Happy Birthday Jerry

[wyeaster]

i restrained myself to only 7 greater thans, bro.

[buttahflake]

You are not my bro, guy. There is a dark cloud that follows you.

[wyeaster]

i bet you'd be less skeered of me if it was a white cloud, yes?

[gravitylover]

Damn we agree on more things... Jerrys junkie weakness always bothered me, he had the worst addictive personality around and it did him in. The selfish part is due to focusing on nothing but the next fix. It's almost too bad he made such a good living and could always afford the next hit. He was the poster boy for that troubled artist syndrome. We also agree that the cloud that spook lives in (it doesn't follow him ) is super annoying.

When I asked the question about what would he think I was more wondering if he would appreciate that D&C is carrying on like they are with Mayer, would he think that Mayer is 'doing right by the music' as opposed to all the keyboard warriors that can't help but talk shit rather than enjoy the evolution of the music. I know more than a few people that refuse to even listen to it, that think the music should have died with Jerry. They think that the remaining band members shouldn't even be playing it anymore and that their legacy and lifes work should be shelved and they should fade into the past because Jerry was the one that 'owned it.' My take on it is that the artist in Jerry would have appreciated it to such an extent that he would have wanted to be a part of it all. He'd want to play with every band working the genre, he'd be showing up at all sorts of gigs and loving that all of these other artists loved his work.

As far as great show memories my first show still remains towards the top of the list. Back when GA shows were still the thing and you could move around and do your thing I used to look for the best sound in the house. That usually meant just off the floor but not more than a few rows up at most in hockey/basketball arenas. At Nassau Coliseum, which I knew well because it was 15 minutes from home, that meant the penalty boxes were perfect so I hung out in the Islanders box for the whole show and had it all to myself. Lotsa room to dance with nobody in the way. Win.

[wyeaster]

gosh! addiction is devastating for everybody involved! what a unique thought! maybe even fame and adoration are, too!

poor jerry would be further devastated to hear how much he hurt you kids and undoubtedly feel like he really owes you something cuz you're so bitter.

at least we have mayer, a tower of virtue, doing right by the music. whew!

[gravitylover]

... mayer, a tower of virtue,... whew!

Hahaha pretty far from it but at this point, other than weed and the occasional doses, I don't think the current band members have such terrible things going on. At least not to the extent that they used to, certainly not to the point that it will kill them. At least not that we're hearing about regularly.

You still live in a dark cloud dude. Sorry but you're never going to redeem yourself completely after the shit you said when you were Spook.

[wyeaster]

that is truly hilarious and off-topic, bud, but way to be tgr's collective judgment.

i am not concerned with redeeming myself to the entirety of a message board with a significant component of hypocritical juvenile assholes who make me look like dale carnegie. i apologized for being an asshole because i was. it doesn't mean i think i'm a bigger asshole than anybody else or care whether you think i'm an asshole. it means it's not the way i want to live and i shouldn't have inflicted it on others. i don't have any problem whatsoever with the vast majority of views i've espoused here. i've said the same things many times as spook and since. some people expressed loathing and others expressed support then and now.

i'm sorry to hear you're still so busted up about it after all this time.

if you think i live in a dark cloud now you don't know dark.

[skajah]

[wyeaster]

MESSAGE TO GARCIA
by Ken Kesey


Hey, Jerry-- what's happening? I caught your funeral. Weird.

Big Steve was good. And Grissman. Sweet sounds. But what really stood

out -- stands out -- is the thundering silence, the lack, the absence of

that golden Garcia lead line, of that familiar slick lick with the uptwist

at the end, that merry snake twining through the woodpile, flickering in

and out of the loosely stacked chords...a wriggling mystery, bright and

slick as fire... suddenly gone.

And the silence left in its wake was-- is-- positively

ear-splitting.

Now they want me to say something about that absence, Jer. Tell

some backstage story, share some poigniant reminescence. But I have to

tell you, man: I find myself considerably disinclined. I mean, why go

against the grain of such an eloquent silence?

I remember standing out in the pearly early dawn after the Muir

Beach Acid Test, leaning on the top rail of a driftwood fence with you and

Lesh and Babbs, watching the world light up, talking about our glorious

futures. The gig had been semi-successful and the air was full of exulted

fantasies. Babbs whacks Phil on the back.

"Just like the big time, huh Phil."

"It is! It is the big time! Why, we could cut a chart-busting

record to-fucking-morrow!"

I was even more optimistic. "Hey, we taped tonight's show. We

could release a record tomorrow.

"Yeah right--" (holding up that digitally challenged hand the way

you did when you wanted to call attention to the truth or the lack

thereof) "--and a year from tomorrow be recording a Things Go Better With

Coke commercial."

You could be a sharp-tongued popper-of-balloons shit-head when you

were so inclined, you know. A real bastard. You were the sworn enemy of

hot air and commercials, however righteous the cause or lucrative the

product. Nobody ever heard you use that microphone as a pulpit. No

anti-war rants, no hymns to peace. No odes to the trees and All things

Organic. No ego-deaths or born-againnesses. No devils denounced no gurus

glorified. No dogmatic howlings that I ever caught wind of. In fact,

your steadfast denial of dogma was as close as you ever came to having a

creed.

And to the very end, Old Timer, you were true to that creed. No

commercials. No trendy spins. No bayings of belief. And if you did have

any dogma you surely kept it tied up under the back porch where a smelly

old hound belongs.

I guess that's what I mean about a loud silence. Like

Michaelangelo said about sculpting, "The statue exists inside the block of

marble. All you have to do is chip away the stone you don't need." You

were always chipping away at the superficial.

It was the false notes you didn't play that kept that lead line so

golden pure. It was the words you didn't sing. So this is what we are

left with, Jerry: this golden silence. It rings on and on without any

hint of let up...on and on. And I expect it will still be ringing years

from now.

Because you're still not playing falsely. Because you're still

not singing Things Go Better With Coke.

Ever your friend,

Keez

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Maybe the best 30 seconds of Jerry I have ever heard. Fire. The whole show is great. If I had a time machine and could only go back for one show/era it might be late 80s JGB.

[Sinecure]

My new wife had never been to a real concert before we met (blame Christianity). Her first four or five concerts were all Dead of some sort (Fare Thee Well then Dead & Co). So she's never seen Jerry, but I have to say, sometimes I close my eyes and I still see him on the stage. Oh, and don't worry, we've now seen lots of other performers (just this week Rolling Stones, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Fishbone and Dumpstaphunk).

From Hollywood Bowl earlier this summer:
That tall guy who goes to all the shows (Bill Walton)


I don't know why we're upside down:



Yeah, I have a friend who makes tie-dyes for me.