[deadguise]

We have a term we use at rehearsal; "hey man, don't Donna the vocals"

[tigerstrat]

We have a term we use at rehearsal; "hey man, don't Donna the vocals"

iow, you use her name as a pejorative.

[Emoto]

Freakin' newbies !

You just fall off the turnip truck , Emoto ?

Er... I guess so! I didn't see them for the first time until 1976.

The whole initials thing escapes, me, though.

[FretfulDave]

Emoto - I have trouble with the same thing. No big deal. I don't know show dates and venues either

Regarding Donna vocals, I thought that conventional rumor had it that after the Wall of Sound, i.e. like 1976 on out, Donna did not use a stage monitor. So she did not have the mix of the music to position her voice in/with/against. To me she sounds better overall in the years when the Wall of Sound was there. Remembering of course that part of the design concept was to provide a mix of sound from behind and you did not need stage monitors. On albums for JGB, etc. she would have likely use headphones in the vocal recording room, thereby providing the necessary feedback for vocal intonation and thus sounded lovely. Maybe she uses in ear monitors now or regular ones? Or has just gotten that good w/o the use of monitors. The bands she sings with now are playing less loudly and smaller venues, imo. But I am probably just prattling.

I started seeing them in 1976 also and I really don't remember hearing much about Donna's singing, at shows or around the community that I knew back then. Just part of the Grateful Dead and accepted as that. Now in later years, listening to tapes, etc. the guys I shot pool with for years used to cringe and make uncalled for remarks during PITB aka Playing In The Band. I never like that. She is a fine singer and had off nights and on nights. Maybe more one than the other if the old rumor was true.

I dunno. Musician bashing is not a discussion I like to participate in. So this is just an observation and what I remember from my experiences with the band and their recordings.

Fretful Dave

[deadguise]

Just a stoner theory; I think singing and playing with an instrument keeps you on pitch better than singing without an instrument (unless you're a really good vocalist). Your voice can match or harmonize with the frequencies resonating from the instrument.

[prephippie]

lets jsut put it this way, they didn't have donna in the band because they liked her voice!

She was definitely a looker. On the audience copy of JGB 3/11/78, at 7:23 during a very quiet part of Knockin' On Heaven's Door a guy in the audience yells out "Nice ass Donna" followed a chuckle from the audience. One of the funnier things I've ever heard on a concert recording, second only to Duane Allman introducing Elizabeth Reed (3/13/70) as "Dickey's new tune called 'I've Got Peanut Butter In My Pubic Hair.'"

As for the original question of this thread...Donna isn't my favorite singer in the band, but there's no doubt she can sing. She definitely sounds better with JGB. I've always heard it was a monitor issue, but why didn't she use one? That doesn't make sense - especially when we know how much money and effort the GD invested in getting the best sound possible.