Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

T R E 4 5 O N

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

He really is that stupid.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

The willow is too close to the house.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Infrastructure week. at last.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Let there be snark.

You are here: Home / Music / I’m Going to Regret Asking This

I’m Going to Regret Asking This

by | 184 Comments

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One of the things I have been doing while gimped up and unable to voyage out into the blizzard has been consolidating all of my itunes from separate computers, importing a bunch of live Dead shows, and whatever random CD’s I have not yet imported.

Here is the question: does anyone know where I can get album art for Dead bootlegs. And please, I’ve dealt with about 500 emails today asking about the website, I don’t need 40 of you coming in here telling me the Dead suck. On a related note, I am also uninterested in hearing how much you like Phish.

Reader Interactions

184Comments

  1. 1.

    Will

    Try the blogs. It’s amazing what you can find when you search for X + blogspot.com, including a ton of free music.

    As for putting your music libraries together, have you tried Song Sergeant? It’s great, although it may be Mac only.

  3. 3.

    freelancer

    ‘…the Dead…’

    Who Dat?

    ETA – I’d actually recommend doing several Google Image Searches with the variation of the words “Bootleg” and “Grateful” and “Dead”, also for the date of each bootleg. say “12-07-74 greatful dead bootleg” or something like that.

  4. 4.

    Perry Como

    If you like the Dead, you’ll love Phish. They are like the spiritual successor of the Dead and you would totally dig them if you gave it a chance. I’d highly recommend listening to Phish.

  5. 5.

    maye

    I don’t even know what album art for Dead bootlegs is. But I think it might have something do do with jerry garcia. Loved his ties.

  9. 9.

    General Winfield Stuck

    I don’t need 40 of you coming in here telling me the Dead suck.

    The Dead suck, they really do. That’s one down and 39 to go. Get in before they’re all gone folks.

  10. 10.

    Mike E

    The Dead community surely must have already created an app for this! Oh, right–flashbacks. I stand corrected.

  11. 11.

    Bruce (formerly Steve S.)

    importing a bunch of live Dead shows

    Next time you feel like posting another “I’m sick and tired of progressives complaining about Rahm” rant, cue up a Kreutzmann/Hart jam and put it on a loop, and keep listening until you feel better.

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    Try Google Images for ‘bootleg Dead album covers’ or the like. Probably the fastest way to find stuff like that.

    -dms

  16. 16.

    Rob

    Nobody is allowed to claim the Dead suck unless they’ve been to at least 5 shows. As far as artwork, try here, they have it all.

  18. 18.

    Mike E

    @General Winfield Stuck: I’m not a fan, but I did attend the two Chapel Hill shows back in ’94 (my only 2 shows). First night was best–the encore was Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds. I own one bootleg.

    Oh, and my daughter was born the day Jerry died–her middle name is ‘Grace’.

  21. 21.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    The Dead don’t suck. Play bootlegs in the lab every day.

    And I believe that cancels out gbear, so we’re back to 37 to go.

  22. 22.

    ajr22

    Hello, ma’am. I’m working to clean up the neighborhood from parasites. Do you mind if I take a quick look around your house? I’m afraid you may have hippies.

  23. 23.

    beltane

    My big claim to fame is that I’m in the liner notes to Dozin’ at the Knick from the 1990 Albany, NY shows. It’s a crowd shot of the scene outside the arena, and I’m at the edge of the picture standing next to a guy in a skirt looking for a miracle ticket. My boyfriend was cut out of the picture which must have pissed him off as he was (still is) one of those highly competitive tape trading Deadheads.

    62 shows and some incredible memories.

  24. 24.

    eco2geek

    Hey John – just thought I’d let you know that I run a few versions of Linux on my computer, all of them with Firefox 3.6 installed, and I can get to your web site from some of them and not others. Doesn’t matter if I flush my browser cache or not. Can you please do something about that?

    You know, the Dead just suck. Listening to them jam is like listening to a Philip Glass symphony played on electric guitars. They’d make you bored even if you were high.

    But have you tried listening to Phish? That band’s great.

    Hugs and kisses,
    e2g

  27. 27.

    ronin122

    The dead suck (34 to go).

    Actually I know not enough about them to say but meh when does that stop a teabagger, and I am smarter than one so there you go.

  28. 28.

    jl

    The Dead suck about half the time, and are either awesome or unforgettably deranged the rest of the time.

