Talk:Tom Constanten

"Music stopped being created..."
Tom Constanten probably never said this exact quote. The only related quote I can find from him from a site that is not merely a Wikipedia mirror is an excerpt from Constanten's autobiography which says "When I said, with teenage conviction, that music might've stopped in 1750, but it started again in 1950, this blond-haired guy spontaneously reached across and heartily shook hands with me." I don't find the quote necessary at all, anyway, and I will therefore remove it. Return it to the page if you believe otherwise.

Whotookthatguy 02:18, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Scientology and LSD
I just removed the following bit from the article, since I can't find a reliable source for it: "Dennis McNally (later the band's publicist) argues that he did not fit in with the Dead ethos; for example, he followed Scientology and refused to take LSD."

Similarily, I also removed the Category:American Scientologists. If anyone has a source for that feel free to bring it back. Cheers, Amalthea  16:27, 30 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the note, and the edit. It's best be cautious about unreferenced statements in biographies of living persons.  In this case though it turns out that reliable references can be provided, so I've restored the Scientology related material, with some copy editing, and with two references.  If you'd like, I can provide quotations from the references here. — Mudwater (Talk) 01:22, 31 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Great. And if you had a quotation it would be perfect, I'm hesitant to add him back to the List of Scientologists without one, if it can't be easily checked online. :) Thanks & Cheers, Amalthea  23:58, 2 January 2009 (UTC)


 * You can see the referenced page from Garcia by Blair Jackson on Google Books here. It actually contains a relevant quote from Constanten himself.  That should be good enough for adding him back to the list.  A Long Strange Trip by Dennis McNally seems not to be in Google Books.  On page 352 is a long paragraph about why Constanten and the Grateful Dead parted ways.  Most of the paragraph is about musical issues that they had with each other, but it also says, "[Robert] Hunter found him 'holier than thou' because of his devotion to Scientology, and his resulting refusal to take LSD alienated him from Owsley [Stanley], among others."  How's that? — Mudwater (Talk) 00:21, 3 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Perfect. :) I've only added the one that is online, that should be good enough, in particular since both are available here. Thanks again, Amalthea  13:45, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

How Did He Avoid the Curse
The Grateful Dead are infamous for their "keyboardist curse": everyone who played keyboards with the band has died an untimely death with two exceptions: Constanten and Bruce Hornsby. Hornsby never officially joined the band although he sat in with them many times, including every show for a long period in 1990 through 1992. Was Constanten a full member of the band or just a frequent guest performer like Hornsby? 22:01, 17 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Full member. There are actually a number of discussion sections at Talk:Grateful Dead/Archive 1 about who was and wasn't an official member of the Grateful Dead, for purposes of their article.  The official members, including Constanten, are listed in the infobox.  Hornsby was not an official member, as you said, but to recognize his major contributions to their music, he is listed in the lineups table in the "Band members" section of the article. — Mudwater (Talk) 22:53, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

Requests for more information on TC leaving
This article could be strengthened by explaining why Constanten left the band. Where it now reads,

″He remained with the group for three albums and left after the band's infamous New Orleans drug bust following a January 30, 1970 show at the Warehouse. "It was like a magic carpet ride that was there for me to step on," he says.″

I don't feel like I learned why he left the band (anger at being busted? was he, in fact busted?  Anti-drug philisophical beliefs?  Why?). Also, I think the TC carpet ride quote above explains why he joined. Putting the two sentences together is confusing.

Thanks,

-TPC

ThePirateCaptain (talk) 23:57, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

I know that he contributed to "Anthem of the Sun" and "Aoxomoxoa" (there is some controversy over whether Pigpen played on the latter or not; some sources say he did while others say he didn't), but what I don't understand is why he was recruited in the first place as a full band member, given that he wasn't with them for very long (only 14 months), virtually supplanted Pigpen, thus relegating him to percussion, vocals and harmonica, and he admits that he never contributed much. Despite his contributions to the complex music, his training was in classical music and thus not suitable for their extended jamming. I'm not maligning his talents as a pianist and I have nothing against him, but I just think that he was an awkward fit into the group.

In one interview, he complained about the differences in sound of the organ and the piano and lack of decent amplification, which at the time as he puts it was kinder to guitars than pianos and describes the electronic keyboards as a cheesy compromise, but if he really wanted to play piano rather than use Pigpen's Vox Continental or Hammond, he could've replicated the harpsichord sounds on the RMI Electra Piano and for piano parts, the band could've just asked each promoter to supply them with a piano at each show or borrow one from a friend to save them lugging it around, very much like Freddie Mercury did in Queen's early years before he bought his Steinway.

61.69.217.3 (talk) 03:04, 21 December 2017 (UTC)

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