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There's actually this moment in Freaks and Geeks, the Judd Apatow-produced show from the '90s, where the main character is really struggling to fit in, and her hippie guidance counselor gives her a copy of American Beauty. But American Beauty is a very accessible entryway into the Dead's music. Gomez Sarmiento: For young people, it can be really intimidating to get into the hundreds and hundreds of archives of live recordings. And of course, Jerry Garcia, as a guitarist, I think he epitomized what concert promoter Bill Graham once said about the Grateful Dead: "They're not the best at what they do, they're the only ones who do what they do." That's what it means for our generation - but what about for your generation, the younger generation? What is it for you about this album specifically? So what was it like, going to see the Dead perform live?Ĭontreras: It was that spirit of adventure and the spirit of improvisation that always, always spoke to me. Hear the radio version at the audio link, and read on for an edited transcript. 1, 1970, and lined with back-to-back classics that earned them the title of the great American jam band, stands out from all the rest.įor American Beauty's 50th anniversary, Felix and I had another one of our chats - this time over Zoom, given the times - about the long, strange trip of how this album made its way into both of our lives. Many bonafide Deadheads would say it's not even worth bothering with the studio recordings. There are countless versions of the Grateful Dead to tap into, hundreds of bootlegs and remastered live recordings to queue up. And for Felix, it's intriguing to see how a generation of people born after Jerry Garcia's death in 1995 still find their way to these songs.
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But I'm still fascinated by the stories of the people who were there from the very beginning. I hopped on the bus, metaphorically speaking, and started going to shows. That opportunity manifested in the creation of Dead & Company that same year, in which surviving members Weir, Kreutzmann and Hart were joined by John Mayer, Oteil Burbridge and Jeff Chimenti to keep playing the Dead's music to packed-out arenas and amphitheaters.
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I fell into the Dead from a completely different path: I was a bored teenager looking for something weird and exciting to consume my newfound free time when I graduated high school in 2015. Music Features Robert Hunter's Words Helped Bring Life To The Grateful Dead As an avid jazz head, he learned to appreciate the Dead from a technical standpoint: the synchronicities in Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir's guitar playing, the percussive partnership of Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart, the band's collective ability to improvise for hours on end.
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He grew up during their heyday - the golden dreamscape of California in the '70s and '80s. That coffee turned into an hour-long conversation on the office patio - not about Alt.Latino or anything work-related, but about what we discovered was a shared affinity for the music of the Grateful Dead.įelix and I come to the Dead's discography from two completely different backgrounds. When I started working at NPR last year, I asked Alt.Latino host Felix Contreras if we could grab a quick coffee to talk about his show, of which I was a long-time listener. Grateful Dead's American Beauty (seen here in a 50th anniversary edition from Rhino Entertainment) is the shared obsession of two NPR staffers born decades apart.