Re: Grateful Dead
Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 8:20 pm
There's an interesting interview with John Mayer about his conversion to the Dead in a link on the above Wikipedia page that's worth excerpting.
You discovered the Dead in 2011, how?
I think Pandora was to thank. It was kind of a blind taste test -- a station that wasn't far genetically from the Dead played “Althea” and I heard this riff and went, “What's that?” I actually came in from being outside in the pool, I was dripping wet and had to see what was on the iPod. From there, I went [on] to know a few songs and started recognizing pieces of songs … I feel like my generation also has SiriusXM to thank. The Grateful Dead station on Sirius is its own experience, especially if you drive. If you live in Los Angeles, it's such a brilliant way to score the commute. That was my entrance into it -- how you could cut across town and sit there in traffic and listen to a dozen classic rock songs or you could just sort of drift and watch the sun go down or look at the billboards and take it in on a really abstract level.
They also all seemed to agree that you bring a freshness to the music, having not experienced the Dead live before Jerry died….
I think that's the way music stays alive -- young artists come in and reinterpret it a bit. The most futuristic thing you can do in 2015 is play “Ramble On Rose” in the sprit in which it was conceived. That's futuristic because my generation doesn't have that. The catalog might be the most diverse, hard-hitting, powerful and important collection in the history of any band. As a fan, and being a musicologist in my own stupid little way, if you really look at it, it's a Library of Congress of great songs. It's a universe of great songs.
You attended all five Fare Thee Well dates [in 2015], was the experience what you imagined?
It was thrilling and I have never felt that before. The feeling came over me -- I was in Santa Clara and I went, “This can't be over.” The way I look at this is carrying that spirit forward. I feel like it's the responsibility of any musician who cares to not let great, important music die. There's a lot of people who don't know what that music is yet because they weren't exposed to it culturally. They don’t know that there is that swing and that groove you need in your life. Being a deadhead or being a fan of the music sits completely separate from any other walk of life you may identify with. That means everybody can feel this pulse. It's about carrying this music forward because these songs will change your life.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/ ... -interview