Tom “TC” Constanten did what everyone did in the ‘60s: went straight from military service to playing keys with The Grateful Dead. Constanten, 80, is now on a farewell tour with Live Dead and Brothers—an outfit with a helpfully accurate name. The Northeast-focused tour will take place over two weeks in October.
We spoke to Constanten on Zoom from his home in New Mexico, to catch up about his current band and his adventures in the ‘60s. Live Dead and Brothers isn’t just another Grateful Dead tribute or cover band. As the name implies, it’s a mix of the Dead and another legend of the era: the Allman Brothers Band.
The ensemble even features Berry Duane Oakley, the son of late Allman Brothers bassist Duane Oakley, as well as an assortment of other players (Les Dudek, Mark Karan, Scott Guberman and Pete Lavezoli) associated with outfits keeping Garcia’s spirit alive via his expansive song catalog and the spirit of his lengthy, spiraling, improvised jams. This project focuses on the early years of the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers, during and just after the ‘60s and the peak of the hippie era, the time of the Dead lineup that featured Tom “TC” Constanten on keys.
But let’s go all the way back. It was the 1960s. We all want to know. Did Constanten hit any of the legendary Acid Tests, despite not being in the band until well after the events had ended?
“Oh, yes. There was one show at the California Hall,” Constanten said. “Grateful Dead on the bill. This was 1966 Memorial Day weekend. Owsley (Stanley, Dead chemist and financier) was backstage handing out his samples. He said, ‘how much do you want? How much would you like?’”
“’I said, how much have you got?’”
“And he said, ‘more than you can handle.’”
“I said, ‘that’ll be fine.’ And it was,” Constanten said with a smile. “It was.”
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was it like going from the Air Force to the Dead? That must have been a 180.
Oh, for sure. Although, at least, I was doing it in the right direction (laughs). I was in the Air Force while the band was getting together. I was a sergeant at the time of my separation, November 22, 1968. Two days later, I was on stage with the band in Athens, Ohio. That was my life. For a while, I was very embarrassed at the shortness of my hair. I was once threatened with an Article 15 court martial because my hair was too long. I don’t think they do that anymore, but they sure did it in 1966.
But the story starts a little earlier. You had known Phil (Lesh, Dead bassist) in the early ‘60s when you both were interested in avant-garde music and even moved in the same circles as legendary composer Steve Reich. At what point did you meet Jerry (Garcia, legendary Dead guitarist)? Did you know him before your tenure with the band?
Oh, very much. I was living with Phil, and he said, “I got this friend on the peninsula I’d like to introduce you to.” And I had the car. He drove because he knew where we were going. We went to Kepler’s bookstore and there was Jerry. And this was like September 1961.
And how did the lineup of Live Dead and Brothers come together, decades later?
(Members of Live Dead and Brothers with whom Constanten played with in another band) happened to run into a couple of guys with a history with the Allman Brothers Band. And there was a lot of overlap with the Grateful Dead and (the Allman Brothers). I remember first hearing about them and Mickey (Hart, Dead percussionist), with his eyes wide open, saying, “and they have two drummers too.” And I find it fascinating exploring their harmonic idiom, if you will. The way their chords move, the way their structures move is refreshingly different from the Grateful Dead format. There were things that they did that the Grateful Dead wouldn’t do harmonically, motion-wise—parallel major chords up and down the scale. Jerry’s harmonies were pretty standard. Whereas the Allman Brothers would kick things around a little.
Your current band does segues between the Dead material and the Allmans material. So how does that come together, since there are some underlying differences when you’re improvising? How are you true to the spirit of both bands?
You hit upon something very interesting, very relevant, in that we were among the first bands to do a different set every night. We shook up the bag and mixed it up and came up with a different combination night after night after night. I played a ragtime festival in the 1990s, and one of the reed players studied with a guy who toured with the John Philip Sousa band. And he said they did the same set every show, wherever they went, including the encores. And there were a lot of bands like that. So, the Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers were pioneers in that they shook up the sequence. You would usually get most of the tunes on any given night, but they would be in a different sequence. We would play with it. Of course, when you do that, you make interesting discoveries. And there are sequences over time that establish themselves, but they arose organically. “Scarlet Begonias” and “Fire on the Mountain,” for example. “I Know You Rider” coming out of “China Cat Sunflower.”
How do you discover those sequences? Let’s consider Live/Dead, one of the all-time classic live albums. One of the most well-known song sequences in Dead history is “Dark Star” followed by “St. Stephen” and “The Eleven,” which was played frequently during your stint in the band and is the anchor to the album.
That was a solid sequence, as happened early in the history of the band. The other one being the “Alligator” to “Caution” one, which was pretty reliable. And we hardly ever messed with that. There were a couple of times we got into “Dark Star” taking it out of “Mountains of the Moon.” It still happened very organically, though, over a period of time. But remember, in that particular case, “Dark Star,” “St. Stephen,” “The Eleven,” “Turn on your Lovelight”, the transitions were worked out. And hardly anybody else does that these days. But back when we did it—I hate to use the phrase cut and dried—but it was an established pattern. You knew where you were. I was very much oriented as that was happening.
The transitions between songs might have been worked out in rehearsal, but you didn’t necessarily know how it would play out in the live show. There would be some crossroads, and “we could go here or we could go there.”
Oh, absolutely. But this is the same old story with music since time immemorial. You work your butt off practicing and rehearsing so you can be totally free in performance. You can let yourself go, and, hey, where will this lead? And sometimes there were arguments. Phil would want to take it in one direction, Jerry in another. Sometimes, that was where the entertainment was.
How was it decided which show would be on Live/Dead? Did they just bring out recording equipment one night? Because a lot of the Dead shows were recorded anyway.
The backstory is that we were working on Aoxomoxoa, and an absurd amount of money had been invested in it, and the recording company was getting a little bit antsy to see the product.
Imagine.
So, we proposed the idea of recording every night and giving them a double live album, in addition, for the same price. And they went for that. So, we started recording every night. We had this weekend at the Fillmore West, recorded all the nights, and we would get together after the show and listen to them and critique them and all. And there was always something that someone complained about. Either they were too low in the mix, there was a transition that didn’t work the way it should have, this, that, or the other. Finally, a show came along, and we listened to it. Silence. Nobody raised any complaints. And we said “this is it.”
What’s it like to go back in and listen to the shows? It was so spontaneous at the time. Now it’s 50 years later. Is it like stepping into a time machine for you?
Oh, you get every combination, every possibility of ideas. I was at a friend’s house, and there was a Grateful Dead “Love Light” playing. And it was about five minutes into it, before I said “hey, that’s me.” I didn’t even recognize it at the time. If you have 500 people at a concert, you have 500 versions of what happened. And even within each of them, it’s different, it’s very variable.
Did you ever go to any Dead shows as an audience member after you left the band?
A couple of times. I would be comped in, although I must confess there were a couple of shows that I totally missed because I spent the whole time backstage catching up with longtime friends. There was one show I did about 250 years’ worth of catching up. Although, you know, I did listen to the music, and of course they just kept progressing and getting better and better and better, but the material now has a life of its own, and it’s rolling along.
Tell me about the decision to leave the group in early 1970.
Today, these new digital instruments, they can keep up with the amplification. But back then, my dynamics were triple forte, double forte, and anything below that was inaudible. I was frustrated by the situation with the keyboard. It couldn’t be amplified well enough. I had an invitation to work on a play, which wound up being mounted off-Broadway in New York. And I saw that it would be a smaller pond, but I would get to be a bigger fish. I went for it. And you don’t know that the Grateful Dead would become so great. I didn’t know that this show wouldn’t. In the context of that, it was a chance to bring out more of my attic of supplies, artistically speaking. I still was in touch with the members of the band. I even sat in with them once when they came to New York during the tour run. And it was all good.
Do you ever regret that decision? Maybe look back and say “what if?”
No, because there’s nothing I can do about it. I mean, if I were to do that, there’d be no end to it. I have so many what-ifs.
October 2024 Live Dead and Brothers Dates:
1 – Sellersville Theater – Sellersville, PA
2 – Beacon Theatre – Hopewell, VA
5 – Rams Head Tavern– Annapolis MD
6 – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts– Bethel, NY
8 – The Empire – Belleville, ON
9 – Fort Hill Performing Arts Center – Canandaigua, NY
10 – Jergel’s Rhythm Grille – Warrendale, PA
11 – Tussey Mountain Amphitheatre – Boalsburg, PA
12 – Westcott Theater – Syracuse, NY
One Response
This was my dad’s play ‘Tarot’ TC left the Dead for. TC composed much of the music than accompanied my father’s Pantomime. It was very experimental and to this day, one of a kind. I got to hang out w TC about 7 years ago and heard some great stories. I can still see parts of the play as it was performed in my oddly photographic memory. The soundtrack was recorded and became an album.