock band as the entire band had exceptional musicians as a whole, but it is the fact that all of them improvised live which can very easily back fire in terms of not playing in correct keys and throwing off meters of time (drumming) and or losing a beat while drumming. It’s all not rehearsed so the odds to make mistakes are high, unless all the musicians are exceptional and seek “nirvana” which is what the audience and members of The Grateful Dead sought to explore and find – in unison.
The Grateful Dead also composed: Americana, Folk Rock, Blues and semi Jazz-Fusion music.
Have a listen between the original Grateful Dead to the current Dead & Company from the past to present – the magic is still there.
Song: Morning Dew (live performance)
Jerry on Lead Vocals / Lead Guitar
Morning Dew with Dead & Co. Bob Weir singing for Jerry and John Mayer playing Jerry’s guitar parts:
Dead & Company is The Grateful Dead LESS Phil Lesh (retired), Pigpen (deceased), Jerry Garcia (deceased), Brent Mydland (deceased) and (the great state of Alabama’s) Donna Godchaux (retired).
Original members within Dead & Company include: Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart.
Dead & Company added John Mayer for lead guitar and vocals on certain songs as well as The Allman Brother’s Band former member, Oteil Burbridge on bass guitar. Jeffrey Chimenti (former bandmate for Rat Dog) plays keys for Dead & Company and completes the band’s musician-member roster.
Morning Dew was written by: Bonnie Dobson and was released in 1962
It is a cover song played by both outfits – The Grateful Dead as well as Dead & Company which fans embrace and love to hear.
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