I had to read this several times before I believed it:
The Grateful Dead ceased to exist on Aug. 9, 1995, when the band’s lead guitarist and most recognizable figure, Jerry Garcia, died at age 53 of a heart attack at a drug treatment center. Yet 10 years later, the man and the band remain alive for millions of fans, and the once notoriously ad hoc Grateful Dead business operation has become a model for a music industry struggling with the Internet and digital democracy.
I simply have a hard time believing Jerry Garcia has been dead for ten years, and even though I am still pretty young, this just made me feel old. Indeed, all those old shows feel like a different lifetime. I still remember sitting on top of my M1A1 Abrams at Gun II in Grafenwohr when I found out that Brent Mydland had died, just a few days before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
Weird how it all goes by so fast. At any rate, check out the NY Times piece on the legacy of Jerry Garcia’s music.
I should probably add that the last time I saw the Dead was on June 30th, 1995, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pitsburgh. I remember the rain starting as they played a ‘rain’ set of Box of Rain, Samba in the Rain, and Looks Like Rain. Garcia was dead a little over a month later.
One of my favorite shows was in 1992 at Buckeye Lake, when the Dead and the Steve Miller Band got together for an excellent show, including an encore where they played the Baba O’Riley.
*** Update ***
Ed Cone has more. Deadheads everywhere. I wonder how many of you are aware that John Kasich was a huge Dead fan.
Defense Guy
I remember being shocked at Brent’s death, as I had seem him just a short time before in Chicago. Not sure if it was his last show or not, but it was damn close.
I had already stopped going to shows by the time Jerry died.
gratefulcub
I know life goes on, but…..
10 years, hard to believe. I still remember the day.
Now Phish is gone. Still maked me sad.
I am being forced to enter middle age because my 20’s keep dying or disbanding.
What are the kids listening to now?
What a blog!!!! Politics, Buffy, and the Dead. All my worlds collide.
zzyzx
I had no clue that you listened to Jerry. It’s a sad day for a lot of us today. There were great times that defined my life; what I would give for one more good show.
aaron
I saw the Dead at Buckeye in….well I can’t remember. But I do know it was there last show at Buckeye. What a great time! Of course…we didn’t bother to remeber where we parked…so it took us about 2 hours to find our car…lol…..
sean
if anyone is in NY, Q104.3 is playing the Dead and JGB most of the day, including a 1974 show (Roosevelt Stadium in NJ) tonight at 11pm.
and where you aware that Ann Coulter is also a Deadhead? i was shocked when i heard.
zzzz
Saw the Dead and Steve Miller do Baba O Riley in Vegas, epic show. Saw them play about 40 some times, there was no better event. Used to smile for at least a month following shows.
Gratefulcub – check out Widespread Panic, Tea Leaf Green, jambands.com
Also, for those who don’t know it, check out the congessional music archives, awesome jambands who post everything for free download. Every Grateful Dead show ever played is available for free, happy downloading!!
Dave Straub
My first and only GD show was 16 days prior, in Highgate, VT. (I’d seen JGB in November 1993, and I’d link to etree.org’s page for the show, but I can’t seem to get a second XHTML hotlink to work. Try clicking my name for the link.) While the performances (Dylan opened) were good, the scene was a clusterfuck. I bought a ticket in the “parking lot” (actually a field by a rural airstrip) for something like $45 about an hour before the gates were literally crashed and it became an instantly free show.
Glad I had the experience, but I’d never do it again. I feel kind of old, too, to be reminded that it’s been ten years.
I believe that Dean Esmay and Dave Kopel are two Deadhead bloggers on the conservative side of things.
Dave Straub
Make that 15 days prior. Subtractin’ is hard work.
Brad R.
I wonder how many of you are aware that John Kasich was a huge Dead fan.
So was Ann Coutler, apparently. My theory is she took some bad acid and never came down from the trip.
Brad R.
Incidentally, I could never get into the Dead, except for American Beauty. Unlike jazz, rock’n’roll was not made for 20 minute improvisations.
gratefulcub
ZZZ,
Not diggin’ Panic. I tried, I really did, just can’t do it. Too southern rockish. I prefer moe., galactic, umphrey’s, robert randolph, a little Cheese but not too much, North Miss all-stars, MMW, or even Bela for my jamband fix. But, I still prefer Trey in whatever form he chooses to perform.
