Dan025 said:
AutoBat said:
BigBeard said:
AutoBat said:
i like the body style, and as far as i know i've never heard a grateful dead song in my life.
Really?
Truckin, Casey Jones, Uncle John's Band, Touch of Grey, Sugar Magnolia
Google them, they have been around in one form or another since 1965 or so
really. i heard my first Zappa tune last month too. none of the radio stations played either when i was growing up (bible belt).
WOW! that just blows my mind! i understand zappa a little but no greatful dead that just doesnt compute with me. not knowing the words to truckin and sugar magnolias just seems crazy never mind never hearing either before. having conservative radio stations is one thing but to have zero exposure to music that's that popular, i didn't know any place in america could be that isolated. ive been to isolated towns and cities in america but i usually find people with deadhead stickers on there cars. infact some of the biggest dead heads i know are from small towns in the middle of ohio or west virginia.
Yes I always thought that someone would know of one dead song
As far as the alligator goes, Graham Nash gave Jer the Alligator. That was a little before he met Doug Irwin, and had a little hand in a little company called Alembic. Once Jer started playing his Irwin Alembic's, he didn't go back to anything else. Yeah he used a MIDI equipped Strat for space in the beginning phases of his MIDI stuff, before Rosebud, but once Rosebud was in the lineup, he had no need for another instrument. Lightning Bolt is a story in it's own, made by a Deadhead just for Jerry, because he wanted to. It's purely luck that he pulled off what Jerry called "the guitar I have been waiting for" and unfortunately for Jer and Steve Cripe's relationship didn't last as long as his and Doug Irwin's. Jerry died in 95 and he only started playing the Cripe guitar in I believe 93 ( I could be wrong, it migt have been 92) and Steve Cripe blew himself up building fireworks in 96
Dan025 said:
ErogenousJones said:
I understand that the Dead are (were?) a really big band with a legion of dedicated fans, but I'm not sure they're what I'd call "popular". This is probably just splitting hairs, but to me, Lady Gaga is popular, whereas the Dead have a hardcore group of followers. I'm sure there are a lot of people in a lot of places that know of the Grateful Dead and/or Jerry Garcia ("he's the guy with the ice cream, right?"), but have never heard any of their music. I myself only really know "Touch of Grey", and it took a long time before I found out that the WGD shape was a JG thing. And while I'm not the world's foremost expert on music, I wouldn't consider myself to have had "zero exposure to music'" either.
ok well on one hand my mom was a dead head and i grew up with all there songs playing. i live a couple hours from bethal and i have neighbors that go to woodstock reunions every year and party in the woods near the origonal site so i guess i had alot of exposure to jerry garcia.
on the other hand when i was in the military my friends who wore greatful dead t-shirts on the weekends all lived in the bible belt, and some were strict conservative christians ironically. i've never seen any indication in any place i've been that the daed are obscure anywhere in america or even over sees. ive seen jerry garcia t-shirts on japanese kids, in japan.
i didn't mean any offence by it but it did come as a shock to me that there are people with an interest in music who have had little exposure to the greatful dead. but to tell you the truth there songs dont play much on the radio here either. it's just like you said they have a dedicated following, a cult following and i never imagined there were borders that the cult hasn't spread to.
No you are right, the Dead were never mainstream or popular. But what they do have is legions of seriously deadicated fans, no pun intended. They get little or no airplay on any format of radio station, be it classic rock or rock or what have you. Hell they only made it to Billboard #9 once with 'Touch' and that was 22 years into their existence. So 'popular', i'd say no. But they did, in their own sense invent modern improvisational rock-n-roll. I mean throw in jazz, blues, rockin tunes (one more saturday night!) etc, they did it all. And they did it differently, every show, every time. That is what is awesome about them, no two shows were the same. They had good nights and bad nights, and they still sold out every seat in the house the last few years. They were the top grossing live act in this country for years and years!!! They would make more money in ticket sales than the huge stadium draws like Pink Floyd, the Stones, Springsteen, etc. I was talking about the Pittsburgh PA show from july 1990 when the fire crews were spraying down the crowd on the floor cause it was so damn hot and how good the show was. It is available on DVD known as "View from the Vault" One of the best examples of the Grateful Dead Train rolling full steam ahead in the peak of their career. Check it out to see a glimpse onto the band and the fans! We are everywhere!!
Jerry once said talking about the deadheads: "Our fans our like black licorice, not everyone likes black licorice, but those people who do, really, really, really like black licorice"
And Bill Graham once said, in fact he had it painted on the side of one of his venues, "They aren't the best at what they do, they are the only one's who do what they do!"
my desicion to buy any Warmoth products to begin with was they offered this body shape as an option. I wouldn't have considered spending the money I did if I couldn't get the body shape. I really like the idea of the darker woods, on this shape..... Walnut would be spectacular!!! Jer's guitars were cocobolo, which I hear is nasty stuff to work with. Man you could do yourself an awesome Jer replica if that was what you were into. I'm a big fan of his built in TRS effects loop which sends the signal directly off the pickup to your effects and back to the guitar before the volume. That was Jerry's idea, and I incorporated it into all of my guitars because it works so well.
Well my friend, good luck on your build, I am a fellow Lefty, I would definately love to see another Lefty Garcia on the forum, Keep us posted and feel free to pick my brain for any questions or if you run into any hangups!!!!