    The motorcycle rhythm jam I heard at one concert was the last type of Dead.

    Anyone know of recording of two Harley’s trying to revv in sync, on stage, to a long Dead jam? Not sure I want to hear it again, but would be nice to know one exists.

    But I am not a hardcore Dead fan, so maybe those are as common as dirt.

  30. 30.

    Chauncey Baker

    Let me help you simplify:

    The Dead = Suck
    Phish = Suck
    Your Frontpage Issue = Suck

    Seriously (although I’m always serious), I have Windows XP at work and it won’t load BJ right now. When I tried your suggestion of adding /index it will load, but only with the most current additions after I’ve restarted my computer, even after I’ve cleared my cache. I have Windows Vista at home and have no problem accessing your site.

    But to address the bigger issue, without access to your blog at work, I have nothing to do at work but gently cup my ball-sack and fantasize about the Snowbilly Palm Pilot…for hours (I concentrate on how great it would be to read the backwards image of Energy Budget Tax Cuts Lift American Spirit off of my balls in the mirror in my bathroom). On second thought don’t change a thing.

  31. 31.

    Raenelle

    If I try, I can vaguely understand why some people are Republicans, I can vaguely understand why Jeffrey Daumer ate people, but I am completely clueless about why some don’t “get” the Dead.

    And re Phish–I’ve tried listening to Phish, simply because while the Dead were prolific their output had limits, and it would be oh so comforting to know that great music was still being produced. Fuck Phish. What the Dead did was a very large trip, so maybe the reason some Deadheads like Phish is because those Deadheads come to the Dead from different angles, for different reasons than I did. But Phish does nothing for me.

  33. 33.

    rootless_e

    I’ve signed the Jane Hamsher/Grover Norquist petition demanding that Tim Geithner be waterboarded for his role in Phish. All right thinking American Deadheads, should join me.

  34. 34.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    Make it up yourself from Goggle images or the web at large. If you don’t like them exactly, manipulate them with whatever photo-imaging software you have. My spouse likes old jazz and I like Elizabethan Renaissance music, so we’ve made many an iTune cover with this method.

  35. 35.

    K. Grant

    The Dead suck. Phish sucks too.

    If you had any kind of adventurous musical spirit you would listen to Modest Mouse. Or, if you are feeling the need to listen to a band that does some spectacular improvisation at their live shows, allow me to suggest King Crimson (the iterations since the early 80’s, i.e., lineups with Adrian Belew.

  39. 39.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Does that set the counter back 1 or reset it entirely?

    I checked the suckage rules and no, nada zip for either.

  40. 40.

    jl

    @Dave C: I had to skim the Broder column, in order to retain my sanity. I notice he included her recent interview with Wallace.

    Seems to me that sometimes, unfortunately, waging war for domestic purposes can be ‘pitch perfect’ populism. Funny Broder didn’t mention Palin’s helpful suggestion that Obama ‘declare’ war on Iran as a handy-dandy way to win re-election.

    Broder, weenie all the way, all the time.

  43. 43.

    The Moar You Know

    Nobody is allowed to claim the Dead suck unless they’ve been to at least 5 shows.

    @Rob: Wrongo, Rob, my lad. It took two.

    I went to a college that Shall Not Be Named in Northern California that was pretty much Ground Zero for Deadheads. As a musician, people were always playing me Dead bootlegs and inevitably got butthurt on being asked “what is that shit? It is horrible” or the many variants on that statement I’d present when being played one of those awful, out of tune, out of time, sloppy shitty tapes.

    A Deadhead friend of mine was constantly agonized over my failure to realize that the Dead were The Greatest Band In The Universe and got me a ticket to a show at a series of shows that apparently has become somewhat famous amongst Dead fans, a show sometime in 1990 at the Oakland Sports Arena. One of you Deadheads probably is familiar with the shows they played there. I went and saw them and they were fantastic. I was honestly stunned. This was not the band I’d heard on the tapes; these were good musicians, in tune, in time, rocking hard and pulling off a long show with good energy from start to finish.

    OK, I must have been mistaken, the tapers must just be really sloppy. I was convinced. The Dead were a good band.

    Several months later, the same friend took me to see the Dead at Shoreline Amphitheater. I want to make it very clear that I am not indulging in hyperbole or trying to get a rise out of our host or any Deadheads on this blog; this show was literally the worst show by any band I have ever seen in my life. I have seen punk bands at junior high schools that were far better than this show was.

