Thursday, March 8, 2012

Grateful Dead Facebook Fan Pages - Communities Reviews

Disclaimer: I love that people put their time and energy into sharing information and media of GD on facebook.  I commend them for doing so and they all enhance my life in a positive way.

I link to them below and also add a bit of a review of which ones I like the best. My "review"  is just for fun and only one guy's opinion (see blog disclaimer).  Just because I prefer not to see posts of GD lyrics snippets or "post Jerry" Dead family projects does not mean that isn't great information for other users. One thing though, it really chaps my hide when these pages post incorrect lyrics (happens way too often) - that's totally gross.

Grateful Dead Facebook Fan Pages/Communities Reviews


Parking Lots of Grateful Dead Tours - Mike's Favorite 

Current Members:  9,2645
Location:  San Francisco
Posts Per Day:  10-20
Gratuitous Dead Lyrics Posts:  Medium
Unrelated Acts/Information:  Minimal

The name alone makes this page great, and you gotta love the choice of content on this facebook fan page.  My favorite thing about it is that they administrate a youtube channel and put links to great footage on it.  And my second favorite thing about this fan page is that they post youtube videos of ENTIRE SETS/SHOWS.  Delicious. 
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Grateful Dead Books - Another Great Page  
Current Members: 14,088
Location: Atlanta Georgia
Posts Per Day: 40+
Gratuitous Dead Lyrics Posts: Medium
Unrelated Acts/Information: A lot of content unrelated to GD

I must point out that the "Grateful Dead Books" community is a treasure trove.  I think it's the first "unofficial" GD Facebook community I joined, and they post great stuff.  I think there's at least couple of different administrators (sometimes you see signature like ~GDB-SEPA~, or a reference to Grateful Dead Books West). This is where I learn about a lot of great books (and other products). They post links to good youtube videos and often post several original/alternative versions of songs that the Grateful Dead cover (which I find interesting but never watch).  I believe it was this page that "live tweets" shows that are broadcasted online (like from TRI Studios), and I enjoyed one time when they were critical of the song Corrina.

A little too much "un Dead" related content though (for my tastes), and I was deeply disturbed by the recent post of  a youtube video of Warren Haynes singing a Metallica song.  It seems like JK has nailed down the guitar duties for the remaining Dead acts (wish Kimock would also be in that mix, or even Jimmy Herring), but we need to do everything we can to make sure Warren Haynes does not somehow slip back onstage with the Dead.
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Grateful Dead Hall of Fame  - Ooooh, the awesome "child" of Grateful Dead Books

Current Members:  2495
Location:  San Francisco
Posts Per Day:  5-10
Gratuitous Dead Lyrics Posts: Never
Unrelated Acts/Information:  Medium

I wish there was a "love" button that would allow me to differentiate from merely "liking" things on facebook.  This page appears to be an offshoot of Grateful Dead Books page but there's nothing wrong with that.  This page seems to have mostly GD related posts including links to FULL SETS/SHOWS on Youtube and more notably FULL JGB Shows (yes!).  

I just found this one recently and I can already tell when I need something to listen to, it's going to be my "go to" page.
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Grateful Dead - I think this is the "Official" GD Page
Current Members:  1,248,181
Location:  San Francisco
Posts Per Day:  1-2
Gratuitous Dead Lyrics Posts:  Never
Unrelated Acts/Information:  Almost None

This is the "official" Grateful Dead Facebook page so of course it's a "must follow" but much like The Grateful Dead Almanac was not nearly as juicy as Relix Magazine, sometimes the polished corporate voice isn't as fun as fan generated content.

I'm couldn't be less interested in the recent video series called the "Dead Covers Project" but I am sure it's great fun for others. There's lots of other great content on here and of course many many reminders about upcoming "official" GD releases.
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Grateful Dead Tour - Nothing Left to Do But Like Like Like

Current Members:  14,262
Posts Per Day:  10
Gratuitous Dead Lyrics Posts:  Often
Unrelated Acts/Information: None

The profile picture above (of Brent) and the pictures to the right of it (including blotter artwork) should tell you that this fan page is legit. Of course, what I also love is the links to youtube of JGB shows and ENTIRE SHOWS/SETS of the Dead (!) This page posts lots of really nice youtube finds of rarities and interesting tunes.  No "post Jerry" Dead projects here that I can find (thanks).
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Current Members:  18,794
Location:  Alameda
Posts Per Day:  10
Gratuitous Dead Lyrics Posts:  Never
Unrelated Acts/Information:  Tons of good info about Dead side projects

A good resource for modern day Dead related events.  Lots of updates about Jackie Greene, Mickey Hart, 7 Walkers and other Dead related projects.  So I'm not that interested in this one, but another good tool to keep on top of what's going on in the  "Deadsphere."

It is also apparently the facebook manifestation of a blog about current Dead topics (naturally located at www.Deadheadland.com).  This blog is where you can find some good editorial content about recent Dead related shows and setlists, etc.Deadheadland has a couple of youtube channels as well.

Deadheadland is doing a lot of fundraising on the facebook platform and the blog, and at first I thought there was an actual Deadheadland location but it turns out it is just to support the costs of the guy who writes the content... that's cool I guess, if you enjoy it I suppose you should contribute.
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I will update with more pages as I become aware of them...

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