The fact that some 27 years after his death, that this kind of conversation can and is held, with a multitude of diverse opinions, is surely a testimony to what a monster of a musician, (not just guitar player, but yes, surely that as well) Jerry Garcia really was.
@@wdechand “it's the same reason why you like some music and you don't like others. There's something about it that you like. Ultimately I don't find it's in my best interests to try and analyze it, since it's fundamentally emotional." Jerry Garcia
I was at a Jerry show in...oh...probably Oregon and there was a guy in the crowd freaking out and really disturbing the chill when a spotlight hit him and Jerry sung straight into his soul and mellowed him right out for the rest of the night. I can't recall the song now so many years later, but I do recall it was perfect. I watched the closest thing to real magic I have ever seen in my life weilded by that man that night and I wasn't even tripping. It was awesome.
A friend told me he was at a show in Brooklyn, musta been around 1970. The fellow he was with was on his first trip and was crying on his knees. Garcia walked up to the edge of the stage and played Viola Lee Blues right into him and lifted up his spirit.
He's not noodling. Jerry is a "searcher" player. He searches, lands an opening, tells the band telepathically, and moves to where the energy takes him. There's no other way to truly improvise.
Jerry came from bluegrass, where the players are masters of outlining the chord changes while playing their solos or lead. Instead of relying on scale shapes which can lock you in one area of the guitar neck, Jerry relied more on melody and could flow freely up, down and across the guitar while creating connect the chord changes in real-time. Masterful stuff!
Absolutely. Songs like Ripple, which gives me goosebumps, reveal that bluegrass influence. The music he played with David Grisman is absolutely wonderful. I love the Pizza Tapes, it has such a bluegrass/gospel feel to it.
Jerry along with Zappa are two of the greatest and most underrated guitarists of their generation IMO and shared a similar modal approach to the instrument. Both well understood the theory they were applying to their playing. I think for Jerry, the fact that he forewent a heavier fuzzed or distorted tone of many of his contemporaries, and the scales he tended to prefer were more complicated than your basic blues pentatonic, made his playing less in vogue/relatable or at least odd sounding to much of the mainstream music fans unconditioned ears; And if you're not on board, the jams do seem often aimless/endless. But Jerry came from a background of bluegrass and jazz players that is evident in the way he plays *through* the chord changes. That's a particular skill that even advanced rock and blues players may not be able to do - most soloists in rock/pop music keep pretty close to the pentatonic scale which just sounds great over any chord in the key. But Jerry's playing always highlighted each chord as it went by. Anyone who plays guitar, go and deconstruct some Jerry Garcia solos and you'll have new appreciation for exactly what he was doing and how he was relating to the rest of the tune. He was still improvising but its on complete different level.
I agree with all of this. I can't remember where I read the quote, but Garcia said once in an interview that he's willing to risk a few wrong notes in order to hit the right notes and find something new and exciting. As someone who loves musical improv, I can get behind that. I don't mind digging through some rough patches to find the gems in a particular Dead show.
Truth be told. Weir is NEVER on any "top guitarists" lists that I have seen.. besides a few of my friends on Facebook just posting their own little lists - I mean like from websites or magazines, and that's a shame. He's improving his guitar skills nowadays but he's particularly mastering his vocal range, which has become quite broad.
Weir was the perfect counterpoint to Garcia's playing style. I was watching a video about rhythm guitar once and the guy summed it up as (paraphrasing here), "If it's good, you don't even notice it. It's when it's missing that it stands out" ... As unique as Weir's style was, it complimented Garcia's so well that it's sometimes harder to pick it out. That lack of rhythm guitar is, I think, what helped create the spacious, wide-open sound that JGB embodied.
Always one of my very favorite moments in a Dead show is Weir's spot in the transition of China/Rider. Rock guitarists largely don't have his vocabulary of chord phrasing
Garcia was an innovator, and anyone who knew him personally will tell you that he practiced CONSTANTLY, young or old. GD in concert played "Without A Net", and they had no fear of the occasional Fall. That's one of the reasons their fans loved them so much (not just the Deadheads, who obsessively followed them): When you attended, you knew they were going to give you their All, sick or well, tired or not. And they probably gave more free concerts, than any other (known) band in history.
Any decent musician can listen to Jerry and recognize how advanced his guitar playing was. He's leads were endlessly melodic and he would play to the individual chord of a progression much like a lot of jazz folks do.
The whole 'aimlessly noodles' take usually comes from someone who hasn't really listened to the music, or heard the phrase from someone else. There's plenty of Jerry solos that are based around the melody of the tune, pretty far from noodling to just play the melody. As far as jams go, you can usually find some level of group interaction, or an overall trajectory or arc of the energy of a jam - far cry from aimless.
I'd say Doc brown is bang on. Anyone that says the phrase "aimless noodling" is probably not a musician or doesnt really get what the grateful dead were about or just straight up hasn't even listened, I've never heard another guitarist be able to dance around the melodies and chord tones like this man, even when hes out of his mind he can still navigate the guitar purely improvising and keeping it fresh everytime and most importantly following the chord tones which makes it the polar opposite of aimless noodling, he always sticks to the chord tones and has his magic little deviations that people still cant figure out now. It's like when people say all reggae sounds the same, yes, it does if you are simple folk. I love the unsanitized unpredictability that "aimless noodling" brings, like someone said, it's just creating chances and possibilities when you live in the moment and noodle.
Jerry Garcia could solo over the simplest chord progression of a song that everybody knows for the millionth time and still make it captivating, ambitious, and unique … in one take, mind you. The voice of his instrument is soulful, immediately recognizable, and cannot be replicated. He’s obviously one of the most talented and innovative guitar players of all time.
That opening noodling example comes from my favorite '72 Dark Star. I can give examples of noodling, but this avant garde section of Dark Star is a vital section of a piece of art.
yeah, i was gonna say, "playing into the LSD influenced stratosphere" sounds about right, but there's nothing aimless about it. That shit is deliberate and expressive playing. I appreciate the effort in trying to battle the common crit of aimless noodling, but trying to validate Jerry's worth through his rock'n'roll chops is almost diminishing given how creative and involved his more free and experimental work was
About a year ago John Mayer, someone who is extremely respected by other guitar players for his bluesy but virtuosic playing, was asked how he felt about Garcias playing and his response was, "Jerry was so incredible that I had to become a much better player to even be able to appreciate what it is that he did." Basically, that it takes an incredibly talented musician to even begin to fathom what Garcia was able accomplish. He was able to write entire novels with his phrasing, setting motifs and stories within solos. Jerry Garcias playing will be studied for millennia.
Im not the biggest fan of john i do like music and appreciate his guitar work both electric and acoustic. But i get what hes saying.. he definitely had to expand his knowledge to play on jerrys level
@@herbythechef7624 I agree, I'm not the biggest Mayer fan (his playing can be great but I think pretty much everything he's done solo or with his trio is pretty hollow), I only mentioned him, specifically, because he's who the 'Core Four' have chosen to play with. Well, that and I think the quote is great, as well as accurate. It takes a Jedi to really understand a Jedi 🤣 and Mayers definitely no Jedi but knew he had to get closer to one before being able to fully appreciate JG.
I couldn't stand Mayer.... then I saw him stand in Jerry's shoes like so many have tried and ran like a wolf. He's definitely a player and he's slowly shedding his ego, we might be in the presence of one of the greatest.
@@dingusfuzzklonnkt2755 I hated John Mayer 15 years ago when I was a young punk and now I understand his greatness, granted I have never understood appeal of the dead, but If I can understand mayer finally, maybe one day.
My favorite example of Jerry's melodic chops are his two solos on Eyes of the World on 8/6/74, especially the second solo. Also his firs Scarlet Begonias solo on 5/17/77 is a personal fav.
This one is really tight. It’s one of his cleanest solos in my opinion. It’s so good though. That's It for the Other One: Cryptical Envelopment / Quadlibet for Tender Feet / The Faster We Go the Rounder We Get (Live at Shrine Auritorium, August 23-24,1968) · Grateful Dead
@@jimdarhower4945 '68 and '69 shows are really interesting. You can hear them pushing and pulling in all the directions they would eventually go, but the overall vibe is still very gritty and bluesy. I like shows from those years a lot.
The music of the Dead is timeless. There are likely more Grateful Dead cover bands playing today than at any time in history. An entire generation of young people are keeping that spirit alive to this day.
@@rickyccayenne4790 actually rap sucks ass just as bad as this. I actually listen to all kinds of music and play multiple instruments. Grateful Dead is rock elevator music.
I met Jerry backstage at the Uptown in the late seventies. He was gracious, kind and very thoughtful. Luckily I attended the last show at Soldier Field. He is missed, loved and forever in the musical consciousness of the universe. Jam on uncle Jerry.
Our garage band took guitar lessons from him at Dana Morgan’s in Palo Alto. He taught a lot early Stones’ licks. Saw them the first time they headlined the Fillmore in September ‘66.
