A long strange Trip remebered....

I have missed it by 12 hours but Wednesday August 9th was the anniversary of Jerry Garcia's passing due to a heart attack. He suffered the heart attack while in rehab for drug addiction(that seems to me that it would be a piss off), but that is neither here or there.

For those not in the know Jerry Garcia was the "defacto 'leader of The Grateful Dead. A shy guy who say the band as equals never really liked that role but he was seen as the voice of the band and ended up being a voice of a generation. The Grateful Dead is one of those bands that you either like them or you don't. But you can't argue they played a huge role in the history of rock music.

Formed in San Francisco in n 1965 they were the model of diversity in music pulling from all forms of influences like bluegrass, folk and rock. They were the Godfathers of "Jam Bands" and led the way for bands like moe., The String Cheese Incident and of course the keepers of the Dead flame and the band that a lot of Deadheads took to after the Dead went away..Phish.

The Dead were a touring machine and played 200+ shows a year, they had a huge following made a ton of cash,and were one of the most successful acts of the time, but get this didn't have a top ten hit till 1987 with the song "Touch of Gray". Something that just doesn't happen today.

I was late to the Dead party, but music wouldn't be the same without them and without Jerry Garcia. He deserves more words than I gave here but I think the biggest thing anyone could do for Jerry's memory is introduce someone to the sounds of the Grateful Dead. So go out get a greatest hits album or download some from your favorite legal(wink,wink)website. Just go out and discover "The Dead".

or click here for a sample


On a completely different tangent, here is your "Youtube" clip of the day. DO NOT OPEN AT WORK OR AROUND BORING PEOPLE WITH NO SENSE OF HUMOUR OR IF EASILY OFFENDED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED BECASUE "HE COMETH"