March 04, 2005
Dylan & the Dead
These contributors to America who widened the scope of popular music during the 1960s and 1970s and are now cultural icons.
Herb Greene Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan, 1980s
Since Garcia's death, the Grateful Dead music scene has splintered into countless factions and evolved into a flourishing jam band movement, where the music is too often is buried between aimlessly ambling jams. Few groups within the movement seem to be able to deliver the goods: crafting meaningful songs and breaking new musical ground. Will Phil Lesh's extended jam sessions do so?
Dylan's current work is marked by odd flashes of inspiration. But he appears as the fading rock icon: a pale, puffy ghost, the burned-out shell of the classic voice-of-a-generation who had written a body of classic songs. Dylan is the icon of sixties culture rolled up into the rockabilly intellectual.Today we live with the Dylan myth or spectre.
Do we then look back to the time when the icons of Americana came together?
Sad to say, the music they made together was not as good as the photo. On 'Dylan And The Dead' (1989) Dylan used the Dead (much like the Band earlier in his career) as his backing band on his songs. Though the Dead were an effective backing band nothing much by way of interesting music came of the tour. A dreary effort.
On the other hand, the Grateful Dead often paid tribute to Bob Dylan by performing his songs in their concerts. Thus we have their 'Postcards of the Hanging', which, as a tribute album to Dylan, is only moderately successful. Nothing earth shattering or innovative here that stretches the songs to their limits. During the later 1980s and early 1980s the Grateful Dead took fewer risks, had litle new material and had fallen into some semblance of a routine with little experimentation. They becanme a tight unit with little in the way of being musically avant-garde.Those days were well gone.
Maybe we have to go back to fire and brimstone beginnings of the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers Band in the late 1960s and early 70s. Live/Dead, for instance, contains the finest rock improvisation ever recorded.
Finally - someone had the guts to say it - The Dead were overrated.
And ya know, so was Clapton. (It amazes me how a rich boy became some sort of Blues God.)
And who overrated these guys? American rock music critics, with the help of some American fans who can't distinguish between gimmickery and musicianship. (Ladies and gentleman of the world, we give you KISS!)
I loved Creem magazine because they weren't afraid to throw cold water in the face of convention. Granted, they often served up puff pieces disguised as in-depth profiles, but their album reviews rarely held back.
As for Dylan, he's a victim, more or less. He knows he doesn't deserve the praise he's garnered. Much like today's Conner Oberst of Bright Eyes. A guy with a guitar, singing overstuffed lyrics in a poor voice found a small and very vocal audience to spread his music. So eventually, "if you're cool," you'll ike Dylan.
Same goes for the Doors, Bob Marley and a whole range of others. They become "great" only because they're popular, not because they are particularly good.
We're the bandwagon makers here in America - and where do all British pop/rock stars go for the REAL fame and glory? Aussies as well. If you can make it here - you've made it.
Dave,
Both Dylan and the Dead did make good music as well as a lot of dross on their own.
Posted by: Gary Sauer-Thompson on March 7, 2005 08:54 PMIn one way not much came out of Dylan & Dead for me as well.
Except that Bob says in Chronicles that it was those practice sessions with the Dead that allowed him to break through and be able to re-perform his old songs agin in a fresh way - at least for him.
Posted by: Francis Xavier Holden on March 15, 2005 07:21 PMFrancis,
Something happened to the Dead during the 80s. Despite moments of creative spark during this decade, they had fallen far from the top of their game. Was this due to Garcia?s physical decline in the mid-?80s?
The decline is a pity as most of the material on Postcards of the Hanging was drawn from 1985 and 1989, with most of the songs are drawn from Dylan's work created between 1965 and 1967. That is my favourite Dylan period.
It is a pity because the possibilities were there for the Dead to be amongst the most convincing interpreters of Dylan's songs.Both were deeply involved in renewing Americana.
Maybe the gold is still in the vault?