Breathe harmony.
Become tranquility.
As the ten thousand things rise and fall,
rise and fall,
just witness their return to the root.
Everything that flourishes dissolves again into the source.
To…
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So now what? What can a library of Grateful Dead music do, when the essence was what happened live? A library of Grateful Dead recordings will serve as a catalyst for bold ideas and a reminder to those possessed by the inevitable moments of confusion that they "Gotta make it somehow on the dreams you still believe" (footnote 3). Or, as Lao Tzu said,
Moments such as the spacejams of "Prelude" (Europe '72) or "Slipknot" (Blues for Allah, 1975) possess mysterious and unfathomable depths. Out of all of those voices, those multiple dialogs, come the elegiac simplicity and the ringing clarity of "Morning Dew" or a "Franklin's Tower (Roll Away the Dew)":
In another time's forgotten space
your eyes looked from your mother's face...
God save the child who rings that bell,
It may have one good ring, baby you can't tell.
If you get confused listen to the music play,
Some come to laugh the past away,
…
The fabulous polyrhythms and time changes of "King Solomon's Marbles" (Blues for Allah) are probably the best studio examples of the thick textures, tone clusters, and one of the first endings of a "space" segment that doesn't fade or segue into another tune. There will always be something very disturbing about that dead stop, for it stands in direct contradiction to the norm: the continuity, the fluidity, the timelessness that is so compelling. However, the craving for surprise and musical chicanery has also been a mainstay of the band; take that ending and get on with it.
A Grateful…
This leads into the meanderings or the paths, everyone finding their own way, getting there, inhabiting the moment that is music in its fullest sense.
While Rameau (footnote 11) would be astounded at Weir's chord inversions, nowhere is the idea of the Fundamental bass (basse fondamentale)---"root progressions in a succession of harmonies"---better illustrated than in the playing of Phil Lesh. I happily and shamelessly repeat Rob Bowman's comments on "the boys": "the idea of bass/guitar counterpoint was intrinsic to the stylistic alchemy of the Dead...Lesh laughingly concurs, 'Some…
So begins "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)," the first cut on The Grateful Dead. It resonated with those looking to leave the mind-numbing, soul-deadening confines of a Leave it to Beaver universe that never quite matched the color and timbre of mid-'60s life. There had to be something more, something real, something true out there, and here was a clarion call: the initial message that life is fun.
Anthem of the Sun (1968) was as adventurous as any piece of "classical electronic music" at the time: feedback, flanging, phasing, reverb, echo, kazoo, vibraslap, celesta, claves,…
In Workingman's Dead the Dead taught empathy. Perhaps that's the core of what they do, or is simply what music itself enables. It's no wonder that transportation metaphors of cars, buses, trains, and planes thread their way through the Grateful Dead repertoire, because each of these vehicles gives you a different perspective of the lay of the land. Back in Anthem of the Sun, "The bus came by and I got on, that's when it all began." We not only have the dream/reminiscences of Bob Weir meeting Neal Cassady (the real-life Dean Moriarity of Jack Kerouac's On the Road), but we step through the…
"Eyes of the World," too, illustrates the sweetness of Garcia's guitar playing. The E-major VII intro shows his exquisite phrasing and his lyrical ability sine qua non. The guitar solos punctuating the chorus and the break are also indicative of his ability to penetrate the veil. Perhaps here it was safe for him; given this task outside of the bounds of the music, it became an onerous burden. More than anything, that price serves as a reminder that happiness must come from within, that no one else can provide your answers, that the solutions are up to all of us: it should never be one man's…
SIDEBAR 1: A Grateful Dead Discography
The Grateful Dead (1967), Warner Bros. WS-1689
Anthem of the Sun (1968), Warner Bros. WS-1749
Aoxomoxoa (1969), Warner Bros. WS-1790
Live/Dead (1970), Warner Bros. WS-1830
Workingman's Dead (1970), Warner Bros. WS-1869
American Beauty (1970), Warner Bros. 1893
Grateful Dead (1971), Warner Bros. 1935
Europe '72 (1972), Warner Bros. 2668
History of the Grateful Dead, Vol.1 (Bear's Choice) (1973), Warner Bros. 2721
Wake of the Flood (1973), Grateful Dead GD-4002
From the…
SIDEBAR 2: Dead.Net
November 1, 1995 was the official debut of the Grateful Dead's Internet server site. The URL is http://www.grateful.dead.net. Plans include recurring Chat Rooms with bandmembers, Mbone broadcasts of albums, and interviews with the band. Information on the web site includes Special Events, Almanac, Bandmember, and Merchandising.
An Infosearch seek reveals over 100 Grateful Dead-related Web pages ranging from documents of set lists to tape archive info. The Usnet space is rec.music.gdead. The Well, an online service provider, has served for many years as the…
SIDEBAR 6: Jerry Garcia, 1942-1995
Jerry Garcia, best known as the founder and pivotal member of The Grateful Dead, died at the age of 53 in a Marin County, California drug rehabilitation center during the early-morning hours of August 9, 1995. The guitarist/singer had been plagued with health problems in recent years, but remained active as a touring musician up until a few months before his death.
"Deadheads," as the faithful followers of The Grateful Dead are known, considered Garcia the spiritual as well as artistic leader of the legendary rock band. Perhaps most importantly,…