Review: The Grateful Dead memories rise again in a book celebrating bootleg concert tapers
Farewell to the Dead
There are certain moments in music that are just forever seared into the brain. When you’ve been listening to the same song over and over again for 20 years, but suddenly just realize that each time you hear it, it’s a different performance. The Dead, in that sense, are a musical albatross for those that are about to break free from the shackles of the music. Some musicians, like the Velvet Underground, just seem to know their way around the musical alphabet. While the Dead were never a band to go out of their way to please, the one constant they had in common, is that they were a band that made music. Everything else was thrown out the window. There was a certain magic and mystique about what made the Dead tick, which is one of the reasons I fell in love with them when I was young. There are certain performances of “Box of Rain” that have seared them into my brain; a performance that the “Dead” felt so passionately. The other thing I recall that’s just seared into the brain after all these years is “Someday You’ll Want Me To Want You” at the Fillmore West in San Francisco. I can remember feeling so sad for the loss of the original vocalist of the band, and just longing for what had been. What the Hell happened to the band? I really feel like they’ve kind of faded away into the shadows the past couple decades. Well, thankfully that’s not the case anymore.
Farewell to the Dead
The Grateful Dead are back in the spotlight, which is nothing short of amazing. Not only is the Grateful Dead putting out a great album, they’re putting out a new one. “Gratefully Dead,” a series of articles, features, and reviews covering every aspect of the Grateful Dead of the
