Lately, I’ve been coming across a lot of articles online that attempt to show neophytes and the hippie-averse how to learn to love, or at least approach, The Grateful Dead.
How To Get Into The Grateful Dead
Resonant Frequency #59: Broken Thoughts and Hand-Me-Downs
Dead Reckoning: What Your Favorite Grateful Dead Song Says About You
For some reason, I love to read these articles, even as I remain apprehensive about listening to The Dead. But that’s neither here nor there.
I’m wondering what other artists that could serve as the subject of these kinds of articles. I surmise: Not that many. This is because The Grateful Dead are the Perfect Storm of bands.
The Reasons:
1) They jam. And even beyond that, there is something in the organization of their sound, something about the laid-back-ness perhaps, that easily turns a lot of people off.
2) They have a voluminous catalog, especially with all the bootlegs and whatnot. Steely Dan turn a lot of people off with their jazz chords and tasty licks, but they do not have a legendary live career and tapers’ community.
2) Their fans are hippies. Zappa doesn’t get as much hatred as the Dead, I think partially because people respect his lifelong disdain for hippies.
But I’d love to be proven wrong. Is any other band such a Perfect Storm of love and hate as The Grateful Dead? Did I miss any other aspects of The Dead’s Perfect Storm? Do let me know.
Don’t the Dave Matthews Band hit a lot of these same marks? I wouldn’t call myself a fan, but I’ve never understood the virulent scorn they’re subjected to.
Several people have risked their RTH cred by admitting they like the Dead. I wonder if anyone here would do the same for DMB.
For all their multicultural jamming, I think DMB has more in common with funk-based jam bands, like the Neville Brothers, and fusion bands. Plus Matthews manages to sing with the most annoying tics of both Peter Gabriel and Andy Partridge. They’re easier to hate than to admire – and there are things to admire about them. I’ll admit that.
I’d say Sonic Youth may be a perfect storm of having co-opted every hip, iconic image in rock they can get their paws on – from Brian Jones to the VU to Patti Smith to hip-hop to skate-punk to John Cage. On top of that, rock fans need to see Thurston Moore III comment on every rock bio and rock scene doc as if it was the most influential thing in his musical development. Meanwhile, his band cranks out scores of albums that don’t sound like much of anything that they’ve co-opted in interviews and album cover and video images.
I was going to submit Sonic Youth as a perfect storm band, but I think we could do this with VU, too (and I am appropriating your criteria, with only a few changes (marked with asterisks) to make the point):
1) They jam. And even beyond that, there is something in the organization of their sound, something about the *artsiness* perhaps, that easily turns a lot of *salt-of-the-earth types* off.
2) They have a voluminous catalog, especially with all the *solo albums, re-recordings, outtakes albums.*
3) Their fans are *hipsters*.
I’m trying to think if there’s a band that would make it harder for me to refrain from instantly forming an opinion about a person than someone self-identifying as a Dave Matthews fan. I’m sure there must be, but fair or not, it would take some work on my part to shake that.
I hope that doesn’t deter any Townspeople from stepping up to the plate, though.
On Zappa, maybe it’s just my experience but it seems I’m less likely to run into a Zappa fan than, say, a Dead fan. Or that Zappa fans are at least slightly harder to immediately ID and/or less likely to travel in packs. If they had the high profile of Deadheads, Zappa fans might push him closer to your Perfect Storm line.
Apologies in advance if I’m dwelling too much on the third point and edging this closer to a “judging the band by the fan” discussion. Sonic Youth and the Velvet Underground are great suggestions for the topic. Steely Dan is interesting in that, I could see RTH hosting a multi-day set of topics about them similar to that Velvet Intervention series from last fall.
Inspired by another blog, I spent about an hour last night youtubing NRBQ, and it struck me they might fit into this category of a band some people (like me) swear by and many just don’t get at all. Multiple line-ups, large catalog, laid back playing style (too much so for some), rabid fan base (Q-heads), etc. There’s also the ‘gotta see ’em live’ attitude and multiple live albums.
These are all great suggestions. I’ve talked to some other people about this, and they’ve suggested bands like Pink Floyd and even “classic rock” in general. Someone suggested The Eagles to me, but I don’t think there is a culture of Eagles fans. They’re just too establishment; they’re like PepsiCo at this point.