    As a musician myself, you should take some goddamn pride in your craft if you are going to bother doing it at all, and that was the thing I realized about the Dead that day – they didn’t. So, Rob, that is how I can claim the Dead suck. It’s not that they weren’t capable. It’s just that they never gave a shit in the first place.

  48. 48.

    oldfatherwilliam

    @jl: @jl:

    The Dead never sucked, man. About half the time they merely failed to be awesome or deranged. Depended on the drugs and/or energy, yours and theirs.

  50. 50.

    SIA

    What’s a good laptop (No Dell or Toshiba) for around 1000? I can’t afford a Mac. Lots of photos, scanning, spreadsheets, Outlook use. I would welcome input from the techies around here.

    Grateful Dead…. yawn

  54. 54.

    beltane

    @gbear: Some of the shows sucked. Some of the experiences of getting to and from the shows really, really sucked. Sometimes it was just perfect.

  56. 56.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @jl: Google was my friend. (Has John heard about Google yet? It’s called a “search engine”. It’s this really new way of finding stuff on the Intertrons.)

    Returning to the covers, another alternative (as someone somewhere said), just find a picture of a hippie taking a toke and paste the set list onto that.

  58. 58.

    zzyzx

    I’m staying out of the Phish thing – although I’ve been known to see a show or 2…hundred – but I do still miss Jerry…

  60. 60.

    Dan Robinson

    I saw them a couple of times in San Francisco in the early ’80s and they played at the US festival in 1982. Forgettable.

    bands at US festival, 1982.

    Friday Sept 3rd
    Gang of Four, The Ramones, The English Beat, Oingo Boingo, The B-52’s, Talking Heads, The Police [Rankin’ Roger from the English Beat joined the Police at the end of their set].

    Saturday Sept 4th
    Dave Edmunds, Eddie Money, Santana, The Cars, The Kinks, Pat Benatar, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

    Sunday Sept 5th
    Grateful Dead [start time 9:30 am], Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffet, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac.

  62. 62.

    Jason Bylinowski

    On a related note, I am also uninterested in hearing how much you like Phish.

    Phish? Sheeit. I’m all about some Widespread Panic, mang. The Panic could have themselfs a “Phish” sandwich in a hot minute. The “Dead” are too busy being “Grateful” that Jerry Garcia isn’t around to see them brought so low.

    /channeling my former fratboy peers at UGA

  63. 63.

    General Winfield Stuck

    I have not had a problem with the site any more than usual. Sometimes it seems down for a short time, or connection to server is lost when loading takes too long, but that has been the case for me for months now. It seems it would have to be carrier related for some to have a problem and others not. But that is a tech moran talking.

    95 percent of the time it’s as snappy and quick as it’s ever been.

  66. 66.

    rootless_e

    “You know, the Dead just suck. Listening to them jam is like listening to a Philip Glass symphony played on electric guitars. They’d make you bored even if you were high.”

    10 points. I dunno if I agree, but it’s a good line.

  67. 67.

    Steeplejack

    @Dave C:

    I may have be put on suicide watch after reading that. Broder’s piece was unbelievably stupid from end to end:

    Blessed with an enthusiastic audience of conservative activists, Palin used the Tea Party gathering and coverage on the cable networks to display the full repertoire she possesses, touching on national security, economics, fiscal and social policy, and every other area where she could draw a contrast with Barack Obama and point up what Republicans see as vulnerabilities in Washington.
    __
    Her invocation of “conservative principles and common-sense solutions” was perfectly conventional. What stood out in the eyes of TV-watching pols of both parties was the skill with which she drew a self-portrait that fit not just the wishes of the immediate audience but the mood of a significant slice of the broader electorate.

    Simply unbelievable.

  68. 68.

    Chet

    Here is the question: does anyone know where I can get album art for Dead bootlegs.

    Well, there wouldn’t be official album art for a bootleg, right? Why not take all your bootlegs, edit their info so that they’re all part of a huge album called “Bootlegs”, and then download some appropriate Grateful Dead art or pictures, and assign that picture as the album “art.” You can manually specify album art for a track or album in “Get Info”, under the “Artwork” tab, click “add…” and find the image file you want.

