I've been on a two week kick where all I can listen to is the Dead. I love it.
Anyone else a fan?

Definitely! I used to have shit tons of shows on tape. I was a huge nerd!

dirty hippies.

I never looked the part, and the dirty hippies would not accept me.

Yeah, not so much the scene, but the band itself is fun. Having all of it on an mp3 player changes the experience a great deal, too.

Then there's the imagery; skull and roses, steal your face, the dancing bears...

The imagery is what I loved more than anything. I remember not even listening to them when I was really young--like mid-80s--yet thinking the skulls & bears were so damn awesome!!

As a dirty old punk I have to say that I've always harbored a great appreciation for the Dead. I did have the lucky fortune of seeing them on one of the last tours they did and have continued to listen to their music to this day.

"Ripple" could be one of the best and understated songs of all time.

WTF?!

damn starry-eyed crusty hippies!!!

never really listened to them..although as young upstart i indulged in the guilty pleasure of skating & checking out the parking lot freak scene at the jfk(philly) & giants stadium summer shows for a couple summers running..living off the fruits of the land

Hey what's red and yellow and looks great on hippies??


Give up?


FIRE!

I saw 'em many times, but remember going to one Dead show with a magenta mohawk wearing an offensive Psychic TV t-shirt and gothy ear piercings. I stuck out like a sore thumb but the Heads couldn't have been any sweeter. People would walk up to me, offer a toke or some conversation or whatever just to make sure I knew I was welcome. I went to most shows with some friends, but a few by myself, and every time, people would friend up with me for the whole show. Cool people, not scary like the negative stereotypes. Despite all the trippyness and the dirty hippie element, it was an incredibly unique vibe to their scene, lots of creativity, organization, and true altruism and generosity permeating the whole thing. And of course the band put on a great show, great American roots-based jam music. I grew up with a decidedly anti-Dead punk attitude and boy was I wrong. The hippy jokes are inevitable but the fact is that their audience was and is very broad.

never liked 'em, maybe I'm missing out.

My best friend now has a terrible, terrible secret...a dancing bear tattoo on his ankle! He tries to pass himself off as a greasy old skate punk, but I know the truth!

I started out fascinated by the freak scene and had to see a few shows before I really "got it" and now I go through these occasional listening binges. I thought it would be neat to see the response around here since we all seem to share a certain visual sensibility that the band incorporates. Then the music happens and people part ways. Hippy jokes are always fun, anyhow.

ha, dean. I was the same way. I hated the dead all through out high school because just the idea of that band and their fans clashed with my doc martens and suspenders. of course, i was just as dress code oriented towards punk poseurism as any high school deadhead was to the cliche, patchouli stink that scent-marked their fellows.

Upon exposure to them around 19, I started listening and didn't stop for a couple of years. I journeyed from the radio singles to the roots traditional Americana and found the group to have an intelligent focus and deep catalog. The members of the band are also pretty fascinating. There's this one book by a roadie that is incredible.

Haven't listened to them within any regularity for probably 6-7 years. I still appreciate them, but horizons do broaden into forever and I've moved on in certain ways.

That's what I thought until recently. Maybe this is what Jerry's talking about in "Dark Star"

I have to admit I hadn't even considered the excellence of the audience, even though I've sat among them enough times. It saddens me to think how that congregation will never occur again, or at least here on the East Coast where the scene has degraded. I guess it's a good thing I was curious enough at the time or I never would have known.