earl greyhound

GD in the GP

As of late, late at night, I’ve taken to watching Grateful Dead videos on youtube. It’s a much more constructive way to fall asleep than to the music loop on a dvd menu. Particularly when your upstairs neighbor leaves a note suggesting you “turn the tv [laptop] down before you go to sleep.” I’ve got a pretty fuckin loud laptop I know.

I’d go so far as to say that the Dead has been enjoying a rennaissance in my apartment but I don’t know that they were ever absent. My roommate, for one, revealed to me yesterday she’d been to no fewer than 20-30 shows and as recently or as far back as June I remember being pissed Earl Greyhound wasn’t cited as a GD inspired band in The Fader’s Jerry Garcia issue. Maybe because The Fader is so brazen in their neglect of black bands. In all fairness there may have been a brief period between my last (3rd) Dead show in the 8th grade and the present when I’d have denied ever being a fan.

Which I think attests to one of the things I love about the Grateful Dead and that’s how uncool it’s been at different points in my life to have been considered a fan. I do realize that doesn’t apply so much anymore what with The Fader/Jerry issue and all but that’s not to say it’s always been as such. I remember my best friend in high school had all but buried any GD merchandise he had once Operation Ivy/Sex Pistols got into his rotation. And it’s fair to say that the fanny pack Bob Weir was sporting on stage in the 80’s was much frowned upon by many at one time or another.

My point is only that through any judgment a Dead fan may have had to face now or before as a result of their disposition probably only makes the music more enjoyable for them. That’s been my experience and I wasn’t even around for much of their run-Jerry was dead four years after I first saw them. I don’t know that if I wasn’t of that frame of mind I could enjoy listening to a crappy sounding bootleg but being of said frame only makes them a greater badge of honor to sport.

More importantly though I think they really are a terrific band. A sign of a great band in my book is if through some divine confluence its members are able to create something wholly unique that you can’t necessarily trace back to anything that’s going on individually among them. The Rolling Stones had that going for them. That’s not what I like about The Beatles or Led Zeppelin though. It is what I love about the Grateful Dead and what’s more is that I’m still transfixed when I’m just listening to them individually. There is so much soul in Jerry’s voice and so much heart in Phil Lesh’s bass lines. I’d say something for the drummers too but I could never tell who was playing what in their case. Still though I can’t express enough joy on the subject of this band. GB the GD.