Grateful Dead

Oooook! Thanks!

Yep, it gets funnier each time he says it and no doubt it'll be funnier still when he trots it out in 2020.

If there was even a smattering of truth in this then The Edgar Broughton Band, along with Pete Brown, would have been added just after Ivan had carved out the titles of all the Genesis albums on his desk; hell, we'd even have thrown in a smattering of Al Stewart and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band just to be kind to the Scots. But alas it is just a fairy tale told around camp-fires to remind young Americans of what it could have been like if Brian Wilson had been the godfather of Prog.

If only The Grateful Dead were Prog just think what could have been... [you try, I got nothing] ...but sadly it was never meant to be because, American or not, there isn't an ounce of Prog in their dried bones and there isn't a gram of Grateful Dead influence in any of the Progressive Rock bands that came out of Britain and Europe. And there's the rub, for while all the countries of Europe where off making their own niche Progressive trails America chose to take a different path. And there's nothing wrong with that if you like that kind of thing, it's certainly nothing to be ashamed of, but trying to show-horn something that doesn't belong into a space where it doesn't fit is never going to change the music into something it isn't. Enjoy the Grateful Dead (and all those other bands that some people think should be here but can't quite articulate why) for what they are, and celebrate them for what they were, even if that wasn't Prog.

My humour isn't always appreciated but I appreciate it when it is. *dofts hat*

It's a cliché to say, but if you didn't see The Grateful Dead live in the '60s, then you didn't see them.  I saw them a lot in the '60s.  I was never, to put to bed another cliché, chemically altered because I didn't want anything interfering with my ability to understand and appreciate the music.  Save that for the dorm!

The Dead started out as a jug band, adding R&B with Pigpen and their 1st album sounds more proto-punk than anything, complete with Farfisa organ.  Beginning with Anthem of the Sun, the Dead started creating complex arrangements like That's it for the Other One (the truncated version The Other One that they did in later years was a pale imitation).  St. Stephen was so hard that, according to Jerry, they had  to stop performing it.  The Eleven transitions from 4/4 to 11/8, 2 instruments at a time, over 6 measures, which created a breathtaking polyrhythmic effect that I  am in awe of to this day.  Dark Star could get a bit noodley at times, as could Alligator & Caution.  But even in shorter songs like Cosmic Charlie they rarely went for the obvious.  Those were their prog days, and I fail to see how anyone could listen to Anthem through Live/Dead and not consider them some sort of progressive music.  Maybe not the kind you like, but do you like all of the categories at the head of this site?

We drifted away from them in 1971.  Lesh and Constanten had always seemed the experimental heart of the band and with Tom gone, I guess Phil wasn't motivated to keep going down that road without his partner in crime.  So I dove headlong down Zeuhl Highway and R.I.O Drive, instead.

But we did come back, years later, to find another complex workout with Terrapin Station.  The album version was interesting, but couldn't compare to the late '80s live versions.  For one thing, those lacked Donna trying and failing to sing on key.
All through, their more mournful songs (Death Don't Have No Mercy, Cassidy) had an evocative quality that was good to hear, but I can agree with saying that that material wasn't prog.