Bob Weir joined Vampire Weekend‘s Ezra Koenig on the Time Crisis podcast earlier this week where he discussed the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead‘s American Beauty album, among several other topics over the course of 30 minutes.
Koenig began the interview on a lighter note, explaining to Weir that his Time Crisis co-host, Jake Longstreth, plays Weir’s role in a Grateful Dead cover band aptly named Richard’s Pictures—a nod to the long-running Dick’s Picks releases. Longstreth went on to explain how they had originally named the band D!ck Pick, however, made the switch after deciding to play a few school fundraisers. Weir got a laugh out of this and then told the hosts how the Dead had originally planned to name their Skull & Roses live album “Skull-F*ck”, but at the advice of Warner Brothers‘ Joe Smith, went with the more consumer-friendly title.
Just two minutes into the interview, Koenig started to fire off the more difficult questions, asking Weir if American Beauty is the best Dead studio album.
“For me, it’s between [American Beauty], Workingman’s Dead, and I also like In The Dark… We did some okay other studio records but those were my three favorites,” said Weir matter-of-factly.
Koenig went on to talk about how Workingman’s Dead was also released in 1970, highlighting how rare it is for any musician to release two great albums in one calendar year. With that in mind, he asked Weir to elaborate on what he remembers about 1970 and what made it so special.
“I think we were just young and strong and really feeling it, and we were just hitting our stride I think. We were playing a lot. We were writing a lot, you know, there wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t spend hours just in a corner playing guitar and then I’d go to rehearsal,” said Weir.
He continued, “It was maybe not even sustainable, but it was sustainable for a little while… Basically, we went into a group rage, but a focused kind of a rage, and it was a fun kind of a rage.”
Throughout the rest of the episode, Weir talked about his early influences, growing up in California, and much more. Check out the interview below and click here to listen and download the entire Time Crisis podcast episode 136.
Time Crisis with Ezra Koenig – Bob Weir Interview
[Video: Ben Goodman]
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