Greg from Chestertown

Ha ! I checked it out this morning. I was thinking earlier today how Dark Star Orchestra, this forum and it’s posters, your deadbase game, the internet, etc. has opened up the Grateful Dead universe to me. I started in 1980, so have always been a Brent fan and always drawn to that time period as far as listening to tapes. Catching Dark Star shows got me listening to seventies shows, seeking them out on the internet, getting an understanding of that era. About a year ago, I started to pull up shows from today’s date. A great way to explore all of the different eras of the Grateful Dead. There is so much to study. They make you listen to every note. All of it is important. It’s deep. I credit Dark Star Orchestra for keeping the wheel turning and keeping me from not fading away. Moving forward, I’m thinking one of the nights in Philly will be an elective possibly with a theme fitting of these crazy times of late.

So, I am watching public television last night, the series about the National parks. They’re talking about Yellowstone and the background music breaks into the studio version of Sugar Magnolia. I think Ken Burns just told on himself. He must have seen Some shows.

I think Brent did a great job with a difficult task, fitting into the Grateful Dead after fifteen years. Jerry liked him, you could see that onstage. Bobby spoke highly of him.

7/12/90 RFK. My last Brent show. People were coming up to me after Brent died. I kept saying, it’s ok, I just saw them play Dark Star.

Checked that one out this morning. Reviews say deadbase has it as best of ‘94. I find it interesting that reviews don’t ever match up to my take on the show. As less than stellar as they were in latter years, it’s still a Grateful Dead concert. WTF! Even if it was just one song, just one moment, I was blown away, just in awe, shaking my head, as I headed to where I think I parked my truck, swearing I would be back. The good old Grateful Dead! I need a show! Where’s DSO? Send music! Help!

3/31/87 spectrum. Actually, the best I have ever seen Bobby. One small lyric flub which isn’t bad considering that song had about five songs worth of lyrics.

I remember back in the Garden, in ‘87, when Jerry was singin’ TA ME !

We’ll never understand why they do what they do. Plugging in parts of another night to a video of a show. Expect the unexpected. I am thoroughly enjoying this conversation as I wasn’t there. Nice to read people talking about shows I wasn’t at but feeling the same vibe I felt from the shows I was at.

7/17/89

That show had a nice set list, good flow, in my opinion. It musta been an enjoyable dance fest.

Did Alpine valley this morning.

Listened to the encore this morning. Made me think about how difficult it must have been for Jerry and the boys to do such a good job with it after having not played it for like five years. That’s no small task. All the more reason to appreciate just how Remarkable they were.

Nice! I love the idea. So, a new type of elective? You may have just planted a seed for DSO. Let it grow!

So, no drums?

The last song I saw John K play with DSO was a Satisfaction encore in Dewey Beach, Bottle and Cork. He was doing a bit of a ‘running in place’ kinda dancing, Rocking hard, broken string involved. I always wonder when leaving a Bottle and Cork DSO show, what everyone in town just experienced. With the open roof, there’s no escaping the show anywhere in town. Hey everyone, you just had it done to you by the Dark Star Orchestra. I need a show !

Didn’t they do the air horns at the beginning of the show? I’m pretty sure that when they blasted the air horns before Casey Jones, that wasn’t the first time that day that they were ‘played’. It wasn’t much the first time, maybe just a test run to make sure they shook the paint loose from the walls at RFK. That was the best! Totally way cool.

I just got back from taking my twelve foot mega yacht out for it’s annual shakedown cruise. I passed a sailboat that was named ‘ the answer, my friend ‘ .

My parents best was to be knocked into the middle of next week. Obviously, that’s not enough these days.

So, what’s up with ‘meet up at the movies’? Are we not allowed to have that fun either? Guess not. God forbid. Better not. I might get sick and die. Better stay home and live. Bitter? Pissed? No, not me. This is more fun than eating dirt.

Yup! Funny you should mention it. The (organic)farm owner, who has an unbelievable resume in the medical profession, was just telling me his plans, to go with five years of Alfalfa, followed by two years of Corn, with Austrian winter peas between the corn years, this will keep out the weeds while the peas add nitrogen. The Alfalfa and Corn get sold to a local organic dairy to feed the cows that produce organic milk.

Great book. I’ve often thought, during this Covid thing, about native Americans and how their world was disrupted by European disease. On the farm where I help out, there is a Native American site. Lithic reduction mostly, but I have found storage pottery, stone game balls, pipes, etc. Based on arrowhead and pottery styles, this site was occupied from 10,200 years ago right up until, you guessed it, European disease decimated their population.

If you can’t smell the shampoo, doesn’t that effect him cutting everybody’s hair?

I hear ya. My father just passed away May fourth. I visited regularly but wasn’t allowed to for his last two months. They let us see him when he was ‘actively’ dying. He literally died a half hour after I got there. My mom is in the Alzheimer’s wing of a facility with no visitors since lockdown started. Can you imagine what’s going through her mind? Her moments of clarity are filled with confusion. Yet this county doubles in population on the weekend as the Pennsylvania navy comes down to go boating on the Chesapeake. Where is the justice? Gotta march in protest, in tye dye!

No disrespect to the others, but I think that we need to march in protest also. We’ve never been accepted by mainstream, scoffed at by other music lovers. Bad rap at Woodstock. Altamont haunts us. The predictable eye roll with just the mention of Jerry. The jokes. No radio AirPlay. We could wear our garb, gather at venues across the country, have drum circles. We could make signs that say things like, ‘Dead lives matter’ and ‘I can’t dance’. What do you think? Too soon?

Yea, we’ve been through enough this year, don’t want to take them off the table too. Seriously, this is getting tough. I have been in ‘show around the corner’ mode throughout lockdown. That made it bearable. Now that’s gone. I guess this is what a nine mile skid feels like. We made it through Jerry’s coma, we can make it through this. We have a strong promise of commitment from the band. Gotta join in on that with them. Some day, life will be sweet like a rhapsody......