Grateful Dead Part 2 Essay 3989 Words

Grateful Dead part 2 Essay - 3,989 words
... of "being there," the traditions and shared experiences are sent pulsing along the wires. But I'll still sing you love songs, written
in the letters of your name. And brave the storm to come, for it surely looks like rain. --Bob Weir, Ace, 1972 The end of the tour and
dispersion of the group has elicited a variety of responses from within the Deadheads community. They are an artistic, articulate
group and have much to say on what the "end of the era" has meant.
This response sums it up best: It's meant childhood's end for people ranging all the way up into their sixties.... It's also been a new
BEGINNING in many ways for many of us, because there's no longer the Dead for us to be entertained by, so we have to now do the
entertaining.... All the creative seeds that were sown in each of us during our time with the Dead are just now beginning to burst into
bloom. People are starting to take the energy they put into going to shows and surviving on tour into the gifts that they themselves
possess. I think you're going to see a lot of artists of all types popping up in the public eye in the next decade or so who will be
attributing a lot of their inspiration to the Dead. I mean, you already see that to a certain extent, but it'll be continuing to happen, I
think.
And for every one person you end up seeing on Letterman who came out of this whole thing, you can bet that there are 50 more
doing their thing on a smaller level who got their spark at a show. (Online Interview 19) In the past two years, there has been a
noticeable upswing in Grateful Dead-related works. There are the obvious "I was there with the Dead" biographical books. There
has been tremendous activity in submissions for Dead tribute magazines such as Dupree's and Relix. An important touchstone has
been David Gans's Grateful Dead Hour. This nationally syndicated radio show (started in 1985) plays the music and discusses
various concerts (Gans). The most notable artistic works can be found on the Internet.
They range from animated home pages to photo and art galleries. Each is trying to bring images of the Dead to life (Grateful Dead
Inspired Animated Website, Grateful Dead Inspired Art Gallery). To quote another on "the end of the age": "The age depends on
the people--and as far as I've seen, the people are still alive and kicking ... and I haven't read in The New York Times that the
concept of `thinking for yourself' is dead--and that's what the whole hippie movement was really about--not clothes, peace or even
music--but ideas" (Online Interview 5). So, as far as the Deadheads are concerned, the ideas live on, the music continues to play,
and the Dead are alive. And when the day had ended, with rainbow color blended, their minds remained unbended, he had to die, oh,
you know he had to die.
--Grateful Dead, Grateful Dead (Skull-Fuck and Roses), 1971 The Deadheads are all around us. Unfortunately, this subculture has
earned an unsavory reputation because of its open drug usage. This got out of control toward the end of the band's last tour. To put a
spin on Jerry Garcia's theory that the crowd created the band: the band's drug excesses (which contributed to their destruction) only
mirrored the crowds' abuses. The Dead grew up (so to speak) within the acid test culture (Wolfe). The drugs were present when the
band began their career. As the culture experimented, the band provided the most consistent, ritualized background music.
The music originally followed the drugs, but eventually the drugs came to follow the music. The Deadheads are in touch with each
other on a more mainstream level than when the band was touring. Their cyberspace connectedness is something even those "people
over thirty," whom they were cautioned not to trust, can understand. Not to trivialize the importance of this phenomenon, this need to
stay in touch could be seen by an outsider as the equivalent of writing letters to friends made at summer camp. It is a need to catch
up and to reaffirm that they experienced something special together. The Grateful Dead will go on as long as the music is being
traded.
Each time a leaf (copy) falls from a (taper's) branch, that music will "keep on growing, keep on going, keep on flowing, yeah, yeah,
yeah" (Grateful Dead Annotated Online Lyrics). Through the songs and their shared point of view the Deadheads are keeping alive
an outlook on how to live life to its fullest. We should strive to adhere to their credo that the greatest grace is to accomplish this
through kindness, peace, and an awareness of the world around. In the final analysis, the magic legacy of the Grateful Dead is more
than music; it is the resilient family of fans they have taken along on their ride. Sleep, child, on the breast of the moon, in canyons
cluttered with dreams. Try to remember her midnight tune, when the clatter of sunlight streams.
--Robert Hunter, 1997 Works Cited Adams, Rebecca. "Mourning for Jerry: We Haven't Left the Planet Yet." Dupree's 1995. E-
mail to author 10 July 1997. Carnegie, M. D. "Jerry's Kids." American Spectator Oct. 1995: 56-57. Catlin, Roger.
"Not Fade Away: Memory of the Dead Ignites Fourth of July Fest." Hartford Courant (Eastern ed.) 29 June 1997: G1+. Folkers,
Richard. "The Band for the Eternally Young." U.S. News & Worm Report 21 Aug. 1995: 6. Gans, David. "Dead to the World." The
Grateful Dead Hour. Truth and Fun,
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