Dead Give It to Santa Cruz

thegratefuldead.jpgTracy is off doin’ the Global Rug Thing and Griff is off doin’ the Kentucky Bike Thing and I’m supposed be keepin’ our media empire chugging along. I’ll recycle some advice for those two : be careful what you ask for, you might get it.

So, what, in my opinion, is worth blogging today? I noted in today’s Wall Street Journal that the Grateful Dead Archive is going to the University of California Santa Cruz.

The surviving members of the band, that would be Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart, have decided to donate their collection of “photos, artwork, press clippings, posters, letters, backstage passes and other documents” assembled over the past 30 years to the school located just south of the band’s birthplace, San Francisco. Band founder, Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan died in 1973, and legendary guitarist Jerry Garcia died in 1995.

According to Silicon Valley investor, and long-time advisor to the band, Roger McNamee, “the Dead’s sense of history means that they just have more stuff than most people”. UC Santa Cruz anticipates using the collection to develop “a study of American culture using music as a centerpiece”.

Of course, Griff and Tracy are wondering about the LG connection. Well Griff, I wish they’d given it to Carleton or St. Olaf. And Tracy, I know that you only pay attention to art when there’s really big money involved; UCSC believes that the collection will attract many of the hundreds of thousands Deadheads from around the world. As Tom Petty noted in his “American Girl”, some of those Deadheads drive expensive cars.

I’m just pleased to have an excuse to post a picture of the Grateful Dead on this site.

8 Comments

  1. Steve Wilmot said:

    When the cats are away…

    April 24, 2008
  2. Ross Currier said:

    Oops, I just realized it was Don Henley, in his “Boys of Summer”, who made the Deadhead sticker reference…

    April 24, 2008
  3. kiffi summa said:

    Not fair … not fair … not fair ! CA gets all the good stuff.

    Just think if the Grateful Dead archive was at the Carleton Arts Union, all the people who would be coming to the downtown!

    All we get is an UN-Grateful Dead Ocelot (see Twenty Views of Dundas photo) ; Doomed to be the uncool, Upper, Upper Midwest forever!

    April 24, 2008
  4. Sometimes you have to work hard to find the local connection, but you gotta do it. I couldn’t resist stretching for the local angle a few years ago (http://renewnorthfield.org/?p=122).

    BTW, the photo in the linked post above is of Alvin Lee of Ten Years After. If you’ve never seen the movie Woodstock, you owe it to yourself to see him work out on the “I’m Going Home.” 

    Gotta love YouTube… after finding the above-mentioned blister-fest of a song, I had to track down another of my faves from the movie, Santana’s “Soul Sacrifice” with an unbelievable drum solo by the 20-year-old-but-looks-like-he’s-15 Michael Shrieve. 

    And then there’s the funniest music video ever banned on MTV, “This Note’s for You” by Neil Young (originally banned in 1988 for its anti-commercial nature, later to receive the MTV Best Music Video of the Year in 1989)

     And getting back to the Dead, how about “China Cat Sunflower/I Know You Rider?”

    Oh dear, I seem to have digressed….getting back to the local angle, I’ve long thought that some enterprising local entrepreneur could do the community a great favor by resurrecting the old Heathstock/Arbstock and reaching out to the broader community, rather than just the St. Olaf and/or Carleton communities, perhaps on DJJD weekend…

    April 24, 2008
  5. Ross Currier said:

    Wow Bruce, we’re really dating ourselves here. I remember hanging out in Jim Gorman’s basement, back in 1972 or ’73, listening to Ten Years After chant “Goin’ Home [to] My Baby”…again, and again, and again.

    You’re so right about YouTube. As I try to hone my bass playing skills, it’s just amazing to be able to watch and listen to the greatest players of all time, including Jaco Pastorius, who’s been dead since 1987, perform their greatest hits and strangest tangents.

    Thanks for the comments. Now I’m going to click on your “China Cat/I Know You Rider” link.

    April 24, 2008
  6. Ross Currier said:

    Fantastic footage Bruce, from their Europe ’72 Tour…

    …I’ve never seen Jerry with an Ash Strat before.

    Way Cool.

    April 24, 2008
  7. Ross Currier said:

    It’s Jerry Garcia’s birthday.

    August 1, 2008
  8. Mona Obremski said:

    ..sunshine, daydream, walkin’ in the tall trees, goin’ where the wind blows, bloomin’ like a red rose…

    LG connection: trees gone, wind turbines, bloom judges…everything is connected

    August 1, 2008

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