Thoughts On The Dead

Musings on the Most Ridiculous Band I Can't Stop Listening To

Tag: jerry garcia (Page 38 of 139)

Howe About That?

June 10, 2016 / / 2 Comments

gordie howe

Someone posted this in the Comment Section and it deserves to be seen in the largest frame: this is Gordie Howe, and he did not take steroids because they hadn’t been invented yet. (Well: they had, but only Commies were taking them.) Also: what the fuck was he trying to catch with that reel? Humpbacks?

Gordie was known for a lot of things, but the Gordie Howe Hat Trick is the best: that’s a goal, an assist, and a fight in one game. (Gordie actually only achieved a GHHT twice, and he wasn’t the first guy to do it, but it was named after him because people like naming things after famous athletes.)

But did you know that there were other hat trick varieties?

Garcia Hat Trick Burn down a hotel room, green room, and dressing room all in one day.

Wade Boggs Hat Trick A hit, a run, and 37 beers in one game.

Guy LaFleur Hat Trick A goal, an assist, and a compliment on his hair.

John Mayer Hat Trick 10,000 likes on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter on one post.

Mickey Hat Trick Drum solo, drum circle, and a free Dead shirt.

Leonid Brezhnev Hat Trick A goal, an assist, and a good eyebrow day in one Great Game.

Sincerely, though: my thoughts this night are with all hockey fans and Canadians and especially Dead archivist David Lamieuxrningdew. He was a fan of Mr. Hockey, and he and his wife Regina named two of their septuplets after Mr. Howe. (You remember the septuplets: Gordie, Girl Gordie, Northstar, Jean-Luc, Fleece, and the twins, Billie and Mickie.)

[Sic] Show

June 8, 2016 / / 8 Comments

band 32171

Rareness abounds in this shot: Peanut makes an appearance, and the ultra-hyper-mega-super-rare tie-dyed Bobby.

Also: what the fuck? Please explain the greengrocer’s apostrophe. I don’t understand anything about what that is. (After the most minor of research, it seems that the opening act was called Michael and the Messenger’s [sic] and Pig was borrowing the organ. Which just brings up more questions. This was 3/21/71 at the Exposition Center in Milwaukee (only that partial AUD exists) and they had been on a mini-tour of the Midwest; did they not bring Pig’s organ? How did they break that to Pig when they were leaving for the airport? Did Pig threaten to hogtie anyone in retaliation?

And what the fuck to Michael, too. Was that sign printed seconds before the show, with no time to correct the mistake? Michael and the Messenger’s [sic] were a local Milwaukee band (I’m assuming) and back then a local band would play high school dances, and high school dances have chaperones: was not one of these chaperones an English teacher? Or any sort of teacher, really? Or a bright student? Or an average student?

I’d walk out. If I went to see your band and you fucked up the language that badly, I would lose faith in your ability to rock. Bands are allowed to spell their names wrong deliberately, or employ the superfluous umlaut, but they may not make errors in grammar or punctuation within their names. That’s a rule.

In Which I Am Proven Right

June 8, 2016 / / 13 Comments

Jerry_Garcia_Bob_Weir_Duke_University Medium Web view

As I said yesterday, Enthusiasts: Bobby never played a Les Paul. And though this shot may seem to belie that claim, let’s look a little closer. It’s excellent Photoshop work, but here’s how you can tell this picture is not real: those amps are stacked in the way a normal human would do it. Ipso facto: FAKE.

Also: I have never seen Bobby wear his potato salad in that configuration before. FAKE.

Spirit, Animal

June 7, 2016 / / 6 Comments

Did you know that Bobby was selected to be the first recipient of the Les Paul Spirit Award? Did you know there was a Les Paul Spirit Award? There is now, apparently, and Bobby will get it at Bonnaroo. My spies tell me that Bobby has insisted on being presented with a medal in front of everyone just like at the end of Star Wars. Bobby is also forcing Jeff Chimenti to play Chewbacca in the scenario.

(Also: please no one mention that Bobby has never, ever, ever, ever played a Les Paul. He played Gibsons–a red SG and a sunburst 335–but not a Les Paul.)

Plus, you should listen to this: 1/7/78 from Golden Hall in San Diego. It’s one of the Laryngitis Shows from early ’78 and, freed from his vocal duties, Garcia solos. Bobby counts the first song in, and then Garcia solos until Bobby tells the crowd that they’d be right back; he takes a break from soloing; Bobby once again counts the band in, and Garcia resumes soloing until it is time to call it an evening.

And there’s a first set El Paso>Let It Grow>Promised Land which is not a thing, but somehow exists; the El Paso might be the best EVAR: Garcia slashes and growls and whoops throughout the entire song, and then during LIG, he does his Jimmy Page impression and the whole show is a beauty.

You now have something to read, and something to listen to. Would you care to look? Fine. You may look at this:

Portable Network Graphics image-9E45C2E0146D-1

That is a baby camel, more precisely a baby Bactrian camel, and his name is Alexander Camelton.

TotD is a full-service content provider.

World-Famous Guitar Center

June 3, 2016 / / 2 Comments

You can poke around the Bonham’s site if you want: most of the lots in the 2012 Garcia auction were his artwork, or some of that tacky shit they plastered his artwork on, but there were some interesting little nuggets.

jerry rock kid guitar

This is a small-scale guitar Rock Scully bought for his kid to learn on; Garcia got wind that there was an unmodified guitar in his presence and flipped out, installing new pickups and a bridge that cost more than the entire instrument. Plus, he had the Stealie inlaid. By the time the upgrades were finished, Rock’s son was in grad school.

Here’s another guitar, a little more elaborate this time:

bobby ibanez jerry guitar

This was built by Bobby and the guys at Ibanez for Garcia, in hopes he’d start playing their guitars; he apparently found it too heavy, which is astonishing. Tiger weighed 1300 pounds and Garcia loved that thing, so how heavy must this sucker have been?

Those are cute, but if you want a real Garcia guitar, then dig in the couch for 300 grand worth of change and find a Time Sheath:

jerry travis bean

That, obviously, is the Travis Bean TB1000 that Garcia played in 1975, and I hope it makes Jim Irsay very happy. He is a deserving man.

And this:

Included is the custom-made black leather case (that only a TB1000 guitar fits in), with some of Garcia’s items still inside: his guitar strings, a tuning fork, a string winder, and an unopened pack of his non-filtered Camel cigarettes.

Unopened, man.

But Is It Art?

June 1, 2016 / / 0 Comments

jerry john kahn headstock donna

From Garcia’s pinky, down; between his hand and John Kahn’s headstock; his face, up: the rule of thirds.

John Kahn, Mrs. Donna Jean, and Garcia are certainly not as close as they seem to one another: foreshortening.

The brilliant white glow of the headstock and Garcia’s forehead against the ink-black background: chiaroscuro.

The arm, the bass neck, and Wolf: balance.

Your eye starts on the “Fender” and the tunings pegs, then travels upward–clockwise–to Garcia’s face, continuing down Mrs. Donna Jean’s arm to Wolf and then up Garcia’s forearm: the Fibonacci spiral.

This is Renaissance art.

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