GBV occurred to me this morning, especially with the big catalog. But I don’t think they set people off quite like the bands we’re mentioning.
Also, regarding NRBQ: I only own At Yankee Stadium, which I quite like. I don’t hear much of the things that supposedly bug people about NRBQ on this album. It just sounds like Rockpile with less heavy drums. Is this album their American Beauty?
First off, I remember the actual event that inspired the book & movie The Perfect Storm. Gloucester, MA, where the doomed boat was based, is a few miles up from me & portions of the movie was filmed there. There’s a great record store there called Mystery Train, which I recommend to any Townspeople who may be in the area this summer, as well as the Record Exchange here in the Witch City.
Back to the matter at hand, how about Jimmy Buffet? I think that he has many of the attributes, except possibly the inclination to “jam”. He definitely has those “Parrotheads” & plenty o’ albums, although the only song of his that I ever hear on the radio is “Marguritaville” (sic, or should I say hic?). I once saw an obituary where the deceased was described as being one of those “Parrotheads” & I thought to myself, what a sad way to be remembered.
If you’re going to have only one NRBQ album, Yankee Stadium is the one to have. It has a very minimal wackiness quotient, which I think is what drives some people away. If you want to explore further I’d recommend Tiddlywinks or Grooves in Orbit, though the latter does have a rerecording of the mighty Get Rhythm.
Even though I like some of their stuff, I will second saturnismine on Velvet Underground. As proof I offer this: the only album you could possibly get away with playing at a non-hipster event is the one where Lou doesn’t sing.
Zappa…he has the only cult that rivals the Dead in terms of people who want to hear everything he’s ever done, and he also may be the most prolific artist of the rock era, and, most of all, his sense of humor is something you generally either love or hate. I’m an odd case with him–I really like a lot of the music he made in the 70s, but am completely turned off by the stupid lyrics and jokes, and to me they make some otherwise excellent albums (APOSTROPHE, ZOOT ALLURES, to give two examples) unlistenable.
As to NRBQ, I think SCRAPS is a better album than AT YANKEE STADIUM.
The Dead are their own animal (and their own storm?) I prefer Steely Dan and Zappa, but I get their appeal (and the drug thing which is 99% the way that people cross the line from fan to “lifestyle”)
Being a deadhead is like joining a church, or deciding to become a hobo. It’s a lifestyle that focuses on worship of all things “Dead” and smelling like a hobo (too easy)
the guitar player in my band in 1989 – 91 became a dead head right before my eyes. It was kinda sad. He stopped listening to anything else, increased his drug use, wore a tie die and duckheads 7 days a week and his brain kinda turned to jelly. he never got mad, never got drunk, never got excited about anything that wasn’t Dead / Widespread / Phish related. It was all “shrooms and Jerry”
But I guess it takes you to another place, and that can be a good thing that music can do.
People have an issue with Deadheads that act like Jahovahs Witnesses… can’t blame ’em
In line with jungleland2’s comments, Arthur Mag’s website just published another (older) article about the Dead. This one suggests that you have to completely avoid the Deadhead live community to truly develop your own appreciation of the band.
http://www.arthurmag.com/2009/05/20/uncle-skullfuckers-band-daniel-chamberlin-explains-the-discreet-charm-of-the-grateful-dead/
Not true so much anymore, but in their day, both Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were hugely beloved bands that a lot of people loathed. Not quite sure when all that changed, but even Sabbath doesn’t inspire more than the occasional snicker anymore, and in fact gets critical cred galore.
I’d nominate ZZ Top too as a widely loved and hated band, which they are, except for what Oats says about the whole corporate thing, which is all they are these days.
In terms of other bands not mentioned. I’ll nominate the whole Southern Rock thing. I’ve never gotten into it, yet I know some of it has some merit, but I remain apprehensive.
This Penn Jillette youtube bit on “listening to music you don’t like” sort of relates here in terms of at least appreciating music that doesn’t move you (or at least opens up some new thread of discussion).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3CNLDBwS0o
mwall, around here Zeppelin wasn’t just liked, they were loved, and it was almost universal. I say almost because I’m the only one in Ohio that thinks they suck, man. They aren’t as prominent as they were in the 70’s, but if I mentioned anything other than how great Zep was, I was essentially told that I must be listening wrong and that perhaps I was too stupid to listen correctly. One guy threw a beer at me once because I laughed when he was telling us how great Kashmir was. He missed and I made fun of him for liking boring music and pouring perfectly good beer on the ground.
