Learn how to play Althea by The Grateful Dead! Thanks so much for watching and please consider subscribing. Althea Chords RUKIND: www.rukind.com/gdpedia/titles... #GratefulDead #Althea #PlayDead
This is far and above my favorite Dead song. I can't explain it. I just feel it and it calms instantly. Every time I hear it I feel it differently too. No explanation.
love this tune. been playing it for a while lil nugget of fun on the A chord here that i didnt incoporate before much appreciate. ive shared your channel with all the dead groups and dead head friends. you guys deserve more peeps~!
Thank you so much for talking through this!!! Nuggets - like the chromatic walk up - are priceless for those of use who are Deadheads but new to the guitar!!! You're awesome.
just want you to know. these videos are awesome. You've inspired, made me laugh, and taught me a lot. Im a musician trying to get a job and you've really took me to the next level. Thank you!!
Toby & Davvy, one of my personal garcia favorites of all time.... Why??? here is one explanation I found online i can get behind: Song Meaning The song Althea, one of my favorites by the amazing Jerry G and Robert Hunter, is a profound meditation on death, on world weariness, on the inner anguish that life can put you through and that your own mind can lead you to. And on the process of having the divine speak to you and point out the path that can free you. And how so many times, we ultimately reject that path, we reject the guidance. Alethea in Greek Mythology is the daughter of Zeus and is the personifiation of TRUTH. My sense of this song is that the singer is having a dialogue with the GODDESS/the divine in it's manifestation as TRUTH. In the first three lines, the singer is describing his anguish to the divine: "I told Althea I was feeling lost, lacking in some direction. Althea told me upon scrutiny that my back might need protection. I told Althea that treachery was tearing me limb from limb." In the next number of lines, the divine is speaking to him about his predicament: "Althea told me better cool down boy, settle back, easy Jim." "You may be Saturday's child, all alone, moving with a tinge of grace. You may be a clown in the burying ground, or just another pretty face. You may meet the fate of Ophelia, sleeping and perchance to dream. Honest to the point of recklessness, self-centered in the extreme." Here Althea spells out the singers troubles. Ophelia is a character from Shakespears Hamlet who lost her mind. The "clown in the burying ground" suggests laughing in the face of death, perhaps even contemplating suicide. "Sleeping and perchance to dream" is from Hamlet's soliloquy in the same play where he is contemplating whether life is even worth living. But, then Althea (TRUTH) smacks the singer with a dose of reality. That his thoughts of death and suicide although "Honest to the point of recklessness" are also "self-centered in the extreme". Self-centered in the sense that he can't see beyond his own pain and is refusing to connect to the divine inspiration which ultimately could prove to be his salvation. Then Althea spells it out even clearer to him: "Ain't nobody messing with you, but you, your friends are getting most concerned. Loose with the TRUTH, baby, it's your fire, but baby don't get burned." It is your own mind, your disconnect that is fucking up your life she tells him. It's also your choice. But be careful, you might get burned. Then she goes on instructing him: "When the smoke has cleared, she said, that's what she said to me. Gonna want a bed to lay your head and a little sympathy." Once the passion of your madness has cooled, youre going to want some connection, with divine LOVE. Althea goes on illuminating his path: "There are things you can replace, and others you cannot. (like your life) The time has come to weigh those things. This space is getting hot, you know this space is getting hot." Again, she is spelling out that he has a choice. He has free will. He has decisions and commitments to make. And the time to make them is now. After digesting this massive dose of TRUTH, the singer speaks to her: "I told Althea I'm a roving son, and I was born to be a bachelor." I cant be married to THE TRUTH, he tells her. I'm not ready for it. I have to hold on to my own ego, my own separate identity. She answers: "Althea told me, okay, that's fine," (God is infinitely patient) And having missed the TRUTH, the singer goes back to the game of divine hide and seek, claiming to want to know the truth (and rejecting her when she shows up at his doorstep). "so now I'm trying to catch her". Having missed the TRUTH, having missed the connection to the divine, the singer then reflects: "Can't talk to you without talking to me, we're guilty of the same old thing." Cant talk to God without talking to ourselves... and yet... "Been talking alot about less and less and forgetting the love we bring." We're back in the soup again, talking about less and less and forgetting all about the divine, about LOVE, about TRUTH. I have tremendous love and respect for Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter as some of the premier poets of our generation. This amazing songs spells out some of the struggles Jerry himself was going through. On the one hand, he identified with and studied the Christian mystics so he was obviously a deeply spiritual man. On the other hand, he struggled mightily with Heroin addiction, with obesity and undoubtedly with depression. The song Althea in a sense spells out that conflict within Jerry. Seeing God, being so close to God through the creative process of music but ultimately being unable to fully embrace God, falling again and again back into Heroin and self-destruction. Like the song Black Muddy River, and on so many others, Robert Hunter often wrote lyrics that reflected what he saw happening with the Dead. It's amazing that he wrote these lyrics for Jerry and that Jerry chose to sing them, sharing with us all his (and our) perennial struggle to know God.
Spot on interpretation (in my opinion). Where is this from? "Talking a lot about less and less" I love that line so much because it so perfectly described the mind when it stuck in a place of denial/attraction, or hide and seek. Without love and without a sense of inner space intelligence is greatly limited - is dominated by the repulsion to truth and the attraction towards outer salvation. Phew... Brings back some intense memories. I love thinking about how the show settings must've played a part in inspiring Hunter's pen.
