Utagawa Hiroshige: Foxfires on New Years Eve at the Ornamental Nettle Tree in Oji (1857)
Good evening, Kibitzers!
My best friend of some 50 years and her husband have been in town for the past few days, so I am pretty tired and pretty full of french fries, but I’m so glad to have spent this time with her. She lives on the other coast, and we’re old enough now to wonder how many more times we’ll be able to get together. They flew out this evening, ahead of the ever-fluctuating forecast of rain and/or snow that seems to be sloshing around the end of the week. Driving a rental car to Logan Airport on a weekday afternoon in bad weather, while sadly very far from the worst thing going on these days, is still quite an unpleasant fate.
Everyone probably knows by now that Bob Weir walked on over the weekend. It’s always traumatic to lose one of our music legends, but some of them hit especially hard. Lots of Dead songs have already been posted, so here, I have tried to collect a few other things — the first half or so of these videos are interviews, and the rest are music. Many of them are much longer than what I usually post, but of course there’s no reason you have to play them all right now.
There’s plenty more talk and tons more music out there, including Dead music, and I’d encourage you to add such things in the comments if you like.
This interview compilation from CBS Sunday Morning’s archives was posted on Sunday. It combines segments from 2016 with Dead & Company, and from 2022 about a tour with Wolf Bros. and the National Symphony Orchestra. [42:40]
This is additional CBS footage, from soon after Phil Lesh’s death in 2024, talking with the remaining three Dead members as they became Kennedy Center honorees. [35:21]
These two segments with Dan Rather are from AXS-TV series The Big Interview. This one: how the Dead came about. [6:02]
Bob speaks about having been adopted as a child, among other subjects. [12:15]
The next few clips are segments from various Letterman shows; they’re kind of fragmentary, but they provide an interesting window into a time. This one is from April 1982. [6:08]
This one is from September 1987, including a brief account of their Woodstock appearance and an inexplicable parlor trick. [7:20]
And, from October 1989, a performance of I Second That Emotion. [6:14]
Bob joins Trey Anastasio of Phish to perform Deep Elem Blues at the Wanee Music Festival, April 2017. [5:32]
Bob Weir performs Ripple, joined by host Nick Forster on mandolin and guitarist Steve Kimock, on radio show/podcast eTown in September 2017. [5:16]
Bob Weir & Wolf Bros, featuring The Wolfpack, join the National Symphony Orchestra to perform Shakedown Street, in an October 2022 “NSO Pops” concert series at the Kennedy Center (from that tour discussed in the first video in this diary). Original orchestration by Stanford professor Dr. Giancarlo Aquilanti. [11:31]
Finally, a rather elegiac NPR Tiny Desk Concert with Bob Weir and Wolf Bros, from March 2022. Songs are Only a River, When I Paint My Masterpiece, Bird Song, and Ripple. I recommend the thoughtful notes on the video page from producer Felix Contreras. Warning: listening may cause intermittent eye leakage. [26:13]
Well, maybe one more thing. I was going to just link this, because it’s so very long, but I don’t see why it can’t be archived in here.
This is a “celebration of life” compilation posted at Bobby’s death, consisting of several full concerts with non-Dead ensembles, as follows:
[7:34:27]
Thank you, Bobby. When it’s my turn to leave the earth, I hope I can get tickets to hear whatever you’re playing by then.
From bobweir.net:
May we honor him not only in sorrow, but in how bravely we continue with open hearts, steady steps, and the music leading us home. Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.
(I apologize for posting X, but I’m not finding @EmpireStateBldg on Bluesky.)