He was a great player, innovator, and fusion of styles. But if you saw them live, sometimes you saw someone who was blasted out of his mind noodling around aimlessly. He’s not the only amazing guitarist I’ve seen on stage who just had a shitty night because they were blitzed. It happens but doesn’t define them.
Great, great, great video my friend. I been playing nearly 40 years, 30 of them professionally. So I believe I can speak on the subject, lol. I absolutely, positively do not care for the Grateful Dead in any way whatsoever. Not a Garcia fan in the least. But God damn, that guy was an incredible guitar player on every level. I think people often mistake 'noodling' for being fearless. He just flowed. He was special. And remember, I don't even enjoy listening to him. I just know he's beyond legit
I was part of an O&ITW cover band that did a bunch of their stuff and a good bit of Dead - ruclips.net/video/A5RgCxOWzb0/видео.html - Love Garcia's banjo playing. You can hear echoes of it in a lot of the jamming he does in the '68-'70 shows, but it's such a regimented type of playing that I can see how he felt the urge to pick up a guitar and keep creating/pushing.
I really got into Garcia via bluegrass and my love of Tony Rice. The Pizza Tapes with Rice and Grisman opened my eyes to Garcia being more than a whacked out psychedelic rock noodler. Always figured he must have been more than that given how many top level musicians rated him, just hadn't heard it myself until then. Now I really appreciate the Dead, and love to try to jam along with their recordings on guitar :)
In a Rolling Stone video interview on RUclips (that's really irritatingly edited), Jerry said he spent 5 years playing just banjo back in his teens gigging with bluegrass bands. Also has a great banjo track on Glendale Train from the first New Riders album (which also has his pedal steel work on every track the whole album through).
His guitar work in Russian lullaby ( Irving Berlin ) Outstanding. Also Europe 72 on Morning dew. Very well done dynamically and melodically. Great at pedal steel too.
Jerry's playing noodling or full power jamming was so powerful from the gracefulness. Yes he was technique proficient , however his songs for the most part a far eaiser to learn the Wier's. I think Weir was trying to compensate by using odd chords and changes but then he actually morphed as did Jerry when Brent entered. The space was far more saturated, Jerry solos had a full backing and meaning he could drop out of and rejoin with harmonics matched to Weirs later style splinting extended chord's and resonating 2nd and 3rd harmonics.
"People joining hand in hand while the music plays the band..." Jerry was himself an instrument being played while he played. The whole band was. I love the Dead.
I'm sorry but that just isn't the case. A good jazz player is never wandering haplessly. That's why we study, and spend thousands of hours practicing, so much theory on our instrument--to not end up doing that.
@@ADFerrizzi uhhhh play 200 four+hour shows every year with different sets every time for 30 years.... you’re gonna have some random chaotic moments that are, by definition, “aimless” - but the pro will make meaning out of the randomness & find direction from what was directionless
Honestly, I never listened to the dead much because what few things I heard was a bunch of noodling so I never listened after that. I'm going to go back and listen further after hearing your examples. I really liked what they were playing in your examples. Thanks for changing my mind!
Listen to the Europe 72' Live album. As a guitar player it's one of my favorites. If you prefer a Studio Album, try Workingman's dead, Everyone has their personal fav's. but as a guitar player those won't let you down. Of course, Headphones On, Dark room with some candle light, incense and you're own personal choice of enhancement. Weed is a good start, but it's intended to sound better with shrooms or LCD. but it's hard to find time for that these days as an adult. So some weed should be fine. But at least some headphones in an undesperd environment.
@@TangoNevada I will definitely check those out! I'm not much for LCD or shrooms but some herbal delight sounds good. I have some great studio speakers and a good treated room I will enjoy the tunes with. Thanks for putting me in the right direction!
Kudos to you for having an open mind! The Dead did tons of improvisionational playing so inevitably a lot of it will come off as what some refer to as "aimless noodling". Other times however something incredibly beautiful and spontaneous will result. Check out the Dark Star from 4/8/72 at the Wembley Empire Pool in London England. My personal favorite.
@@fiddlefolk No problem. As mentioned, as an adult it's hard to find time for shrooms or LCD or even the interest. But I am sure many of us would love to hear your review of listening to some Grateful Dead under the conditions mentioned. I have rarely heard negative responses. But either way, I hope you enjoy.
To not say that Jerry Garcia was the greatest improvisationalist is to not know his music. I think that he was far and above the greatest musician that ever lived. For those of us who went from city to city to see the Dead, we understood it and realized it. Love Jerry Garcia forever..
@@jessesnyder5426 Amazing musician but not the greatest improvisor of all time, I'd argue it would have to be someone like Coltrane or someone else in the Jazz sphere
My thing with Jerry is that to my gut, he didn’t so much “play” notes, as release them into the song. Even when he’s pushing, the notes never seem to have forced emotional content. For me, he’s a grand master. Not sure a player today could even have all the experience Jerry lays in every phrase.
There's a limber quality to his guitar playing, where you can always tell it's him. Someone else commented that there aren't many people you can identify when they're playing pedal steel guitar, and his musical personality was strong enough that you could absolutely tell when he's on a New Riders recording.
@@patrickvarine8476 I'd say I can identify Jerry more readily than any other guitarist except for maybe Hendrix. His pedal steel was absolutely unique: nobody sounded like him. Too bad he couldn't have cloned himself and kept going on steel!
New Potato Caboose from the Anthem of the Sun album, and Dark Star from their first Live Dead album are examples of Garcia's glorious and tight guitar playing. So powerful it changed my life, a glimpse of the pure realms. :)
CAGED system, chord tones, country licks, chromatics and a lil gypsy jazz= jerry garcia This minglewood sucks btw I know of several smoking hot ones prolly Jerry's best playing
I'm almost 34, have been playing guitar since I was about 13. have been playing seriously and gigging since I was 20. I've been a big jam band/Phish guy for over a decade now, and have always liked the Dead... BUT, it wasn't until 2021 that the gloriousness of Garcia's playing was finally revealed to me. Not just as a soloist, but as a composer, improvisor, and singer. I spent all of last year listening to pretty much nothing but Dead/JGB, and honestly the kick is just now beginning to die down a bit. but yes - it is abundantly clear to me that Jerry was a master guitar player, and a sublime improvisor.
Yeah Jerry is like a family member he’s so sweet! I got a good Buddy you might like , he plays a little guitar, Billy Strings? Yeah he’s ok I guess? lol
Jerry was an avid student & teacher of guitar. He endlessly explored chords & voicings blending elements of bluegrass. And he was an excellent bluegrass player. Jerry Garcia was a great vocalist, composer and writer of lyrics . Ask just about anyone to name 3 grateful dead songs. They probably can't.
I like that you brought up Jerry as a great composer and writer of lyrics, and I totally agree. But a funny thing is that I saw an interview with him where he said that he'd "rather fill in all the o's in a phone book than write a song". I guess that's where Robert Hunter comes in.
@A If you cant list 3 songs, you've not listened to them, therefore your opinion matters little. Listen to Hell In A Bucket. That's a good fun song to dip your toes into.
Jerry had a style of playing which (I believe) made it more interesting for him personally and creatively… each solo was a brand new version . Sometimes it wouldn’t work as well as others, but when it was good it was better than anything else out there.. (I believe) 😎
Yeah, the version of Senior on the Jerry Garcia band album is stunning. I love that whole album. Jerry's playing and singing at the top of his game for the whole thing.
This "Tangled Up In Blue" is my favorite Garcia playing Dylan although there are PLENTY of beautiful examples. ruclips.net/video/dxEsBAPleRY/видео.html
I’ve come to the recent conclusion after being a deadhead for nearly 30 yrs and learning to play guitar over the last 5. I finally believe Jerry was a better guitarist than page. I would still say page was a better song writer, better hooks for a broader appeal, tighter, and Plants vocal gymnastics and approach helped. BUT Jerry had more to offer, created much more complicated music, played with more creativity and exploration and exposure.
I don't think it's all that important to compare two guitarists as different as Jerry and Jimmy Page. Their influences and styles were so radically different it's apples and oranges. To be honest, I'm not really much of a Zepellin fan, but Jimmy Page was clearly an excellent blues/rock guitarist. Jerry was much more influenced by bluegrass than he was the blues, which is why he tends more toward long eigth note or triplet runs with lots of chromatics, whereas Jimmy Page would play with a lot more expressive bends. I'm not saying one style is better than the other, but I will admit that I have a preference. I think zooming out, blues/rock guitarists are a dime a dozen, so to my ear it's just a lot more interesting hearing an improviser on guitar that doesn't play the same blues licks as every other guitarist.
Yeah right! I've been a huge fan of led zeppelin, jimi Hendrix, the doors pink floyd some real giants, only found out about the grateful dead a few years ago and theres no doubt in my mind, they are the greatest band in history, they have to be, even if you don't like the music, they are the only band that did what they did, and the music is absolutely sublime for the right people
Also, another best-of-all-time examples is the end solo in Althea from Go to Nassau 1980 (my, by far, personal favorite Althea). Its red hot. Also is the ending solo in Morning Dew from 5/8/77 at Cornell. Its a big time scorcher.
