Grateful Dead Music Forum

Ok, so I play in a blues/classic rock band. None of my bandmates are dead heads although they are all really great guys. Well today one comes to practice with the chords for "Little Pink Houses" by John Mellancamp.

I thought to myself, "oh shit, I'll play it but only because the other guys want to". Up to this point I have only been able to "back door" some dead tunes in. We play some dead covers like The harder they come, Midnight hour and maybe one or two more. The only dead song we do is Mr Charlie but when I showed it to them I showed a cover version of it just to be safe.

They dont have anything against the dead but it is just not their cup of tea I suppose.

So during a break the other guitarist was standing around and I told him to play a b chord and then an a chord and repeat etc. He did that then I turned on my envelope filter and started playing lead. The other guys heard it and cut their break short.

Then they started to jam, it was going quite well. Then I started to sing. Then the fire on the mountain part came and the other guitar player started harmonizing.

When the 10 minute jam was done they were saying how great it was and asked what it was. I confessed it was a dead tune. Now its part of our set! I feel great about it.

Nice job Jack you must be psyched for the next gig.

Nice job!

The thought of playing Little Pink Houses makes me want to... ugh. I can't even finish that thought.

Rusty the Scoob wrote: The thought of playing Little Pink Houses makes me want to... ugh. I can't even finish that thought.

Yeah me too. But I have to compromise if I want everyone to stay happy. We gig maybe once a month or two months and practice only 2 or 3 times a month. So I wont make a big deal about it. The band members are all great guys. They are all family men, business owners and a couple of them are doctors. So if spending just a few minutes playing a tune I dont like makes them happy its the least I can do. My problem is that when I am playing I need to be into it, I dont want to just go through the motions. So I will have to figure a way to be into it.

Great story! Nothin wrong with being a little sneaky to help them find their inner Deadhead. Although, I think to balance out Little Pink Houses you're going to have to play a minimum of three Dead songs.

just found this. These guys did a great job. Who knows them? Is this anyone here on the forum?

If there should be anything as American as the Grateful Dead, then surely it is John Melloncamp to some degree?

cmon

adam

The Cougar! You gotta love him.... I agree too, he is American as shotguns in your pickup truck. I am in the same boat with my band, they are excited to have me aboard so they have been willing to do a few dead tunes, but I have inched in Big RxR blues, NFA, good lovin, Mr. Charlie, Minglewood Blues, the list goes on of covers the dead covered,, that's how I get them on board.... I say lets do good lovin by the animals.....or promised land by Elvis, johnny b goode by chuck berry, you know covert dead head conversion!!! Then, the hunter/barlow songs you can save for "your" dead picks.

Ha, my band's the same way! Our drummer isn't much into the Dead and so we've "snuck" in a few Dead-ish songs along the way (Harder they Come, Hey Pockey Way, Get Outa my life woman, etc.) but he totally dug doing Casey Jones and then we figured it out...he doesn't like the open ended jams that go on, he likes it tight and with the end in sight. Makes it somewhat difficult, but we manage.

And what's up with John Cougar Mellonhead? Why the dis? He's got some good tunes. Check out Rain on the Scarecrow. I don't always like playing his stuff, but people dance to it and I think you can learn from playing just about anything. Pink Houses isn't even on my list of faves, but it's fun to play (especially in open G, which was the way it was originally done).

JonnyBoy wrote:I say lets do good lovin by the animals......

I never heard an Animals version of Good Lovin'. I forget who wrote that song, but I believe the group that first made it famous was "The Young Rascals".