30 Years Later – Remembering Brent Mydland’s Passing With Five Under The Radar Gems

By 1979, the Grateful Dead were at something of a crossroads in their career. For the past eight years, the husband & wife duo of Keith & Donna Godchaux had done a fine job of providing piano accompaniment & background vocals, respectively, but as a new decade approached it was clear the band needed a change in personnel. Jerry Garcia had reportedly become increasingly annoyed with Keith’s habit of simply parroting the guitarist’s lines, while backstage the couple’s domestic affairs were regularly resulting in alcohol-fueled screaming matches that ultimately became too much to bear.

Coincidentally, it was around this exact same time that Bob Weir was putting his own group together in support of his latest solo effort Heaven Help the Fool and came across a young keyboardist named Brent Mydland, who had been performing with Silver, a slick Los Angeles-based soft-rock outfit who were signed to Arista, the Dead’s record label at the time. It was during his brief stint in the Bob Weir Band that Brent’s playing caught the attention of Garcia, who soon invited him to audition for the Dead. After trying out just a handful of potential replacements for the piano “hotseat”, Brent got the nod and the rest is Grateful Dead history.

Mydland’s presence was immediately felt at his very first show with the Dead on April 22, 1979, at San Jose’s Spartan Stadium. His liberal use of a Hammond B-3 organ brought a newfound level of energy & musical sustain not heard since the Pigpen era – Keith primarily stuck to a grand piano – and his unique vocal abilities allowed him to successfully produce the same high harmonies that Donna had provided.

In addition to his remarkably impressive musical stylings, Brent’s new instrumentation allowed the band to introduce several cover songs to their repertoire that would go on to become staples of 80’s-era Dead shows. Classics such as “Gimme’ Some Lovin’” and “Hey Pocky Way” began to pepper setlists while his rendition of Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy” eventually became a bona-fide show-stopper. Brent’s original contributions were also significant, especially towards the end of his tenure, as the keyboardist was granted a total of four tracks that appeared on the Dead’s final album Built to Last, more than either of the two previous albums combined. His original material ran the gamut from tender love songs (“Easy to Love You”) to angry put-downs (“Far From Me”, “Never Trust a Woman”), though nearly all of them translated well to the stage. He even penned the beautiful lullaby “I Will Take You Home”, recorded on Built to Last, for his daughter Jennifer whom Deadheads will fondly remember from when she was invited up on-stage to sit beside her father while he sang to her on a few occasions.

Brent certainly had his detractors early on though, from both fans and band-members alike. In a 1982 interview with David Gans, drummer Mickey Hart admitted, “He had the chance of becoming one of us. I wondered, for a while – I was the harshest critic, in a way. He didn’t have the passion at first. Then his attitude and his playing changed, and he relaxed.” However, by the time the late-80’s rolled around, Brent finally began to earn the respect & admiration he deserved. His playing was as good as it had ever been and was perfectly meshing with the tighter and more professional sound the Dead had developed during the In the Dark era. Take a quick peek at any concert video from around this time and you’ll inevitably see Garcia beaming at Mydland with a huge shit-eating grin as they combine to take the music to new & dizzying heights.

However, as with so many other gifted artists, Brent struggled with his own personal demons throughout his career. Despite the fans’ and Garcia’s own encouragement, and the fact that Brent was the longest-tenured keyboardist in Grateful Dead history, Brent never could shake the feeling that he was the “new guy” in the band. Substance abuse gradually became an issue, and though it only had a minimal effect on his playing, it began to take a serious toll on his personal life, including the very real possibility of jail-time after the 1990 summer tour due to a series of drunk-driving related arrests.

As a result, the Dead’s 1990 summer tour would be Brent’s last, with his final performance occurring at Chicago’s Tinley Park on July 23, 1990 (ironically, the final lyric Brent ever sang was “I gotta go, but my friend can stick around” as the Dead closed the evening with The Band’s “The Weight”). After returning to his Bay Area home, Brent Mydland was found dead from a speedball (a lethal cocktail consisting of cocaine & morphine) only 3 days after his final show, on Jul 26, 1990.

Join us as Glide honors the 30th anniversary of Brent’s passing by taking a look at five5 under-the-radar tracks from the talented keyboardist’s solo & non-Grateful Dead career:

“Maybe You Know” (Brent Mydland solo – 1982):

In 1982, Brent attempted to record a solo record. With the aid of long-time Dead recording engineer Betty Cantor-Jackson, with whom Brent was living with at the time, the keyboardist recorded and mastered a handful of tracks, though they were never officially released. A few of the songs eventually made it to the Grateful Dead, including “Maybe You Know.” This scorned lover’s lament, which features some rather dated guitar riffs, appeared at a half-dozen Dead shows in the mid-eighties.

“Good Lovin” “Twist & Shout” (Go Ahead – 1986):

When Jerry Garcia fell into a diabetic coma in 1986 and the Dead were off the road, Brent and drummer Bill Kreutzmann joined forces with members of Carlos Santana’s touring band & Tower of Power to form Go Ahead. The group went on to perform a few dozen gigs, including a brief tour of smaller clubs on the east coast, from 1986-1988. This video features Brent taking lead vocals on “Good Lovin’”, a song usually handled by Bob Weir when performed with the Dead.

“Blackbird” (Bob Weir & Brent Mydland – 1988):
Throughout the 80’s, Brent and Bobby would occasionally team up to perform as a duo, including this rendition of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” while the pair opened for the Jerry Garcia Band at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre on July 10th, 1988.

“Silvio” (Bob Dylan – 1988):

Brent, along with Garcia & Weir, provided background vocals to this Robert Hunter-penned track from Bob Dylan’s 25th studio album Down in the Groove, released in 1988. While the Dead never performed this song live, Weir has been known to occasionally trot it out with his solo band Ratdog.

“Tons of Steel” (Brent Mydland solo – 1982): Another track that was originally recorded for Brent’s 1982 un-released album and found it’s way to the Grateful Dead, “Tons of Steel” was performed nearly 30 times between 1984-1987 and was eventually recorded by the Dead for their 1987 top-ten album In the Dark. While the Dead more or less kept to the same song structure from when it was originally recorded, this version has a decidedly hard-rock edge to it in comparison.

To hear Brent’s more “prolific” material head over Glide’s 2017 list of Brent Mydland’s ten best songs…