Dude practiced constantly, his whole life. I often hear his changes as being a few beats ahead of the rest of the band, he knew the forms that well. His harmonies are always deep and fascinating, too. Some people just don't listen.
I love that if you listen to a non-space jam, you can almost always tell where in the melody he is. He can "investigate" a melody better than anyone I know of, at least in a "rock" context.
I would also suggest Jerry's playing on Greatest Story Ever Told from May 7th 1972. Absolutely rips on this track, and none of it is meaningless noodling.
I adore Garcia, but surely even he would not agree with the notion that he "always" put the right notes in the right place at the right time. Yes, "more or less in line" is more like it.
He had that tension of just BARELY getting them on the beat in time, and it was not an accident. Vassar Clements talked about it in when they played together in "Old in the the Way" & how when he first started jamming with Jerry it was kind of unnerving, and he says he really didn't know who Jerry or the Dead were (since he came out of the bluegrass/new-grass/swing scene) and kind of thought it might have been a mistake getting involved, lol. This would have been when Jerry was on banjo, of course, and he'd even do it playing Scuggs-style rolls. He had moments where he just straight up was out of time, I think all musicians do if you play enough shows, but doing it for 30+ years essentially never taking a break unless he was hospitalized, yeah, you'll have some off-nights. Especially when you're strung-out on coke & heroin.
@@beezyflippins He thought of himself as "not very good" on guitar, especially acoustic. And he wasn't the best guitar player to ever live by a long shot, he knew it, we all knew it. But I don't think I've heard another player that can emote with a guitar (or voice...) better than Jerry. Never been another player like him that I've ever heard. He's still my favorite musician, even though there are much better technical players. Anyway... There was a show in the 90's, it was Jerry, Bela Fleck, David Grisman (pretty sure that was the main line-up... I'll dig and try to find and & update. Pretty sure it was a Grisman/Garcia show) where they all played together on "Eat my Dust" as an encore. It was kind of painful... Not that he wasn't getting some really good lines down, but EMD is really a technical showpiece piece to do at high bpm, and he's on stage taking turns soloing with two of the best instrumentalist's to ever touch their respective instrument... He some how pulled it off, but he was out of his league, lol. Just found it: 08-25-1991 Grisman/Garcia. There's a few versions of the full show on YT (might still be on Live Music Archive... that's where I got it ~20yr ago, lol) but it's the 2nd to last song, "Eat My Dust". Fantastic, and Jerry does a pretty good job on rhythm, but kind of bows out early during the solo. It had to be intimidating, haha. He did better than I remember though, and man am I glad I dug this up as I haven't listened to this set in well over a decade. Good stuff
I think it's stupid to compare high-level musicians, as if music was some kind of Olympics. I love Jerry's playing because it almost never felt formulaic and because it was grounded in the very inventive music that he himself wrote to Hunter's amazing lyrics. It can't really be separated from the organic whole that was The Dead, made up of a group of musical minds & hearts breathing together, listening to something that was beyond any one of them but that flowed through all of them at the same time. Music is infinite and The Dead had the discipline & commitment to stay open to that.
"I think it's stupid to compare high-level musicians, as if music was some kind of Olympics." ... I wish it were possible to give multiple thumbs up, because I'd give this about ten of em.
That's a big part of what makes this particular solo so special to me. The general rhythm pattern for the song is several bars of straight-ahead backbeat, with turnaround bars that hit on 1 and the downbeat of 2. And Garcia locks right into that. People have [rightfully] pointed out that there are better versions of this song, but I really like the "funky Cadillac in space" vibe that this version has.
The whole of "Europe '72" is pretty amazing. It's got my favorite of all the "China Cat > Rider" pairings, from the 5/3/72 Paris show. And the "Morning Dews" from that era will make me misty-eyed every time.
@@patrickvarine8476 I always use the EU '72 China Cat > IKYR to introduce newbs to the Dead's live magic. I know they overdubbed some of the vocals later in the studio but who cares -- it's magic!
Me too! That "China Cat" is the perfect example of how you can have practically every instrument playing a "solo" line and still, somehow, everything meshes together.
@@patrickvarine8476 I must have listened to it a thousand times, and the transition between the two songs still astounds me. I know they had been playing this segue for three years at that point (they'd debuted the pairing in 69) but it's smooth as silk and not a note wasted. Plus, I've always felt that with only Billy on drums, the GD were more nimble.
Jerry, after all, did teach Bobby the guitar. But I agree with you. He has a style all on his own as well, nothing like Garcia's but very complimentary to Garcia. He's NEVER on any guitar player lists and that's crappy! underrated, indeed.
Ha! Gonna use this to shut up the dullards who shit on Jerry’s brilliance as a guitarist, thanks buddy what a concise rebuttal to those poor fools who never got it.
Jerry/GD music is a bit beyond some folks, but if they can't have a little humility and imagine there are things that they don't know -- well, that's what makes them dullards.
Even that first example was pretty cool for what it was. Textural, atmospheric, psychedelic. Using the guitar as an instrument of overall broader sound not just confined to melody.
Jerry is probably the most underrated guitar player ever. Yes, he noodles at times but when he's on, he's hard to touch. He may be the most emotional player ever. Change the mood of 100k people with just a few notes. The doubters should listen to his solo stuff where the music takes precedence over the party. Senor, positively 4th street, gomorrah, harder they come, and on and on
The versions of Mexicali blues, beat it on down the line, and eyes of the world from the show on 9/11/74 in England are perfect examples of Jerry being at the top of his game.
Me and Bobby McGee 7-19-74, one of the most brilliant solos I've heard a rock guitarist play. The way he plays around the melody and through the changes...
i've heard everything from 'he could only play in the key of c' , to " bruce hornsby was the only good member" , mainly from straight laced uptight folks with a tendency to prejudge the band by looking at their audience , and then doubling down when you prove then wrong, agsin and again and again ...
Grateful Dead is my religion and does not require a defense. Even at 16 minutes into dark star, thats not noodling. Thats just playing Dark Star the way EVERYONE wanted to hear it!!
Not only was Jerry an outstanding guitar player but he was an overall outstanding musician in general. The guy spent his entire career constantly reinventing himself and he could play almost every genre of music with the best them. Many times right alongside the best of them!
LOL this video seems almost like a joke, and the comment section is just a bunch of dead heads indulging in superlative exaggeration of what an incredible genius Jerry Garcia was on guitar. keep on believing
Lol Jerry is an amazing guitar player, you don't have to be technical, to sound amazing, actually sometimes it's opposite, there more soul in the sound when you just let go. Some of the greatest riffs come from noodling.
I'll never forget the comment the judge made to the bassist in his ex-wife's court case to inherit his estate... "...You mean to say that... 'the last thirty years have been one big smoky haze?' " to quote his each and every word back to him. Too hilarious 🤣🤣🤣
Nice choice, I would have maybe gone with any of about 50 different solos from Peggy-O, from the late 70’s up through 90. Jerry would start by playing a straight melody and then he would explore the highs & lows of the melody, each time making it very different from the time before. Legendary.
Sometimes it's ok to say you don't get someone's music or it's just not for you. Never understood the need to bash someone who is clearly really good at what they do. I'm not even a huge Jerry Garcia fan but the man could play with the best of them.
I can admit that there are a lot of rough patches in the Dead's live compendium, particularly between about '83 and '86. There are some bad shows in there. I agree that paying close attention to the music can reward even their clunky moments, because you can usually sense what they were attempting to do. As a musician who loves improv, I respect that attempt and that willingness to work without a net. Sometimes it didn't work out, but other times it created real musical magic.
@@patrickvarine8476 there were some great one's in there also. As bad of shape as he was in there's some scorching shows from 83 to 85. Some of his best guitar work IMO
@@wolfsvision940 There's definitely great ones in there. For me, part of it is personal preference. I really like the more-organic sound the band has during the '70s, with grand piano and a lot less MIDI stuff in the percussion section. I don't fault them at all for staying on the cutting edge of music technology - that was always their M.O. - but it's just not my favorite "sound era" of the band.
Jerry Singing and playing China Doll 3 30 1990 was amazing too :) So many amazing performances :) I remember being on the floor in the taper section during this China Doll and it was like being in heaven on earth. During the opener Help on the way into Slipknot that same show every member of the band had dread locks. I kept looking and they all had dread locks It was a supernatural event. Amazing musicians 110%
It is also easier to imitate say Jimmy page , Gilmore or Iommi than Jerry Garcia just in the tone alone . Never mind the Garcia brained riffing . Not a huge dead fan but it’s obvious the touch on guitar is extremely awkward and unconventional .
Check out the solo on Harder They Come 1978 m.ruclips.net/video/TZsMmTFqSwI/видео.html Or Johnny B Goode the album version is another good example of classic rock and roll guitar proficiency (and some, I would say).
You can lead a man to gold, but you cannot make him drink forth.. Those who know Jerry, know the next level brilliance he was bringing through to this plane from the outer spheres. The one and only Captain Trips
Well said. Stereotypes form when people don't spend the time to fully understand and explore the the full nature of what is being judged. Those of us who truly explored Jerry Garcia as a musician know just how masterfully skilled and diverse he was as a guitarist and composer. His willingness to experiment and fail is exactly what allowed him to reach the highest levels of technical skill and proficiency you point out in this solo. Patience is what is necessary to truly appreciate just how great a guitarist Jerry Garcia was. There are so many examples of this on RUclips if you take the time and have the patience to seek them out.
Jerry Garcia is not just my favorite musician, he's my favorite person in "pop culture." His music basically saved my life. I've read/listened to every interview there is, and more pop up all the time on RUclips, etc. He had insane chops on basically any instrument with a string, but obviously he was best at both acoustic and electric guitar, and banjo. He was also a great intellectual, filmmaker, and visual artist. Not a bad painter/sketcher and he did some cool stuff on computers. (I have a 30+ collection of his art-inspired, silk J.Garcia ties.) Actually quite an underrated vocalist in his early years. Furthermore, I can't stand people who dismiss Garcia and the Dead for any reason, and there are many, unfortunately. Luckily I have a tendency to "convert" (haha) or really rather change the minds of a lot of folks who don't realize the talent of Jerry. His side projects like Legion of Mary, Jerry Garcia Band, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Old and in the Way, Reconstruction, etc. are even better depending on the mood! I say thanks to Facebook I have turned on at least a hundred people. These people just have to hear the right show, or era. There are lots of would-be Deadheads (and will-be Deadheads) or at least appreciators out there waiting to be born. The man had more talent and skill in the missing middle finger of his right hand than a lot of his contemporaries. I never got to see him live but I would give most anything to have been at even the so-called "worst show." After all, there are only around 4,000 recorded shows to choose from! Thanks so much for posting this!
@@BeatlesCentricUniverse Lucky! Oh man 1980 was a FANTASTIC year for the Dead I thought and also really wonderful for the JGB. Unfortunately I was too young to see Jerry live. I was about eight years old when he died and my folks weren't Heads so, no luck there. I'll take what I can get though. I've been fortunate enough to have caught all kinds of post-Jerry projects since Bonnaroo 2004 (where I saw Bob Dylan, and Steve Winwood, and SW even sat in with The Dead.) I haven't been the same since... I was also at the FTW shows. Here in Nashville we have a really cool JG/GD tribute band, my friends The Stolen Faces. I am not usually too big on tribute groups of other bands, but they are awesome, and I have seen many good Dead ones. I recommended the Stolen Faces. DSO and JRAD I am a big fan of as well. I think Joe Russo's Almost Dead is probably the most exciting one, bringing a more prog-rock flavor to their songs. Cheers, brother!
It's called improvisation flying by the seat of your pants these are the people who found and created new sounds and styles. Most musicians want to sound like someone else and play someone else's licks. Thank God for the musicians who step outside the box music is only limited by the imagination of the person playing it thanx to Jerry Garcia and all who love to improvise remembering Jimmy Hendrix was a master of improvisation one of the reasons he became recognised as the greatest guitarist of all time.
Add me to those who would accuse him of just noodling. If what I just heard is representative of his playing then I stand corrected! That was some fine playing
The frustrating thing for me when trying to get people into their music is that it really can be hit-and-miss. If someone just searches "grateful dead" here on RUclips, there's a very real possibility that it turns up a show where they were having an off-night, or a show when Garcia was just wrecked on hard drugs. And some of those are pretty bad. But if you listen to tunes like "Mr. Charlie" from the 1972 shows, you hear a band that can lock in on tight blues and R&B. If you listen to "Bird Song" from that same year, it's a totally different sound, floating peacefully off and occasionally cranking up in the middle of a jam. The "China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider" from Paris 1972 is really everything I love about the band: wavy psychedelics with a backbeat to start out, then gradually ramping up into full-on straight-ahead rock when they kick into "I Know You Rider."
The fact that some 27 years after his death, that this kind of conversation can and is held, with a multitude of diverse opinions, is surely a testimony to what a monster of a musician, (not just guitar player, but yes, surely that as well) Jerry Garcia really was.
or at least that some fans never let go
@@wdechand let go? What does that mean exactly?
@@wdechand “it's the same reason why you like some music and you don't like others. There's something about it that you like. Ultimately I don't find it's in my best interests to try and analyze it, since it's fundamentally emotional." Jerry Garcia
@@augustwest4233 you could exhume Gracias body and bag the smell and fans would gush it's the best smell ever all peace and love and cosmic
holy hell, 27 years how am I this old...
I was at a Jerry show in...oh...probably Oregon and there was a guy in the crowd freaking out and really disturbing the chill when a spotlight hit him and Jerry sung straight into his soul and mellowed him right out for the rest of the night. I can't recall the song now so many years later, but I do recall it was perfect. I watched the closest thing to real magic I have ever seen in my life weilded by that man that night and I wasn't even tripping. It was awesome.
What a great experience that must've been!
A friend told me he was at a show in Brooklyn, musta been around 1970. The fellow he was with was on his first trip and was crying on his knees. Garcia walked up to the edge of the stage and played Viola Lee Blues right into him and lifted up his spirit.
Thank you for sharing this Magical experience. 🧸🧸🌈✌❤🌞🙏
Beam me up Jerry
Yeah, When they sang Hell in a Bucket, some dude
ran up the steps and out of the arena, declaring
"I am going to Hell in a Bucket' he was on fire.
He's not noodling. Jerry is a "searcher" player. He searches, lands an opening, tells the band telepathically, and moves to where the energy takes him. There's no other way to truly improvise.
Dude. Put down the bong.
"seeker"
Good luck with the anti marijuana campaign on a Grateful Dead channel. I wish you the best my friend😎🤙
@@scottjeffries1127 Put down the brownies, dude. 😎
Not even a particularly far out thing to say, just obviously how it works
Jerry came from bluegrass, where the players are masters of outlining the chord changes while playing their solos or lead. Instead of relying on scale shapes which can lock you in one area of the guitar neck, Jerry relied more on melody and could flow freely up, down and across the guitar while creating connect the chord changes in real-time. Masterful stuff!
Great point! I knew bluegrass was the key for Jerry’s melodic playing.
Great explanation of Jerry’s art!
100% spot on
Absolutely. Songs like Ripple, which gives me goosebumps, reveal that bluegrass influence. The music he played with David Grisman is absolutely wonderful. I love the Pizza Tapes, it has such a bluegrass/gospel feel to it.
Jerry along with Zappa are two of the greatest and most underrated guitarists of their generation IMO and shared a similar modal approach to the instrument. Both well understood the theory they were applying to their playing. I think for Jerry, the fact that he forewent a heavier fuzzed or distorted tone of many of his contemporaries, and the scales he tended to prefer were more complicated than your basic blues pentatonic, made his playing less in vogue/relatable or at least odd sounding to much of the mainstream music fans unconditioned ears; And if you're not on board, the jams do seem often aimless/endless. But Jerry came from a background of bluegrass and jazz players that is evident in the way he plays *through* the chord changes. That's a particular skill that even advanced rock and blues players may not be able to do - most soloists in rock/pop music keep pretty close to the pentatonic scale which just sounds great over any chord in the key. But Jerry's playing always highlighted each chord as it went by. Anyone who plays guitar, go and deconstruct some Jerry Garcia solos and you'll have new appreciation for exactly what he was doing and how he was relating to the rest of the tune. He was still improvising but its on complete different level.
I agree with all of this. I can't remember where I read the quote, but Garcia said once in an interview that he's willing to risk a few wrong notes in order to hit the right notes and find something new and exciting. As someone who loves musical improv, I can get behind that. I don't mind digging through some rough patches to find the gems in a particular Dead show.
Hmm, interesting view you have,pretty sound evaluation I would say.
It's good to read something by an educated musician; it helps explain why Jerry's music is perpetually intriguing. Thank you!
Sß
Patrick Bateman?
kudos also to the band, especially Weir’s underrated rhythm guitar virtuosity, for laying down great musical foundations for Garcia to let fly.
Truth be told. Weir is NEVER on any "top guitarists" lists that I have seen.. besides a few of my friends on Facebook just posting their own little lists - I mean like from websites or magazines, and that's a shame. He's improving his guitar skills nowadays but he's particularly mastering his vocal range, which has become quite broad.
Weir was the perfect counterpoint to Garcia's playing style. I was watching a video about rhythm guitar once and the guy summed it up as (paraphrasing here), "If it's good, you don't even notice it. It's when it's missing that it stands out" ... As unique as Weir's style was, it complimented Garcia's so well that it's sometimes harder to pick it out. That lack of rhythm guitar is, I think, what helped create the spacious, wide-open sound that JGB embodied.
sure the rest of the band were awesome but Jerry was the Guru
@@ReedRosson1987 Blue Mountain is one of his best albums and he was like 70 when he recorded it. Bobby is just a hell of a musician and songwriter.
