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Mydland's contributions to the Dead's sound is unmeasurable. His chemistry with the late band is catalogued well in the [[Grateful Dead's]] latest release, Spring 1990, which features six full-length shows from his last year with the band. In the liner notes, Grateful Dead member [[Robert Hunter (lyricist)|Robert Hunter]] said this of Mydland:
Mydland's contributions to the Dead's sound is unmeasurable. His chemistry with the late band is catalogued well in the [[Grateful Dead's]] latest release, Spring 1990, which features six full-length shows from his last year with the band. In the liner notes, Grateful Dead member [[Robert Hunter (lyricist)|Robert Hunter]] said this of Mydland:


"The fourth major Grateful Dead era ends with the passing of Brent Mydland. The first concluded with [[Ron "Pigpen" McKernan|Pigpen]]; the second with the departure of Keith and Donna. The third began when Brent joined and began learning the ropes and culminated with Garcia's physical Collapse.
{{cquote|The fourth major Grateful Dead era ends with the passing of Brent Mydland. The first concluded with [[Ron "Pigpen" McKernan|Pigpen]]; the second with the departure of Keith and Donna. The third began when Brent joined and began learning the ropes and culminated with Garcia's physical collapse.

The fourth era started with an unexpectedly successful comeback, fully integrating Brent's vocal and keyboard virtuosity. He improved the blend, adding, embellishing and sometimes leading the music.
The fourth era started with an unexpectedly successful comeback, fully integrating Brent's vocal and keyboard virtuosity. He improved the blend, adding, embellishing and sometimes leading the music.


Without distorting the character of what was uniquely [[Grateful Dead]], the old songs came magically into tune and richly harmonized while new songs of Brent's own composition added diversity to the band's repertoire. The shows reached a performance peak which now passes into Deadhead history. From here on, the sound of the Grateful Dead will be different. The challenge or reconfiguration, resculpting and refining will be a mighty one. What else should be said of Brent? He rode hard, he drank hard, he played with the Dead. He also played with death and lost. He will be conspicuous in his absence."
Without distorting the character of what was uniquely [[Grateful Dead]], the old songs came magically into tune and richly harmonized while new songs of Brent's own composition added diversity to the band's repertoire. The shows reached a performance peak which now passes into Deadhead history. From here on, the sound of the Grateful Dead will be different. The challenge or reconfiguration, resculpting and refining will be a mighty one. What else should be said of Brent? He rode hard, he drank hard, he played with the Dead. He also played with death and lost. He will be conspicuous in his absence.}}


==Discography==
==Discography==

Revision as of 00:31, 25 November 2012

Brent Mydland
Brent Mydland preforms with the Grateful Dead on 7/7/1989 at JFK Stadium.
Brent Mydland preforms with the Grateful Dead on 7/7/1989 at JFK Stadium.
Background information
Birth nameBrent Mydland
Also known asClifton Hanger
Born(1952-10-21)October 21, 1952
Munich, Germany
DiedJuly 26, 1990(1990-07-26) (aged 37)
Lafayette, California
GenresRock, psychedelic rock, blues, gospel, rock, improvisational, jam
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter
InstrumentKeyboard instruments
Years active1979–1990
LabelsWarner Bros.
Arista

Brent Mydland (October 21, 1952 – July 26, 1990) was the fourth keyboardist to play for the American rock band the Grateful Dead. He was with the band for eleven years, longer than any other keyboardist in the band.

Biography

Early life

Born in Munich, Germany as the child of a Norwegian U.S. Army chaplain, Mydland moved to San Francisco, California with his parents at the age of one. Mydland spent most of his childhood living in Antioch, California, an hour east of San Francisco. He started piano lessons at age 6 and had formal classical lessons through his junior year in high school. He said, "my sister took lessons, and it looked fun to me, so I did too. There was always a piano around the house and I wanted to play it. When I couldn't play it I would beat on it anyway." His mother, a graveyard shift nurse, encouraged Mydland's talents by insisting that he practice his music for two hours each day. He played trumpet from elementary til his senior year in high school; his schoolmates remember him practicing on an accordion, as well as the piano, every day after school. "In my late teens I went and saw a lot of groups, and thank God I did, because it didn't last much longer." When asked if he had musical aspirations in high school he admitted to wanting to originally be a " a high school band teacher or something, I played trumpet in the [marching] band....then my senior year I got kicked out of the [marching] band for having long hair... they told me "sorry we'll lose points for your long hair", so that was the end of my [marching] band career. I gave up the trumpet and concentrated on the keyboards." Brent graduated from Liberty High in nearby Brentwood in 1971

