Grateful Dead "Help on the Way~Slipknot~Franklins Tower" 9/10/91 New York NY

The Grateful Dead with Branford Marsalis and Bruce Hornsby perform "Help on the Way~Slipknot!~Franklin's Tower" on September 10, 1991 at Madison Square Garden
in New York, NY. Brought to you by Less Than Face Productions.

[@mindfulnavigators1918]

30 years ago today! A classic

[@JD-pg1qs]

Jerry and branford soloing together like a serpent chasing its own tail

[@robertkramer41]

Phil on lead bass

[@DennisCampbell777]

I love this crispy soundboard. What a great mix!

[@yvonnelaurenty6427]

Clearly Brandon hasn't practiced and may or even know these tunes, but isn't it wonderful how he steps back and takes a minute to see where they're going before he chimes in with his great runs? And it's obvious that they're all listening to each other - wonderful interplay with the piano and horn on Franklin's Tower especial!y. Phil is kickin' it throughout. And Jerry is enjoying the hell out of it all. Marvelous!

[@davidjordan2011]

It's "Branford," actually (but who's picking nits; obviously only me). Marsalis gave a very appreciative interview of his several sessions with the Dead. He respected the Deadheads for listening attentively to his group's performance as an opening act. Anyone who wants to view it can find it on KZbin using the search terms "branford marsalis grateful dead".

[@carolynnoelswenson8257]

They loved playing w each other

[@jironthunder7519]

Branford is so genius and such a natural fit to the band! they almost orchestrating ttheir playing to ensure no roes get stepped on

[@joshuateubanks4302]

So Cool.

[@Zootallures100]

Sin amor en el sueño nunca se hará realidad. Kook Acid

[@FryingBurritoBro]

This is the good stuff!!!

[@danieljaspen1393]

The smile on Branford's face when he pulls away from the horn at about 15:30........

[@steverichards2419]

And Branford very visibly enjoys the characteristic little run Garcia plays just after 16:40 and shares his enjoyment with Bruce...

[@kingsleyzissou5375]

Thank you so very much!

[@LessThanFaceProductions1]

He is the Zissou!

[@drschoeps]

Happy 30th to this show!

[@BuddyWillis]

Sweet!

[@robertkramer41]

Try the Terminal Passage channel, lots of 70s fusion from Japan, Kawasaki, Suzuki and nothing to do with cars. You'll love it.

[@hirammclarenbecker2362]

Ha, yeah, that channel is legit.

[@done1675]

Jerry clearly loved leading that band.

[@STLMarcelli]

Me personally, sound guy would have turn Jerry's mic just a smidgen😢

[@robertbuzby7357]

a sweeter form has ne'er been heard...

[@sunnysweden7170]

a truer comment has ne'er been posted...

[@1173536]

Lmao

[@ladyfingersdippedinmoonlight]

On the Helpslipnot vibes.

[@daviddemar8749]

A. Bob is outclassed here B. Why is branford so low down in the mix and why didn't the rest of the band leave more " space" for him to fit into in each song?

[@steverichards2419]

Bob outclassed? - Out of the 5 musicians, Marsalis, Garcia, Lesh, Hornby and Weir, I wouldn't argue he comes 5th, but it's pretty stellar company, and I don't know of another rhythm guitarist who would complement the others so well. Admittedly he and Welnick are pretty much relegated to a supporting role, and there certainly isn't a lot of 'space' for anyone. That was always the case with late Dead (Brent Mydland's synthesisers often filled up too much space too, and blurred Weir's rhythmic and harmonic subtlety), and if you add an extra keyboard and a saxophone to the mix the sound will inevitably get a bit thick. Well, maybe it's not inevitable, but to avoid it you'd have to rehearse, and as others have said the joy of this is that it is clearly spontaneous. Of course, it would sound a lot better in a less muddy recording.

