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From: nm34@sdcc12.UUCP (nm34)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: RE: Their Music: Grateful or Dead?
Message-ID: <257@sdcc12.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 18-Apr-85 12:01:03 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcc12.257
Posted: Thu Apr 18 12:01:03 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 20-Apr-85 08:13:43 EST
References: <2463@fritz.UUCP> <294@mhuxr.UUCP>
Organization: U.C. San Diego, Academic Computer Center
Lines: 58

In article <294@mhuxr.UUCP>, mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON) writes:
> > John Gilbert:
> > Marcel describes "those jams! In a word, SLOPPY!!!".  Well, I suppose I can't
> > disagree.  But, there are other words too ... like TWISTED, OBSCURE, LOST,
> > BEAUTIFUL, SPACY, INCREDIBLE, SLEEPY, SPICY, DELICATE, ABSTRACT, PERFECT (as
> > well as imperfect, as Marcel points out).  Some shows are better than others.
> > ... Very few bands are willing to jam this way in front of a crowd.  My experience
> > is that it is well worth their effort.  To me, they have a winning record.
> > 
> You (and a couple of other folks who have responded to my posting) are missing
> my point. I don't disagree with the concept of jamming, but with its execution.
> If you are going to improvise, do it right. A sloppy jam is bad music,
> no matter how noble the intentions
> 
> More than once per concert. This has been the case at every show that I have
> attended.
> 

     It is too bad you have had such bad exeriences.  I have been going
to Dead shows since 1972 and in all the concerts I have seen and heard,
I have met some clinkers.  But as the person above writes, the record is
quite good.  You have just been unlucky, or you are unable to appreciate
the dissonant and less organized jams.  I too have been ennthralled by
the experience of what I call experimental music.  I think the thing
that gets the Dead into trouble is that as with anything that is
experimental you are taking a chance.  But the spontineity that would be
lost be rehersing every piece is the very element the makes their music
special. 
  
> The gist of this posting seems to be: "it's not the music that counts, but
> the experience" (whatever it is) and "all we deadheads like it, so it's OK".
> Those are some pretty lame justifications. The first implies that the
> Dead are interesting because their concerts are an occasion to shed social
> inhibitions, scream, go crazy and other adolescent behavior. I hope
> that is not the case. I am trying to find out what in the Dead's MUSIC
> holdds such attraction. If the music is unimportant, then where's the beef?
> I like the Dead's music; I often find it sloppily executed. I have heard
> no valid reason for such sloppiness yet, and I am not convinced there is
> ever a reason for sloppiness. I deliberately used examples preserved on
> vinyl because these do not become lost in the memories of "an incredible
> concert experience", but can be re-examined later, with some objectivity.
> I feel my questions still stand: what is in the *music* that can command
> such fan loyalty? why do deadheads accept the proposition that a concert
> will be successful purely because of chance (the band members are collectively
> hot *that night*)?
> 
> Marcel Simon

    Marcel, this is a bad rap that has been repeated several times on
this net.  Sure there are those who go to concerts (all kinds of
concerts) for the scene.  Just give us the benefit of the doubt
that there are Deadheads that appreciate music as much as you do.  I go
to the concerts for the music.  The Dead scene is fun.  It adds to the
music.  

            - Andy Bindman