What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead?
November 24, 2008 12:35AM |
Registered: 10 months ago Posts: 3 Rank Stranger |
There seems to have been very little attention paid historically to this bizaare historical fact that a year after starting the Never Ending Tour, and barely two years after what many had felt had been a disastrous tour, that Bob Dylan made up his mind to abandon his band and join the Grateful Dead.
Apparently this was no whim, he was completely serious about joining the Dead as a permanent member, the only reason it didn’t happen as most of us will be aware is because in a group vote Phil Lesh didn’t like the idea. The idea of Bob joining was obviously put to them in a pretty serious formal way for them to actually get together to discuss it and vote on it.
Without getting too much into the motivation behind Bob’s reasoning or the relative merits of the music Bob made with the Dead in 1987, and knowing full well the antipathy the seeming vast majority of Bob Dylan fans have to the Dead, I’ve started wondering what would have happened to the Grateful Dead and to Bob if this had actually happened.
We’d have to assume that the Dead were not about to start playing four hour shows with a dedicated Dylan set after their own like they had in 87, and if Bob were to be ‘joining’ the band rather than being an appendage than the only other option is that Bob would have become a rhythm guitarist/harmonica player and vocalist for the Grateful Dead’s sets.
Obviously he would have sung several songs, but you’d have to assume that the days of a full Bob Dylan concert would have been over, he would have become simply a member of a band. If you wanted to hear Dylan singing Dylan you would have had to hear it in the context of a Grateful Dead concert.
Personally I find it hard to believe that Bob would have been contented to sing 5 or 6 songs a night for very long, but who knows, he must’ve known what he was getting himself into. Musically though I think it could have been very interesting, and beneficial for both parties.
I think Bob Dylan would have effectively been in the Pigpen role with the Dead. Playing some of his folkier, earthier tunes, highlighting the sets most nights but spending large parts of the concert inaudible and with very little to do. I can’t imagine what Bob Dylan could contribute to Dark Star or Eyes Of The World or any number of the Dead’s vast array of psychadelic jams.
Bob Weir however had long become anything but a regular rhythm guitarist, and spent as much time on the higher regions of the guitar neck almost as Garcia did himself, so I think on a lot of the more regular rock ‘n’ roll tracks that Dylan’s rhythm guitar would have been quite useful, of course he probably would have insisted on playing lead!
The real interesting factor is that when Bob played with the Dead in 1987, the Dead almost instantaneously reverted back into 1966 mode. Their folk rock roots were brought out to the surface. The Dead by 1987 had gotten pretty consistent, if that’s the right word, with their sound, but they’d started as a folk rock combo and a dance band. I find that listening to them playing with Dylan with that Dylan rhythm guitar, usually acoustic, and Dylan’s harmonica playing, that they were being brought back to a sound they’d long abandoned.
The folk music element was something that Jerry usually had to save for his solo bands, with Bob in the group, they would have been playing far less of the rock jams and more straight up folk rock songs, and probably some acoustic traditional material as well, again something that the Grateful Dead had long abandoned.
As for Bob, he would have benefited tremendously from playing with such complimentary musicians, though I feel that eventually the limitations of his ambitions at that point would have subsided and he would have gotten back to the task of being a solo artist carrying entire concerts by himself with his own band. But you never know, maybe Bob would have stayed with the Dead for years, maybe even after Jerry’s passing?
Either way, listening to the 1987 rehearsals and the highlights of the 7 shows they played together leaves me feeling that we genuinely missed out on what could have been a fascinating and rewarding musical partnership. Bob would have had a fantastic backup band completely sympathetic to his roots and nuances, while the Dead would have had that folk rock element that they had been so long missing.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2008 12:38AM by davidotas.
Re: What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead? November 24, 2008 12:40AM |
Registered: 2 years ago Posts: 1,875 Wicked Messenger ![]() |
Re: What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead? November 24, 2008 12:41AM |
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Re: What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead? November 24, 2008 01:06AM |
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Re: What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead? November 24, 2008 04:18PM |
Registered: 8 months ago Posts: 1,778 Wicked Messenger ![]() |
Whether Phil Lesh might have been found floating in his pool remains conjecture…but Bob would not have hung around post Jerry.
They helped each other,which is good…..and Bob went his way..which is so much better.
Re: What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead? |
Registered: 7 days ago Posts: 1 Rank Stranger |
Jerry’s solo in Knockin on Heaven’s Door… like an irridescent plunge into a stalygmite-festooned netherworld. Dylan in Joey gave us a character like none other. Together in Queen Jane they bent music itself into a new taste treat.
Dylan & the Dead took their collective rockets and lashed them together to get into some corners of the sky we’ll never find our way back to. This briefest of collaborations also scorched some earthly expectations, perhaps, but such is the price of mixing radioactive elements. Like combining lobster and oyster sauce, you yield a little for what you gain when such exquisite greats occupy the same space at once.
Re: What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead? November 27, 2008 12:01AM |
Registered: 38 years ago Posts: 227 Forever Young ![]() |
Re: What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead? November 27, 2008 12:08AM |
Registered: 8 months ago Posts: 1,778 Wicked Messenger ![]() |
Quote:
marvanhogan
Jerry’s solo in Knockin on Heaven’s Door… like an irridescent plunge into a stalygmite-festooned netherworld. Dylan in Joey gave us a character like none other. Together in Queen Jane they bent music itself into a new taste treat.
Dylan & the Dead took their collective rockets and lashed them together to get into some corners of the sky we’ll never find our way back to. This briefest of collaborations also scorched some earthly expectations, perhaps, but such is the price of mixing radioactive elements. Like combining lobster and oyster sauce, you yield a little for what you gain when such exquisite greats occupy the same space at once.
send me some hogan.I aint had stuff like that in a long long time.
Re: What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead? November 27, 2008 02:32AM |
Registered: 38 years ago Posts: 303 Forever Young ![]() |
Re: What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead? November 27, 2008 08:44PM |
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Re: What If Dylan Did Join The Grateful Dead? November 28, 2008 02:54PM |
Registered: 8 months ago Posts: 1,778 Wicked Messenger ![]() |