Note: This was supposed to be published on August 9, but it wouldn’t save. Then I decided I needed to add a bit more. Then, a bunch of stuff came up. Anyway, please accept my apologies. I hope you enjoy the piece.
Remembering Jerry — as if we could ever forget — on the 25th anniversary of his death. Every Deadhead remembers exactly what they were doing, where they were and what was happening when they heard the news that shitty day, only eight days after his fifty-third birthday. Myself, I was coming off the freeway and nearly hit a wall, and almost didn’t care if I did.
A friend just sent me a wonderful "Variety" interview with David Crosby, and Crosby’s description of Jerry, and how I remember him, is spot-on. And his feelings about Jerry are the same as mine. Crosby’s statement that Jerry “wasn’t playing for money; he was chasing the notes” made me recall an incident that happened backstage after a Dead concert at Fillmore East.
I was surprised when Jerry started arguing with Bill Graham. He wanted Graham to refund the audience their money, because he hated how he had played. "We ripped them off. Give them back their money." All this time in the background, outside in the house, the crowd was hooting and stomping for more Dead, so his argument didn't look so good. When Graham pointed this very fact out to him, he said he didn't care what the audience thought; he knew the band had "sucked" and the audience had been ripped off. Needless to say, he lost that argument. But it confirmed for me that for Jerry, it was the music that mattered.
I also remember the time when some fan in the audience kept shouting at the top of his lungs “Gar-CEE-a!” “Gar-CEE-a!” It was pointless and kind of a pain in the butt. I asked Jerry later if it annoyed him when people did this, as they often did, and he shrugged it off “I figure it’s the dues I pay for playing their music to them.” It was such a Jerry thing to say. Adoration wasn’t important, or even in his field of vision.
I think Jerry’s birthday should be a national holiday. Of course, he would have thought that idea laughable, but I don’t. He was one of our greatest Americans.