Whose style do you prefer?

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I would say Keith, but I have always been impressed with Brent's intensity (although sometimes drug fueled). I have been back on a Dead listening kick lately listening to live shows from the early 70s all the way to the 90s and it goes to show how just one player- the keyboard player in this case can give a band a different feel. Overall- i've been digging the Keith years. Of course the 80s brought along with it synthesizers that carried a whole new spectrum of sounds.

I perfer Keith. Although, as someone already said, neither of them come close to Pigpen.

keith - but please shoot donna jean!!!

The thing that was cool about Brent was that he played organ and occasionally synthesizer, as well as piano. He also sang vocal harmony and contributed more to the lead vocal and songwriting duties. Contrastingly, Keith really only had one lead vocal with The Dead (Let Me Sing Your Blues Away), and I don't think contributed much the songwriting outside of that one song, and he also played just acoustic and electric piano most of the time (though I have seen a few photos where he's got a synthesizer sitting on top his Fender Rhodes, but I'm not sure how much he used it).

On the other hand, Brent always had a terrible piano sound. I used to think it was because he used either a sampled piano or some kind of digital synthesizer (such as a Yamaha DX-7), but that was only in the later years, say after 84 or 85. Someone pointed out to me that even in his first years with the band, he had a terrible piano sound. If you check out any of the Dick's Picks from 79-85, he has a lousy piano sound on all of them. I know early on he wasn't using an acoustic piano on stage (if he ever actually did), but even his Fender Rhodes has a very sterile, plastic quality to it's tone. It's almost like he had gutted the instrument and was actually using it control some sort of digital synth that was hidden offstage (though again, I'm not sure what existed in 79 or 80 that you could do that with, other than maybe a Fairlight CMI).

And although Brent had synthesizers at his disposal through his entire time with the band, he didn't really use them very much, other than to do the piano emulation later on. I recall reading where he said that by the time he was done setting up a sound, the band had already moved onto something else where that sound was useless. He also said that he couldn't really use a programmable synth (like the Prophet-5 he was using ca. 79-80) to call up pre-programmed sounds, because "The Dead doesn't work that way". But that's pretty much what he did later on. In fact, that's what Vince did too. So I'm not sure why he couldn't do it earlier on.

Keith had a much better piano sound, whether he was playing acoustic piano or Fender Rhodes. Even when he started playing that Yamaha CP-70 (as heard on things like the Englishtown Race Way show from September 77 or the Closing Of The Winterland release), he still had a way better piano sound than whatever it was that Brent was using. The CP-70 was kind of like the piano version of an acoustic/electric guitar: it made using the instrument onstage easier, but it didn't really generate a very good tone in comparison to "the real thing".

And of course, that doesn't even talk about the actual playing that each of them did. Keith had a jazzier sound, but didn't solo very much. Brent was more of a Gregg Allman type of keyboardist, more based in blues/R&B, and took more solos, particularly on organ.

So, I think they both had their strengths and weaknesses (as did The Dead's other keyboardists). It would have been nice to have one keyboardist who could cover all the bases equally well, but I don't think they ever really had that.

Great discussion on this subject ... To throw in my pennyworth I'd like to just say how brilliantly Bruce Hornsby took on the keyboards role.
I was fortunate to catch the Dead with Bruce at Wembly arena ( early '90's )... Great gig ...
I've been checking out Dead content on YouTube and working through them chronologically ( can't help it - I used to be a librarian )!! It's quite noticeable that after some frankly lacklustre performances in the 80's the band - Jerry G in particular - are totally invigorated by the arrival of Bruce Hornsby to the line up ...

Tom Constanten DARK STAR


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJtWTJJ1pqo