Ramble on Rose - Click Title To PlayThis was the first take at Ramble on Rose. It was meant to be a sound test, and there are tons of fuck-ups. But somehow it seems fitting to use this one, even though I have others that are better in terms of lyrics and (especially) the playing. To me, this is what the Grateful Dead were about - the moment. Either it was gonna soar, or it was gonna crash and burn. Or sometimes you get / got a little of both.
It's impossible for me to put into words what the Dead meant to me between the years of (say) 1984 and 1990. They were everything to me. I barely ever listened to anything else, unless I was socially obligated to (as in the people I was hanging out with "couldn't deal with the 'monotony' if the 'music' - whatever). I saw more shows than I'll recount here, but suffice to say East Coast tours were seen from start to finish with the occasional West Coast swing added for good measure. I met some fine people and saw some of the craziest stuff I could ever imagine.
You can learn an awful lot about music and having a positive outlook on life from the Grateful Dead, and I think that sometimes gets lost on people who are quick to dismiss it as a Hippy Thing. To me, their message was just as relevant in the 80's as it was in the 1960's even if it does sometimes seem a little naive to me these days. I really don't listen to them much anymore, but when I do it brings back some great memories. Actually, I recently created an entire disc of Shakedown Street versions from 1981 / 82. The ones with Brent - that dude was The Best. All of them are like 12 minutes long, the kind that most normal people hate.
http://www.archive.org/details/GratefulDead
The site that'll get any deadhead back on the bus. I just wish you could still grab the soundboard files.
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