I almost forgot about this video. I heard this song on the radio the other day and forgot how light and upbeat this song was. Then I remembered the video for it featuring skeleton versions of the Grateful Dead and knew I had a lost hidden gem here.
Full disclosure...the Grateful Dead is not my kind of band. I'm not really into the jam bands and prefer songs with more of a melody. These three guys who lived next to me freshman year would always blast this 25 minute live version of a Grateful Dead song "Fire On The Mountain". Then, any time I would hang out with them, one of them would randomly go "Firreeeeeee.....Fire on the mountaaaaaaainnnn". Needless to say, I am not friends with any of those people.
Anyway, "Touch Of Grey" was the band's only top 10 hit and probably their most "poppy" song. I like "Uncle John's Band" but that fits the more country rockish type of the 70's. This was the only music video the Grateful Dead ever made apparently...talk about banging in and out on a high note. Let's take a closer look.
0:00 - I have never been to a Grateful Dead show but they do seem to put on a nice light show. Notice the late 80's effects of human hands becoming skeleton hands. Somewhere James Cameron was nodding in appreciation that effects got better since his horrible attempt to make skeletons move in the original Terminator movie.
0:18 - Ah yes, the stereotypical Dead Heads. You see fleeting glimpses of them throughout the video but the tie dye shirt was the badge of a Grateful Dead fan.
0:30 - Its hard to tell here if Jerry Garcia is human and the rest of the band are skeletons. The early flow of this video is thrown off a bit by lack of consistency. Yes, I take these observations very seriously.
0:42 - Now we're in full skeleton mode. Love the bass picking skeleton hands.
0:49 - Probably my favorite skeleton...the keyboard playing guy. He gets the most herky jerky moves.
1:03 - I have to admit, the way the skeleton moves are pretty darn cool. Love the drummer smoking a cigarette.
1:31 - My favorite GD band member has always been Bob Weir. I can't tell you why but it was probably because of his skeleton. Check out that groove he has going on.
2:02 - Love the drum fill.
2:06 - I like the strings used to move the skeleton are just in plain sight. No green screen back then to remove them.
2:25 - No we're getting a little random.
2:35 - The one shot I always remembered and laughed at as a kid...that dog with the drummer's leg in its mouth cracks me up every time.
2:55 - Ahhh...the illusions ends and the real band members arrive. I lose interest in the video at this point and that's what knocks the video down a few notches. A solid video is solid all the way through or at least has a great storyline. Still this one had a unique idea and they carried it out awesomely.
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