New To YouTube: Grateful Dead Tuning & Stage Banter Compilation

The Grateful Dead weren’t exactly known for being talkative on stage, but it happened from time-to-time. Videographer LoloYodel spent an ungodly amount of time putting together the rare cases Bob Weir, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and other Dead members told jokes, introduced each other and chatted with the crowd as well as a handful of tunings such as “Tico Tico” and “Funiculi, Funicula” which surprisingly makes for a fun listen.

Here’s what LoloYodel had to say about the inspiration between the video below:

1) a Murphy “Tuning 1977” torrent of ALL of the “dead air”, “tuning” … segments of the GD during 1977. It lasts about 93 minutes ! … yes, you start to listen and, you wait, hear a few Phil bass notes, a few other clinks and tinks here and there … and after about 30 minutes of listening to … “dead air”, I thought I was either too high (not so) or simply going insane. My cat looked at me often nodding her head to the right saying : “pops, you should be doing something else or else, put on some REAL music” ! and

2) The GD never really hollered nor screamed between songs (to try and energize the crowd). That’s also one of the many reasons why this band was so cool. They never needed to create a big “show” as the “show” almost often just happened between the GD, their music and notably their fans ! and thus : mixing the two, I thought it’d be fun just to put together some of the rare stage banter, band introductions, tico tunings, funiculi’s, few jokes, requests, comments etc … from the GD over their 35 years.

Listen to 43 minutes of stage banter, introductions, stage banter and more: