any garcia fans?

good choice! when i was little (like 3rd grade) i'd always sneak into my brothers room (he had the CD), listen to friend of the devil over and over and over...but i didn't get too into the dead until 7th grade though...

well I guess we have an understanding there then :)

I agree, the Dead seem like a more mature listeners music, it took me a while to get away from street-cred metal and into bands with a sound like the Dead have.

Originally posted by PonyOne
I listen to lots of non-modern-rock stuff; lots of old blues, classical, "ethnic" music (not Zap Mama, I hate Zap Mama), etc.

The Dead just never did it for me, it's just not my thing. This "depth" everyone speaks of it having in droves seems to elude my ears. I hear it in the Doors, I hear it in Tool, I hear it in BB King's voice... but not in the Dead.

I did see a picture of Jerry's Lear Jet... it was pretty nice... I hope someday I have such a huge fanbase I can afford a Lear Jet, so I can give the money to charity.

Don't forget that Jerry and the dead gave away most of the money they didn't spend on drugs. 250 businesses in the San Fransisco Area are here because of Jerry. Its not like they kept everything for themselves, in the 70's they gave almost all the money they made to help build the wall of sound (which was at the time the most incredible peice of audio equipment in the world), it wasn't until Jerry, Weir, and Mickey hart (i believe it was mickey) went to the United Nations meeting and gave the speech for why we should help save the rainforests, that they took any seriousness to it. Before the Dead spoke at the UN, there was nothing. all of a sudden, the people knew about this serious problem, and although its not solved yet, it got the people aware, which is good. This was in 1990, or thereabouts.
The onstage- in ear audio system thing for onstage was developed in part because the dead offered to be guinea pigs for it while it was still under construction.

Just because he had a lear jet (which i haven't seen yet? i knew he had a helicopter tho) doesn't mean he didn't give money to charity. They had the Rex Foundation, which every year gave away huge sums of money to one of their employees, named after Rex Jackson. One year they gave away a fire truck ($500,000 fire truck) to one of their employees for free, because he wanted to start a volunteer fire fighters thing up on his mountain (i dont know what mountain). What other band just gives away $500,000 to an employee, to help fight fire?

Oh i definitely agree, and i never really thought of U2 that much, but now that i think about it, U2, specifically Bono mostly, donates a loooooot. Instead of just donating money to like...Salvation Army, though, i'd donate it to local small-town businesses, so they could hire more people.

i didnt check it out, but i'm going to check it out right now...

While that article does have some truth in it, it really is just a negative view on a positive vibe. Deadheads did not stay forever. They grew old, and went to work like everybody else. By the early 90's, just about every single fan wasnt even alive in 1965, which just tells you how versatile of a band they were, to reach all generations.

I do agree that we are a little obsessive, but im obsessive anyways, i just can't help it. I play guitar alot, i listen to the dead alot, and lately i've been reaaaalllly getting into Bob Dylan, his lyrics just melt into my brain, they are incredible (just as incredible as Robert Hunters!).

I think we have more to blame on society itself than the actual deadheads. Why do they keep going to the shows? They are different each one, radically different, which was something almost unheard of at a widespread level. But they represented a world where you can forget about your reality, where the grateful dead become your reality, and they are the leaders of the 'new' world. Its a way of leaving yourself behind and just forgetting about anything else, i mean something very much like it happened in "VH1 Concert for New York" for september 11, everybody totally got groovy just 1 month after 9/11. That's unheard of, normally. thats how much music changes ya.

Now, with a normal band, say...U2. They are commercially branded, and every year or 2 [u]have[/u] to put out a top ten hit, otherwise they will "fade away". The dead weren't a commercial band, therefore did not have to put out new songs all the time, because why? The songs they regulated (about 100 or so) were great, and everytime they'd play them, its like they just made a new song.

Now, even though i love the dead, i do not really picture any of the dead members as a "prophet" really...Jerry was a musical prophet, same with bob dylan, john lennon, etc. But a musical prophet, in my mind, is just somebody who comes out with a really great idea and totally changes the way things are in his/her music genre, and there haven't been a real musical prophet in a while, maybe if you admire Steve Vai, or Satch or any of them...

hm...no i doubt that, there were about a hundred thousand deadheads at [u]least[/u]...deadsy would be as big as the grateful dead if they had legions of fans the size of the deadheads.

Originally posted by PonyOne


Personally, I'd like to start a program, sending guitars & amps to urban school music departments around the world. I think THAT would be very noble, "giving the gift of music" in the utmost way...

http://www.vai.com/MANF/manf.html

That's one such program, check that out. (Although I asked to be added to the mailing list a while ago and haven't heard anything since :( )

check out

http://www.geocities.com/darksaw/

or

dozin.com

in addition to rukind.com

also, not sure where you all heard about Jerry having a lear jet. I think thats probably bs.

'If the Grateful Dead came to town, I'd beat my way in with a ****ing tire iron, if necessary.' -Hunter S. Thompson