Grateful Dead Music Forum

Tennessee Jedi wrote:The most complicated tunes are the ones the band wrote together
like St,Stephen,though.

Yeah look at "Doin' That Rag" or Hell any other song from AoxoMoxoA. And what about Bobby's "The Other One" or "Born Cross- Eyed". Phil also wrote complex songs too, like: "New Potato Caboose", Passenger, Equinox, or to take the complex cake Unbroken Chain. Peace.

Sorry I wrote my Phil rant before even read ind St. Stephen's last post mentioning Phil.

bob... he can complicate a song beyond all belief

Well weir obviously in agreement here. (har har har)

Yeah Bobby's song are harder and more complicated, and Jerry's melodies generally more catchy. To give Jerry some complexity credit, however, I have to point out Slipknot.

On the whole, Phil's songs are probably most complex. The polyrhythmic early stuff like New Potato Caboose as well as the unexpected chord progressions from Box of Rain and Unbroken Chain.

P.S. The things I seen online including here show that Bobby wrote Born Cross-Eyed, but I could've sworn reading Phil's book it says that Phil wrote it himself but Bobby sang it because Phil wasn't ready to sing at that point. Anyone know any more about it?

Rev_Roach wrote:P.S. The things I seen online including here show that Bobby wrote Born Cross-Eyed, but I could've sworn reading Phil's book it says that Phil wrote it himself but Bobby sang it because Phil wasn't ready to sing at that point. Anyone know any more about it?

I think the song where that occurred was New Potato Caboose.

st stephen wrote:this is my topic and i apoligize for not putting phil in...i just feel like he did not have enoigh material to compete with jer and bob...but he did write the most beutiful masterpeice of them all.

UNBROKEN CHAIN

I always thought Box of Rain was pretty intricate

atleast I always had a hell of a time memorizing it

Panda Licker wrote:
I always thought Box of Rain was pretty intricate

atleast I always had a hell of a time memorizing it

Honestly, there is nothing intricate about the song.

It's straight up time and the 3 progressions.

The only hard part is Phil changes the chords for the last lines of each verse.

IMO, that is over-complicating a song needlessly.

this is my topic and i apoligize for not putting phil in...i just feel like he did not have enoigh material to compete with jer and bob...but he did write the most beutiful masterpeice of them all.

UNBROKEN CHAIN

Phil in my opinoin definately had the most complex chord changes though he only wrote a few songs for the band's repetoire. But the ones he did write like unbroken chain, passenger, box of rain, king soloman's marbles, all amazing. Bobby comes in second though. Jerry was definately better with melody, bout that's cool too, cause when he played rhythm, he supplied the simpler chords while bobby played something more intricate over, and vice versa when he went into lead. But Phil is definately the man when it comes to chord progressions.

GratefulPat wrote:bob... he can complicate a song beyond all belief

Bobby songs are definently more complicated as far as chord structure is concerned

I like the dichotomy and one of the reasons the GD are my favorites!

It's also interesting to hear a show with a simple Bobby song on either side of Terrapin station.

BTW, I don't think Phil did anything complicated in nature except Unbroken.

Nothing hard about Passenger, Box or Potato etc.

Born cross eyed? All Bobby.

KSM is hard because as non-classically trained musicians we associate music with lyrics. If you break it down it is not as complex. Intricate, yes, but the hardest things is memorizing the structure w/o lyrics to help.

Also, KSM had 3 authors: Lesh, Hart, Kreutzmann

Also "stronger than dirt" has been correlated to Lesh in 1962 who says he heard classical music in commercials. And there are hints of classicals in KSM. Makes me wonder..

Bob - complex chord changes
Jerry - complex melody

Bob may have wrote more complicated tunes but Jerry wrote the best, the bridge/jam part of 1/2 step

Am Am/maj7 Am7 D9
F Dm B7 E7
Am Am/maj7 Am7 D9
F Am D7 G7

I can play that forever.

ronster wrote:Bob may have wrote more complicated tunes but Jerry wrote the best, the bridge/jam part of 1/2 step

Am Am/maj7 Am7 D9
F Dm B7 E7
Am Am/maj7 Am7 D9
F Am D7 G7

I can play that forever.

i love playing that song, it one of my favs, but i dont think is especially complicated or complex

bob is more complicated. jerry once said in an interview, i beleive in guitar player, that there is no real reason to play chords with more than 3 notes, everything esle is just filler and makes the chord sound muddy.

not verbatim, sorry.

bucketorain wrote:bob is more complicated. jerry once said in an interview, i beleive in guitar player, that there is no real reason to play chords with more than 3 notes, everything esle is just filler and makes the chord sound muddy.

not verbatim, sorry.

Ya, read it too. You are as close as I can remember.

But every time I think of that quote I think of chords that have 4 notes or more?! I can totally see his point with regards to playing in a very full band like the GD with 3 midrange instruments but I always wondered if Jerry really lived by that statement...