Otis Gibbs elicites a great interview with Ray Benson of Asleep At The Wheel!

@stuartk: I never said The Dead copied The Band. And I’m well aware of Garcia’s musical roots. I bought the Old & in The Way album when in was released in 1973 (and felt it was rather mediocre), and have played "Friend Of The Devil" in a band, a great song. I saw The Dead live in 1967, and had their debut album released that year.

What I HAVE said, including in this thread, is that while the musical style of a lot of Rock bands in ’67/’68/’69---including The Dead---had moved in one direction---very long songs, improvisation, psychedelic explorations---out of nowhere comes this album---Music From Big Pink (and it’s successor the brown album), which was music in a very different style. As was Dylan’s John Wesley Harding, released in December of ’67.

By the time Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty were released in 1970, there was a burgeoning "back-to-the-roots" movement (McCartney was inspired to do the Get Back album and movie), and it was in that environment that those two Dead albums were released. Kinda late to the party.

My point is not that anyone was copying anyone else (though there was some of that), but rather that it was The Band (and a few others) who "righted the ship", so to speak. As Clapton said about Music Big Pink: "Music had been headed in the wrong direction for a long time (including his band Cream? ), and when I heard it I thought, well, someone has finally got it right." I share that opinion.

The Band and The Dead did a tour together across---ironically---Canada, traveling by train. And both did tours acting as Dylan’s backing band, with double albums chronicling the shows. A comparison of the two releases tells you a lot about the abilities of the two bands.

Oops, I should have also mentioned The Band’s followup, 1969’s s/t album (the "brown" album), perhaps even more influential (according to Bernie Taupin, the inspiration and model for Elton’s Tumbleweed Connection). I have listened to that album more than any other in my music library, and is my choice for the best album ever made.

Yeah, this is ancient history, but those two Band albums cast a very long shadow, and a lot of the best (imo) music being made today was in part inspired by them. While lots of music made in 1968 and ’69 sounds comically dated, the first two Band albums still sound fresh, timeless. If I could own only two albums, it would be Music From Big Pink and it’s s/t followup.

And yours?

And for good measure, another where Ray discusses Merle Haggard (and other related topics):

https://youtu.be/zmvmglHiO6A?si=fiprzZXkto3HLPdZ

In this video, Ray mentions Merle Haggard buying Left Frizzell’s Gibson J-200 for $150,000. For those who think my over-estimation of the effect on the direction of Rock music by the release of The Band’s 1968 debut album Music From Big Pink, consider this:

In the height of the psychedelic movement, The Band included a cover of Lefty’s "The Long Black Veil" on that album. That album followed Bob Dylan’s John Wesley Harding, released six months earlier. Remember, the Grateful Dead’s "reaction" to those two albums appeared two years later.

I rest my case.