I was really asking, since there is no headlining jamband act to follow Phish (as Phish was there in the early 90’s to take the torch), then what now? Someone has to fill that void. This is the first summer since the early 70’s (excluding a few hiatus years) that there is no ‘summer tour’ for all the kids. There are festivals, but that is different. So, who steps up and fills the void? My tour days are over, but I hate the thought of it not continuing.
Brad R.
I couldn’t disagree more strongly. Rock and Roll was created for the simple reason that one day, the likes of Jerry Garcia and Trey Anastasio would pick up a guitar and on any given night decide, “let’s just keep playing this song and see where it goes.” Sometimes it was crap, but that is the price you pay when looking for that magical hour and a half SugarMag>DarkStar>Playin’>DarkStar>UJB>DarkStar>Sunshine Daydream
zzzz
Gratefulcub – check out some of the Tea Leaf Green stuff. Not quite in Phish’s league yet, maybe someday. I just saw them and there were a few times I closed my eyes and was reminded of Trey finishing up on a smokin’ Harry Hood.
Also, if you haven’t heard of them, go see Dark Star Orchestra when they come around. Close your eyes and you ARE at a Dead show. They have tons of stuff in the archives as well. They recreate exact Dead shows from the era in which they were played, and pretty god damn well too.
gratefulcub
ZZZ,
I have heard rumors of TLG, but never heard them. I shall check them out.
I saw DSO at a Harvest Festival in the middle of nowhere on an organic farm. After I let myself enjoy it, and stopped being disgusted because they were a dead cover band, it was great fun. Sometimes I take things too seriously and forget that it is just music; enjoy it! It is weird to build your career around sounding like someone else, but they do it well. The only problem I had with them was: Even if you are going to recreate the show, leave out Space, no one wants to sit through that crap. Mickey was somewhat entertaining to watch at times, but for the most part…..Space is useless.
Gurney
I guess that it means it’s 10 years on from the OJ verdict too. I had the same job when I got both pieces of news. Garcia got me into Bluegrass, which has been my passion ever since. The best tunes for me were not the Dark Stars, they were the Jack A Roes and the Rain and Snows and the Peggy O’s, the ancient folk songs they used as vehicles. Go get Garcia’s albums with David Grisman. Even while Jerry was coasting with the Dead he was really committed to his projects with Grisman.
Defense Guy
Gurney
Agreed, those are some of my faves as well. However, a lot can be said for the rocked up country tunes like El Paso, Mexicali and Big River. They had a little something for everyone I guess.
zzyzx
There’s no one now. Perpetual Groove, Umphrey’s, and TLG all have some people claiming they will be the Next Big Thing (TM) but in the meantime, there’s no real tour to go on. It’s weird taking real vacations instead of seeing music all the time.
Gary Farber
“Deadheads everywhere.”
I think my last concert was back in the Seventies, but I could be forgetting something. For some reason.
“Weird how it all goes by so fast.”
The interesting part is the acceleration as a fixed period of time becomes by percentage a smaller and smaller part of one’s life. Imagine how we’ll perceive it at 80 or 90 (assuming we make it).
I’m still so dang lazy, though.
John Cole
After my love affair with the Grateful Dead and Little Feat, everyone else seems second rate.
I do like Widespread Panic- they rock, but it just ain’t the same even if I think Makes Sense to Me is one of the greatest all time songs by any band.
Nowadays, I listen to a lot of blues, funk, and jazz. I like bluegrass and a few other things. But nothing is the Dead. Nothing.
Defense Guy
These days it’s the Allman Brothers or nothing, although I would concede that Feat do most certainly bring the groove. In my case, as far as actual shows, it’s mostly nothing.
gratefulcub
Well said John, nothing is the dead.
Because of age, I must confess that nothing is Phish, nothing. There will be more great bands, there are more great bands, but that was my love affair with music. But, it was impossible to have a love affair with Phish without loving the dead. Hopefully I won’t look back on them as the best days of my life, but if I do, they were good. Go to the show, to the tent, back in the car because the next show is only a few hours and a few hundred miles away.
John Cole
Feat’s Waiting for Columbus is the greatest live album ever.
zzyzx
I’d say that I hold the Dead and Phish equally dear but they’re pretty different beasts in many ways. Panic is on a lower tier. I don’t ever expect to find a third band that would inspire me to travel that much.
Sigh.
sean
john –
you would have loved the show i went to last April 15: LittleFeat opened up for RatDog at the Beacon Theatre. and the Dog is coming back to NYC 9/1 to play at Central Park with Bruce Hornsby. now i know it’s not the Dead, but Bobby and his band can still bring it.
sean
BTW John – are you antwhere near Terra Alta, WV?? RatDog played at the Jerry Garcia Birthday bash there this past weekend.
