Barney the purple dinosaur taught my generation to share. He taught us to be nice to other people, and in 1993 he showed us all that he can play a righteous bass guitar. Yes, on April Fool’s day childhood icon Barney joined Jerry, Bob and the rest of the Grateful Dead on stage at the Nassau Coliseum.
Whoa man... It's Barney...
The gentleman in the costume was hired from an entertainment franchise to come entertain the children of the band and crew that were in tow for the show. Because Barney was a trademarked figure, he was instructed to under no circumstances appear on stage. However, when Lesh asked the gentleman to go onstage wielding a bass guitar as an April Fool spoof, he could not say no. While Barney went on to play a song and adjust the amp stacks instead of Phil, Phil sat just offstage and played bass. To everyone, it appeared that Barney was playing the bass to “Iko Iko”. To anyone, Barney playing bass is hilarious and probably very, very epic. But these were no ordinary fans. The fans witnessing this greatness were Dead Heads: the largest fan base of any single rock band, known to travel coast to coast over decades following their favorite band in the land. As one who has witnessed deadheads in full swing, there is a lot of marijuana involved, so I wonder how many seriously thought Barney was jamming out or just had their minds blown wide open…just a thought. Another thought, the video shows the children watching as their hero jams out. Anyone wanna bet the TV show never again lived up to their expectations?
Okay okay... if you are anything more than a casual fan of any (or probably both) of these artists, you’ve probably heard of this one, and heard its bad reviews. However, because of the reviews few fans have bought the album, and there is a severe lack of videos on Youtube, which is why I include it in this column. (The dearth of videos actually caused me to use Chinese and Bulgarian Youtubes while researching this one further) On one hand, this surprised me, I mean, it’s Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead, both artists have attained and expanded their states beyond superstardom. On the other hand, the 80’s were a hard decade for Dylan: critics, who were never very kind to him about his voice, just got more ammo, and his albums got bad reviews, ESPECIALLY around this time (his 1988 album Down in the Groove was his second consecutive to get unanimous bad reviews, and tops Rolling Stone’s list of “15 worst albums by great artists” list). The only thing I can say about the Dead is Jerry’s on-again-off-again relationship with heroin, but I don’t think it affected this tour as much as others. Critics called this “possibly the worst album by either Dylan or the Dead”. Even if, and only if, this is true, it doesn't say much, as one would be hard pressed to find an oustandlingly poor album in either discographies. They are all damn near masterpieces. So what is a poor-er masterpiece when compared the world is full of the all-dancing crap that cycles around the charts today? Greatness.
But from what I can gather, either I have bad taste or critics simply set their standards too high and felt uppity about themselves for trying to knock trans-generational icons down a peg. I mean sure, Bob Dylan reached a commercial peak in 1966. This was 1987, and Dylan wasn’t the same person as he was in ’66, or as he was during a rebirth of live a rockin' tiger-blood-oozing Dylan in ’75 ,and he didn’t want to be. His voice had changed, his style had changed, and he was embracing it. An open-minded fan can see his genius and versatility with style over his whole career. This said, when you hear the name “Dylan and the Dead” you automatically expect greatness squared, you expect Zeus and Jupiter riding on giant golden dragons, tag-teaming the world, and such greatness is a little unfair to expect out of a varied group of mortal humans, especially ones on tour who all have other worries on their minds. Also, Dylan aside, when has Jerry Garcia and the boys ever let a crowd down? Not very often, and certaintly not here. The performances are not exactly “pantheon” material. They do not compare with the legendary Dylan live albums, or the Dead ones, but with the mix, they are in a category to themselves. I enjoyed them, and any fan would if they give it an open-minded listen. Just like anything else on this column: come better or worse, it’s at least worth checking out. The conquistadors heard all these stories and legends, but never found El Dorado. Cities of gold are sometimes too good to be true, but you’d be amazed what you find on the way there.
Okay okay... if you are anything more than a casual fan of any (or probably both) of these artists, you’ve probably heard of this one, and heard its bad reviews. However, because of the reviews few fans have bought the album, and there is a severe lack of videos on Youtube, which is why I include it in this column. (The dearth of videos actually caused me to use Chinese and Bulgarian Youtubes while researching this one further) On one hand, this surprised me, I mean, it’s Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead, both artists have attained and expanded their states beyond superstardom. On the other hand, the 80’s were a hard decade for Dylan: critics, who were never very kind to him about his voice, just got more ammo, and his albums got bad reviews, ESPECIALLY around this time (his 1988 album Down in the Groove was his second consecutive to get unanimous bad reviews, and tops Rolling Stone’s list of “15 worst albums by great artists” list). The only thing I can say about the Dead is Jerry’s on-again-off-again relationship with heroin, but I don’t think it affected this tour as much as others. Critics called this “possibly the worst album by either Dylan or the Dead”. Even if, and only if, this is true, it doesn't say much, as one would be hard pressed to find an oustandlingly poor album in either discographies. They are all damn near masterpieces. So what is a poor-er masterpiece when compared the world is full of the all-dancing crap that cycles around the charts today? Greatness.