I miss Jerry Garcia

[Metsie Casey]

Haven't been to any of the shows since he was alive. It wouldn't be the same.

[Docreed2003]

1. Best detention I ever served in High School...

We were on a chorus trip to NYC and D.C. While in DC, we were touring the city and our bus driver pointed out, as we passed RFK stadium, that the Dead were in town and playing that night. Well, a couple of us decided to sneak out from the hotel that evening, which was totally against every rule, and we pooled all of our cash together to buy tickets and get into the show. It was exhilarating. Not only was the show incredible but I was pumped because I was defying the "man". We took a cab back to the hotel and were met in the lobby by our teachers/escorts/parents who had been worried sick about us for hours. I don't remember exactly how much detention I served, or how badly my dad beat my ass when I got home, full disclosure Mom was one of our chaperones, but I will always remember that concert. Jerry died not long after that.

The world could use a little Jerry Garcia right now!

[Metsie Casey]

2. That's a great story

Thanks for sharing. Good times back then at the shows.

[fNord]

11. That may be the most awesome dead story I've ever heard.......

And I've been on tour......

Good on you, I know the juice was worth the squeeze.....


Thanks for sharing

[Docreed2003]

13. Happy to share...jealous you got to go on tour with them!

[fNord]

14. I do still have my wings,....

But I'd happily trade them in for one more show with Jear-Bear.....


That being said, I've never caught a Further show I didn't like.....Phill and Bobby still put on a hell-of-a good show

[Docreed2003]

15. No doubt man!

[fNord]

16. You do realize....

When I say on tour, I mean me an three other guys traveling around in a busted ass car, not showering for WEEKs on end, selling crappy hand made jewelry, veggie burritos, and *other stuff so we had enough gas to hang out in a parking lot listening to the sounds come over the stadium and every once in a wile get " miracled" in to actually see the show. Believe me, the stories are much more glamorous than the reality......but it WAS fuckin' awesome.....

[Docreed2003]

18. See that is everything I had imagined when you said that...

I'm sure it was shitty at times but damn that's an amazing story.

The closest I ever came to that was in 2005. I was on an elective rotation in surgery residency, and I took like ten days and followed Dylan around on tour in the southeast. I saw some great shows, that was back when every night had a different set list. I've got two cool stories from that: first, saw him two nights back to back front row at the Ryman in Nashville. Both nights, Elvis Costello came out for an impromptu solo set, as he was scheduled to be with Bob later in the tour and he didn't want to pass up playing the Ryman, and Jack White came out both nights as well. The second night he and White played "From a Buick 6", a song up until then Dylan had never played in concert. The second story is from Birmingham, Al. During a lull in between songs, this night I was on the third row right in front of Dylan's piano, I yelled out "Visions of Johanna". I see Bob's head raise up and he gets up and walks over to the band and I see them talking...damned if they didn't play it. I was through the roof that night. I've got a bootleg of that concert and you can hear me yelling out for the song.

All that being said, your story is way cooler. I benefited from the Internet and planning the concerts and saving money for months ahead of time...ate a helluva lot of ramen to save! Yours is organic and real...mines just a modern day cheap knock off!

[fNord]

24. Say what you want.....

But seeing Dylan live is something I still haven't crossed off my bucket list, and that clock is ticking loud as fuck!...... so now it's me envying you.....

Btw, great story! I couldn't even get David Allen Coe to play "The Ride" by screaming it in a small venue with a mere 1000 people.....I did once catch a piece of balled up construction paper with the Words "Ain't That A Damn Shame" thrown by George Clinton's Son in to the crowd at All Good 2010, but that's the closest I got to that. I still have that piece of construction paper....it's framed.....

Nothing is a nock off, cool experience is just that, experience. good live music is happening every day! Some of the folk at the local bar are composing some amazing shit.

I have no love for what they call EDM, but last year a girl dragged me to a show......there was a DJ playing loud electronic music.....but he was the backup for a cat on the violin, another on the alto sax, and a third playing a stand up bass.....it was incredible

I'm just saying, the stories aren't over, and the music never stops

[Docreed2003]

27. Absolutely right! The music lives forever...

As to Dylan, when I most recently saw him the set list was the same for the majority of the tour, part of the allure previously was that each night was a little bit different. However, I will say, the steady setlist did serve his voice well and he was as clear then as I had ever heard him in concert.

