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The 100 best musicians of all time: The Grateful Dead – Essay by Warren Haynes
I was not born as a deadhead and actually only converted in 1989. My wife Stefanie, on the other hand, was always a deadhead and dragged me to every concert by The Grateful Dead when we met. I remember a night in Madison Square Garden when Bruce Hornsby – who played keyboards for her at the time – took us on stage and showed us a place right behind his piano. We were three meters from Jerry Garcia, and we could experience how much the audience was fixed on him. The Grateful Dead and her audience vibrate on a very special wavelength, and it was fascinating to watch how he – in his typically understood manner – kept this ship on course.
Melodie introduction and change of chord were no less unusual
It is no secret that most Jam bands were influenced by Grateful Dead. But what bothers me about many of today’s groups is the lack of historical perspectives. The dead loved folk, acoustic blues and bluegrass – especially Garcia. In the songs he wrote with Robert Hunter, but also in Bob Weir’s material, the music that was played 40 years earlier.
One always speaks of the magic of his guitar and vulnerability in his voice, but his understanding of the melody of the melody and change of chord was no less unusual. The ballads that come to mind in this context are “loose”, “Wharf Rat” and “Stella Blue”.
Before I started the Dead in 2004, I had played with Phil Lesh for five years. He is probably one of the most extraordinary bassists who have ever lived. Came from classical music and understood his bass as part of an orchestra. As a result, he is not limited to delivering only the basic tones, but buzzes – like Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, her drummer – crisscross. Magic in dead music was largely created by learning to play Phil and Jerry-that they brought Phil’s approach and Jerry’s huge musical spectrum under one roof.
They created a follow -up that grew and grew and grew in a natural way
Jerry is still one of the few guitarists who can be identified immediately when listening. It was humanity that manifested himself in Jerry’s guitar work, but also in his singing. He played more with heart and soul than just with technology. And that’s what the best musicians distinguishes.
As a band, they also managed to re -locate the word “success”. They created a follow -up that grew and grew and grew in a natural way. Survived in a world in which there was actually no place to give her. They withdraw from the system and encouraged their fans to do the same thing: to be free and independent heads. Many of the deadheads lived in a completely different world when they discovered the Dead cosmos and said goodbye to their old life. And that is the message for which Grateful Dead still stand today.
When I play with the Allman Brothers, the band leaves me the decision on how much of Duanes I incorporate. The dead work the same way. They would never tell me “Play it like Jerry” or “Less like Jerry”. It only says: “Play what you think is right.”