The manner in which the basic tracks on their studio albums turned into their legendary group improvisations are relatively analogous to the role that the Written Torah and the Oral Torah have played in the evolution and perpetuation of Jewish law and wisdom.ADDED: "If you don't know the word shuckle, you probably still know what it is!"
The Grateful Dead’s policy since the very beginning of allowing fans to tape their concerts, even setting aside taping areas and permitting bootleggers to plug right into their sound console, merely served to encourage the dissemination of The Dead’s “oral tradition,” as if they were religious disquisitions by Hasidic rebbes....
The kind of “noodle dancing” one typically witnesses at a Grateful Dead concert has often been likened to the active shuckling seen in enthusiastic Jewish prayer....
June 29, 2015
"The Secret Jewish History of The Grateful Dead."
Seth Rogovoy explains in Foward. It's not just that Mickey Hart was Jewish. It's:
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Not significant.
I doubt many Dead fans are in dancing condition any more.
More significant is the role of Grateful Dead fandom in starting up and popularizing the WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) BBS system, significant predecessor of Internet social network systems.
WELL never prospered on the actual Internet, but it was much copied.
Shuckling? I believe we used to call that davening, back in the day.
Oy vey. And let us not forget the secret history of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and farting.
Nope, not I.
I always found Dead music boring.
I always thought the Grateful Dead produced some nice riffs.
Was it worthy of dead dancing??
No.
Whirling dervishes come to mind. People that can release endorphins with little effort.
Because there's nuthin' the rabbis thought improved their mad midrashic skilz like dropping some blotter acid, man!
Oy gevalt, but sadly, par for the course for The Forward.
Jerry Garcia's been dead almost 20 years. He died a few days before Mickey Mantle. They had a lot in common.
I once had sex with a female Grateful Dead fan the morning after she had attended the concert.
By "the morning after she had attended the concert" I mean I found her wandering into traffic the next morning during rush hour: she was twirling and pointing at Epic Sky Things only she could see, but she hopped into the back seat for a cigarette and a Promise that I was not 'The Man.'
Back on the road, she proceeded to explain how the Grateful Dead had two drummers, grooving: One who drummed to the hum of the Universe and One who drummed to the Beat of the Earth, then she asked if I had any 'Suck Candy.'
Intrigued about 'Suck Candy', I asked her for more specifics and sadly discovered she just meant LifeSavers.
We stopped at a Texaco in Stockton, bought some LifeSavers and she sucked my cock.
I wish it was a better story. Sorry.
I am Laslo.
I have this recurring dream, see. I walk through a Grateful Dead jam noodling session straight into an NPR Putumayo world music telethon straight into a Pete Seegeresque/Beatles tribute band/mariachi rendition of 'This Land Is Your Land' at the Kennedy compound.
But I can't wake up, see. It's like a great big, white Minnesota diversity dance-off to Prince broke out at the Sousa concert behind the amphitheatre. Turns out the whole dream is taking place at a big fundraising dinner at the U.N. and everybody's black tie but naked from the waist down.
I'm not sleeping so good, people.
I wonder in the entire history of Dead gatherings if anyone ever showed up who could actually dance and if so, did they pretend they couldn't just to get with the spirit of the moment?
Sure, yeah: I get it. You only want to hear the Paula Abdul story.
Perhaps.
I am Laslo.
I have never been a dead fan. When I was a student, bands of roving deadheads would camp out all over berkeley when the dead were in town. One year they gained access to my building's laundry facilities and stole some of my personal items. Laslo: what year was it and where was the show she was coming from? I ask because if it was berkeley, only an hour from Stockton, there's a slight chance she could have been wearing my underwear. And what a small and creepy world that would be.
I like some of their recorded songs, but you weren't really a deadhead unless you could listen to ten versions of Dark Star in a row without once fidgeting or yawning. Probably something to do with chronic pot usage, I thought Dark Star was duller than Ravi Shankur, but I liked some of their songs. I wouldn't devote my life to following them around the country just to hear the definitive version of Trucking, but there were a lot of attractive and interesting girls in their fan base. So maybe the experience wasn't a complete waste.
Buwaya
I had forgotten The WELL. That was an interesting platform, group, cabal, very interesting. Had forgotten it completely. Has it vanished?
Incompetent, ungainly dancing. That's all. I watched with the sound off.
The way The Grateful Dead breathe air, drink water and pee is reminiscent of the way Rabinnical scholars breathed air, drank water and peed.
Tue Jewish people are also quite experienced with Truckin', although not always voluntarily.
I always hated the Grateful Dead...based on the very limited amount of their music I have been able to listen to before shouting "MAKE IT STOOOOPPPPP!!!"
Not a big Dead fan, although I did enjoy the one concert of theirs I went to in Jersey City. One unique aspect was the naked dancing (no, I did not participate).
Also saw Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir jam with the Allman Brothers in NYC the year after Duane passed away. I thought that brought out the best in Garcia (being on stage with Dickey Betts (in his prime)) and having to keep up. That was some hot guitar.
I know FOR A FACT that The Dead only ate kosher shrooms. I learned this reading The Protocals of the Hippies of Zion. And that Lazlo is as an itinerant Kabbalist.
kzookitty
Q: What did the deadhead say when he ran out of weed?
A: Damn, this music sucks.
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