From: bowers@bvc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: Re: *My* clueless opinion!
Date: 31 Jul 92 16:30:45 GMT
Organization: Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, IA

In article <1992Jul30.170930.14162@uvaarpa.Virginia.EDU>, Kent Stewart <kstewart@td2cad.intel.com> writes:
A lot of stuff deleted re: Donna Bashing
 
> I understand why they had to leave, but IMCO, the band was never again
> as *balanced* and as *grounded* as they felt to me from 75 to 77. The
> Brent band was good, and technically probably better vocally, but they
> weren't as balanced. I do miss that, and I do miss Donna Jean.
> 
> Cluelessly yers,
> --bongo

I agree with the thread of what your are saying in this post......a lot of 
lineup preferences have more to do with one's own personal experience 
listening to the Boys than anything purely rational....BUT in all of this 
Donna bashing I haven't heard anyone actually make some comparisions.

Maybe I'm listening to different stuff that everyone eeeee, but it seems to 
me (at least from the officially relseased live recordings) that the band 
vocally was better in the 72-77 period. While he was a great solo singer, I 
never though Brent was all that great singing harmonies. (compare the Live 
Europe 72 China/Ryder to the Without at Net version). 

Now at Richfield this summer the Boys closed with Brokedown Palace and I 
think their harmonies sounded the best they have in years........This is 
not to say that Brent didn't make an awesome contribution, (I just don't 
think Keith was the kind of player that could pull of Lost Sailor/Saint, 
for example), just that he was not perfect at everything he did.

The point is that each of the various GD lineups have had their own 
strengths and weaknesses...in fact what makes the GD so great are their 
imperfections as much as any skill or virtuosity.  Coming from the  folk 
traditions of an era when homemade music (and I'm talking way before garage 
bands here) was the *only* form of entertainment, the magic of the GD rests 
on something more fundamental, more basic than mere musicality.  In a world 
full of canned and packaged garbage that looks and tastes great but lacks 
any soul, it is this very lack of musical sheen that belies something more 
genuine at the root of the Boys' music.

Just as a final note here compare the piano lines on Live Europe to Richard 
Manual's on the Band's Rock of Ages (also recorded in 72). Now, Manual was 
an awesome piano player in the classic rock/blues tradition (Greil Marcus 
goes ape over the piano line in The Weight in his book, "Mystery Train" and 
rightly so...). Listen closely to Tennessee Jed and especially Ramblin Rose 
and I think you'll find Keith compares quite favorably. I think the big 
difference between Keith and Brent was that Keith was a piano player  and 
Brent was a keyboard player.  Given the state of music in 1978/79 what the 
Dead probably needed more was a keyboardist and Brent certainly brought a 
versatility that proplled the band through the 80's.

As for Donna.......Roses on Steal Your Faces sounds awfully sweet to me...
and that alone forgives a lot of bad notes elsewhere........ 

Paul Bowers
Bowers@bvc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead