Jerry Garcia Was A Force Of Nature -Kenny Vaughan
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- Kenny Vaughan talks about seeing The Grateful Dead in 1968-72 and the greatness of Jerry Garcia.
/ otisgibbs
Tip jar for anyone who wants to help support this channel.
paypal.me/otis....
www.venmo.com/OtisGibbs
Paypal: @otisgibbs
Venmo: @OtisGibbs
otisgibbs.com/....
Listen to me on Spotify
open.spotify.c....
Download my music on Bandcamp
otisgibbs.band....
/ otisgibbs. .
/ otisgibbsmus. .
/ otisgibbs.. .
.......
Jerry Garcia
The Grateful Dead
Kenny Vaughan
I think this is the video Kenny was talking about. it's pretty dang great.
ruclips.net/video/gpJUZn_G6og/видео.html
I believe that the Dead were totally opposed to that documentary being filmed and more or less deliberately sabotaged it. So some of the "off" comments may not be just because of the acid, etc.... but also just trying to irritate the interviewers.
About Jerry’s Twins, I’m pretty sure the tweaking that Kenny was in question of was that they kept his silverface twins’ preamp circuits and used that in combination with McIntosh2300 solid state power amps. Not sure if that’s what Parish meant by “opening up” the twin, but (from what I’ve gathered) that’s what Jerry used almost exclusively live from the 70s on.
@@augustusbetucius2931 Jer used an MXR Dist+ from mid 70s - 80s for dirt. Re the Macs, he used them instead of the Twin’s power amps (more power and more dependable), usually running 3 or 4 12” JBLs with the impedance mismatched upward a notch or two on the Macs for a warmer, slightly clipped tone.
@@andoros.7017 Jerry's rig went through a lot of changes over the decades. At one point, he was using a Mesa/Boogie amp, in the mid 70's, but he switched back to the Twin preamp/MacIntosh power amp rig. And in the 90's I think he tried a couple other options.
@@augustusbetucius2931 As far as I know, Jerry never used a distortion pedal before 74. The Stratoblaster on Alligator was always on, he didn't have a way of bypassing it, the way that guitar was setup, but I'm not sure how cranked it was, as he didn't seem to use much distortion at all during that period.
Telling stories, playing guitar, I don't care; I could watch Kenny Vaughan all day!
YES!
Yeah I'm the same there's nothing like it, just sittin' around and talkin' guitars and amps, even at my age [I'm 70] there's always something new to learn.
Did you ever see Jerry Garcia live?
YeAaaH missed out on the 70s though
My favorite JG chans are Elaine Oliveras & Nognuisagoodgnu chans
@@susiefairfield7218 you got that right Susie
tons of dead shows and JGB shows. some of the best times of my life.
Yea Otis! JG!
Saw my first Dead show in 73. Wall of sound, great set list and way more than I ever expected in many ways. My favorite Dead era is the 70’s. I always thought Jerry used Bandmaster heads that were modified by Alembic. I never understood why he quit using his Wolfie guitar. I never liked the ones he started using in the 80’s. His tone seemed to get thinner over the years. I’ve seen him in various formats and bands over the years but his own band was really something to see. My wife and I followed them around until the mid 90’s and took our kids to the shows. There are things I really miss about those early days. It sure was a different time. Thanks for this video Otis. Good to know Cousin Kenny was a head.
Jerrys tone during the sg era and the twin amp prepared by owsley was unstoppable. The best sound in my opinion ever produced by an electric guitar by far
@James william yep, thats so true. thats why I bought myself a SG and haven't touched anything else since :D
It's definitely one of the best tones ever
Watching "Festival Express," he was more into jamming with everyone than any if the drinking or drugs. I wish that he was still here with us.
Otis, I’ve been waiting for this. I had the pleasure to see Jerry perform over 300 times from Northrop Auditorium in Minneapolis in 1971 to his last performance in Chicago in ‘95. I traveled back and forth across the country many times and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to experience the music. The friends I made, from the family like Doug Irwin, Bear and Eileen Law to the everyday Deadheads. I have a million stories from the road. I meet Natasha Muenter (Bobby’s now wife) at a show when she was very young. Later she was a kindergarten teacher here in Minneapolis and we hung out at the Ragtime Tavern, The Cromwell as well as several places on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. Jerry Garcia and Bear were the two most influential people in my life and I miss them both so much.
More stories
Tell a story! Any related to psychedelics? The most life altering moment during a show you saw? As a young Deadhead born after Jerry’s passing who is moved by the Dead’s music like no other I love hearing stories from people who got to see that magic live. I have had a lot of beautiful LSD-fueled fun seeing Dead & Company but it’s clearly not the same lol. An older head at D&C Citi Field last year told me she saw them with him around 300 times as well in the past few decades, and said she cried and left the venue at their first show without him after his death. But she was having a great time on mushrooms anyway which was great haha
please shower
I was at the "Hollywood " farm festival , near Newcastle in Staffordshire in the U .K. to see the Dead . 30,000 people there and only a handful seemed to really dig them .I couldn't believe how great they played and sounded . Mungo Jerry and Free stole the show for everybody else but me ! I remember Screaming Lord Sutch being embarrassingly bad with Ginger Baker's Airforce being not far behind .
Funny story about the Dead's "off" nights. When Welnick joined the band in the early '90's his first few shows were supposedly quite good. Then they played a show where no one seemed into it, the music was bad, and afterwards everyone was just in a lousy mood. Welnick was really concerned until a long-time roadie pulled him aside and said, "You gotta understand, some nights they're the best band on the planet, and some nights they're just horrible. That's just the way it is...don't blame yourself."
Since you mentioned Vince, I have a story too, just a few years after Jerry passed. Vince sat in for a few songs of a Dark Star Orchestra show at a bar in Chicago. Back then DSO primarily played at bars in Chicago, like 98. Vince seemed to be worn out and down. After his set he just looked really down on his luck for some reason. I think he too Jerry's passing and the end of the road really hard. Sad he took his own life a couple years later. I liked the guy during the Dead in 1991-92. After that they were done mostly.
Jerry wasn't just a great player he was usually a great and often funny interview as well. His story about eating the cake just prior to going on stage is hilarious. Ooops!
The one about playing for his life?
@@bertlindsay Yep that one.
Jerry was truly an unreal player and improviser. He never stopped getting better and just loved to play always no matter what or where. His jazz approach to their Americana roots rock and roll with Robert’s Hunter’s lyrics...there’s a reason why their influence is bigger than ever. Jerry is a true national treasure and should be respected as the musician he was!
'72 Europe. Jerry on the Strat. That's the best Garcia sound for me
That with the acoustic piano from Keith, and those great songs. Good ear, Ken. But we knew that.
That 1970 Grateful Dead film of them in England was funny, as Kenny mentions. I like the part where they are given an explanation of our Charlemagne era coinage- called the Carolingian Monetary System from the 8th century- a pan-European system at the time where there were 240 pennies to the pound, 12 pennies to a shilling and 20 shillings to the pound and only Britain, Ireland and Malta remained using it in 1970. In 1970, the last full year of that system, some of the new coins were already in circulation. This guy was explaining to them that a new 10p coin was the same as the two shilling coin and a 10 shilling note was the same as the new 50p coin, and you can see they weren't quite in the right frame of mind to take this all in! Very funny, all right.
Jerry seemed to be so authentic. Like Kenny and yourself Otis. The Dead were a force of nature either amazing or just so so. But they were always in the moment. Saw the Grateful Dead many times. Thanks as always Otis. Appreciate it.
Yeah saw the Deadif thatcounts
Kenny's great, and a monster player on his own. The new album "Way Out West" by Marty Stuart and The Fabulous Superlatives is mind blowing. I love to listen to it at night when the moon and stars are out. During the first cut I find myself transported somewhere distant and definitely -- way out west. Thanks Otis and Kenny.
That Album is Good!!
"The Pig band. The real Grateful Dead." Kenny is a real conniesour.
The Dead were still sublime on record and live up until 1975. After they took the break, the records stopped being good and the live gigs were great but at times they had duds.
As a traditional country, folk, and rock fan Jerry Garcia is a god . Absolutely love his songwriting style and play
Love, love, love when you have Kenny on, Otis. He's such a monster player. Loved hearing his take on Jerry and the Dead. The 'Alligator' era is my fave with Europe '72 being my fave all-time Dead album; 'Brown-eyed Women' and 'Jack Straw' are just sublime songs.
Definitely true. Jackstraw is one of the best songs ever. Deceptively, seemingly simple and yet so complex. Both it and brown eyed woman.
the cd has been playing in my car for years.
@@TheOldYellers - I couldn't agree more. The stories R. Hunter weaved throughout the lyrics for both these tunes (and many others...) are impeccable.
@@telebender it’s certainly a definite fact that Hunter was a master of lyrical craft. It’s pure inspiration. Barlow wasn’t bad either. But damn, Hunter is a good standard
I liked when an interviewer asked Jerry if there was something that he always wanted to do in life and he said yeah, he would like to learn how to play guitar. Classic Jerry. My favorite musician ever.
The members of the Grateful Dead should be on our currency.
"Jerry reached his peak playing wise 68-72"
did I miss something here? feel like anyone who knows Dead would probably disagree with that statement
Yea, right.
HIghly subjective lets face it! I love that era but '77 on the Bean will always be my favourite Jerry tone
@@tompoynton 87-89 FTW Jerry/Brent at their collaborative best
More Kenny Vaughn! Man he can play.
Saw Jerry with the new riders and the dead at Fillmore east 1970
Riders and Jerry opened then the dead came on and from what I remember
it didn’t stop until the early morning hours
First time I saw them was with Commander Cody and there were maybe 300 people there. As I was growing up in the bay area, if you liked the Dead, you were immediately pegged a weirdo. Cool people did not like the Dead. They were polarizing from the start.
I discovered Jerry's melodic playing around the same time in 1991 I discovered Richard Thompson with Fairport Convention, Syd Barrett, VU, etc... Garcia is one of my probably top 5-7 biggest influences on phrasing and such. He always played EXACTLY what needed to be played. Thanks Jerome...
Another great story from Kenny. I saw a lot of shows in the 80's and will always remember the feeling of a room being lifted by the energy in the crowd and from the stage. Miss Jerry a lot.
Thanks
You introduced me to Kenny, which led to Marty Stuart and The Fabulous Superlatives, who played one of the best shows I've ever seen last January. Kenny is the real deal, and he's right about Jerry, 1968-1972 was his absolute peak. "Aoxomoxoa", "American Beauty", "Workingman's Dead", and "Garcia" are masterpieces. It's too bad He discovered heroin on their second European tour in 1974. He was increasingly diminished creatively after that.
Imho I don't think that's really true. The boys change a little bit the direction of their music when they come back after the hiatus, but that's in part for the re integration of Mickey Hart, which make more difficult to recreate the format of the 73 concerts specially. Also (and I heard to the band talk about this) they started to get bored about all the Lsd, hippie, ultra experimental type of music and wanted to come back to "the song". As Jerry said, the band was commited to the change. I also think that is for that, that 77 it's such an amazing/important year (the best year most say), they continued having that inmense creativity and put it in a more ortodoxal way of conceiving a "song". The drug abuse , in my opinion, begins to be noticed in 79 and gradually declines until 86 with Jerry's coma. Jerry starts to play the songs without much innovation and the compositonal work also declines, which was a sing of the heroin use (he was like floatong on a cloud. Dancing >Franklins, I think from 10/27/79, its a great example of this). He recovered and has a really great years until the dead of Brend, which marks the dead of the Grateful Dead in my opinion.
Sorry for the english, it is not my mother tongue
Everyone's got their favorite Dead and Jerry eras. I think his peak as a player was '72-'77. HIs playing in '72 was still very bluesy but over the next few years become far more lyrical and jazzy, and by '77 it was just an epic style that sounded like no one else. That said, one of my best friends swears it was all downhill after '72 :) In Blair Jackson's bio of Garcia he said that although the Dead were given some heroin in France on a '74 European tour, no one really cared for it, and they all viewed it as a dirty drug. Garcia's heroin addiction started in the late '70's when a smokeable form of heroin (Persian Opium) appeared on the scene, and even then people thought it was a form of opium and not heroin. It wasn't until Jerry was smoking tons of the stuff and fully addicted that they realized what it was, and at that point it was too late...he was effectively a junkie. He was using it in part to come down from all the coke he was doing at the time.
I saw a lot of shows in 72 and 73, missed the earlier stuff. For most of us latter day deadheads the best year by far was 77, all of the band coalesced in 77, very powerful stuff, never got better than that for me.
@@blheron Live, no doubt, but the records didn't get better.
@@buzzbabyjesus If you know about the band, you are probably aware that they were a live performance band and never big in the studio. Having said that the later Weather Report and Terrapin Suites as well as the Blues for Allah material was quite poignant and beautiful.
Wow, I had no idea Kenny was old enough to see them between ‘68-‘70.
I was on the earth myself during those years, but I was 8, 9, 10 years old. How old was Kenny?
Anyway, another great reminiscence and observations by Kenny.
Jerry garcia is an underrated guitar player… if you know, you know.
I happen to have owned one of the Hard Trucker cabinets from that period.
Twin 12 inch JBLS. But the backs of Jerry’s Cabinets where open. Like on a regular guitar amp. Weirs had side ports.
All the rest where closed back
80 was an incredible time for Garcia. 80-90.
His band 88-91 JGB
95 had some absolutely incredible miracle playing guys.
From a big fan of 68
95 was shit
jerry was best 68-78. almost every show is great. 80/81 has their moments. then it gets good again late 89 early 90. after Brent died that's it
Check out the Garcia Saunders and Legion of Mary years
Very Jazzy stuff
Also you can find an Aunt Monk show on YT.
Merls band with Tony Saunders on Bass. Jerry was just a player. Not his band.
@@SenorCinema yeah once they had Krusty on keys I knew it was “all over now, find your shoes”
1979 was great too...especially September through December. Try to prove me wrong. Good luck! 😝
Glad to see some love for the early eras of Jerry and the dead.
Opened up the circuit = bypass the tone stack.
Another great video Otis! (Ilove the p es with Guitar Hero Kenny Vaughn) I appreciate you giving Jerry his due and totally agree about that period of the Grateful Dead.. My favorite, as well. I love Jerry's plucky picking and Fender tone, Bobby's outlaw songs....man, good stuff. Check out Dane County Arena '73, Donna singing You Ain't Woman enough...etc, etc...Anyway, thanks Otis, thanks Kenny, y'all keep on keepin' on.
There's this one bit on the doc "long strange trip" that the sound recording guy was left all alone with the equipment but he had to go mess with something on stage and he couldn't just keep the tapes rolling because what if but he was all alone, so he just went. And then when he got there the dead just ripped into morning dew and he was just hypnotized, hanging around to listen to that amazing song. Meanwhile the tapes are there, rolling all by themselves - Jerry looked at him and he knew that the wasn't there doing his job but he just nodded and smile because he understood what the soundman was feeling and I guess he was feeling it too. Jerry was just too big for this world. And in the end, the takes came out just fine, you can hear on the Europe '72. It's one of my favorites.
Morning Dew no less! My dad was at that show
I have a lot of soundboards from the '72 tour of Europe. The Dark Stars from that tour were incredible, long trippy jams with Phil Lesh killing it on bass. The Dead could play any genre of music with equal ease.
he did sea songs too !
I never knew the man but he was a good friend of mine
Oh Wow! Three things I really, really like in one video: Captain Trips, Otis Gibbs and Kenny Vaughan. I love The Dead and I would have loved to have met Jerry. I can really dig what Kenny says about him saying brilliant things because every interview I've seen or heard contains at least a couple of gems - quite a few of which I've kind of recycled...
Thanks, Otis. Another great Kenny interview. Glad to see you show JG some love.
Just saw Kenny with Marty and crew a week ago in Northern Michigan. Stellar gig. Just stellar. I’d see them every day I’d the week.
Dang, they’re good….real good.
Thank you for the Kenny Vaughan interview and a favorite guitarist whose work I have repeatedly enjoyed.
In 1967 at the Panhandle in Golden Gate Park on three separate occasions a flatbed truck with amps, drum kit, and generator would pull up and play. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and the Holding Company, and Jimi Hendrix were some of what came.
Kenny is such a legend! Cool to hear him tell stories about other legends. Great channel Otis, thank you for doing what you do! The world needs it!
Jerry got a lot better after 1973 .
Thanks for this video here, Kenny is my Favorite Musician, I wish that I knew what he has Forgot, But I believe that He Has Not forgotten Anything, LOL, I have seen him Perform many times, And he always Blows Me Away, Damn He Is Talented, My Best, Cousin Figel
Whoa! At first, I thought that your buddy, Kenny Vaughan was Ian Astbury - the singer for The Cult. Or maybe Jim Morrison from afar...
Jerry Garcia was the most happening person of recent history, not only as a musician but as an artist and a philosopher. Everything he touched turned to gold. (The Neville Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, his neckties, along with The Grateful Dead). I've heard some Dead fans say there were 5 other guys in the band, but the truth is Jerry could have gone out and got any other 5 guys he wanted. I saw The Dead at least 200 times, maybe 250, 50 or more from the front row, and the focus of everyone on stage was Jerry. I have my own beliefs about his passing (from 1983 on), but I'm honestly surprised he lived as long as he did. BTW Kenny Vaughn is one of my favorite guitar players to listen to.
Garcia was an amazing person who worked hard at his craft but also had a wide range of interests and influences which was evident in his music and art. I saw the GD and JGB between 73 and 77 a few times and enjoyed the performances. I was in a tape exchange network at college so heard lot more live shows during that era which many are now officially released. Yeah, there were good show and not so good but much of Pigpen's work is available. In the early years, he was the band in when performing in my opinion. I enjoy Garcia's work with Merle Saunders and Grisman particularly the kids CD. Sad the machine the GD created wore him down. Another great interview my friend.
Had to stop midway and re-review the Heathrow tapes! Great one again! Thanks Kenny. haven't seen you since New Orleans! Looking great!
When I joined them all as much as I could Jerry was my man but I didn’t want my name put out there because of being bothered by other Deadheads ! ❤️🐇🐰🕊️🪽🪘🎸🪕🥁☠️💀✨⚡️😢🥲😥love him forever !
HIGHTLY RECOMMEND The Good Ol Grateful Dead Cast, they covered the Europe tour show by show with incredible detail
I’d be interested in a discussion of what Jerry Garcia had done to his guitar(s). If I remember right, there was some onboard effect, an output to whatever in a loop, an input and a second output so that Jerry could control some of the effects directly from the guitar. Also, 2 Twin Reverbs into two 4 speaker cabs… holy crap would that be loud. There are voltage dividers all along the signal chain in a tube amp. “Opening it up” might mean reducing the deliberate signal reduction between gain stages.
“I saw the Dead a lot in ‘68, ‘69 um ‘70” and Kenny what were *you* consuming at those shows? 😂 The first concert I went to was the Grateful Dead in 1974. To say that the drug culture was prevalent would be a gross understatement.
First show was 10/30/72, Ford Auditorium, Detroit Michigan. Last show 6/28/95. Yeah, I’ve been there with Jer. 👌🏼🫶🏻✌️
Agree with Kenny, that era of Jerry's tone is my fave. More "rock" than later years. His playing was incredible! From what I heard it was just the cranked twins and his guitar (SG or LP with P90s depending on years). He still used a VOX wah back then and maybe a MXR Phase. Some great moments from that time period ✌
Not even the phaser, hadn't even been invented at that point.
@@tompoynton you are correct with the phaser. I was thinking of a '77 recording, not late 60's my bad!
New riders of the purple sage the C.S.N. Teach your children pedal steal solo. He’s the one that recommended Rusty Young to Richie Furray & Jimi Messina for POCO .
i agree....i think if he could have he would have left phil n bobby et el behind and stuck w/ the jgb......... dan healy used to dial out bobby weirs lame guitar so only jerry wasin the mix :). definily jerry was stuck w/ a ship of fools post 19773 ish
My sister was working for them after Garcia died and Bruce Hornsby talked them into getting back together as The Other Ones. On the way to their first gig, they were all scared to death. My sister always hated their music but said it was an excellent concert.
The Dead , Garcia knowing Blue Grass and playing Banjo in the Cali blue grass camping fest. Brought with a different style of playing guitar and as to the band having bassman Lesh , two drummers and Wier with his strange rhythm, that blended with Garcia and the organ players that were strange as The Bands organist all combined together and of coarse the great great writer Hunter , made manic. The sound style of country cosmic , mixed with jazz and blue grass funk , was magical at its best and manic at its worst......Best part of the dead was the ride and mostly peaceful vibe with most of the folks , the concerts were dependent on the feedback of the people and the outside events too , was a big part of the vibe to.
What I understand about the Twins was First where they procured them, look up Monterey Pops 67 and the free stage the Dead demanded. As far as technically they bypassed the transformer from the twins and put the McIntosh transformers in the line, gave him much more power
Can’t find it online anymore but the old Guitar Player interview quoted him saying “you have to control the electrons coming off the guitar”….🤯
Thanks Otis... love the Kenny interviews. Any chance of ever getting Marty on here? Love him too.
Saw Jerry probably 45 -50 times from 1972 -1995. First time he was a guest with Phil Lesh at an Allman Bros show doing Mountain Jam for about a half hour. 73 they did a couple of shows with the Band where they alternated opening up in Jersey City right after Watkins Glen. Kenny is so right that they could be meandering along and something would click that would give you goosebumps. Jerry had an encyclopedic knowledge of music that he fused with the same knowledge of being a wondrous yet frail human being. Kudos to Otis and Kenny for making this video.
I'm thinking this is just my thoughts playing music with people is better then any drug And I call B's on them being high while playing maybe in the acid test days but a big gigs and special gigs like in Europe 72 maybe they were high but all the time no
The first album I ever bought was a Grateful Dead album. I got the mono version because it was a dollar cheaper.
Great. Thanks for sharing Kenny; that was really wonderful to listen to. First started seeing them live in April 71' and continued until Jerry passed in 95'. Favorite show of the hundreds I saw was 4/28/71. I would of loved to of seen them as early as Kenny, for sure! From the recordings though, I'd say their peak was 69' through 73'. All five of those years were absolutely amazing. Lots of other good years that came after, but none like that period. I know, 77' and 89'-90' were awesome; I happened to of loved Brent and appreciated how their skills improved in many ways over the years. Still, maybe you just had to be there, but 69-73 was special. Doesn't really matter though. We are so incredibly lucky they recorded most all their shows and there is just so much available and still being released. I met Jerry 3-4 times and he was a real gentleman; very humble and sweet as pie. Met many of the other band members too but I won't bore you. Luckily, got to meet Bear a year or two before he passed. Bumped into him at an acoustic Hot Tuna show at the Fillmore West, hugged him and we talked one on one for about 30 minutes during the break. He was extremely generous with his time, stories and appreciated my memories and feedback. Nothing left to do but smile.
Jerry Garcia completely gave his body his soul his everything his fiber of his every Being to music and his fans
The playing on the studio version of Althea is some of the most beautiful guitar I’ve ever heard.
Twin is essentially two power amps in one (surprise!). They probably removed that divide.
i was at the said first festival in the uk,it was called hollywood and was on a local farmers farm.i was gifted a press pass and enjoyed the socialising backstage.somewhere i have a few snaps of the dead playing.
The Europe '72 album made me a fan. Some great guitar playing and vocals on there.
This is a great interview with Vaughn telling an interesting story but it would be so great to.actually play the video that he is talking about. Now I will head to Google to see if I can find it.
I’d rather hear someone say “ya know” more than they should any day, over “like” ,,, fuck me I hate the overuse of that word.
Kenny is the absolute epitome of the laid back, king of cool. Such an interesting dude. Incredible playing aside, I could easily listen to him for hours on end. The stories he could tell!
I think it was 77 thru 85...Garcia's best playin
Maybe they removed the tremolo/vibrato from the twins circuit as part of the alchemy.
They added a flux capacitor to the Twin Reverbs...
