Grateful Dead Music Forum

Being part of a group that's entirely democratic in the way the Dead were (not doing something unless everyone felt ok with it) can really clog things up, and it can be pretty stressful and heavy. With the JGB, it's Jerry's band. He's the leader (though not in an imposing way), and I get the feeling that that's the main reason for the different vibes we're describing between the groups.

wolftigerrosebud wrote:Being part of a group that's entirely democratic in the way the Dead were (not doing something unless everyone felt ok with it) can really clog things up, and it can be pretty stressful and heavy. With the JGB, it's Jerry's band. He's the leader (though not in an imposing way), and I get the feeling that that's the main reason for the different vibes we're describing between the groups.

Phil has said the Dead originally governed by consensus. When they changed to a democracy he would get out-voted.

Interesting. Is that in his autobiography? I'd be curious to read about their decision-making process.

Edit: and I misused the word "democracy"; pardon me.

Back to the tone itself. I thing Jerry was very keen on how to break through the mix. With the Dead there was much more to Fight through in that mix. With JGB He had more room and sometimes played the guitar altogether differently than with the Dead. So again I think theres many factors at work here.

I think he sounds pretty similar in the Dead as he did in JGB during the various eras.

The times he sounded the most "grungy" in JGB was when he sounded the most "grungy" in the GD (83-85). Same basic setup (except in 1980 when he was using the Boogie but still it sounded close to the GD 1980 sound with the series humbucker tone).