David Allen Coe....lmao, I went to one of his "concerts" with my best friend when he was stationed in TX and I was visiting him. Coe came on stage and he was effing lit...like waaaaaay fucked up. He was slurring words and cursing the bar girls serving drinks in this bar. He says "I bet y'all just want to hear my hits! Well fuck you...Imma sing a song I just wrote right here". He proceeds to bungle his way through this "song" about his father. He downs a drink and then walks off stage. That was it!! I didn't know whether to be pissed that he only sang one "song" or to be ecstatic that I saw the most epic DAC concert
I love live music. If you're ever in Nashville, hit me up! There's always all types of music around town, not just country.

[fNord]

28. When I caught George Clinton (In St. Pete, Fl)

I went up to try to get him to sign my LP, and instead caught a pic of him on my phone hitting a crack pipe......but the show was badass.....no complaints!

I still have the pic (it's graney as fuck, but cells sucked back then)

[Docreed2003]

29. Lmao...that's epic!!!

[fNord]

30. Lol, was 10 times better than an autograph.....

[Docreed2003]

31. No doubt!!

[ghostsinthemachine]

33. I miss tour!

Best job ever. Certainly the most honest. Sold all kinds of stuff, but never illegal things. Used to import stuff from Guatemala, was the first people on tour to do that. Made so much money that we would have to fly to Guatemala during the week to replace stock between weekend shows.sold photos, stumper bickers, shirts, you name it. Fun as hell. Even took my kids on tour in the nineties, when the money was good enough to afford hotels and vehicles that we knew were going to make the run. Damn, shit was fun.

[hollowdweller]

35. Door to the world imports?

I used to order Guatemalan stuff from them. Sad, you never see those style clothes anymore. I still have one shirt and my wife a vest.

[ghostsinthemachine]

39. No, but there were a few by the nineties

I would kill for some cortte fabric shorts. Loved them. The front pockets were unique.

[hollowdweller]

19. What Year?

I saw the Dead at RFK in 86 with Dylan, and Tom Petty

[Docreed2003]

21. 1993....I can't imagine seeing them with Dylan and Petty!

[struggle4progress]

3. Friend of The Devil

[Miles Archer]

4. Watched a YouTube video of Germany's Beat Club, 1972, the other day.

Pigpen and Keith & Donna.

It's rough for me to watch the videos in which Jerry was at the peak of his powers. Listening to him anywhere from 1969 through the mid-70s is where I really feel the loss.

The Beat Club video is worth viewing, if you haven't seen it. I'm uploading something to YouTube right now or I would find it for you, but it's pretty easy to get to via their search box.

[Laffy Kat]

5. There's still the ice cream.

Cherry Garcia is B&J's best flavor.

[nolabear]

6. Papa Bear

*sigh*

[ghostsinthemachine]

7. Sorry to tell ya, but you've missed a LOT OF INCREDIBLE MUSIC.

I miss physical Jerry a lot, but the mystic, shaman Jerry, I experience everyday. I see him channelled by so many now, his influence is everywhere. It runs through John Mayer, Jackie Greene, Art Neville, and Trey Anastasio. And so many others.

I've seen every incarnation since, or a goodly number of them, and each one is a great collaboration. Phil and friends rotating casts are fun, you never know how it is going to go. Now, at Terrapin Station in Marin, he brings all kinds of people in to play, as well as his residency at the Beacon.
Further killed. My favorite. The Other Ones with Kimock and Warren? Derek Trucks? Warren Haynes? Warren and Jimmy Herring? (Guitar heaven).

Then there was The Dead, the core four bands. Warren and Jimmy and Jeff Chimenti, (who is the best keys player in the GD world IMO). Or the only Warren version. Or the Trey, Hornsby, JC version at Fare The Well. Oh yeah, the giant double rainbow at the Santa Clara show.

Really, you've missed a lot of fine music.

[astral]

10. x

Jerry didn't just start a band, or three, he didn't just inspire alot of great artists, he started a new genre, and it's carrying on in a most beautiful way.

[hollowdweller]

20. Jerry was like Bill Monroe

Bill Monroe spawned everything from Del Mc Coury to Nickle Creek. Jerry and the Dead essentially spawned the jam and americana movements.

[ghostsinthemachine]

32. Garcia used to follow "Old" Bill and dreamed of playing

Banjo in his band. Even traveled across the country, with David Grisman, to try out for his band. Got there, and found he was too shy to try out. Before the Dead, long before.

[red dog 1]

8. I miss him too

I've been a fan of his since before the Dead's first album came out.

(I used to go to the old Fillmore Auditorium to see them...often)



"Right now, America is under the gun..It's being tested and being co-opted in a big way."