Listen to the lead “ not fade away” from Skull and Roses ..FIRE…
Kenny Vaughan knows who the real Grateful Dead were. And it sure as hell wasn't in the 80's.
Seen the dead at alpine valley 1990 wow
I did lots of acid plus had the best coke of anyone + the guys were loving it !
My first concert was Jerry, solo. 1981. He came on a couple hours late.
I’m guess that Jerry only used the pre amp circuits on the twins then outputted that to a McIntosh power amp
"I know he practiced a lot." WTF? You mean I have to practice to get good?
There were years' worth of great music, as you say, in '69, '70, etc., and I think the Dead's high-water mark was May of '77, and Jerry was at his personal peak, and the band was so tight and intuitive and at its peak. Jerry was -- the only way I can describe him -- phenomenally *musical.* He could just about snap your head off with what he was playing. But alas, after that peak year, things gradually began to go sideways, little by little. Jerry was a powerhouse, but drugs would nevertheless take their toll. He could have been another Segovia, or one of the Romeros, or another Joe Pass or one of the premier guitarists on earth, but he could remain a force of nature only so long before even Jerry was overwhelmed.
Hear hear
Overwhelmed by his own self-indulgence and self-destructiveness. His life became like his song "The Wheel" -- "The wheel is turning and you can't slow down, You can't let go and you can't hold on, You can't go back and you can't stand still, If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will." He was trapped by his "lifestyle" but it was one of his own making. In the later years as his health deteriorated, it was difficult to watch him play, shaky hands and all. I had been a Deadhead since I slipped into one of the Acid Tests in '66 at the Shrine Auditorium in LA at age 15 or 16, and was enraptured by the band and of course Jerry Garcia, then a force of nature. But as the band began to disintegrate near the end as Jerry himself disintegrated, I couldn't watch any more. I had to pull back.
I love that era of Garcias playing ,such a lovely sound with the SG and then the Nash Strat...through those great Twins .He really was at his peak for my taste even though I saw them many times later and saw many terrific shows...thats the period I keep returning to.Thanks Kenny and of course you Otis, always interesting
Amen
I actually think he played best on the Travis Bean. I saw hundreds of shows from 72 until the end and I think what made 76 and 77 so great was that it was pure guitar with less effects. Just underwater Jerry. I found a lot of the later midi stuff aurally fatiguing, Jerry playing guitar trumpet or Jerry playing guitar flute. Simple sounded better.
@@blheron Yeah I saw a lot of those shows and with the Garcia band...pretty bitchin 'tone and playin
only made it to 2:00 and then I found out something from first trip to england existed on youtube and off I went
I will listen to Kenny all day.
This is great! The Dead played at least two huge outdoor concerts near Austin. Several thousand very happy people enjoyed the shows!
I share his love for Jerry. One favorite Jerry stuff is Old & in the Way with Jerry on Banjo, New Riders with Jerry on pedal steel, the Jerry Garcia Bluegrass Group, etc. He had such passion. His father was a Spanish-American big band leader in the 40s. I grew up in around the Country Gentlemen, Bill Harrell and the Virginians, etc., and loved hearing Jerry on Banjo. RIP Jerry.
Love that album, old favorite.
Kenny talking about Jerry. Winner, winner!
The best years for cars were the best years for Jerry Garcia's...
Yeah in Atlanta! All I remember is they were so loud!
Jerry was amazing! Deadheads are horrible and that is a tragedy
Gerry was a monster on guitar sadly he was trapped
Playing on mushrooms? No way Jose'.
Kenny is a Prince.
love this Jerry histories
Otis, tell Miss Amy that Kevin Mattaluci’s friend Nick said hello. This video actually came up on my Google news feed. Craziness ✌️
I think I saw you open for the Old 97s at Skippers in Tampa in like 2006 or so. I like your music. And Amy’s. I still have Foolish Lonesome on CD.
6:51 don't forget the cherry Garcia ice cream money! But it's hard to leave when that many lifes are build on top of what you are doing, even when you can... Jerrys interviews are so full of joy and honesty an so is the long strange trip doc!
Instant sub. More! More! More!