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[bomp] psycho-dependence on the Grateful Dead lifestyle




As for Anthem, you have to get the original release. All the subsequent
releases and cds are the bland remix Garcia did. They took a perfectly
good weird record and took all the weird out.

Glad to hear this, because I've got an original on it!  Like I'd buy a 
Grateful Dead CD... picked up Anthem of the Sun for like... somewhere between 3 and 
5 bucks.  They're o.k., just part of the arcana of the many many records we 
all own... but what bugs us, I think, is their iconographic status, which of 
course is far, far more than they deserve.  Just an o.k. band, but superstars?   
I like to think of it this way, if I made a list of my favorite records, the 
Grateful Dead wouldn't even be in the top 700 artists.  You know, when you 
start adding it up...  Amos Milburn would have to be ahead of them, the Archies 
would have to be ahead of them, and on and on and on... fuck!  I see you... way 
the fuck down there on the list, Grateful Dead...  But there are people who've 
basically lived their life for this group.  Inconcievable, except for the 
fact that a.) people have used them as an exuse for a drug-fueled lifestyle and 
b.) (probably a.).... it's a way for them to get laid...  But some people go 
into Scientology for the same reason, so that doesn't justify their heralded 
status as music-makers.  I think, maybe, the Grateful Dead managed to "brand" 
hippie free love & drugs, and that's why their fans buy into their "trip."

I've always liked somthing Billy Miller wrote in Kicks magazine about 
"Classic Rock" people who think they "know" what's "good"  ..."they can't even name 5 
Bo Diddley songs."

Well, here's what my friend Paul Body said about the Grateful Dead; "They 
can't even PLAY Johnny B. Goode.  If you can't play Johnny B. Goode, it's back to 
washing dishes!"  Of course, Paul has a poem called "Bring me the head of 
Jerry Garcia," which of course he performed on stage in San Francsico once... I 
think he needed a security guard just to get him out of the building safely.

Also, the week Jerry Garcia died, Elka Zolot got the Trashwomen and her 
daughter to sing this neat little tune on her phone machine message:

Jerry Garcia's dead...

(la la la la la la)

let's cut off his head

(la la la la la)

put it back in a box

(la la la la la la)

send it back to detox

(la la la la la al)

Jerry's dead, Jerry's dead 

"we all hate the Grateful Dead"

... with the daughter chiming in like Wednesday from the Addams Family on the 
last line, very creepy/cute...  That was a real punk-in-San Francisco moment.

Domenic Priore

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