- Joined
- May 23, 2018
- Messages
- 2,496
- Name
- John
Great stuff. My sister went to Cal and became a huge Deadhead. I saw them with her at the LA Sports Arena at the end of the Jerry era. He was in very poor shape then but I'm glad I saw them. Didn't quite get the whole obsession but you have to respect it.
I first went in 1978 and thought Jerry looked REAL old then. He always seemed to be on the banana peel out of here.
I have great fond memories of the music and concerts. Kind of like how Jimmy Buffet concerts are not as much a concert than a party, I found Dead concerts to be more of a festival. Therefore you get a variety of reasons why people were there. The band could play three hour sets, three days in a row and never play the same song twice. Remarkable catalog of good music. Part of their mystic maybe. They never had a songlist before any concert. They played a tune on the fly. The band would just see where the others would take them for the song they played. Interesting process.
My brother influenced my music early on and he is a Deadhead. So that got my friends into the obsession. It was almost the only music they would listen to which is why I know most of the music by heart. Once you get the vibe, you really feel how special they were. Jerry was often recognized as one of the worlds best guitarist. My personal music interests involves almost every genre of music so my fandom was somewhat measured compared to many thousands.
The concerts for me became a good reason to get together with friends and family. Pretty interesting crowd at those concerts.