[@daviddemar8749]

@@steverichards2419 First belated merry Christmas and i wish you and your family a safe and happy new year. I grant that you make a bunch of good points . Perhaps my comment was too harsh and born out of frustration. Full disclosure- ive been a hobbyist guitarist on and off all for fifty years. Since 1980 when i became a Grateful Dead fan ive heen unsuccessful in trying to fgure out Bob's unique rhythm guitar playing.style. It's clear to me that he uses a huge amount of inversions i.e. non standard chord voicings played in a variety of positions all over the fretboard. I just bleeping hate it when poor audio and or video makes it impossible for me to see and or hear what he's doing, like in this video. Consequently, i was cranky when i wrote my comment. As i noted above, you have a lot of insight .Do you play a musical.instrument? It's never too late to start! P.S. when i try to explain the Dead's music /performances to non fans i ofen tell them that the Grateful Dead are jazz musicians masquerading as a rock and roll band. 😊🎼🎵🎵🎵🎶🎶🎵🎸❤🇺🇸

[@steverichards2419]

@@daviddemar8749 Happy Christmas to you too, and thanks for the full reply. I'm not a musician, though I have a lot of friends who are, and I've always listened to a lot of all kinds of music. I first heard the Dead (on record) in 1970, and Bob Weir wasn't quite fully formed as a guitarist then. You can hear him developing enormously in confidence and sophistication between Live Dead and Europe 72. He was young when he joined so his entire musical education and development was basically learning how to fill in the gaps between Phil Lesh and Jerry Garcia, and so he had to develop a unique style - so I'm sure it's frustrating trying to work out exactly what he's doing. He claimed his main influence was the pianist McCoy Tyner from the John Coltrane Quartet, who is also a favourite of mine. Which brings me on to the Grateful Dead and jazz. - I was a jazz fan before I encountered the Dead, listening to things like Coltrane's My Favourite Things, and Miles' Bitches Brew, and at first I resisted the idea that the Dead played jazz. After all, a prime element of jazz is the Blues, and the Dead are surely one of the least bluesy Rock and Roll bands ever. It was many years later I discovered that they were listening to exactly the same Miles and Coltrane as I was, and that the free modal improvisation of My Favourite Things was a major inspiration for them - and of course everything fell into place. And they got jazzier with time - the jams on Eyes of the World or Slipknot, or the Veneta Dark Star are examples. But then they were so eclectic - as well as jazz there is Country, Bluegrass, Folk, R&B, Dylan, Stockhausen - jazz is really only part of the mix. But it certainly requires the same sort of serious listening that jazz does, and it's as good a description as any.

[@daviddemar8749]

@@steverichards2419 Great minds , i.e..you and I think alike . I am a big miles davis fan and i am aware that davis , coltrane and tyner are all great exemplars of modal jazz e.g. so what and my favorite things. Btw my description of the Dead as jazz musicians was not meant to suggest that they always and exclusively played jazz - although they certainly did do a lot of that but i meant to suggest that their playing intersected a lot with the approach of jazz musicians. E g. Improvisation and modal interchange ( partial key changes and dipping into the modes of the major scales) . Fyi Garcia was very fond of soloing in the Mixolydian mode. It's the simplest mode of seven modes of the major scales and probably the most commonly used in rock ( the Allman brothers used it constantly). In this mode the 7th note of the key of the song becomes a flat 7th. So if a song is in C Major, in a solo.Bflat becomes a note that is available to use. C major is the simplest major key because it contains no sharps or flats. Think of a scale that starts on middle C and only contains the next 7 white keys o n a piano. Mixolydian is the 5th mode of the major scale so this changes the order/ priority of the underlying chords in a chord progression. This is too complex to explain in a KZbin comment section but there's lots of great explanations that are useful for non- musicians tbat you can find on KZbin and on the internet if you want to take a dive into music theory

[@NedsBeerBlog]

Vince is just wayy to busy. no need for his constant chords we know it AGDG cannot hear the GRAND piano at all