Sabbath seemed more like Grand Funk. Us kids loved them. We didn’t care if it was stupid or simple, it was fun and loud. Everyone that listened critically seemed to think we were doing it wrong (see above). I still like Sabbath and Grand Funk, but I don’t listen to them all the time. Zeppelin I’m still struggling with.
Ok, I have lived in the south since 1977, but I have never met anyone who hates ZZ Top. I don’t know a musician who hates them,every radio station plays them (ok not the Alt-rock one)You can play them at a party and the girls will boogie (wow we sound like hicks)Guitar players love them, drummers love them, Hipsters do not turn up their noses. They appeal to the retro 70’s crowd, retro 80’s crowd, blues guys, classic rock dudes…and some women…but they are mostly dude-rock like AC/DC.
Are they officially the longest running band in the rock era that has not lost or added a member or broken up?
I hear you, 2000, but a lot of people hated Zeppelin in my neck of the woods, for different reasons at different times:
Lots of 60s hippie and soft rock types who went the James Taylor route.
The hardcore blues fan loathed them.
For new wave and punk people, Zeppelin was the epitome of bloated, macho, rock star nonsense.
Is it fair to say that, at the time, everybody I know on this list who went to GWU or spent time there would have put down Zeppelin regularly? I know some or many of you have changed your mind since, but I wonder how many people on this list would admit that circa 81-86, mocking Zeppelin was a regular pastime for you.
Re ZZ Top, jungleland, I suggest you search your first sentence for the reason behind your experience. I know plenty of people who can’t even hear a ZZ Top song in the distance without wanting to spit. They were widely considered maybe the stupidest rock band ever by many folks north of the Mason Dixon.
I dunno, mwall. I think there was genuine appreciation for the first Zep album, even amongst us pretentious, somewhat punk-ish assholes. It had street cred. Led Zep II was tolerated, at least the rockin’ tracks. III started to get hippie-ish and was mostly ignored. IV was made fun of for its omnipresence, mainly; a typically stupid college-years reason to hate something. Beyond that — with the exception of a few tracks off of “Physical Graffiti” — I think there was genuine scorn. The bloat sets in after “IV,” and I think we picked up on that.
Having said all that, we *did* constantly mock Robert Plant for all the “baby, baby, bayyy-bee” nonsense. And, of course, the troggling hobbit-rock.
Bonham was, of course, above reproach.
Well, bakshi, I would have figured you as the most likely Zep supporter among the GW crew at that time, for which I salute you. Let’s hear what the others have to say, because I don’t remember a whole lotta Zeppelin love from back in that day. I remember Zep 1 being considered pretty much Da Blooze.
In any case, will you grant my point that for many people (I don’t mean GW people) at that time, Zep was the example of everything that had gone wrong? Holy shit, did some people lay into me for owning those albums.
For sure, mwall. Actually *owning* a Zep album was pretty “out” — but by the mid-80s or so, it was starting to get “so out it’s in.” Kudos to you for sticking to your DC/101 guns long before the hipsters caught up with you. I don’t think I had the balls to own any Zep on vinyl.
I’ve always been behind the curve but I didn’t really abandon Zeppelin until about the early 90’s and then it had more to do with just hearing them enough rather than rejecting them as a band.
I had all of the albums except 3 and Presence, although I’ve since lost a few of them.
I have no Zep on disc but I’ve been thinking about getting some, although I could probably get by with just Communication Breakdown, Custard Pie, Trampled Under Foot, and Over the Hills.
One of my posts was swallowed whole and never appeared, so let me recreate it briefly. I spent a long life living in the South and only left last year, but everyone I knew always hated ZZ Top. They were considered a lowest common denominator boogie band.
When I had a brief conversion experience in the early 80s after hearing El Loco (still the only album of theirs I really love), my music loving friends did not open their ears. Basically I like Gibbons, only like Dusty when he doesn’t sing, and don’t like the beardless drummer. I’d probably enjoy a live show now, if it was in a theater with comfy chairs.
Oh yeah, everybody hated Led Zeppelin too, and any respect I have for them even now is extremely grudging. And Black Sabbath was always basically a punchline, thought of as a band liked only by people who did quaaludes. I like that one song by them, but I do not get the critical upgrade bestowed on them now.