An odd thing happened on the way to Oracle Park, in San Francisco. It took years to get there.
Unlike most of the other bands from the Bay Area, or anywhere else at the time, they didn’t make a lot of political statements. Indeed, the first real protest song was Throwing Stones, from In The Dark, a CD released in 1987. More a gentle warning, or a hopeful admonition, than a call for revolution. Instead, they just made music a celebration.
They always seemed to have kindness as the driving force, even a song with so much anguish and sorrow as Wharf Rat has an underlying theme of salvation and redemption. With so much sadness there was a note of kindness and concern, a chance for salvation. The Grateful Dead always wanted us to believe humanity wraps all of us in its warmth and kindness. We never stand so tall as when we lean over to help somebody up.
It was always a symbiotic relationship between the fans and The Grateful Dead. Fans fed the band, and the band gave them energy and purpose. Every concert was a surprise, they could play three nights in one place and each night would be a new show. They weren’t trying to sell their newest album; they were trying to entertain people.
Taping the music and taking pictures was allowed, possibly encouraged. They had a special section for “tapers,” hundreds of microphones popping up on stands, it looked like a scene from a low budget science fiction movie. Alien antennas, tie-dyed listening posts in a crowded landscape of dancing, swaying lifeforms. And the band played on. Jerry Garcia was quoted as saying; ” Well, my feelings are, the music is for the people, ya know it’s like uh…I mean after it leaves our instruments it’s of no value to us, ya know what i mean, it’s like, ya know… what good is it?, so it might as well be taped, my feeling is that.. and if people enjoy taping it and enjoy having the tapes to listen to, that’s real great. “
It was a cultural revolution, based on long, cosmic, musical interpretations of well-loved songs. The Dead could take songs from a wide variety of genres and make them their own. From the Cajun anthem, Iko Iko to the Hank Williams classic You Win Again. It is a reverence for the music, a love for the flow of rhythm and lyrics that makes each song a tribute to the original, not a copy, but a progression, each song becoming a Grateful Dead song while retaining all the flavor and charm of the original. It was the music.
There is a story about Bob Wier touring for a whole year after Jerry Garcia passed away. When a reporter asked him why he looked surprised, “the music has to be played, man.”
It’s all about the music. It was their love for the music that brought the fans, and it was the love of the band that brought the Deadheads, and it was the love for the Deadheads that made the band special. It was a full circle, and the final tour, as sad as it sounds proves the point.
People are packing the stadiums and amphitheaters and the legacy is safe. Is there ever going to be another phenomenon to replace this, nature abhors a vacuum, and people need something to love, but if I were a gambling man I’d bet against it, even though I’m rooting for it.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: Flickr
