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

Tag: jerry garcia (Page 103 of 139)

Thought Garcia Had Before He Was Dead

He tried to clean up. Sometimes fleetingly; other times for longer. On occasion, professionals were called in–the blue-collar nurses and the soft and fuzzy sweatered manageria castes  of the American Help Care system. Everyone would put on their serious faces; notes would be taken. (These types were generally accompanied by various acupuncturists, fakirs, and shamans because San Francisco)

But he made most of the efforts by himself, and believe me: they were countless; they were legion; they were un-fucking-remitting. Another round-up of supplies, for he had thrown away all the deedle-y, fidget-y gadgets that comes along with a drug habit. Another stare-down with the telephone.

At least one time, he came up with a cunning plan: his previous attempts had all failed because he missed the drugs too much, so what if before quitting this time–for good: 31st time’s the charm–he would do SO MANY DRUGS that missing them would be out of the question. This was a good plan, he thought. He likened it to turning into the skid. It gives him no pause that this plan is uniformly described as being so evidently foolish that a small child wouldn’t even consider it. His good feelings about the plan are aided immensely by the fact that he has conceived of, prepared for, and carried out said plan in complete secrecy. He’d show ’em. He’d show ’em all.

Drug addiction is the response of the small but significant percentage of souls that views reality with the same stupefied disgust you give the plate containing the wrong meal when it’s placed in front of you. This is not what you ordered. Fix it–recook it, throw it away and start over, something–just fix it. Your eyes scan the establishment for someone in charge, someone with authority, someone to be put on the case: no joy.

The world turns us all to rust, but some people corrode from the inside-out.

Touch Of Black And White

In a way, the N-word is tougher on White people than it is for Blacks.

You’re kidding me.

I have a point here, hyperbolic as my opening gambit might have been.

Get to it pronto, numbnuts.

You never show up this early.

There’s an alarm that goes off in the office when you start discussing race relations.

There’s an office?

If I can proceed: that word represents hundreds of years of dehumanization, the pitiful history of savage cruelty any Black man or woman must remember whenever they remember who built the White House.  The centuries of operatic violence that were African -Americans’ entrance to these civilized shores left a scar that runs like the Mississippi, and just as long and wide.

On the other hand, hearing that word makes me briefly uncomfortable. So, that’s a tie at the very least, by my way of thinking.

That’s it: I quit.

STEP. STEP. STEP. STEP. CREEEEEEEEK. SLAM!

You can just leave?

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that the first 30 seconds or so of  7/11/69 in Flushing, Queens gets your attention and REQUIRES HEADPHONES. Trust me on this: I’ll let you guess who did it.

The show’s great: an uptempo dash through Dire Wolf with a ton of help from TC on the wheezy organ (it sounds like the Vatican had asthma) follows a perfect Dupree’s in which Garcia’s voice doesn’t crack even once, which might be a one-off.

But that’s nothing–nothing at all–because next up is a Hard to Handle with Garcia on pedal steel that is HoF, and by HoF, I mean Horrendously, obstinately Fartastic. Listen to it once (and trust me: once is enough) for your daily giggle; check out Pig’s defeated “Thank you,” right afterwards.

AND a ball-touchingly good early Casey Jones! What more could you ask for? Besides the whole, “Sweet Jesus, don’t say that into a microphone,” thing.

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