jackson@curium.DEC (Seth Jackson) (07/30/85)
Funny that this Brent discussion has come up on the net, as this was a main topic of conversation among a bunch of us during the summer tour. I guess my friends and I are among the Deadheads who haven't fully accepted Brent as a legitimate member of the Dead. Here's why. Obviously, Brent is a very well-trained, competent keyboard player. I don't know what his background is, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if I was told that he graduated with honors at a fine music school. He's very good at following along with the band and filling in nice musical sounds around the other instruments. He doesn't, however, strike me as being particularly creative or soulful. If he has exerted any influence on the band at all, it has been to push them more in the direction of pop, which is not the direction I really want to see them headed. The other band members all learned their style by living through weirdness and experimentation, and this shows in their music as that Grateful Dead "magic". Brent sounds as though he learned his style through traditional music study, and, although he sounds good with the other musicians, rarely adds "magic" of his own. T.C. and Keith, on the other hand, were cut from the same mold as the rest of the band. I shudder to imagine what the Dead would be into these days if they had somehow managed to get T.C. to rejoin the band after Keith left. That would be too cosmic for the mind to comprehend! I guess this is a good time to put in a word about Keith. I can't stand hearing people say that Keith did nothing but sit behind his grand piano. This may have been true during his last 2 years, but, please listen to some tapes between 1972-1977 before you criticize Keith. The energy that that guy brought to the Dead was amazing! When I saw my first Dead show in 1973, I came away thinking of the Dead's music as being centered around the piano. And it was that show that turned me into the raving Deadhead I've been ever since! Keith was not limited to just the grand piano. Listen to The Great American Music Hall tape from '75 for some hot Keith on electric keyboards, or Springfield '77 to hear some cosmic Keith on synthesizer. So, what's the conclusion? Who cares, the Dead aren't going to listen to me, anyway. But I have heard rumors of a Brent solo album, and it supposedly has a lot of commercial potential. I hope it's true, 'cause if he had a hit record, then they'd have to kick him out of the band and find someone else. Could you imagine a Dead show flooded with teenie boppers who came to hear Brent? __ "One man gathers what another man spills" Seth Jackson dec-curium!jackson
spp@ucbvax.ARPA (Stephen P Pope) (08/01/85)
Seth Jackson's sentiments on Brent and Keith pretty much
correspond to my own. As with Seth, deadheads of my personal
acquaintance have never really accepted Brent as a member of
the band.
For those of you without tape collections who would like
to be exposed some excellent examples of Keith's piano playing,
try listening to sides 5 and 6 of Europe 72. Most people agree
though that by the time Keith left the group he was not worth
much musically.
I have personally never liked Brent's keyboard playing,
singing or stage appearance. But don't just take my word for
it. Most of the concerts I've been to of late, the rest of
the dead are paying very little attention to Brent. The
occasional Brent solos and Brent songs (unfortunately increasing
in number as the years go by) seem to be more the result of
an executive decision than of musical interest. On rare occasions
Brent actually gets into something with Jerry or one of the
other dead, and at these times I find him fairly interesting.
But it looks to me like his major musical purpose is to
provide rhythmical and chordal filler that the Dead seem
to require these days.
It is interesting to note that in times past,
mainly 1970 and 71, the Dead would go through most of
their material with no keyboard accompaniment at all.
Perhaps they would not be able to hold together so well
these days with no keyboards, but I for one would love
to see them try.
steve pope (ucbvax!spp)