Always one of my very favorite moments in a Dead show is Weir's spot in the transition of China/Rider. Rock guitarists largely don't have his vocabulary of chord phrasing
Garcia was an innovator, and anyone who knew him personally will tell you that he practiced CONSTANTLY, young or old. GD in concert played "Without A Net", and they had no fear of the occasional Fall. That's one of the reasons their fans loved them so much (not just the Deadheads, who obsessively followed them): When you attended, you knew they were going to give you their All, sick or well, tired or not. And they probably gave more free concerts, than any other (known) band in history.
Any decent musician can listen to Jerry and recognize how advanced his guitar playing was. He's leads were endlessly melodic and he would play to the individual chord of a progression much like a lot of jazz folks do.
@@morganghetti amen
Well said Richard.
I guess the practicing never paid off 😂
He stopped living with his guitar around his neck in the early 80s & really didn’t practice nearly as much after that.
The whole 'aimlessly noodles' take usually comes from someone who hasn't really listened to the music, or heard the phrase from someone else. There's plenty of Jerry solos that are based around the melody of the tune, pretty far from noodling to just play the melody. As far as jams go, you can usually find some level of group interaction, or an overall trajectory or arc of the energy of a jam - far cry from aimless.
I'd say Doc brown is bang on. Anyone that says the phrase "aimless noodling" is probably not a musician or doesnt really get what the grateful dead were about or just straight up hasn't even listened, I've never heard another guitarist be able to dance around the melodies and chord tones like this man, even when hes out of his mind he can still navigate the guitar purely improvising and keeping it fresh everytime and most importantly following the chord tones which makes it the polar opposite of aimless noodling, he always sticks to the chord tones and has his magic little deviations that people still cant figure out now. It's like when people say all reggae sounds the same, yes, it does if you are simple folk. I love the unsanitized unpredictability that "aimless noodling" brings, like someone said, it's just creating chances and possibilities when you live in the moment and noodle.
Jerry Garcia could solo over the simplest chord progression of a song that everybody knows for the millionth time and still make it captivating, ambitious, and unique … in one take, mind you. The voice of his instrument is soulful, immediately recognizable, and cannot be replicated. He’s obviously one of the most talented and innovative guitar players of all time.
That opening noodling example comes from my favorite '72 Dark Star. I can give examples of noodling, but this avant garde section of Dark Star is a vital section of a piece of art.
Thank you, friend. I found that very saddening, myself.
@@owlytimbre9103 I'm curious. What exactly did you find saddening?
@@InService77 He used it as an example of aimless noodling. Sure maybe when taken out of context of the rest of the piece of music. Lol.
Yup.
yeah, i was gonna say, "playing into the LSD influenced stratosphere" sounds about right, but there's nothing aimless about it. That shit is deliberate and expressive playing. I appreciate the effort in trying to battle the common crit of aimless noodling, but trying to validate Jerry's worth through his rock'n'roll chops is almost diminishing given how creative and involved his more free and experimental work was
About a year ago John Mayer, someone who is extremely respected by other guitar players for his bluesy but virtuosic playing, was asked how he felt about Garcias playing and his response was, "Jerry was so incredible that I had to become a much better player to even be able to appreciate what it is that he did." Basically, that it takes an incredibly talented musician to even begin to fathom what Garcia was able accomplish. He was able to write entire novels with his phrasing, setting motifs and stories within solos. Jerry Garcias playing will be studied for millennia.
Im not the biggest fan of john i do like music and appreciate his guitar work both electric and acoustic. But i get what hes saying.. he definitely had to expand his knowledge to play on jerrys level
@@herbythechef7624 I agree, I'm not the biggest Mayer fan (his playing can be great but I think pretty much everything he's done solo or with his trio is pretty hollow), I only mentioned him, specifically, because he's who the 'Core Four' have chosen to play with. Well, that and I think the quote is great, as well as accurate. It takes a Jedi to really understand a Jedi 🤣 and Mayers definitely no Jedi but knew he had to get closer to one before being able to fully appreciate JG.
I couldn't stand Mayer.... then I saw him stand in Jerry's shoes like so many have tried and ran like a wolf. He's definitely a player and he's slowly shedding his ego, we might be in the presence of one of the greatest.
@@dingusfuzzklonnkt2755 I hated John Mayer 15 years ago when I was a young punk and now I understand his greatness, granted I have never understood appeal of the dead, but If I can understand mayer finally, maybe one day.
Source? I must use this quote!
My favorite example of Jerry's melodic chops are his two solos on Eyes of the World on 8/6/74, especially the second solo. Also his firs Scarlet Begonias solo on 5/17/77 is a personal fav.
I've listened to that Eyes literally hundreds of times. Both solos are absolutely insane; something just came together for him on that night.
This one is really tight. It’s one of his cleanest solos in my opinion. It’s so good though.
That's It for the Other One: Cryptical Envelopment / Quadlibet for Tender Feet / The Faster We Go the Rounder We Get (Live at Shrine Auritorium, August 23-24,1968) · Grateful Dead
@@jimdarhower4945 '68 and '69 shows are really interesting. You can hear them pushing and pulling in all the directions they would eventually go, but the overall vibe is still very gritty and bluesy. I like shows from those years a lot.
Or just about any ramble on rose from spring 90 especially with his midi effects
5/17/77 is a barn burner!!!
The music of the Dead is timeless. There are likely more Grateful Dead cover bands playing today than at any time in history. An entire generation of young people are keeping that spirit alive to this day.
Nah they suck
@@4touchdowns1game29You'll get it one day, don't worry
@@4touchdowns1game29from someone who’s never listened to them
@@4touchdowns1game29 To complex for you to understand. Stick with your rap music it should be simple enough for you.
@@rickyccayenne4790 actually rap sucks ass just as bad as this. I actually listen to all kinds of music and play multiple instruments. Grateful Dead is rock elevator music.
I met Jerry backstage at the Uptown in the late seventies. He was gracious, kind and very thoughtful. Luckily I attended the last show at Soldier Field.
He is missed, loved and forever in the musical consciousness of the universe.
Jam on uncle Jerry.
Our garage band took guitar lessons from him at Dana Morgan’s in Palo Alto.
He taught a lot early Stones’ licks. Saw them the first time they headlined the Fillmore in September ‘66.
He died when I was a year old so sadly I’ll never see him play unless VR gets really good but it still wouldn’t be the same to me
He was a great player, innovator, and fusion of styles. But if you saw them live, sometimes you saw someone who was blasted out of his mind noodling around aimlessly. He’s not the only amazing guitarist I’ve seen on stage who just had a shitty night because they were blitzed. It happens but doesn’t define them.
Jerry was a true musician, and original, an experimenter. I love his playing.
Thank you, I have always maintained that he was an extremely deliberate improviser.
I still enjoy listening to Jerry as much as I did 30 years ago. Timeless.
Great, great, great video my friend. I been playing nearly 40 years, 30 of them professionally. So I believe I can speak on the subject, lol. I absolutely, positively do not care for the Grateful Dead in any way whatsoever. Not a Garcia fan in the least. But God damn, that guy was an incredible guitar player on every level. I think people often mistake 'noodling' for being fearless. He just flowed. He was special. And remember, I don't even enjoy listening to him. I just know he's beyond legit
Listen to him play banjo with "Old and In The Way". Quite skillful.
I was part of an O&ITW cover band that did a bunch of their stuff and a good bit of Dead - ruclips.net/video/A5RgCxOWzb0/видео.html - Love Garcia's banjo playing. You can hear echoes of it in a lot of the jamming he does in the '68-'70 shows, but it's such a regimented type of playing that I can see how he felt the urge to pick up a guitar and keep creating/pushing.
I really got into Garcia via bluegrass and my love of Tony Rice. The Pizza Tapes with Rice and Grisman opened my eyes to Garcia being more than a whacked out psychedelic rock noodler. Always figured he must have been more than that given how many top level musicians rated him, just hadn't heard it myself until then. Now I really appreciate the Dead, and love to try to jam along with their recordings on guitar :)
In a Rolling Stone video interview on RUclips (that's really irritatingly edited), Jerry said he spent 5 years playing just banjo back in his teens gigging with bluegrass bands. Also has a great banjo track on Glendale Train from the first New Riders album (which also has his pedal steel work on every track the whole album through).
Jerry played electric guitar as if it were a banjo
Yes he should have stuck to banjo and blue grass
I can think of hundreds of even more impressive solos than the one you cited. Jerry was an unmatched virtuoso on the guitar.
His guitar work in Russian lullaby ( Irving Berlin ) Outstanding. Also Europe 72 on Morning dew. Very well done dynamically and melodically. Great at pedal steel too.