    That’s what I’d do, unless there’s specific album art for bootlegs, which makes no sense to me. Bootlegs would have been tapes, right, not albums?

  69. 69.

    Stiv Bator

    The Dead were unique in music- the time, the place, etc.

    One thing I cannot forgive them for is the 3rd generation jam bands- ones I didn’t know existed till I saw both of them on TV playing madison Square garden (different concerts).

    God awful, making Phish and widespread panic (2G) seems like genius’s.

    OAR and The Dispatch- damn them to clean Dave Matthew’s bong for eternity.

  70. 70.

    Unabogie

    This reminds me of an old joke.

    What did the Dead-Head say when he ran out of pot?
    ..
    ..
    ..
    ..
    ..
    ..
    ..
    ..
    ..
    ..
    ..
    Hey, this music sucks!

  73. 73.

    rootless_e

    Ted Nugent is the greatest musician of all time.

    I just wanted to see if I could type that without being hit by light……sdfhhhhhhhhhahaSNAP

  74. 74.

    danimal

    I must be deranged. Just read the Broder column. I didn’t think my opinion of the Dean could go any lower, but it sure did, you betcha.

  75. 75.

    mr. whipple

    While we work on the countdown, I’ll entertain you with a Jerry solo. (While I’m playing, you all can spin in circles!)

    Tweedle.

    Tweedle deedle.

    Tweetle deedle tweetle.

    Tweetledeedledeedletweetlediddle.

    Repeat for next 15 minutes.

    That was awesome.

  77. 77.

    penpen

    When I read John’s curmudgeonisms I hear them in my head in a Clint Eastwood voice (a la Gran Torino).

  79. 79.

    oldfatherwilliam

    @The Moar You Know:

    From any musician’s viewpoint, you were and are absolutely right. Johnny Otis was heard to say “I was grateful they was dead”. Speaking for the fans, it was the experience of community of purpose and intent, which will also serve to explain a lot about the tea parties, whose content always sucks.

  80. 80.

    beltane

    @Steeplejack: I assume it was Broder’s Viagra doing the writing. If anyone wants to conquer this country, all they’d have to do is hire an escort, have her dress the part, and then put her on a stage to shout, “Death to America! Work makes you free! Kill them all!” and the Washington press corps would be eating out of her hand.

  83. 83.

    LM

    @K. Grant:

    Ooo yeah, bands who do great live shows: You mentioned Modest Mouse. Also Muse, The Mars Volta, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Streets.

    Not that John asked.

  84. 84.

    MoZeu

    It’s been at least 10 years since I’ve been forced to listen to the Dead on a regular basis as a result of friends, living situations and the like. Best 10 years of my life.

    The sad part is that the band has largely been comprised of pretty competent musicians. Talk about the whole being less than the sum of its parts . . .

    Yes, I’ll say it too: the Dead suck. They always sucked. Their music is and always was listless, sloppy and uninspired.

  85. 85.

    gnomedad

    @Amy:

    Fox News on-line poll: What is the Tea Party about – Don’t forget to vote!

    Well, that was fun, but the “America’s Talking” box was scary beyond belief.

  86. 86.

    New Yorker

    @The Moar You Know:

    As a musician myself, you should take some goddamn pride in your craft if you are going to bother doing it at all, and that was the thing I realized about the Dead that day – they didn’t.

    This is what I feel about Phish (who I hate a lot more than the Dead. I can respect the Dead for their role in a specific time/place that was gone well before I was born). Phish’s music is completely, utterly soulless. It’s exactly the kind of music you expect prep school kids from New Jersey who went to small-town colleges in New England/Upstate New York to put out in between keg parties and lacrosse games.

    OK, OK, I went to a small-town school in Upstate NY and went to more than my fair share of keg parties, but still.

    If you want to see a good band with passion in their music, a helluva live show, and (weirdly) a lot of hippies in their audience, check out Gogol Bordello.

  88. 88.

    gbear

    @Steeplejack:

    Do you think that Broder column will become as infamous as Hindrocket’s comments about the brilliance of W?

    “It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.”

    It deserves to be. Unfathomably clueless.

  89. 89.

    PTirebiter

    @jl: The headline alone pretty much ruined my night. .

    ..she drew a self-portrait that fit not just the wishes of the immediate audience but the mood of a significant slice of the broader electorate.

    In a kinder world, someone would arrange to have Broder put down.

  92. 92.

