Said Bob Weir, quoted in "Bob Weir keeps the Grateful Dead alive — and always evolving/Fresh off a run of shows accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra, the 75-year-old guitarist keeps looking ahead to the next step in his musical journey" (WaPo).
“I’m trying to assimilate what I understand, and that is time is a human construct, a marker we put on things that doesn’t necessarily exist,” he explains. His mind is on the next tour, but it’s also on how his music will be remembered and kept alive by people that haven’t been born yet. “With the Grateful Dead, if it’s done right, there’s a chance they may be a part of the conversation in two to three hundred years..."
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The Grateful Dead will be immortalized in the Holodeck.
You can be a member of the band, or a spectator, or a groupie, or a parking lot camper.
God bless ol' Bobby.... big fan here. I saw the (actual) Grateful Dead a few dozen times between 1980-1995, and will see Dead & Co.'s final tour next summer in Boulder, CO
I thought of Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld, in the hitchhiker's guide to Earth.
Netflix had a good documentary on Weir a few years ago.
I am sympathetic to The Gateful Dead even though I find their music to be fair to middling and esoteric, except for a few of their best songs. Then again I enjoy the best Bluegrass music (e.g., The Steeldrivers) but find much of it unmemorable. Thei Dead’s best music IMHO came from playing Dylan songs with Dylan. The Dead stand out on some of their interpretations of Dylan songs (e.g. Queen Jane Approximately).
The article doesn't mention it, but the popularity of Jerry Garcia neckties is another example of unappreciated success. The Grateful Dead seem like the antithesis of business culture. Jerry Garcia hated the idea of using his art for a line of neckties, but at one point, that was the go-to brand for anyone who wanted to add some style to their wardrobe.
If you want to know what actually killed Jerry Garcia, a very weird website called Chickenhead reenacted his autopsy using language from the report, a floppy puppet, and lunch meat. It loads slowly because it's coming from the wayback machine (and it's kind of gross).
Weir:
The deification that those folks made of Jerry is basically what killed him. It disgusted him, and rightly so.... I’ve seen where that goes. That’s a lesson I learned the hard way...
Also Weir:
“With the Grateful Dead, if it’s done right, there’s a chance they may be a part of the conversation in two to three hundred years..."
Lesson not learned.
My favorite Garcia were a couple of CDs he did with David Grisman on mandolin. Covers of James Brown, George Jones, Merle Travis and old timey bluegrass.
Hell is listening to people talk about the Grateful Dead.
Listening to them is not often fun, but it's not one-tenth as bad as the other.
Big fan here too, saw the Dead ~ 75 times between 1971 and 1995. We didn't idolize Jerry but we loved him. He was the leader of the band, "Captain Trips".
Funny how much I still love hearing them. Last night we had guests over for dinner and had put together a play list of music for background. Mostly a lot of jazz styles from various periods and regions (especially of the Brazilian strain, which I love). But there was plenty of rock interspersed. Gotta keep the fans surprised. And without meaning to, I realized I also had about 8 Grateful Dead tunes scattered among the rest of the noise. By far, more representation than any other musicians on the list.
Knowing the people we had over, I'm sure I was the only one into the Dead. But when those tunes came up, I smiled to myself and enjoyed them. For those of us who listened to them in the day, a lot of their music has aged beautifully. It stands the test of time. I cannot say that for all of my favorites from that era.
I was lucky enough to be at an Allman Brothers concert in (1972?} where Bob and Gerry came on to jam. Great excitement and fun. Dickey Betts trading licks with Gerry.
Very True. Saw them in the '70s and early '80s. when Garica became an American Buddha I never went to another show and BTW their show in Madison on 2-15-73 is must listening!!
“with David Grisman on mandolin“
Dawg with 17 year-old Chris Thile:
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amazing_David_Grisman,_Chris_Thile,_Enrique_Coria_Winterhawk_(Greyfox)_Bluegrass_Festival_1998.webm
As long as people like to ingest mind-altering substances and listen to music at the same time, the Dead will live on.
I'd almost forgotten, but back in the 90s, a friend of mine worked for the law firm that handled the Dead's intellectual property. He had to go to their concerts - in a suit - and hand out cease-and-desist letters to the bootleg vendors clustered outside.
Doesn't that go for a lot of Jerrys? Garcia, Lewis, Lee Lewis, Springer, Seinfeld, Van Dyke, Stiller, Reed, Hall, West, Orbach, Salinger, Ford, Mathers. Throw in Gerry and the Pacemakers for good measure.
I have been a fan of "unlistenable" music in my time, (Captain Beefheart--but not Frank Zappa, except for one album--free jazz, etc.)but I could never fathom the appeal of the Grateful Dead. It always struck me as wispy, weedy, unfocused musical doodling, with poor vocals, no beat or compelling rhythm, no juice at all.
I like some of their songs and I guess their concerts offer a kind of repeatable Woodstock for their fans. But times passes and we're all forgotten. Les Brown and his band of renown don't get much play. There's that one song: Sentimental Journey with Doris Day and that's all that's left of Les Brown and his band of renown.
. that is time is a human construct
No, it’s not.
The guy sounds like a 14 year old girl.
Not a fan. The Dead were considered gods by some of my acquaintances, and were a sort of test for a lot of people; I failed.
People still line up the night before when Bob plays at a local club. I don't care what anybody says, music is our greatest invention. I also like fire.
"It always struck me as wispy, weedy, unfocused musical doodling, with poor vocals, no beat or compelling rhythm, no juice at all."
Preach it, Cookie!
I never got it either.
It must be a cold day in helll. I agree with Cookie.
--- It always struck me as wispy, weedy, unfocused musical doodling, with poor vocals, no beat or compelling rhythm, no juice at all. [Robt Cook]
U R so rite Cookie. Especially the "no beat." So much monotonous tempo, couldn't any of those guys dance even a bar or two?
Bob Weir's dream that their music will be talked about in 200-300 years will only happen if all intelligent life on earth is extinguished. So -- could happen. But I bet not.
Sorry Deadheads. To many, it is dullsville.
In regard to rockers teaming up with symphony orchestras: it's always a bad sign IMO.
The constant need to be flying on eleven different herbs and spices is what killed Jerry.
Someone had to say it.
Add a little live “China Cat Sunflower” to your day…
The quote made me think about the Chuck Klosterman book from 2016, /But What If We're Wrong?, and the chapter in which he talks about how most of our culture and popular music will be forgotten hundreds of years in the future. Bits and pieces will probably be remembered, and probably incorrectly. Other than historians and other specialists, most people two or three hundred years from now probably wouldn't be able to tell you the decade(s) when a particular band was active. The same recency-bias that our culture has will probably continue in the future, since it seems to be part of human nature: We moderns are the crown of creation, and all that came before us was flawed imperfection that we improved upon and perfected. The people centuries hence will likely see us in just the same way as we see those in our own past.
Clyde at 605PM makes some good points.
How many of us could place "The Three B's" in order, much less what decades they flourished in, or distinguish their works one from another? Not many, and that only by conscious choice to know or not to know.
It's a particular instance of cultural-historical literacy that has no clear outcome. That said, I think that there are rockers who will be ranked with the greats regardless of genre--I just don't know who they will turn out to be. I wouldn't put any money on the GD though.
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