Jerry's playing noodling or full power jamming was so powerful from the gracefulness. Yes he was technique proficient , however his songs for the most part a far eaiser to learn the Wier's. I think Weir was trying to compensate by using odd chords and changes but then he actually morphed as did Jerry when Brent entered. The space was far more saturated, Jerry solos had a full backing and meaning he could drop out of and rejoin with harmonics matched to Weirs later style splinting extended chord's and resonating 2nd and 3rd harmonics.
There's not nearly enough exploration of Weir's rhythm style and how he and Garcia weaved around one another.
@@patrickvarine8476 I agree: I'm not tuned in anywhere near enough to Weir's playing.
1974 Boston Garden. Weather Report Suite though US Blues. At one point the jam is just Jerry and Bobby. No one else. It's amazing.
"People joining hand in hand while the music plays the band..." Jerry was himself an instrument being played while he played. The whole band was. I love the Dead.
To add, when you're improvising every moment of a solo, "aimlessness" at some moment is sort of inevitable. Fans of Jazz know this very well.
I'm sorry but that just isn't the case. A good jazz player is never wandering haplessly. That's why we study, and spend thousands of hours practicing, so much theory on our instrument--to not end up doing that.
@@ADFerrizzi As a professional jazz guitarist. I'm sorry but that is just your opinion man...
@@ADFerrizzi as an amateur trumpet player who studied jazz somewhat seriously I agree with you 100%
@@alistairdunnington it is absolutely my opinion but it is also something I think most jazz musicians agree with. (This is also an opinion.)
@@ADFerrizzi uhhhh play 200 four+hour shows every year with different sets every time for 30 years.... you’re gonna have some random chaotic moments that are, by definition, “aimless” - but the pro will make meaning out of the randomness & find direction from what was directionless
Honestly, I never listened to the dead much because what few things I heard was a bunch of noodling so I never listened after that. I'm going to go back and listen further after hearing your examples. I really liked what they were playing in your examples. Thanks for changing my mind!
Listen to the Europe 72' Live album. As a guitar player it's one of my favorites. If you prefer a Studio Album, try Workingman's dead, Everyone has their personal fav's. but as a guitar player those won't let you down. Of course, Headphones On, Dark room with some candle light, incense and you're own personal choice of enhancement. Weed is a good start, but it's intended to sound better with shrooms or LCD. but it's hard to find time for that these days as an adult. So some weed should be fine. But at least some headphones in an undesperd environment.
@@TangoNevada I will definitely check those out! I'm not much for LCD or shrooms but some herbal delight sounds good. I have some great studio speakers and a good treated room I will enjoy the tunes with. Thanks for putting me in the right direction!
Kudos to you for having an open mind! The Dead did tons of improvisionational playing so inevitably a lot of it will come off as what some refer to as "aimless noodling". Other times however something incredibly beautiful and spontaneous will result. Check out the Dark Star from 4/8/72 at the Wembley Empire Pool in London England. My personal favorite.
@@vitis65 I sure will! Many thanks!
@@fiddlefolk No problem. As mentioned, as an adult it's hard to find time for shrooms or LCD or even the interest. But I am sure many of us would love to hear your review of listening to some Grateful Dead under the conditions mentioned. I have rarely heard negative responses. But either way, I hope you enjoy.
Jerry was one of the best improvisational guitarists ever, and always served the song
True. You can pick the song Jerry was improvising over quickly. Not many other musicians had that skill.
To not say that Jerry Garcia was the greatest improvisationalist is to not know his music. I think that he was far and above the greatest musician that ever lived. For those of us who went from city to city to see the Dead, we understood it and realized it.
Love Jerry Garcia forever..
@@jessesnyder5426 Amazing musician but not the greatest improvisor of all time, I'd argue it would have to be someone like Coltrane or someone else in the Jazz sphere
@@danieldennis7508 You are talking to the wrong guy. No one comes close to Garcia. If you don't know, then you don't know.
My thing with Jerry is that to my gut, he didn’t so much “play” notes, as release them into the song. Even when he’s pushing, the notes never seem to have forced emotional content. For me, he’s a grand master. Not sure a player today could even have all the experience Jerry lays in every phrase.
That is really well said!
For real I love all the new kinds of Dead “cover “ bands now a days but no one can do what Jerry did
There's a limber quality to his guitar playing, where you can always tell it's him. Someone else commented that there aren't many people you can identify when they're playing pedal steel guitar, and his musical personality was strong enough that you could absolutely tell when he's on a New Riders recording.
@@patrickvarine8476 I'd say I can identify Jerry more readily than any other guitarist except for maybe Hendrix. His pedal steel was absolutely unique: nobody sounded like him. Too bad he couldn't have cloned himself and kept going on steel!
@@commontater8630 Hendrix’s dobro and weissenborn work are both unparalleled. Detroit ‘66 was overtly iconic..
New Potato Caboose from the Anthem of the Sun album, and Dark Star from their first Live Dead album are examples of Garcia's glorious and tight guitar playing. So powerful it changed my life, a glimpse of the pure realms. :)
I can't get enough New Potato Caboose, what a fantastic song.
CAGED system, chord tones, country licks, chromatics and a lil gypsy jazz= jerry garcia
This minglewood sucks btw I know of several smoking hot ones prolly Jerry's best playing
I'm almost 34, have been playing guitar since I was about 13. have been playing seriously and gigging since I was 20. I've been a big jam band/Phish guy for over a decade now, and have always liked the Dead... BUT, it wasn't until 2021 that the gloriousness of Garcia's playing was finally revealed to me. Not just as a soloist, but as a composer, improvisor, and singer. I spent all of last year listening to pretty much nothing but Dead/JGB, and honestly the kick is just now beginning to die down a bit. but yes - it is abundantly clear to me that Jerry was a master guitar player, and a sublime improvisor.
Go see Mayer and Weir Mayer has some of the best blues guitar playing of this generation close to all time
Yeah Jerry is like a family member he’s so sweet! I got a good Buddy you might like , he plays a little guitar, Billy Strings? Yeah he’s ok I guess? lol
Jerry was an avid student & teacher of guitar. He endlessly explored chords & voicings blending elements of bluegrass. And he was an excellent bluegrass player. Jerry Garcia was a great vocalist, composer and writer of lyrics . Ask just about anyone to name 3 grateful dead songs. They probably can't.
I like that you brought up Jerry as a great composer and writer of lyrics, and I totally agree. But a funny thing is that I saw an interview with him where he said that he'd "rather fill in all the o's in a phone book than write a song". I guess that's where Robert Hunter comes in.
@A If you cant list 3 songs, you've not listened to them, therefore your opinion matters little. Listen to Hell In A Bucket. That's a good fun song to dip your toes into.
@A definitely a brainless sheep, make sure to get the next v a x
Robert Hunter was his lyricist. Jerry did collaborate with Hunter on lyrics, but the lyrics are mainly Robert Hunter, a great poet.
Jerry had a style of playing which (I believe) made it more interesting for him personally and creatively… each solo was a brand new version
. Sometimes it wouldn’t work as well as others, but when it was good it was better than anything else out there.. (I believe) 😎
He covered Dylan well. His version of 'Senor' is incredible.
I think of it as definitive, and I'm a huge Dylan fan.
It is. The Willie Nelson/calexico version gets me in the feels too.
His solo on 'It's All Over Now Baby Blue' always blows mind my mind when I hear it
Yeah, the version of Senior on the Jerry Garcia band album is stunning. I love that whole album. Jerry's playing and singing at the top of his game for the whole thing.
This "Tangled Up In Blue" is my favorite Garcia playing Dylan although there are PLENTY of beautiful examples. ruclips.net/video/dxEsBAPleRY/видео.html
I’ve come to the recent conclusion after being a deadhead for nearly 30 yrs and learning to play guitar over the last 5. I finally believe Jerry was a better guitarist than page. I would still say page was a better song writer, better hooks for a broader appeal, tighter, and Plants vocal gymnastics and approach helped. BUT Jerry had more to offer, created much more complicated music, played with more creativity and exploration and exposure.
I don't think it's all that important to compare two guitarists as different as Jerry and Jimmy Page. Their influences and styles were so radically different it's apples and oranges. To be honest, I'm not really much of a Zepellin fan, but Jimmy Page was clearly an excellent blues/rock guitarist. Jerry was much more influenced by bluegrass than he was the blues, which is why he tends more toward long eigth note or triplet runs with lots of chromatics, whereas Jimmy Page would play with a lot more expressive bends. I'm not saying one style is better than the other, but I will admit that I have a preference. I think zooming out, blues/rock guitarists are a dime a dozen, so to my ear it's just a lot more interesting hearing an improviser on guitar that doesn't play the same blues licks as every other guitarist.
@@joshrocha2500 nothing important ever happens in the RUclips comment section.
Yeah right! I've been a huge fan of led zeppelin, jimi Hendrix, the doors pink floyd some real giants, only found out about the grateful dead a few years ago and theres no doubt in my mind, they are the greatest band in history, they have to be, even if you don't like the music, they are the only band that did what they did, and the music is absolutely sublime for the right people
Also, another best-of-all-time examples is the end solo in Althea from Go to Nassau 1980 (my, by far, personal favorite Althea). Its red hot. Also is the ending solo in Morning Dew from 5/8/77 at Cornell. Its a big time scorcher.
