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From: jackson@curium.DEC (Seth Jackson)
Newsgroups: net.music.gdead
Subject: Brent...and Keith
Message-ID: <3363@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Jul-85 13:33:04 EDT
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Posted: Tue Jul 30 13:33:04 1985
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Funny that this Brent discussion has come up on the net, as this was
a main topic of conversation among a bunch of us during the summer tour.
I guess my friends and I are among the Deadheads who haven't fully 
accepted Brent as a legitimate member of the Dead. Here's why.

Obviously, Brent is a very well-trained, competent keyboard player. I
don't know what his background is, but I wouldn't be at all surprised
if I was told that he graduated with honors at a fine music school.
He's very good at following along with the band and filling in nice
musical sounds around the other instruments. He doesn't, however,
strike me as being particularly creative or soulful. If he has exerted
any influence on the band at all, it has been to push them more in the 
direction of pop, which is not the direction I really want to see them
headed.

The other band members all learned their style by living through 
weirdness and experimentation, and this shows in their music as
that Grateful Dead "magic". Brent sounds as though he learned his
style through traditional music study, and, although he sounds 
good with the other musicians, rarely adds "magic" of his own.
T.C. and Keith, on the other hand, were cut from the same mold
as the rest of the band. I shudder to imagine what the Dead would
be into these days if they had somehow managed to get T.C. to
rejoin the band after Keith left. That would be too cosmic for
the mind to comprehend!

I guess this is a good time to put in a word about Keith. I can't
stand hearing people say that Keith did nothing but sit behind
his grand piano. This may have been true during his last 2 years,
but, please listen to some tapes between 1972-1977 before you
criticize Keith. The energy that that guy brought to the Dead was
amazing! When I saw my first Dead show in 1973, I came away thinking
of the Dead's music as being centered around the piano. And it was that 
show that turned me into the raving Deadhead I've been ever since!

Keith was not limited to just the grand piano. Listen to The Great 
American Music Hall tape from '75 for some hot Keith on electric 
keyboards, or Springfield '77 to hear some cosmic Keith on synthesizer.

So, what's the conclusion? Who cares, the Dead aren't going to listen
to me, anyway. But I have heard rumors of a Brent solo album, and it
supposedly has a lot of commercial potential. I hope it's true, 
'cause if he had a hit record, then they'd have to kick him out of 
the band and find someone else. Could you imagine a Dead show flooded 
with teenie boppers who came to hear Brent?
__

"One man gathers what another man spills"

				Seth Jackson
				dec-curium!jackson