Jerry Garcia


K&R

[DFW]

9. I saw the Dead live at the Fillmore East in 1970

Quite a show, and García was at his peak.

[fNord]

12. Gate crashers suck!

https://m.

[hollowdweller]

22. I was at Deer Creek 95

The second night was canceled due to the gate crashing the first night.

So I feel like Keller. What would have been my last dead show was canceled by gate crashers.

[fNord]

25. .................

[fNord]

17. For you.....

https://m.

[hollowdweller]

23. Favorite Dead Venues

I loved to see them at Hampton Coliseum. Saw them there 84,85,86,87,88 and 92. Saw JGB there in 91

Merriweather was another great venue. Saw the Dead there 85 and JGB 2 nights in 89.

Also loved Deer Creek. Saw them there 90,91,92,93,94,95

Saw them lots of other places too but those places were special.

I have seen numerous aggregations of the remaining members of the Dead. They are great for nostalgia and old deadheads getting together but there is a mystical element that came with Jerry that I have never felt again with any of the post Jerry combinations. Some people are apparently chosen channels of some sort of force. When Jerry and the dead played the amount of love produced by the audience was amazing. There was something really there.

[fNord]

26. Red Rocks......and the Fillmore.....

That's funny, (at least to me) I'm a right coast guy......Further at RFK was still pretty badass

[hollowdweller]

37. Always wanted to see the band at Red Rocks

Never made it.

I'm retired now hoping to maybe see Thievery Corp there some time. I saw them at the All Good Fest in 2015 and they were great.

https://vimeo.com/133422792

[ghostsinthemachine]

36. Winterland. Red Rocks. Springfield Creamery, Kaiser Center

Alpine Valley ,(when you could camp), Autzen Stadium!

"Ain't no place I'd rather be"...

Anywhere. I loved that they used area promoters, who did small time gigs, like Calaveras, or Grass Valley, Boreal Ridge (considered by most as the worst show, yet I know a guy that swears his whole life changed that day,) using locals.

I saw them most in NORCAL. Cal Expo most of all. From Sacramento and I figured out that I took 15 different women to Dead shows there, most not at all heads before the show. Some loved it, others, not so much.
The Greek shows? Stellar every night. Frost! I peaked at the Greek and got lost at the Frost! Even sat in one of the middlest chairs around the bottom of the Greek for a memorable Sunday afternoon (6-15-84). Called out "walk me out Jerry" as the band came onstage for the second set.. and they opened the set with "Dew"!!!!! Loved Laguna Seca Daze!

Long Beach arena had some barn burners. Loved Ventura. Swimming after a show was ridiculous! The Holiday Inn, completely out of control.

Then, the latter day sheds. Shoreline. Saw every show there including June 95. Love that it looks like a stealie! But, loose it wasn't. The Dead made every venue into their own? Deafness? Something that transformed everything into Dead land.,

[hollowdweller]

38. I remember a Golden Road review of Ventura

Where Ry Cooder opened up for them and made me want to see him too. I've still never been able to see him.

[ghostsinthemachine]

34. Dylan on Jerry.....

There's no way to measure his greatness or magnitude as a person or as a player. I don't think eulogizing will do him justice. He was that great – much more than a superb musician with an uncanny ear and dexterity. He is the very spirit personified of whatever is muddy river country at its core and screams up into the spheres. He really had no equal.
To me he wasn't only a musician and friend, he was more like a big brother who taught and showed me more than he'll ever know. There are a lot of spaces and advances between the Carter family, Buddy Holly and, say, Ornette Coleman, a lot of universes, but he filled them all without being a member of any school. His playing was moody, awesome, sophisticated, hypnotic and subtle. There's no way to convey the loss. It just digs down really deep.

This story is from the September 21st, 1995 issue of Rolling Stone.

Also, Dylan wanted to join the Dead full time in 90. Everyone gave the OK except for Phil. So he didn't. I saw a few of the Dylan/Dead tour and was underwhelmed by the Dylan sets. (,Thought the Petty collaboration was the best Dylan a
And collaboration). The Dead portion did the Dead blow your mind thing, but with Dylan, it as like the band was tentative. They didn't make IT happen during those sets. The Dead did most of those songs better without Dylan. It would have been cool to see the Dead take those songs to the IT-ness, they couldn't achieve with such a short time and Dylan's weirdness, which was two minute, or less, rehearsals with every song he ever wrote.

When Dylan walked away from Jerry's casket he said "inside that box lies the only man that knows what it's like to be me".