An excellent suggestion from Hal R., picking up on a thread in another topic: how did you get on the bus? What was that moment that left no room for doubt?
Probably no two stories are the same, but they're all probably pretty interesting, so tell all here!
Vibes are changin up for the better Parcher. Peace be with you. Hawaii sounds nice rite about now.
"You can never stop learning,"
Phatmoye
My Dad is a semi-fameous guitarist so . . . when folks listen to me play and remark positively about my skill . . . I usually just let it go and don't tell them the TRUE STORY of how I learned how to play guitar. In reality my Dad never taught me a thing. Geez - it's almost like I went into the woods and had a bunch of fairies from the Other World teach me the scales and stuff for their own trippy purpouses.
I've learned to omit a lot. I don't lie - but when I tell the truth like God is supposed to want me to people don't understand or think I'm making stuff up.
I really ain't. My life is wiiiiierd dude.
Peace,
-E
I feel much better after working out with a friend. Besides, he has really nice pecs.
Deadheads are starting to respond to my posts. I even got a private message. As things improve so does my mood. It's physics as far as I'm concerned.
Yes, I have some negative vibes. However, I'm not the origin of these vibes so if you really want to nip it in the bud, you have to go deeper.
I think I may even get a head or two to listen to my interpretation of the Dead's songs. Suddenly I've got an urge to go to Hawaii and play for Hawaii Deadheads. My Grandpa (Bill Fincher) uesed to go there with my German grandma (she played bass) and they jammed out for folks.
That would be cool. I wonder if I would do some diving and paint some designs for ties just like Jerry did if I was in Hawaii? Sometimes the Jerry similarity in my personality disturbs even ME.
It sure is wierd. Must be the acid, man.
I LOVE YOU MAN!
"You can never stop learning,"
Phatmoye
DUDE, GO ON A PICNIC OR A LONG WALK
Maybe phish has a post board you can jump on to.
"You can never stop learning,"
Phatmoye
has to be cleared. The song is about the Stones hired the ha to take care of security by GD recommendation. What finally was not. Enjoy the music and share the LOVE!
I grew up--or perhaps failed to grow up--in Santa Fe, NM in the late '70s-early '80s. In middle school, a friend became fanatical about the Dead, but I hadn't heard much--I'd already abandoned commercial radio for NPR, and only heard tracks from "Go To Heaven" around school. Then three events over a couple of years:
1. My dad owned a portable hot-tub business--we had a huge wooden hot-tub on a trailer and we'd deliver it to people's homes for a weekend for a flat $100 fee (remember, this was 1979). At one house we were invited to stay for the party. Walking through the house as the party started, there was an absurdly beautiful woman dancing alone in the middle of a persian rug to "Uncle John's Band." Entranced, I stayed and watched and listened and the music entered my soul.
2. Bobby and the Midnights played Santa Fe at a very small, acoustically perfect venue, the Paolo Soleri Amphitheatre. Two summers in a row, I saw that show--the last one ending with the audience so enraptured that they stood and demanded encore after encore, even after the house lights were on, and the crew was sweeping the stage.
3. The Dead played Santa Fe at the Santa Fe Downs racetrack, 10/17/82. My parents (God bless, they were (and are) wonderfully weird) borrowed my school's bus and took my classmates and me to see the show. They got box seats, we all stood 40 feet from the stage, dead center, and discovered the beauty of religious experience through Dead music.
Though I'm not the most active deadhead in the world, I've had at least one foot and both ears on the bus ever since.
Now if only they'd come back to Santa Fe...
I went to my first Jerry Garcia concert on 10/24/75. The Dead weren't touring then and when I bought tickets to hear Jerry again on 4/1/76, rumors were circulating that perhaps this was to be a Grateful Dead show. It turned out that Keith and Donna played on that date, but the rest of the band was hanging at home.
But in June, the Dead began to tour and I bought tickets for the July 2nd show at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, NJ. I'd been to the stadium before. It was an old, broken down piece of concrete that held maybe 30,000 or so people. Being as the show was scheduled for just two days before the big Bi-Centennial celebration, I figured this would be one for the ages. It would also be my first Grateful Dead show.
But as luck would have it, it rained on Friday, July 2nd and instead of taking place the following night, as the ticket promised, the show was postponed until August 4th.
All good things come to those who wait though.
On August 4th, with the sun just starting to set behind the stage, the Dead came out and launched into Sugaree. There's a great video of this song that circulates and I can tell you that everyone was as happy to be at this long-awaited show, as the few folks on screen appear to be. I remember literally laughing out loud when the show started, I was so excited to be there.
Big River (which has never been a favorite of mine) was especially good, as was The Music Never Stopped. And I was really pumped to hear the band end the first set with Scarlet Begonias.
At the Intermission, I hung out in the field area with a couple of heads I'd met, going over the first set. We had agreed that it had been much better than we'd expected when we were interrupted by a lot of noise coming from the stage. A magician/juggling act was up there, blowing folks away. Fireworks were to follow too, as this had originally been planned as the Bi-Centennial show.
The second set opened with Help On The Way > Slipknot! > Franklin's Tower > Dancing In The Street > The Wheel > Samson And Delilah. I was right down front for all of it and recall being completely overwhelmed at hearing The Wheel. It was the one song I'd wanted to hear the most when I arrived that night. The singing was particularly good and I had to admit that Donna more than held her own.
I went back to where my group of friends was sitting in the stands for the rest of the show. The guy sitting next to me (an old childhood friend) tossed a couple joints to people in front of us as the band started playing Sugar Magnolia. That was his favorite tune and they wailed on it for over eleven minutes! We got a Johnny B. Goode encore and the show was over.
What struck me the most about the whole night was that I'd tapped into a community of strangers who were as passionate about something as I'd ever seen. Yeah, the Dead were a great rock 'n roll band, but there was something else going on and I wanted to find out what it was. I was on the bus and it was heading out of town, with me on board.
"When it comes to humility, I'm the greatest!" - Bullwinkle Moose
with you on that bro, you are either on or off, and even you made a stop in between your ticket is good forever, catch you at the next stop, hahahahahaha. further baby yea.
Locations
Let's not get Jesus freak here - heaven could mean another plane of existance or just about anything. After reading a very interesting article in, "Rolling Stone" I always pictured him in Hawaii painting with a funny hat and a robe-like shirt . . . making a savage slash with the brush just as some waves come crashing up against the rocks and the spray almost hits him . . . even though he's safe from the surf up on the cliff he's on. The cliff has grass and flowers and it's a majestic sky - with signifigant clouds just on the verge of darkening into rain clouds . . .
If only we could see what Jerry is painting on his canvas . . .