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The Gus Library
Today, Jerry Garcia would have celebrated his 68th birthday. There may be some who are wondering, "OK great, what does this have to do with GUS (Giving Up Smoking). The explanation is just below the fold.
First thing, music. This morning we start with Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead doing the old traditional Peggy-O.
Sing and/or dance along if you wish.
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It is fairly well known that Jerry Garcia had a big appetite for junk food and alkaloids. He was also a fellow tobacco addict and a serious one at that. He started smoking cigarettes in 1957 when he was 15. His cigarette habit at times approached the three pack a day level. Together with a weight problem. a substance abuse problem and a long struggle with tobacco addiction, he died of a heart attack on August 9, 1995, just past his 53rd birthday. He had entered a rehab center for addiction to heroin but was clean at the time of his death. John Mellenkamp "You know, it's cigarettes that killed (Jerry) Garcia. Everyone thinks it's heroin, but it wasn't. It was cigarettes."
If not for cigarettes, perhaps this man of immense talents would still be with us.
For those who might dismiss the Garcia legacy as just another dead doper rock star, consider this. In his approximately 30 year career as a professional musician, he performed in over 2300 Grateful Dead concerts as well as over 1000 concerts with the Jerry Garcia Band. He played banjo with the superstar bluegrass group Old and in the Way and pedal steel guitar with The New Riders of the Purple Sage (the pedal steel guitar on Crosby, Stills and Nash's "Teach Your Children Well" was played by Garcia). In addition he had a long running personal and musical relationship with mandolinist David Grisman playing both acoustic guitar and banjo. That partnership alone produced an impressive volume of music.
The guy produced one hell of a library of work. He worked his ass off.
Time for more music. In the next clip, Garcia, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh do an acoustic version of the Dylan song "She Belongs to Me". The You Tube version is milk toast compared to the in concert version, check out the one from 06-15-1985 at the Greek Theatre in Berkley CA. (song 20). Greek Theatre 06-15-85
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By no means do I intend this short GUS diary to be a complete biography for Jerry Garcia. If you were a fan, you probably already know anything I might write. If you are not a fan, you might not care. Potential reasons for Garcia's self medication habits are available to any wanna-be analyst, professional or otherwise. At age four, he had his right hand middle finger cut off in a wood chopping accident with his brother. Less than a year later, his father drowned while trout fishing. At aged 19, he was in a single car accident with three friends and one of them was fatally injured. Nine years later, his mother was fatally injured in another car accident.
It seems that there might have been some of his own demons chasing after Jerry. Let us hope he has found his own way home.
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