My life with the Grateful Dead
By
Phil Lesh
Pittsburgh Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, PA (7/6/87)
Feel Like a Stranger Franklin’s Tower New Minglewood Blues Row Jimmy Mama Tried Big River Far From Me Stagger Lee Desolation Row Don’t Ease Me In
Shakedown Street Samson and Delilah Iko Iko Banana Boat Song Man Smart/Woman Smarter drums Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door Good Lovin’
Johnny B. Goode
Twenty years later and the effects of the above concert are still felt. I was 19 when I attended that show during what was arguably the best summer of my life. I was home from college and experiencing everything that goes with being a teenager in pursuit of a higher education. It was during this summer that I was driving my fathers red Fiat convertible at every chance I got. I played pickup hoops when I got a chance and worked 40 hours a week at a local supermarket, behind the hot food/ fresh fish and fresh meat counter. I also rode my Panasonic throughout Pittsburgh and tried to tackle some of the hills that a young Lance Armstrong would come to dominate a few years later in the now defunct Thrift Drug Classic.
But that concert by the Grateful Dead stuck out as the first, last and only time that I ever danced with any sort of idea of knowing what the hell I was doing. That hot July evening had me grooving in the aisles not even really paying attention to what the band looked like. For a few hours I WAS a hippie and their music made sense. Cute girls in flowing, brightly colored skirts approached me and wanted to dance alongside me. To this day when someone asks me what kind of music I will dance to I always say, “I only dance to the Grateful Dead.”
I have always been a passing fan of the Dead and in the years since this show have always maintained a certain fondness for the band, if for no other reason than they afforded me the chance to dance with a right and a left foot for one glorious evening. But I have always had an appreciation for what they were about and what they tried to accomplish musically. After listening to the wonderful tale that Phil Lesh so eloquently describes in “Searching for the Sound,” I can more understand what they attempted to do.
When the CD first starts you think “Jeesh, I have to listen to THIS voice for the next 6 CDs?” But once it gets going the authenticity of the writer reading their words only serves to add to the content instead of detracting from it. It was reminiscent of listening to Chuck Palahniuk reading “Choked” just after listening to Edward Herman deliver a brilliant rendering of “Atlas Shrugged.” You may think a classically trained linguist or actor is the only person who can do proper service to a bunch of words and a microphone, but I am in the camp that thinks differently. The author, no matter the technical aspects of their voice, does have the ability to capture the attention of a casual listener the same if not better than an impartial third party.
Lesh describes in detail his middle-class background and how he came to appreciate all types of music and instruments. He also describes in glorious detail the early days of the Dead and the Acid Tests. Anyone with a passing interest in either reliving your glory days of the 60’s or learning about this pivotal period in US history will appreciate Lesh’s comments. In particular I enjoyed hearing about the mismanagement of the band and how their faith in good karma and their hope in people naturally doing the right thing eventually lead to financial disaster.
The strongest and easily most emotional parts of “Searching for the Sound” come when Lesh describes the death of his father as well as the death of Jerry Garcia. Again, hearing the words come from Lesh himself only add to the drama of what was undoubtedly some of the most heart wrenching moments of the bass player’s life.
I came away from this CD a better father and a better man. I realize that is asking a lot of a CD and I realize those are lofty results I claim to have achieved. But I stand by them. My wife and children deserve the best from me and I intend to give it to them. These emotions welled up after finishing this CD and I’ll just leave it at that.