The Dead had some great songs, Ruby Magnolia ad Casey Jones come to mind. Towards the end even the Dead pandered to the hit makers. Touch of Gray was a blatant effort to finally get a hit. A lot of there stuff just kind of wandered aimlessly around in a never ending jam. The Eagles played some great music. Walsh made them better. Eagles for me.
Yeah I wasn't a fan of the MTV dead.
But actually they had been playing Touch of Gray live for years.
And even the deadhead culture got weird then.
There was an influx of new deadheads that mixed punk style and stuff.
It was peculiar and it was when all the trouble started that actually made it hard for them to play in a lot of places.
Real violence. Very "undead".
I acknowledge that Joe Walsh is a great guitarist and song writer (James Gang and solo) and he did great work with the eagles but in retrospect I'd say that the Eagles stuff that I like best is pre Joe. I love their cover of Tom Waits Ole 55. It might owe to most of their big hits coming later and being burned out but the Bernie time seemed a bit less formula to me.
Long as we're on the topic might as well post the Felder interview.