    John Cole

    Thanks for heeding my plea and not only shitting over the dead, but doing it longform. Could you please also tell me who you like so I can kick you in the junk and tell you why they suck so hard?

  93. 93.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Dave C #20:

    Forget the Broder piece, I want a print of the photo. Palin v. gravity, and I think we can all see who’s winning that one.

    Sexist? Agist? I really don’t care :-)

  95. 95.

    beltane

    Is there a particular reason that every single FDL diary posted on Daily Kos has an exclamation point in the title?

    For this reason alone I have come to despise these people.

  96. 96.

    gbear

    @beltane:

    I assume it was Broder’s Viagra doing the writing.

    Who was it that said that god gave men a brain and a dick, but only enough blood to use one at a time?

  98. 98.

    beltane

    @SiubhanDuinne: What will be the appeal of a post-menopausal Sarah Palin? When you lose your body, it helps to have a mind to fall back on, and Palin is no Margaret Thatcher in the mind department.

  100. 100.

    robertdsc

    The Dead or Phish have no interest for me. Metallica, on the other hand, I can listen to all the time.

  104. 104.

    madmommy

    @John Cole:

    Well, you did kind of serve it up fat and right over the plate.

    I am meh as regards the Dead. Don’t know enough about them to say they suck.

  108. 108.

    beltane

    @John Cole: The people who disregarded your orders not to recommend Phish should get kicked in the junk twice.

    Just because I was too young to see Led Zeppelin live didn’t mean I had to go become a Motley Crue fan.

  109. 109.

    SIA

    @General Winfield Stuck: Ha! That was going to be mine too, saying “This should be easy for ya”.

    ETA Anyway I thought the request was not to email and dis the dead 2nd edit – wait request was not to email and dis the site?

  110. 110.

    Morbo

    @John Cole: Well yeah, but…

    I don’t need 40 of you coming in here telling me the Dead suck.

    you’re not supposed to tape the “kick me” sign to your own back.

    That aside, have you looked on Amazon? I don’t know if you mean the cover art or what, but I’ve just copy/pasted cover art from Amazon many times when CDDB or whatever doesn’t find the art on its own.

  112. 112.

    mr. whipple

    Could you please also tell me who you like so I can kick you in the junk and tell you why they suck so hard?

    Ellington, Basie, Beethoven, Liszt, Zep, Debussy, Bennett, Dino, Zappa, Stones.

  117. 117.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    You like the Dead. No wonder Tunch wants to kill you in your sleep. I’m guessing that if he knew that before you adopted him, he would have passed in the hopes something better would come along.

    :)

    I give you shit because I care…but the Dead still suck.

  118. 118.

    scarshapedstar

    Try Soulseek for the album art. You will not find a file-sharing community with more obscure stuff, period. Like every R. Crumb comic ever made, for example.

  120. 120.

    K. Grant

    @LM: I really want to see the Arcade Fire live. That must be one heck of a show.

    Four shows stand out for me: Midnight Oil (Blue Sky Mining tour), Peter Gabriel (Secret World Live), Rush (any number of shows), and the Violent Femmes (Milwaukee, circa 1983ish).

  121. 121.

    rootless_e

    Ellington, Basie, Beethoven, Liszt, Zep, Debussy, Bennett, Dino, Zappa, Stones.

    I used that law firm, but the associates bill too much and the surviving partners are way past their prime.

  124. 124.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @wrb: Lyrics are overated. It’s the music part that counts. Led Zep has no peer for meat and taters rock and roll. not a one. repetitive? don’t think so.

  125. 125.

    scav

    @rootless_e:

    Ellington, Basie, Beethoven, Liszt, Zep, Debussy, Bennett, Dino, Zappa, Stones.

    I used that law firm, but the associates bill too much and the surviving partners are way past their prime.

    yeah, but the tee-shirts from their tours are stunning.

  126. 126.

    New Yorker

    @John Cole:

    Pearl Jam, The Clash, Jack White (White Stripes or Raconteurs), The Stooges, Television, Built to Spill, Tool, The Velvet Underground, My Morning Jacket, Drive-By Truckers, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Ralph Stanley, Desmond Dekker, John Coltrane, and about a billion others.

  127. 127.

    FlipYrWhig

    @K. Grant:

    Midnight Oil (Blue Sky Mining tour)

    Hey, I saw that! Lake Compounce, New Britain, Connecticut. I was in the front row and accidentally hit a very confused middle-aged dude right in the head, and then he promptly left. I loved that they closed with “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?”