Beginning of music career

"Late into high school," he said, "I got into playing rock 'n' roll with friends and it was like I had to start from the beginning almost, because if I didn't have a piece of music in front of me I couldn't do much. I changed my outlook on playing real fast after that. I think dope [pot] had something to do with that." He was influenced by rock organists like Lee Michaels, Ray Manzarek and Goldie McJohn of Steppenwolf, and was in a series of local bands. In the late '60s he bought the first albums by the Airplane and the Dead, and he said "I was even in a band where I used to sing 'Morning Dew,' and we did 'Good Morning Little Schoolgirl,' too." When asked if that scene, based heavily on extended jams, had influenced him musically at all he said, "For a while..yes, but I could never find people that could make that kind of music sound good...We'd jam along and then..[pretends to nod off] .."Are we done?" It's nice to have people who add to it and change it instead of "Ok, i've got MY part!" That gets boring really fast." "Senior year I got together with a guitar player...The day after we graduated we drove down to L.A. and tried to get a band started down there. He knew a drummer and bass player who were both pretty good. We were serious about it for about six weeks or so and then it kind of fell apart. One guy wanted to go surfing, another guy was working. I ended up living in a quonset hut in Thousand Oaks, writing songs and eating a lot of peanut butter and bread and whatever else was around...In one of the bands, I played with a guy named Rick Carlos and he got a call from John Batdorf of Batdorf & Rodney asking him to come to L.A. to play with them. A couple months later they were looking for a keyboard player who could sing the high parts, so I went down there and checked that out and joined the band. I got to do a tour with them, which was great experience. Then after that fell apart John and I put together Silver. Silver lasted about two years. We put out an album on Arista and were going to do a second but Clive [Davis, Arista president] kind of choked it."

Grateful Dead

In 1978, Brent Mydland had played in a Bob Weir solo project called the Bob Weir Band. "After Silver I bummed around L.A. for about six months and then hooked up with Weir through John Masseri, who I'd played with back in Batdorf & Rodney, and I joined the Bob Weir band.... With Bobby, at first, I'd say to him, "Well should I play this instrument on this song, or this other instrument?" and he'd say, "I don't care. Why not play one this time and the other the next time if you feel like it." It loosened me up a lot and it got me more into improvisation.... I liked it a lot."

On April 16, 1979, he joined the Grateful Dead, replacing Keith Godchaux and Donna Godchaux. The couple had been asked to leave the band in February of that year, due to poor performance throughout the past year.

Mydland quickly became an integral part of the Dead, not least because of his songwriting contributions. Go to Heaven (1980) featured two of Mydland's songs, "Far From Me" and "Easy to Love You", the latter having been written with frequent Weir collaborator John Perry Barlow. On the next album, In the Dark (1987), Mydland co-wrote the defiant favorite "Hell in a Bucket" with Weir and Barlow, and also penned the train song "Tons of Steel". Built to Last (1989) featured several more of Mydland's works, most notably the moody "Just a Little Light", the environmental song "We Can Run, But We Can't Hide", the live-performance-driven "Blow Away", and the poignant "I Will Take You Home", a lullaby written with Barlow for Mydland's two daughters. Mydland easily fit into the band's sound and added his own contributions. His high, gravelly vocal harmonies and emotional leads added to the band's singing strength, and highlighted several old favorites like "Cassidy", "Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo" and "Ramble on Rose," as well as covers like Willie Dixon's "Little Red Rooster" Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues" Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy", the Beatles' Hey Jude and the Band's "The Weight". Mydland enjoyed the organ and several other experimental tones, whereas in concert, his predecessor had usually preferred the piano. Mydland played several different electric pianos and synthesizers throughout his tenure, including a Fender Rhodes, the early Yamaha digital synth GS-1, Yamaha CP-70, and a Kurzweil Midiboard (midied to Roland MKS20). His Hammond B-3 stayed with him throughout his entire tenure.

After joining the Dead, Mydland also played in another of Weir's bands, Bobby and the Midnites, in 1980 and 1981.

In 1986, Mydland formed Go Ahead with several Bay area musicians, including Bill Kreutzmann and Jesse Colin Young and former Santana members Alex Ligertwood and David Margen. The band toured during the time Jerry Garcia was recovering from a diabetic coma.

Mydland's last show with the Grateful Dead was on 23 July 1990 at The World Music Theater, in Tinley Park, IL.

In 1994, he was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Grateful Dead.[1]

Death

Brent Mydland died of an accidental speedball overdose[2] at his home on "My Road" in Lafayette, California, on July 26, 1990, shortly after completing the band's summer tour. He was buried at Oakmont Memorial Park in Lafayette. Mydland was replaced by Vince Welnick on synthesizers and vocals, and, for a short time, temporary fill-in Bruce Hornsby on grand piano and accordion.

Legacy

Mydland's contributions to the Dead's sound is unmeasurable. His chemistry with the late band is catalogued well in the Grateful Dead's latest release, Spring 1990, which features six full-length shows from his last year with the band. In the liner notes, Grateful Dead member Robert Hunter said this of Mydland:

The fourth major Grateful Dead era ends with the passing of Brent Mydland. The first concluded with Pigpen; the second with the departure of Keith and Donna. The third began when Brent joined and began learning the ropes and culminated with Garcia's physical collapse.

The fourth era started with an unexpectedly successful comeback, fully integrating Brent's vocal and keyboard virtuosity. He improved the blend, adding, embellishing and sometimes leading the music.

Without distorting the character of what was uniquely Grateful Dead, the old songs came magically into tune and richly harmonized while new songs of Brent's own composition added diversity to the band's repertoire. The shows reached a performance peak which now passes into Deadhead history. From here on, the sound of the Grateful Dead will be different. The challenge or reconfiguration, resculpting and refining will be a mighty one. What else should be said of Brent? He rode hard, he drank hard, he played with the Dead. He also played with death and lost. He will be conspicuous in his absence.

Discography

Grateful Dead studio and current live albums

Grateful Dead retrospective live albums

Other artists

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Grateful Dead". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2012-10-02.
  2. ^ The Grateful Dead: Biography Rolling Stone online

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