"However, to "spew" a bit more, let me first point out that the best you could do to address my central point about a song-based musical endeavor needing to be about, more than anything else, umm, the songs, was to argue, I guess to try and invalidate my entire premise, that Casey Jones isn't an original song because..."

Read it again. That wasn't me.

"A couple of additional thoughts, if you're still with me: If you really believe Lesh is limited technically, check out King Slomon's Marbles / Milkin' The Turkey from Blues for Allah (it speaks for itself). That's what we call swinging..."

I think we're running antiparallel here. Let me put the Lesh/Gordon comparison in terms that will hopefully make clear what I mean by 'technically limited': both players started out as n00bs, so to speak, though Gordon was much further along when he joined Phish. At the n00b stage, Gordon evidently decided to get 'good at the bass' and thereafter built a style (in your eyes a non-style?) atop a foundation of very serious all-around technical competence. (He also learned a lot from Lesh.) Lesh decided to build a style around his limited early expertise - by all accounts he was an arrogant prick back then, which goes some way to explain that decision - and while he improved technically as you'd expect any musician to do over several decades of playing, he never came anywhere near Gordon's facility on the bass.

Their respect levels of innate musicality, intuition, swing, and so forth aren't in question here. For fuck's sake, my claim was always and only that Lesh's chops were never what they could have been, meaning he remained 'very technically limited despite strong intuitive musicality.'

"Now, if you really think Weir is inferior to ANY guitarist, lead or rhythm..."

Oh, you do go on. Try and remember, will you, that I originally described Weir like so: 'brilliant innovator despite technical shortcomings.' I share a heresy with a good friend - much more hardcore Deadhead than me - that in some respects Weir is a more interesting guitarist than Garcia. I was excited, back when, to hear him talk about learning about comping/voicings from listening to McCoy Tyner, whose stuff with Coltrane burns in the firmament as far as I'm concerned.

"And, speaking of records, for the "record" let me say that I'd much sooner listen to the excellent keyboard work of Page McConnell over Bruce Hornsby any day."

Interesting. I think Page has come further than any other member of the band, over the years; he'll never be a great soloist but he does really extraordinary things in terms of subtly moving jam tonalities. Hornsby's role in the Dead was 'guest lead,' in a way, so while his chromatic understanding reminds me some of Page's, they just approach jamming really differently.

"tell Trey what you said about Weir; Mike what you said about Phil and Page what you said about Godchaux"

I just repeated what I said about Weir and Lesh. Now do me a favour and try this simple reading comprehension exercise: flip back through this thread and YOU tell ME what I fucking said about Godchaux. Here's a hint: I've said almost as much about leprechauns as I have about Keith.

Regards,
&c.