"Althea" is one of those tunes where the jam starts to get real deep before you even realize it.
Dude practiced constantly, his whole life. I often hear his changes as being a few beats ahead of the rest of the band, he knew the forms that well. His harmonies are always deep and fascinating, too. Some people just don't listen.
/ He doesn't telegraph anything in advance... some of the coolest stuff he does is totally stealthy and often quiet.
@@Andrew_M_Ward absolutely, the surprises that he lived for were found therein.
I love that if you listen to a non-space jam, you can almost always tell where in the melody he is. He can "investigate" a melody better than anyone I know of, at least in a "rock" context.
@@daveguitarnowski4402 yeah, he turned melody upside down and backwards.
@@shovedhead exactly!
I would also suggest Jerry's playing on Greatest Story Ever Told from May 7th 1972. Absolutely rips on this track, and none of it is meaningless noodling.
'72, '76 and '77 are my personal banner years.
Where do you find quality recordings from all of these dates?
Asking for a friend.
Jerry always put the right notes in the right place at the right time.
“More or less in line”… 😉😁✌️
Jerry could put the “wrong notes” if there is such a thing, in the right place. He went for it every night, that’s what matters
I adore Garcia, but surely even he would not agree with the notion that he "always" put the right notes in the right place at the right time. Yes, "more or less in line" is more like it.
He had that tension of just BARELY getting them on the beat in time, and it was not an accident. Vassar Clements talked about it in when they played together in "Old in the the Way" & how when he first started jamming with Jerry it was kind of unnerving, and he says he really didn't know who Jerry or the Dead were (since he came out of the bluegrass/new-grass/swing scene) and kind of thought it might have been a mistake getting involved, lol. This would have been when Jerry was on banjo, of course, and he'd even do it playing Scuggs-style rolls.
He had moments where he just straight up was out of time, I think all musicians do if you play enough shows, but doing it for 30+ years essentially never taking a break unless he was hospitalized, yeah, you'll have some off-nights. Especially when you're strung-out on coke & heroin.
@@beezyflippins He thought of himself as "not very good" on guitar, especially acoustic. And he wasn't the best guitar player to ever live by a long shot, he knew it, we all knew it. But I don't think I've heard another player that can emote with a guitar (or voice...) better than Jerry. Never been another player like him that I've ever heard. He's still my favorite musician, even though there are much better technical players. Anyway...
There was a show in the 90's, it was Jerry, Bela Fleck, David Grisman (pretty sure that was the main line-up... I'll dig and try to find and & update. Pretty sure it was a Grisman/Garcia show) where they all played together on "Eat my Dust" as an encore. It was kind of painful... Not that he wasn't getting some really good lines down, but EMD is really a technical showpiece piece to do at high bpm, and he's on stage taking turns soloing with two of the best instrumentalist's to ever touch their respective instrument... He some how pulled it off, but he was out of his league, lol.
Just found it: 08-25-1991 Grisman/Garcia. There's a few versions of the full show on YT (might still be on Live Music Archive... that's where I got it ~20yr ago, lol) but it's the 2nd to last song, "Eat My Dust". Fantastic, and Jerry does a pretty good job on rhythm, but kind of bows out early during the solo. It had to be intimidating, haha. He did better than I remember though, and man am I glad I dug this up as I haven't listened to this set in well over a decade. Good stuff
I think it's stupid to compare high-level musicians, as if music was some kind of Olympics. I love Jerry's playing because it almost never felt formulaic and because it was grounded in the very inventive music that he himself wrote to Hunter's amazing lyrics. It can't really be separated from the organic whole that was The Dead, made up of a group of musical minds & hearts breathing together, listening to something that was beyond any one of them but that flowed through all of them at the same time. Music is infinite and The Dead had the discipline & commitment to stay open to that.
"I think it's stupid to compare high-level musicians, as if music was some kind of Olympics." ... I wish it were possible to give multiple thumbs up, because I'd give this about ten of em.
Absolutely Love it. Can't ignore that rhythm section either. That was tight.
That's a big part of what makes this particular solo so special to me. The general rhythm pattern for the song is several bars of straight-ahead backbeat, with turnaround bars that hit on 1 and the downbeat of 2. And Garcia locks right into that. People have [rightfully] pointed out that there are better versions of this song, but I really like the "funky Cadillac in space" vibe that this version has.
I think you have to like country guitar playing to like this
One of my favorite solos that really exemplified direction in his playing, is in the Europe 72 Tennessee Jed. Brilliant.
The whole of "Europe '72" is pretty amazing. It's got my favorite of all the "China Cat > Rider" pairings, from the 5/3/72 Paris show. And the "Morning Dews" from that era will make me misty-eyed every time.
Couldn't agree more! It builds and builds and then drops you right back in the groove.
@@patrickvarine8476 I always use the EU '72 China Cat > IKYR to introduce newbs to the Dead's live magic. I know they overdubbed some of the vocals later in the studio but who cares -- it's magic!
Me too! That "China Cat" is the perfect example of how you can have practically every instrument playing a "solo" line and still, somehow, everything meshes together.
@@patrickvarine8476 I must have listened to it a thousand times, and the transition between the two songs still astounds me. I know they had been playing this segue for three years at that point (they'd debuted the pairing in 69) but it's smooth as silk and not a note wasted. Plus, I've always felt that with only Billy on drums, the GD were more nimble.
My favorite guitar solo is on touch of grey..it’s super melodic, and down right GENIUS
Bob Weir is the true underrated genius. Try learning his parts - fun to play, hard to remember!
Jerry, after all, did teach Bobby the guitar. But I agree with you. He has a style all on his own as well, nothing like Garcia's but very complimentary to Garcia. He's NEVER on any guitar player lists and that's crappy! underrated, indeed.
Ha! Gonna use this to shut up the dullards who shit on Jerry’s brilliance as a guitarist, thanks buddy what a concise rebuttal to those poor fools who never got it.
Jerry/GD music is a bit beyond some folks, but if they can't have a little humility and imagine there are things that they don't know -- well, that's what makes them dullards.
Never get sick of Jerry. That funky and country style he played in the late 70's...."DynoMIte"
Garcia always had an aim .. somewhere new .
Sometimes Jerry could send it right down the line, right through the pipe, where modern would connect to ancient. Right on, Jerry. Cheers.
Even that first example was pretty cool for what it was. Textural, atmospheric, psychedelic. Using the guitar as an instrument of overall broader sound not just confined to melody.
A dynamic and complex musician . He could do it all .
Jerry is probably the most underrated guitar player ever. Yes, he noodles at times but when he's on, he's hard to touch. He may be the most emotional player ever. Change the mood of 100k people with just a few notes. The doubters should listen to his solo stuff where the music takes precedence over the party. Senor, positively 4th street, gomorrah, harder they come, and on and on
He did noodle around sometimes, but he was definitely capable of more, as your clip shows.
Keith Richards knows a little about guitar. I trust his judgment
Europe 1972 Tennessee Jed. Goes through key changes and it builds and Builds.
The versions of Mexicali blues, beat it on down the line, and eyes of the world from the show on 9/11/74 in England are perfect examples of Jerry being at the top of his game.
"Mexicali Blues" is a WILD song. I really wanna cover it with my bluegrass band, but DAMN, it's got a lot of chord changes, even for a Dead tune!
Me and Bobby McGee 7-19-74, one of the most brilliant solos I've heard a rock guitarist play. The way he plays around the melody and through the changes...
i've heard everything from 'he could only play in the key of c' , to " bruce hornsby was the only good member" , mainly from straight laced uptight folks with a tendency to prejudge the band by looking at their audience , and then doubling down when you prove then wrong, agsin and again and again ...
Grateful Dead is my religion and does not require a defense.
Even at 16 minutes into dark star, thats not noodling. Thats just playing Dark Star the way EVERYONE wanted to hear it!!
Not only was Jerry an outstanding guitar player but he was an overall outstanding musician in general. The guy spent his entire career constantly reinventing himself and he could play almost every genre of music with the best them. Many times right alongside the best of them!
He was also a great filmmaker and visual artist. Not a bad painter/sketch either! And I have a 30+ collection of his art-inspired, silk J.Garcia ties.
@@ReedRosson1987 Yes, and he was also an avid scuba diver as well!
@@biblebear6795 That's right! I love the video of him diving and observing the reefs and whatnot. Such neat footage!
LOL
this video seems almost like a joke, and the comment section is just a bunch of dead heads indulging in superlative exaggeration of what an incredible genius Jerry Garcia was on guitar.
keep on believing
I preferred the opening noodle. Was more playful and free and exploratory.
That’s because you’re on drugs…
I like chicken.
Elliott Randall, guitarist best know for Steely Dan's Reelin In The Years, comes to mind when talking about Garcia's influence.
One of the best and most unique guitarists ever!
Lol Jerry is an amazing guitar player, you don't have to be technical, to sound amazing, actually sometimes it's opposite, there more soul in the sound when you just let go. Some of the greatest riffs come from noodling.
Excellent example! Great “noodling”!
My favorite Jerry lead is Not Fade Away from Dick's Picks IV.....brilliant!!
I'll never forget the comment the judge made to the bassist in his ex-wife's court case to inherit his estate...
"...You mean to say that... 'the last thirty years have been one big smoky haze?' " to quote his each and every word back to him. Too hilarious 🤣🤣🤣
When I ask people if they like the Dead, Zappa or even Phish most reply with the same BS oh they noodle too much.. meaning they can't handle the JAM!
Anyone who says that he aimlessly noodled knows diddly squat about music theory.
Nice choice, I would have maybe gone with any of about 50 different solos from Peggy-O, from the late 70’s up through 90. Jerry would start by playing a straight melody and then he would explore the highs & lows of the melody, each time making it very different from the time before. Legendary.
4-16-78 is still the best I've heard, but there are many good ones, even into 94.
Jerry can totally burn 🔥🔥🔥… so underrated
Sometimes it's ok to say you don't get someone's music or it's just not for you. Never understood the need to bash someone who is clearly really good at what they do. I'm not even a huge Jerry Garcia fan but the man could play with the best of them.
There's people who think the Dead are overrated, and there's people who've actually listened to the music
I can admit that there are a lot of rough patches in the Dead's live compendium, particularly between about '83 and '86. There are some bad shows in there. I agree that paying close attention to the music can reward even their clunky moments, because you can usually sense what they were attempting to do. As a musician who loves improv, I respect that attempt and that willingness to work without a net. Sometimes it didn't work out, but other times it created real musical magic.
@@patrickvarine8476 there were some great one's in there also. As bad of shape as he was in there's some scorching shows from 83 to 85. Some of his best guitar work IMO
@@wolfsvision940 There's definitely great ones in there. For me, part of it is personal preference. I really like the more-organic sound the band has during the '70s, with grand piano and a lot less MIDI stuff in the percussion section. I don't fault them at all for staying on the cutting edge of music technology - that was always their M.O. - but it's just not my favorite "sound era" of the band.
@@patrickvarine8476 yo bro your so right. I'm more of a 60s/ early 70s head but the late 80s also really cool
Jerry Singing and playing China Doll 3 30 1990 was amazing too :) So many amazing performances :) I remember being on the floor in the taper section during this China Doll and it was like being in heaven on earth. During the opener Help on the way into Slipknot that same show every member of the band had dread locks. I kept looking and they all had dread locks It was a supernatural event. Amazing musicians 110%
Help/Slip/Frank
Anyone who was there would never use the phrase 'aimless noodling'. That would be akin to saying Monet was doing paint by numbers.
i love his solos in eyes of the world
I'm thinking your notion of "the stratosphere" and mine are different. That's nice playing, but for me it is far from stratospheric.
I've always thought jerry was one of the most melodic players there ever was. At hid best at least.
Jerry shits on most guitar players for the simple fact that no one fully replicates his playing, soul & energy. He’s in a league of his own!
he had a smoothness, a fluidity all his own, like he didn't want to overpower the rest of the band but flitter like a spirit through the song
Smoothness?? More jerky disconnected...
It is also easier to imitate say Jimmy page , Gilmore or Iommi than Jerry Garcia just in the tone alone . Never mind the Garcia brained riffing . Not a huge dead fan but it’s obvious the touch on guitar is extremely awkward and unconventional .
The Dead had an orchestral quality to their music. Band beyond description!
All you have to do is listen to the steel parts on Teach Your Children to know Jerry was a master musician.
I Love Jerry’s noodling! He knew exactly what he was doing
Jerry’s noodles were perfectly cooked! Al dente baby!
Check out the solo on Harder They Come 1978 m.ruclips.net/video/TZsMmTFqSwI/видео.html Or Johnny B Goode the album version is another good example of classic rock and roll guitar proficiency (and some, I would say).
Or Mama Tried. Or Devil Don’t Have No Mercy
Jerry Garcia is sooooo underated. His talent and the whole bands talents are over the top. He is missed
I thought I had mono for the last year. It turns out I was just listening to 30 seconds of a Grateful Dead song.
You can lead a man to gold, but you cannot make him drink forth..
Those who know Jerry, know the next level brilliance he was bringing through to this plane from the outer spheres. The one and only Captain Trips
Well said. Stereotypes form when people don't spend the time to fully understand and explore the the full nature of what is being judged. Those of us who truly explored Jerry Garcia as a musician know just how masterfully skilled and diverse he was as a guitarist and composer. His willingness to experiment and fail is exactly what allowed him to reach the highest levels of technical skill and proficiency you point out in this solo. Patience is what is necessary to truly appreciate just how great a guitarist Jerry Garcia was. There are so many examples of this on RUclips if you take the time and have the patience to seek them out.
Jerry Garcia is not just my favorite musician, he's my favorite person in "pop culture." His music basically saved my life. I've read/listened to every interview there is, and more pop up all the time on RUclips, etc. He had insane chops on basically any instrument with a string, but obviously he was best at both acoustic and electric guitar, and banjo. He was also a great intellectual, filmmaker, and visual artist. Not a bad painter/sketcher and he did some cool stuff on computers. (I have a 30+ collection of his art-inspired, silk J.Garcia ties.) Actually quite an underrated vocalist in his early years. Furthermore, I can't stand people who dismiss Garcia and the Dead for any reason, and there are many, unfortunately. Luckily I have a tendency to "convert" (haha) or really rather change the minds of a lot of folks who don't realize the talent of Jerry. His side projects like Legion of Mary, Jerry Garcia Band, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Old and in the Way, Reconstruction, etc. are even better depending on the mood! I say thanks to Facebook I have turned on at least a hundred people. These people just have to hear the right show, or era. There are lots of would-be Deadheads (and will-be Deadheads) or at least appreciators out there waiting to be born. The man had more talent and skill in the missing middle finger of his right hand than a lot of his contemporaries. I never got to see him live but I would give most anything to have been at even the so-called "worst show." After all, there are only around 4,000 recorded shows to choose from! Thanks so much for posting this!
The Dead are top-tier musicians. Anyone with a clue knows this. Garcia is an INCREDIBLE guitarist. No debate.
@@BeatlesCentricUniverse Amen!
@Reed Rosson I saw the Dead in Atlanta at the Fox Theater 11/30/1980!
@@BeatlesCentricUniverse Lucky! Oh man 1980 was a FANTASTIC year for the Dead I thought and also really wonderful for the JGB. Unfortunately I was too young to see Jerry live. I was about eight years old when he died and my folks weren't Heads so, no luck there. I'll take what I can get though. I've been fortunate enough to have caught all kinds of post-Jerry projects since Bonnaroo 2004 (where I saw Bob Dylan, and Steve Winwood, and SW even sat in with The Dead.) I haven't been the same since... I was also at the FTW shows. Here in Nashville we have a really cool JG/GD tribute band, my friends The Stolen Faces. I am not usually too big on tribute groups of other bands, but they are awesome, and I have seen many good Dead ones. I recommended the Stolen Faces. DSO and JRAD I am a big fan of as well. I think Joe Russo's Almost Dead is probably the most exciting one, bringing a more prog-rock flavor to their songs. Cheers, brother!
If you're not a head, you're behind.
Another great example to point to us every time he joined (led) the live transitions from China Cat Sunflower into I Know You Rider.
must be tough to try to cheerlead for Jerry..." hey guys he's actually really good "
i was really hoping you were just gonna play the first sound clip again....
U kinda have to be on acid to even experience his music to how it’s intended to be heard so, it’s even more genius
It's called improvisation flying by the seat of your pants these are the people who found and created new sounds and styles. Most musicians want to sound like someone else and play someone else's licks. Thank God for the musicians who step outside the box music is only limited by the imagination of the person playing it thanx to Jerry Garcia and all who love to improvise remembering Jimmy Hendrix was a master of improvisation one of the reasons he became recognised as the greatest guitarist of all time.
Add me to those who would accuse him of just noodling.
If what I just heard is representative of his playing then I stand corrected! That was some fine playing
The frustrating thing for me when trying to get people into their music is that it really can be hit-and-miss. If someone just searches "grateful dead" here on RUclips, there's a very real possibility that it turns up a show where they were having an off-night, or a show when Garcia was just wrecked on hard drugs. And some of those are pretty bad. But if you listen to tunes like "Mr. Charlie" from the 1972 shows, you hear a band that can lock in on tight blues and R&B. If you listen to "Bird Song" from that same year, it's a totally different sound, floating peacefully off and occasionally cranking up in the middle of a jam. The "China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider" from Paris 1972 is really everything I love about the band: wavy psychedelics with a backbeat to start out, then gradually ramping up into full-on straight-ahead rock when they kick into "I Know You Rider."
“Deal” would be another good example to support your position!
I’ve seen enough Dead shows to know Jerry’s packin heat.