  128. 128.

    J.W. Hamner

    I think the unanswered question here is whether Cole is listening to the Dead when he writes his hippy punching posts? That could explain quite a bit.

    Hot Chip, Spoon, Les Savy Fav, Pixies, New Order… basically hipster shit.

  130. 130.

    danimal

    @John Cole: Fair enough, Cole. I’m a big U2 fan, and I can read that they suck every day on this blog without the self-administered “kick me” sign.

  132. 132.

    mr. whipple

    @rootless_e:

    You do have a point: they are pretty much all DEAD, which really sucks if you wanna see them live.

    Liszt had a killer laser show, and was the first to feature a wall of sound 50 feet high, and was an innovater in the use of wahwah. Dood got more ***** than Frank Sinatra.

  133. 133.

    de stijl

    Music sucks, music is transcendent, music is unbearable, music is sublime, music wants you want to pour bleach in your ear, music makes you want to be here now forever.

    Music you love, I hate. Music I hate, you love.

    Listen to music you love and avoid music you hate.

    Seek for and find new music to love at every available opportunity.

    PS – T3h D3aD r teH SuxX0r!!1! EL3veNTy

  134. 134.

    gbear

    @New Yorker:

    I hate The White Stripes.

    Sorry, but that’s just a knee-jerk reaction I have every time someone says ‘The White Stripes’. It’s involuntary.

  136. 136.

    Steeplejack

    @gbear:

    I think my take-away from Broder’s piece, now that I’ve had a chance for the nausea to subside, is that his perspective is so “inside baseball”–party politics, who’s up, who’s down, what’s the symbolism, who’s got their finger on the pulse of “the people”–that he’s oblivious to the glaring fact that she is completely incompetent and that he should be scared shitless of her ever getting anywhere near the levers of power. Any power.

    If the last eight nine years have taught us anything, it is that the American political system doesn’t just rock along by itself because of our God-given specialness and so it doesn’t matter what idiot figurehead you install at the top.

  138. 138.

    FlipYrWhig

    @gbear: The White Stripes occasioned one of my wife’s best quips. After we saw them on Conan O’Brien, with Jack in his rodeo gear and Meg looking kind of spacey, she turned to me and said, “So, is their gimmick that they’re both supposed to be retarded?”

  140. 140.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    Once you’ve heard Dread Zeppelin’s first two albums, one of which has the best version of Stairway To Heaven you’ll ever hear, you’ll agree that the original band sucks.

  142. 142.

    Seanly

    The only thing worse than the Dead is Phish. Oh, wait… you DIDN’T want to hear about my hatred of crappy music… my bad. Pretend I didn’t say anything.

  145. 145.

    New Yorker

    @slag:

    It’s pretty good. It’s in the great middle ground of their records, where “Ten”, “Vs.” and the avocado album are great, “Yield” and “Binaural” suck, and the others are in the middle: good but not great. It’s certainly worth getting.

  146. 146.

    Mike Kay

    @beltane:

    Is there a particular reason that every single FDL diary posted on Daily Kos has an exclamation point in the title?

    For this reason alone I have come to despise these people.

    HA! Who are you talking about? Dumb or Dumber?

  147. 147.

    slag

    @John Cole: Sorry, John, I’ve always enjoyed the Dead. Uncle John’s Band is one of the best. But I also have no taste in music, so this doesn’t help your case at all.

    Other favorites: Pavement, The Clash, Ella Fitzgerald, Moby, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Janis Joplin.

  149. 149.

    Steve Balboni

    Just to taunt our host – I’m a huge Phish fan. Though zzyzx has seen a lot more shows than I have so I’m not the biggest Phish fan who reads Balloon-Juice.

  151. 151.

    kth

    There really isn’t anything hateworthy about the Grateful Dead, except the outsized devotion of their fans. Think of bands one might mention in the same breath: the Allman Brothers, the Jefferson Airplane, the Byrds, Crosby Stills Nash, Poco. No one hates any of those bands nearly as much, because none of them had this fanatical ‘community’ develop around them. It’s the insularity of that experience, the very thing that unites the fans, that also evokes the hostility from the outsiders.

