Do you love the Dead? Prepare to meet your demise.
So a little background for you, here. As you know, David Lee Scales and I get together weekly to discuss surf and its adjacency. Three of them ago, I noticed he was wearing a shirt that had a Grateful Dead-esque lightning bolt on it. Internally loathing that cursed band, I asked, “Is that a Grateful Dead shirt?” He replied, “No, It’s for Channel Islands’ new Happy Everyday surfboard.” Staring harder, I said, “That is a Grateful Dead lightning bolt.” He answered, “Maybe. Britt Merrick’s a Dead Head.”
And that is when I lost it, tearing into my loathe, demanding Britt come and face me in person while I tore down his hippie house.
My hatred for Uncle John’s Band came early. There I was, a young boy on the isolated Oregon coast discovering music on my own for the first time. My elementary school friends would some times bring cassettes to school bearing names like Mötley Crüe and Quiet Riot, Def Leppard and Twisted Sister.
Now, I wasn’t allowed to listen to these forbidden fruits but I imagined the sonic boom they must sound like. And then I stumbled up the Grateful Dead with its lightning bolt and its skull and I was certain they rocked harder than hard.
And so you can imagine my anticipation when I stumbled upon a Grateful Dead mix tape, a Walkman and a set of earphones. I clicked the lid shut, pressed play and….
…. had never been more stunned in my life.
That’s how the Grateful Dead sounded? Like endless hippie folk?
The utter disappointment was baked in that day and I was ready to break Britt Merrick with it. Did I or was I a ringer yet again? You be the judge. If he did beat me like a damned tambourine, though, I’m a perfect 0 – 3 in these debates and consistency is worth something.
Isn’t it?
Debate happens in first 30 mins. Pick a side.
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Chas you are a clueless kook that is scared to take a trip to Terrapin Station because you know I am correct. You would look at yourself in the mirror on acid and proceed to f$#k your own face because you think your are hotter than Hansel in Zoolander.
Uncle John John’s Band.
Guys – I am probably going to Vegas on Thursday July 11. Let’s meet up at the Sphere.
Rick from El Sal trip.
The Dead are Insane Clown Posse for geriatric hippies.
Haha you have no clue. It’s maybe not your taste or so you think but guaranteed someone could play you a dead tune and you wouldn’t know it was them and you’d go “No shit!?” They had a working repertoire of over 200 tunes. Unmatched. Their 30 years of sold out shows will never be repeated by another band. Plus, half the bands you listen to probably were influenced by the dead. That’s the most ironic haha!
You had me at 13 Songs and finger painting.
I’ll listen to the rest of it later.
Some Heads are Ex Hippies https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
That’s what happens when you fry the brain with too much LSD.
My Twitter feed is full of grateful Dead and phish tweets and I have no idea why I hate them too
I saw Phish once but one of us had just finished drug rehab so we were all straight and sober out of respect.
1 out of 10 do not recommend.
Greatful dead were very fortunate to have rick griffin do so much of their artwork. Not sure if the lightning bolt head is RG though.
I tend to think they sound shit but ageing stoners can listen to whatever they like.
They are a band beyond description and the music never stopped.
Greatest rock band with the greatest crew.
Jehovah’s favorite choir.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
I’ve seen the dead many, many times. Used to get right in front of Jerry Garcia for the show. The music was 60’s style psychedelic, and it was a hell of an after party. Nothing even close to that will ever exist.
what did all the deadheads say when the drugs wore off? this music kinda sucks, man
The only salient thing to cum out of the Dead is from Jerry’s ballsack, his son John Garcia.
His son the lead singer in one of the last proper Rock bands ever. Kyuss.
https://youtu.be/CAXGu81Rk1…
I fell for that.
Lucy put a quarter in the jukebox…while listening in Carp, Cali…hang on! https://youtu.be/IR7wzIfuam…
DickJerry had a thousand adventures and survived them all. This excerpt details the “discovery” of Cape Saint Francis Buenaventura by an outsider, and how almost getting eaten by lions and leopards and bare-breasted women lead toDickBob Weir not getting out of the car in pitch black midnight at Victoria Falls and how that lead to the famous perfect wave scene/soundtrack in The Endless Summer. Fairgrounds tonight. The Dead. Or Seinfeld?Never was a fan, but saw Jerry Garcia Band on a road trip through Tahoe in 89. Had Clarence Clemons with them on sax and the set was mostly covers of rock classics with some Jimmy Cliff and Peter Tosh thrown in. Was skeptical, but it ended up being great. Afterwards went gambling while dosed and did horrible. Got awakened near dawn by my friend needing 200$ to place a parlay after an epiphany on acid. Gave him the money so he’d let me sleep and it hit the next day. We drove off to Bend Oregon loaded on several fronts. Had Jerry to thank for it.
Sounds perfect. JGB was where he still had it going the last few years.
As far as the logo design goes, fuck yeah Chas ya bang on mate, it’s a totally misleading graphic that gives an inaccurate representation of their sound and general image.
There should be laws against such things, kinda like false advertising…
Chas, Weir everywhere, just Philin up space.
Chas doesn’t like em bc he made the calculation many years ago that they’re not cool. Fuck Birkenstocks! Wannabe fascists don’t like GD. It’s in the rulebook. Chas doesn’t want them as part of his identity. Musically he doesn’t like them bc he needs songs with a hook and a tidy beginning, middle and end. Britt doesn’t care if they’re cool or not, he just likes them and what they stand for. Fact that Chas liked hair bands is telling and shows a surprising lack of discernment. Heavy metal yes, hair bands no. I’m also, for the record, not a GD fan. For similar reasons that Chas stated. I’m not a liberal idealist granola head. I mean, I am but it’s not part of the identity that I’m constructing. My rulebook says I can admit to liking Ben Harper but not Grateful Dead.
fuck, Ben Harper fans might even be worse than deadheads too
He has fans still?
idk, you think the early 2000s coeds who referred to him as “Ben” and Dave Matthews as “Dave” like they were next door fucking neighbors still listen to that garbage?
Don’t forget Bob (Marley)
Ben Marcus dropped a load…fwd?
For the record, I didn’t like hair bands. I wasn’t allowed to listen to them so assumed they were heavier.
So you’re saying your authority complex goes back to your parents dictating your music?
Maybe!
Keep on truckin…
give the kid something!
and the dislike for yellow beanies.?
I feel your pain. My parents also prohibited me from listening to “devil” music. I bought the offspring xnay on the homered album with birthday money when I turned 15 and my parents took one look at the CD cover of Mary holding Jesus and angels flying around (all skeletons) and had to return it. My dad came with me to return it and pick another CD so I chose Smashing Pumpkins saimese dreams. My dad looked at he song title Silver Fuck and i was denied again.
A few years later I had those albums burnt to CD and played it to my parents and they actually liked it.
My parents were 70s rockers and liked bands like Uriah heap, deep purple, led zeppelin. Rolling stones etc, and thankfully they never tortured my with the grateful dead.