Of course, we love this song, e.g." FORGETTING the Love we bring", hearkening back to that dog-eared 60s mantra of- "Make Love not War", "All You Need is Love", which in 1981 sounded strange dusted off, in the age of Boomers pulling 180s, ditching their Love Beads for Volvos-- yet the Dead plodding on with the same vibrant message, as if they didn't know nor care if it were all over, still livong the dream we had long before, as they also had by filling in the void we felt, back when the Beatles left us...
Boomers ditched love beads for socialism and climate hysteria and then gave the country away to invaders. Anyways, this song is about relations between men and women, not politics
You got good presence man. Its enjoyable for me when your talking words. The muse is best, but the words aint bad. Some solid production on these videos... its like finding a diamond in the rough for me to have stumbled upon this corner of the internet. I guess it helped that I knew what to look for, but people will be finding y'all.. no doubt about that. I wish you perserverance. and a song request: I Know Its a Sin
Welcome to the family, Sean! Thank you for your kind words and support. The one thing I’ve found to be true on here, and in life, is that consistency is key. Perseverance is the only course. And I know it’s a sin has been added to the list, my brother.
Yesssssss Mate! That was fucking awesome! Great tutorial, super fun to watch and I had a smile on my face the entire time! Keep up the good work! It may seem like you're not getting many views yet, but you guys are going to explode in short order! Be well brother!
Thanks for the site. I’ve been looking for this for ever. And I don’t get why your channel is just showing up now. I’ve been playing for years and a lot of Dead stuff off of RU-vid🤷🏻♂️
We just started doing Dead tutorials this year, so we’re just getting on people’s radar. Please share if you got people that would like it. Thanks for being here.
To cool my dead friends,keep up the fun work ,always preach to the non believers .They can be saved hahaha the glorious dead can heal and show the human race they should also be dead.Thank you friends for your time you put into your channel love getn loaded watching,Thank you again from new Zealand
Thanks for joining the fam! I don’t do specific solo breakdowns because I believe you should come up with your own, BUT, I will be doing some soloing tips and tricks in the future.
The reason people love this song is cause of the lyrics. The story it tells. How Hunter used phrases from Shakespeare. It’s a work of art. Not the most musical showcase for Jerry but it’s a complete package. Like most of the dead’s stuff.
Not the most musical showcase for jerry? His chord choices and his voicings and notation over all chord changes is musical genius. I think it is absolutsly a musical showcase from jerry
This song was, most definitely, a showcase for Jerry. In that not a single person, besides the man himself, could take solos over it, the way he could and the way he did. I've sat with this progression for a week or two at a time, a couple times a year...for a handful of years and I could never come close to making them sound as perfect and moody as Jerry's, without directly copying him. I transcribed 4 different versions of this song, just the solo parts. His note choice, maybe 1/3 of the time, is using outside notes....but they are perfectly within the sound and mood. He was such a fucking god damn amazing player...it's almost frustrating sometimes lol
For real on Althea being an odd choice for people's favorite dead song. I'm personally fond of the ol' Toodaloo. However, I've always found a strange attraction to the tagline in this song, along with the guitar leads because they've always seemed extremely difficult to emulate.
Davey, do you always hit the A flat before the A and do the slide. I noticed when you were teaching sugar I know you that you did it on every time and it made sense then but I wonder if you do it every time.
Althea is my fav dead song. And I don’t even pay attention to lyrics in general. Always been ADHD about instrumentals… There’s just something about Althea’s funky riff and the way the song comes together- and Jerry. For me I think Jerry always went a little harder on Althea. Like he would put just a bit more soul-tears into his leads on Althea. One of the few dead songs where the Album version can still really satisfy or satiate me after having heard live ones. It really is the perfect ‘dead’ song to me. If I could only play somebody one dead song and wanted to hook them- Althea. Second maybe Franklins Tower. The lyrics for me have really nothing to do with it- although I like most dudes of course have loved many unattainable women. But what’s life without the dream? But as a guy who loves nothing more than playing improvisatory leads- I feel like Althea might have been Jerry’s white rabbit. When I hear his leads on Althea he always seems to be searching for something. Maybe searching for the way to express the feeling of melancholy that comes from the human condition. Like expressing how it feels to lose your parents, how it feels to have your heart broken by a heroine, or heroin. How it feels to always be seeking, and how it feels to understand that someday all seeking will stop. But maybe I’m just stoned. But I always feel like Jerry’s playing althea from MY soul. P.S. i think seeing you break down the intro may have just put me beyond the shapes. As a lead guy who hates rhythm- I see how they’re the same now. I’ll give you a sub for that lol
Thanks for the lesson. Could you please do one on Cassidy? There is some interesting stuff in this song that I'd like to hear your take on it. How would you solo over the change to Em?
I agree that Althea got more popular with millennials for some reason after Al Franken called it out on the Amazon doc lol but I think in general that progression is a catchy hook and heads like when Jerry comes in with soaring reverb slide to the B
@@TobyDavvy I had similar views (great song, but not one of my favorites), until I heard the Dead&Company version (6-23-19) and it's now in my top 10! And, thank you for the great lessons, love the way you break down the intros/riffs, really helpful for a beginner.
It's the solos man. Maybe its the contrast against the relatively boring verse playing, but when Jerry comes out with a screaming ass Althea solo there's just something tooo good about it.