  152. 152.

    chris

    The Dead made very fine records — perfectly round, usually, calibrated to play back at proper tempo and pitch at 33 1/3 rpm. The album sleeves were made of sturdy cardboard and often sported artwork that was quite pleasing visually. In short, the professionalism was there to be seen in every part of the final product.

  153. 153.

    Delia

    I always enjoy listening to the local Saturday evening radio Dead radio show, though I’ve never been a Deadhead. I used to hang out at the Dylan usenet site a lot and traded bootlegs in the days before bittorrent rendered the practice unnecessary. I downloaded artwork for well over a hundred until I realized it was getting out of hand and I just started putting the discs in notebooks. There are a lot of people who are both Dylan and Dead fans, since Bob and Jerry sang each other’s songs a lot. The usenet site for the Dead is
    rec.music.gdead. You’ll find people there who will happily give you all the help you need.

  156. 156.

    Panurge

    Marillion? The Styx of Great Britain? Early Chicago was tons more “prog” than that.

    (I did see LTE ripping on “Rhapsody In Blue” at a festival in PA last year, though. Or was it the year before? Anyway, they brought the house down with it.)

    My modern “prog” is stuff like Mats/Morgan and echolyn and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, though I’ll always carry a torch for the Old Masters. (I think I’ve even got Anthony Phillips’ latest in my Amazon cart.)

    And some 20th-Century classical, too: Bartok, Schoenberg, Stravinsky, etc. I keep listening to this Swiss guy named Frank Martin (say it in French), though–kinda like a thornier, more “serious” Francis Poulenc, if that makes any sense at all.

  157. 157.

    diane

    Posting a comment did allow me to access the home page –now the alternative balloon-juice.com/index.html doesn’t work.
    Living in a state with no snow storm –now that sucks.

  158. 158.

    Stan of the Sawgrass

    Sorry, I was watching Colbert. Mike Quigley is an opportunistic machine asshole– at least he was when I lived in Wrigleyville, ten years– no, 15– ago.
    I digress. But I’d just like to say, the Dead do indeed suck, but Phish suck infinitely worse.
    But if you really need to ‘get down’ as they say, you really need to groove with Gabon Rainforest Pygmy music. Or the Mysterious Voices of Bulgaria. Or …uh… Charlie Patton! (my god, I am SO cool!)

    Seriously, though– the Dead are great for cleaning-the-kitchen music, but Phish makes me question the whole idea of recreational drugs. Better to get out the Jerry Lee Lewis. Or if you need a long groove, there’s always Coltrane.

    PS– I’m sitting around in my shirtsleeves and shorts, but they’re saying it’s going to get down into the mid-50’s tonight. Al Gore, you lying bastard!!!

  161. 161.

    Dan Robinson

    Brubeck, Davis, Coltrane, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine

    Schubert, Beethoven, Bach

    Wallflowers/Jakob Dylan

    Jack Johnson – Traffic in the Sky

    Its enough to make me cry
    But that don’t seem like it would make it feel better
    Maybe its a dream and if I scream
    It will burst at the seams
    This whole place will fall to pieces
    And then they’d say…

    Well how could we have known?
    I’ll tell them it’s not so hard to tell
    If you keep on adding stones
    Soon the water will be lost in the well

  162. 162.

    de stijl

    …And please, I’ve dealt with about 500 emails today asking about the website…

    Mr. Cole,

    I’m here to call you out on the “site issues.” But (hopefully) constructively so.

    1. Don’t ignore the issue. More importantly, don’t appear to ignore the issue.

    Your last post on the matter was two days ago. Obviously, you are not ignoring the issue, but since you haven’t communicated anything about the problem no one has any idea what you are doing to resolve it, which makes you look like you are ignoring the problem. I realize that the resolution is likely entirely out of your control, but to the vast majority of people Balloon Juice = John Cole.

    Until the matter is resolved, every third or fourth post should be a very brief update on the issue and the actions you are taking to resolve the matter. Disable comments on the post (if you can) unless you want specific feedback that will help you with the problem.

    2. Don’t appear to be pissed off about people e-mailing you about the problem.

    In your quote above you’re very clearly venting your frustration, but you are also implicitly blaming the people who e-mailed you as being the problem.

    The issue is that many people cannot access Balloon Juice.

    That is your problem and not theirs.

    If people cannot get Balloon Juice to load properly, they are going to try to contact Mr. Balloon Juice aka John Cole. They are your friends, not your enemies – they want to read your stuff and are frustrated that they cannot.

    Ignore them at your peril.

    Blaming them (or appearing to do so) makes you look like an asshole. (Is there a constructive way of informing someone they look like an asshole?)

    3. You have devoted readers.

    They’ve searched for and found obscure and inventive ways to connect to Balloon Juice even though the default entry point did not work for them.

    Ignore them at your peril.

    Recap: Communicate, Acknowledge, Own, Communicate, YP not MP (thanks Boogie Nights!), Don’t be an asshole, Communicate. Did I mention “Communicate?’

    Constructively and respectfully,

    de stijl

  164. 164.

    el donaldo

    I don’t honestly know if Phish sucks or not because their music doesn’t exactly insist on further listening for me.

    The Dead – that’s a more complicated issue. In the 80s I was a punk rocker that hung around deadheads because they had good drugs and I respected their devotion to underground economies, and I gained a serious respect for the Dead as archivists of American folk music in the songs and melodies they pillaged from the past with abandon to write their own music.

    I’m not saying the Dead weren’t original: in fact, they were more original than most bands of that era in that they consciously stole from a wide variety of excellent music rather than being stupidly derivative of a lesser selection.

    Even now, much, much older, it’s fun to run into the deadheads at bluegrass festivals and either instruct or learn from them on American music history.

  171. 171.

    burnspbesq

    Saw the Dead four or five times. One show, at Laguna Seca race track in about 1986 with Bruce Hornsby sitting in, was magical. The others were borrrrrrrring.

    Of all the stuff I listened to in the 70s, very little of it still works. Feat. Two Bruces (Cockburn and Springsteen). The first Terence Boylan record. Tony Rice. TALKING HEADS!!!

  172. 172.

    ssmug

    I didn’t read through the whole thread, but for my shows, I like using scans of the tickets or laminates from the show.

    Great resource here: http://www.psilo.com/dead/

    Also, to save time on ripping and encoding, might be easier to just download the shows from Archive.org…

    p.s. to everyone: remember always, your favorite band sucks. ;)

  173. 173.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @de stijl: Or just say “Fuck it” and walk off from the site, since we aren’t paying for it, and gratuitous advice like this is really insulting.

  175. 175.

    Danton

    I saw the Dead for the first time in November 1968 at Fillmore East when I was a sophomore in high school.

    I think they were really good that night, but I don’t remember it.

  176. 176.

    JoeK

    @gbear:

    As I’m sure John knew when he posted:

    Uncorrected personality traits that seem whimsical in a child [or a BJ commenter] may prove to be ugly in a fully-grown adult [or in a serious thread].

  177. 177.

    Gus

    @The Moar You Know: Saw about a dozan shows and it was probably 8 great 3 meh and the last one, two months before Jerry died was horrible. Not only was the show horrible, but the vibe was not good. A couple thousand deadbeats showed up, broke through the fences, overturned portapotties with people still in them. Just an ugly scene. You could tell it was nearing the end. The great shows were great enough (and I was high enough) to allow me to forgive even the horrible show.

  178. 178.

    Gus

    @The Moar You Know: Saw about a dozan shows and it was probably 8 great 3 meh and the last one, two months before Jerry died was horrible. Not only was the show horrible, but the vibe was not good. A couple thousand deadbeats showed up, broke through the fences, overturned portapotties with people still in them. Just an ugly scene. You could tell it was nearing the end. The great shows were great enough (and I was high enough) to allow me to forgive even the horrible show.

  179. 179.

    Alan in SF

    John — I recommend a fractal generator program, a setlist, and a photo from the appropriate era. Roll your own!

  180. 180.

    whiskey Reader

    gotta make it somehow
    on the dreams you still believe
    don’t give it up
    you got an empty cup
    only love can fill

    Fill it up, Mister Cole! (but probably not from most of these comments :P )

  182. 182.

    Sean

    Sweet jeebers – saying that the dead suck is pretty fucking boring. Saying any band sucks is boring. De gustibus non est disputandum, party people.

    Saw my first show on June 30, 1985. Totally hooked after that. John Cole – check out that show (epic Shakedown) and the following night, which is pretty amazing front to back. That is, if you happen to enjoy some tasty nuggets of dead music. If not, don’t listen to it.

    [caveat to first paragraph: Phish fucking sucks]

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