Good mornin Family
Another cool mornin here, 29 right now, I was outside with no shirt soakin up the sun about a week or so ago, crazy weather
I hope everyone is stayin well and havin a great day
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Jerry Garcia Was A Huge Ally To The Beach Boys When Many Other Famous Musicians And Musical Insiders Abandoned The Group :
The Legendary Jerry Garcia has now been gone over 27 years, yet his impact on music remains as relevant as ever.
What many Beach Boys fans don’t know is that not only was Jerry a fan of the band, he was also one of their biggest allies during one of their most difficult periods of making music.
In the early 1970s hardly anyone wanted to be associated with anything having to do with The Beach Boys. Not only would many radio stations refuse to play their records, many bands wanted no part of them either, especially to team up for concerts.
There was even a story that the band’s manager Jack Rieley talked about where they had to promote the narrative that it was “cool again” to listen to The Beach Boys after hearing the story of a fan in a record store who was trying to hide a copy of the band’s 1971 album “Surf’s Up” in between a Jethro Tull and a Led Zeppelin album, obviously embarrassed that he wanted to purchase it. (Man have we come a long way. Feel Flows Box Set.)
One band that was an exception was The Grateful Dead. Not only did the band and especially Jerry Garcia welcome the group with open arms to play a couple shows with them (in 1971 and 1974) he also promoted the “Smiley Smile” album to the music world better than Capitol Records did.
Not only was “Smiley Smile” one of Jerry’s favorite albums, he would also give the record as a gift to many of his friends and musical peers. That could be one reason that he was so willing to allow The Beach Boys play a show with The Dead in 1971 that not only introduced the band to a whole new fan base, but also made the group reassess the way they were doing concerts up to that point.
As The Beach Boys’ manager Jack Rieley stated at the time after the band’s performance with The Grateful Dead they changed their concert set lists to represent more artistic statements than just 45 minutes of the early “surf and car” hits. Jerry and The Grateful Dead definitely had a lot to do with that. Which led to what many fans (including myself) feel was the best live era for The Beach Boys.
A few years after that The Beach Boys would team up again to play a show with The Grateful Dead during their legendary “Wall Of Sound” era, which was offered to The Beach Boys to use during their opening set, yet the band declined since they brought their own sound system.
Usually when the average music fan thinks of The Beach Boys and The Grateful Dead they don’t really see a connection. Yet there definitely was one, and in many ways Jerry Garcia was a true unsung hero for The Beach Boys at a time they needed help the most.
#beachboysbeatles101