Gurney
Rat Dog, the current Dead lineup–it’s just not the same. Like the new cartoons they’ve made with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck–without Mel Blanc they’re not the same. Jerry was the spark that made them special. He was the one who elevated them above their combined mediocrity. (And I love the Grateful Dead.)
sean
you’re right Gurney. but i’d rather see a lineup featuring Bobby, Phil, Bill and Mickey (well, you can keep Mickey) than nothing. the shows they did at Jones Beach (in ’03 with Joan Osborne and ’04 with Warren Haynes) helped to fill the void for me just a little bit.
beloml
I first got to know my now-husband when I sent him the Newsweek cover story after Jerry Garcia’s death. We worked in the same organization and I knew he was a Deadhead. He asked me out to lunch, and we were married three and a half months later.
Don Surber
Garcia was a capitalist
Rome Again
This I disagree with most profoundly.
caleb
For all you Heads out there who haven’t been clued in….
archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php
Live music archive where tons and tons and tons of dead shows(2893 shows to be exact) and other bands are yours for the download….free and legal.
Also…for those into the bittorrent stuff…..
bt.etree.org/
same deal only with bittorrent protocol.
Have at it! :-)
__________________________
3 rivers 95 was my las t show as well (having been at WVU at the time)….remember that second set as well…they could not have timed that better….spooky.
Local band Rusted Root opened, a huge step for them at the time…..loved the Root back then…now…..not so much.
joe public
It makes sense that John Cole is a Deadhead. Tipper Gore, Ann Coulter; it does really all roll into one.
Saw (3 of the 4) last stand (March 1995) at the Omni. Six shows before that, starting in June 1992, Charlotte.
Of the post- era, I like Phil & Friends because Jimmy Herring and John Molo, with Phil’s bass work, make for a very nice sound. DSO are definitely good at what they do, if you’re into that. Bruce Hornsby’s playing in Chattanooga on the 18th.
Paul Berra
I wonder how many of you are aware that John Kasich is a huge asshole.
moneytastesbad
I only had the pleasure of catching one show, Charlotte in 95. But in changed who I was. I now have (thanks in part to archive.org) quite a collection of bootlegs. It may not be the same, but it is still the music, and in the end that is what it is all about.
As for new bands, it looks as if String Cheese and Widespread are sorta taking the torch. However, with so many wookies on tour now, there is no way in hell you will catch me there. I was at the All Good Festival in Masontown, WV which had SCI and the whole BIG SUMMER CLASSIC TOUR. There were so many lot rats. It was not a good scene at all. I plan to stick to the bluegrass fests like MerleFest.
Gregory Markle
Like a “good member” of VRWC I’m not a big Dead fan…I like a few songs but overall I think they’re the most over-rated band in history. I did follow the Dead for two years though in the late 80’s…but it was as a t-shirt vendor and I’m pretty sure that’s why I nearly HATE their music. Not a big fan yet I was subjected to it day in and day out for two years. Every once in a while I’ll hear a song and enjoy it…but every once in a while is good enough!
Anywho, on to my point…it is no surprise to me that the Dead are still big, big business. I still talk with the owner of Liquid Blue (they do all the licensed Dead tie-dyes), Mikio Kennedy (did art for the Dead as well as other bands and has a t-shirt business), and Phil Brown (who does some psychedelic art and makes does a lot of very cool production tie dying, including the dying for Kennedy’s Ts) and they say business is still VERY strong with the college kids and the “420” crowd on the Dead merch. Add to that the fact that bands like Dave Matthews and Phish (now gone) took up the slack on the partial absence of the Dead. The Deadheads are still Deadheads…but there are plenty of talented bands that have stepped up and with Lesh, Hart, Kreutzmann, and others still on the ciruit all is still good for those milking the cash out of the hippies!
James
I still regard Brokedown Palace as a very appropriate requiem for Jerry. I remember well listening to a whole bunch of tunes up on my parents’ roof with my brothers the day Jerry died, and one of the last we put on was Brokedown. At the time we were all hipped out, longhair slackers just returning from tour (the 3 rivers show with rusted root being our last, also), and it pleasantly reminds me of a very fun, free time in my life. Ah, to go back…
zzzz
Talk about a requiem, how bout the last song Jerry ever played, Black Muddy River in Chicago.
“I will walk alone……..”