Grateful Dead - the Most Overrated Band Ever?

Maybe the question I asked (frankly this wasn't a question but let's say a suggestion) on the 'Eric Clapton' thread actually deserves a separate thread. I expect the discussion may be quite hot.

Repeating the essence of my post:

When I was a kid and I had only possibility of reading about Grateful Dead (they didn't play their music on the radio where I lived, in general the band has always been much more popular in the US) - I imagined, this must have been the greatest band of all time. Getting their first LP 'Terrapin Station' was the biggest disappointment in music in my life. The music was just bad and utterly boring. I still tend to think that Grateful Dead was actually a bad, boring and probably most overrated band ever. Many claim they were best while playing live (allmusic on 'Terrapin Station': "The theory is that the band's momentum is best experienced during the ebb and flow of a live performance rather than the somewhat clinical tedium of a recording studio.") but maybe their audience was simply usually too high to notice that apart from their ability to create a specific kind of connection with their audience they were in fact a bad, boring half amateur band..

I guess some are gonna hate me for this 

Let's stay relaxed..

Overrated: yes. Most overrated of all time? Clearly not.

The Dead were good and original in their style and milieu.

Their big claim to fame were the live improvs-jams. What is true is that they managed with their live shows to truly communicate with their audience and as a result had  a dedicated audience who not only loved their shows, but also loved listening to tapes of the shows (and the Dead were about the only band that encouraged taping of their shows. Smart move). Having that kind of long running relationship with your audience - especially not a small audience - counts for a lot.

As a big Jazz fan, I find the Dead's improv-jamming a bit second rate. Not terrible by any means, but not up to the standard of a first rate jazz band. So in that sense, yes, overrated.

15 minutes ago, sphinxsix said:

Which was their hit?

over rated absolutely not, acquired taste yes. I was never a friend but my best friend is a dead head. I committed to listen to the dead for a few weeks and after a few weeks of recommended concertsI was addicted. Not a quick listen to fall in love but give it a chance and there is something special there 

I never got the Dead.  But, then, there are a lot of bands I love that other folks never cared for.  So I don't see a point to the OP's Post.

I mean you could make any "I don't think X (Clapton) is that great.......or the Y (Dead) is overrated" statement and get clicks.

Here, let me help you:

Luxman amps sound too warm.

The Stones are a cover band

Vinyl sucks

Expensive cables are snake oil

Digital sucks

5 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

Maybe the question I asked (frankly this wasn't a question but let's say a suggestion) on the 'Eric Clapton' thread actually deserves a separate thread. I expect the discussion may be quite hot.

 

Repeating the essence of my post:

 

When I was a kid and I had only possibility of reading about Grateful Dead (they didn't play their music on the radio where I lived, in general the band has always been much more popular in the US) - I imagined, this must have been the greatest band of all time. Getting their first LP 'Terrapin Station' was the biggest disappointment in music in my life. The music was just bad and utterly boring. I still tend to think that Grateful Dead was actually a bad, boring and probably most overrated band ever. Many claim they were best while playing live (allmusic on 'Terrapin Station': "The theory is that the band's momentum is best experienced during the ebb and flow of a live performance rather than the somewhat clinical tedium of a recording studio.") but maybe their audience was simply usually too high to notice that apart from their ability to create a specific kind of connection with their audience they were in fact a bad, boring half amateur band..

 

I guess some are gonna hate me for this 

 

Let's stay relaxed..

 

 

dude............you are undead to me.

May I humbly recommend a wee documentary?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Strange_Trip

Personally, I, like many others who were not true deadheads, gave more listening time to Workingman's Dead and American Beauty (which were basically one long project) than to anything else. I have at times lucked on to listening to really great long improv jams that just worked, and to live concerts where the harmonies were at least tolerable. Side projects anyone? Listened to Old and In The Way many times, and some New Riders of the Purple Sage (Jerry helped them get going and played pedal steel early on).

I don't think of the Grateful Dead's music as really fitting into a rock, blues, country, psychedelic or jazz genre. I think it's their version of Americana.  Like the best of The Band, or Dylan, the best of their songs could have been written 250 years ago, they could have been written 25 years ago, but they could only have been written in America. FWIW, I think any songwriter in any genre in any time would have sold his soul to have written the lyrics to "Ripple".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(song)

At their best live (and they are at their best live), I think the Grateful Dead created "flow" in and with their audience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi#Flow

It's all a matter of taste, but I think with the Grateful Dead, you're either on the bus, or you're not.  If you are on the bus, you know why.  

I was never a huge Dead fan and in fact, stupidly, when I was a kid of 16-18 in 69-71 you had to swear your allegiance to either the Dead or The Allman Brothers. I was an AB junkie what can I say. 

I never really sit down to listen to the Dead anymore, but do find some of their music fun while driving around the mountains in MT. Now I will say this about the Dead and for those of you who aren't old enough to understand what it was like when you were at a party or concert with air filled with Dead tunes (among other things), it was much more than just the music. It literally was what we referred to as A SCENE and few bands elicited that to their audiences and listeners the way the Dead did. 

11 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

There are more bands like this, even in my home country

Yes, but the Dead have a worldwide audience like that - and a very big one. Also multi-generational. How many bands do you know like that? There aren't a lot.

A recording of the Dead's Cornell show, 5-8-77 is in the Library of Congress. The 24/192 recording is wonderful.