Long live "Crazy Fingers" from the Blues for Allah album. What a fine melody, and fun to play along with.
Long live "Crazy Fingers" from the Blues for Allah album. What a fine melody, and fun to play along with.
great tune. always one of my fav. dead tunes from what i think was there most innovative and as for the masses/ music industry- underrated. i've picked around a bit trying to mimic the melody, but never really tried it out. are you playing the melody or chords wehn you mess with it? if so, what key/chords are you using???
I've mostly been trying to play the same notes as Jerry's vocal,using a little tremelo from time to time. Such a pretty melody.
I'm gradually figuring out some chords. Where the vocal comes in at the beginning, it goes D (Your rain), C (falls like crazy), G (fingers). Then it goes to B-flat (pearls of fragile), Fmajor (thunder), Fminor (keeping), G (time). Still working on the rest -- I hope that helps.
Two things that just go together nicely, The Grateful Dead and the Mandolin!
Thanks for posting.
2003 Gibson A5L
2012 Gibson Custom Advanced Jumbo
2005 Gibson 'True Vintage' Original Jumbo
1920 Bacon Open Back
anyone know where i can get tabs to those songs
I've been working on the usual Ripple, Uncle John's Band and Friend of the Devil. There used to be a String Cheese Incident website that had a couple of tabs for dead songs.
Try chordie for Dead tabs, the Dead's music is perfect for mandolin if you ask me!
- Thanks to all of you out there
HLS
I agree with that one. I've been messing with a bunch recently with the guys from the band. I go to this site for the chords. Any Dead fan knows there's a million tunes to choose from. One recently I've been messing with is "Mississippi Half Step." What a great progression. Does anyone have any advice on scales to use over that progression? I understand why there's so many Dead cover bands...it's so much fun to play the music if you're a fan!
Of course this is a Rock catagory but we played 5 dead tunes at a bluegrass jam last week. I worked well.
Like "Friend Of The Devil" ... we do that one
I Pick, Therefore I Grin! ... "Good Music Any OLD-TIME"
1922 Gibson F2
2006 Gibson F5 Goldrush
2015 Martin HD28-V
2017 Gibson J45
You can hear Yank Rachell, Gus cannon, and Noah Lewis (What a band!) playing New Minglewood Blues with mandolin.
"Friend of the Devil" was written by Peter Rowan for Old and In the Way, the Bluegrass band for which Jerry Garcia played Banjo. It drifted from their. The Dead have a lot of songs that are perfect for Bluegrass because Jerry was a Bluegrasser first (before he became a grasser).
George Wilson
Weber Bighorn Mandolin
ca. 1900 Clifford Mandolinetto
Martin Guitars
I thought FOTD was a Robert Hunter Tune. Didn't know Peter Rowan (who is da man), wrote much with Jerry and crew.
Besides that, I think there are some live shows from archive.com that have Grisman on a tune or 2 from 1970. Probably around the American Beauty recordings. Which was before Old and in the Way, BTW.
"Friend of the Devil" was written by Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, and John "Marmaduke" Dawson (from NRPS). It was released on the Dead's "American Beauty" album in November 1970. David Grisman played mandolin on the studio recording. The Dead first started playing the song in concert in Feb of 1970. As far as I know, Peter Rowan had nothing to do with the song.
Come on George......get out your LP copy of American Beauty, where it lists Garcia, John Dawson from NRPS, and Robert Hunter as co-authors.
jefflester beat me to it........
Last edited by SternART; Sep-17-2008 at 12:13pm. Reason: because I could't delete, and I was just repeating another post
Mountains of the Moon is cool to do. Imitating the harpsichord(sp?) is perferct for the mando.
Anyone have the standard notation for Ripple? I found the chords easily enough, but I'm looking to really be able to nail the melody line correctly. Thanks!
Good Dead resources:
http://www.rukind.org/ - TAB
Greatful Dead Lyrics and Song search. This site allows you to search for songs by each member of the dead and any solo project.
Steve B.
Gibson F-9
Epiphone MM30 (the beater)
Trinity College OM
I've found the notation for [I]Ripple.[I] As it was, the congregation's cantor had it in his study.
On the guitar the melody for the Ripple rif is easy because you can do it right out of the chords. Dont' know it for the mando.
Ya, we do friend of the devil at BG jam. I like to do it better at folk jams. It seems like when people do the song at a BG jam, they don't know where to put in breaks. It's funny to listen to the start cause everyone starts noodling in all directions in the lead in chords. It's better as an arrainged tune than a jam tune IMHO.
Also, some BG jams have some folks that prefer gospel. I've seen it make a few folks uncomfortable cause the title tends to run counter to their beliefs. No one has ever said anything cause they are trying to be cool but I can catch a bit of a vibe. However, no one every says anything about murder ballads. I could do without those.
Try here-- http://www.deaddisc.com/GDFD_Songbooks.htm
I picked up ones title Grateful Dead (Working Mans and American Beauty) and Grateful Dead Vol 2 (Blues for Allah and Wake of the Flood) along with the Anthology back when I was in college. If you read notation or just want the chords and lyrics, these are fine. The illustrations in the first volume are great too.
My faves these days from the Book of the Dead are Help on the Way/Slipknot/Franklin's Tower out of Em and Shakedown Street in Dm. In the JGB area, I'm having lots of fun lately with That's What Love Will Make You Do and a Dear Prudence out of A that jams into a Dani California in Am.
anyone figure out the intro riff to the tune and the riff/progression to the chorus for dark star (mando, guitar, anything?
My fave Dead tune for mando is Space
Bad joke...
I think Dark Star is mostly out of A, would have to re-visit that one. My all-time regret is that Garcia didn't use Dawg on the old Compliments record, particularly on Russian Lullabye. Seemed like a natch.
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