Grateful Dead

Thanks for your posts, brings me a Sunday morning smile. And wow for me the past two weeks, have been an excursion in Dead Land. Saw Phil and Friends in Portland. Watched Deadheads for Obama x 2, downloaded it and some other shows. Got 3 vines in the mail. Listened to radio fundraiser last night and got in on chat here. Also got new Roadtrips CDs And in a strange confluence of energy, have ended up being a delegate for Obama from our Caucus. So yes Life After Dead with the Dead continues. Peace If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake

I have been reading this forum with some interest. Life after Dead? When I was 21 I first saw tghw Dead. Life for me began then and far as I can tell I'm still alive. The music is timeless like all good music. When the Dead were going strong you cvould find a few bands that covered the band, but now there seems, to me anyway, a new communuity with a very similar and vibrate scene.Now at the wise age of almost 46, this newv scene gives me hoope that maybe all is not lost. There is a sxcene here happening locally in Flint and I am amazed at these young kids and the music they play. So there is life after the Dead and I am witnessing the new generation of ike minded folks and its great. Most of the kids I meet think its cool that I saw some of the shows they have heard about. And as I have before, any Michigan heads out there should check out Covert Operations (my Fave), The Ragbirds, Sprout, Glowb, to just name a few. If you want to know if and when these bands are in your area go to my space and search for them in the music section. Life never stopped when Jerry passed--its there and growing.

(Bob's subject line inspired me to chose mine for the following.) I ran into this forum last night, read for hours and through all the posts. Smiled, got wet eyes and shook my head every now & then & now I chime in. The Grateful Dead have disbanded. They are history. But well, This band gave birth to something incredible, great and important, at least dead heads are aware of and familiar with, because this family is the enormous part of what became real, while this band continued to play for three decades. This topic and the whole dead net has lots and lots of stories that give proof to what Jerry brought to one simple sentence „We are in the transportation business“. Some of you wrote about their kids dancing to the canned music. Somewhere on dead.net I read a post by somebody, who wrote that his grandfather was a dead head, his father was a dead head and he himself started dancing to the music, wearing a diaper ... Those, who have moved elsewhere, have done so for some reason. And hopefully they will stay happy. Those, who are still here, know that „we are everywhere“, as the Grateful Dead will still follow us. Thanks to the tons of recordings, the music will never stop. And even more so the spirit won’t. I am a German, aged 52. Never saw the Grateful Dead live. Got into their music in 1978. Reading german translations of the Cool Aid Acid Test and Bill Graham’s biography, I definitely found out what I have missed. I joined dead.net about a month ago and I dig the atmosphere, reading posts and joining in. To me all this feels like I was born a dead head, although I never had „the“ experience. (maybe I am the oldest third generation dead head, whatever ... After last night’s reading trip I picked another picture to present myself here. Taking a bath in a bowl on my grandparent’s kitchen table). But I have had my share of being part of gatherings and experiences, I consider being similar to those on The Bus. Knowing very well, that there is nothing to compare to a good GD concert at a good venue. But I could tell stories about the two juggling conventions, organized by the Jugglers Against Gravity, I was part of, that will make you tell stories about your GD experiences, believe me. I am downloading and vining like mad, since I found out about it. Luckily unemployed, I got into doing double shifts, four weeks ago and seven days a week. So far I have filled CDs with the music of 110 concerts and I won’t stop. So personally I kind of live in the past. At the present time. My future looks bright, because I will never ever stop to wave my freak flag high. And I never really cared about differing between past, present and future. These constituents of reality are useful concepts to organize perception and experiences. But we all are free to not let any concept shackle the part of oneness that is the core of everything that is and this way of each of us. I was born in the past. I will die in the future. Best of all, I am here and now. Surfing each day with joy. And I am sure you don’t need no further invitation to "please come and join the ride", because I am sure, you all are in the transportation business, too. andré

is keyboard heavy but there are family/friends to help with that plenty of people closly involved with the band gone too, Cowboy Neil, Kesey, Uncle Bobo, Olatunje, Rex Jackaon, the list goes on Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://spanishsunshinedaydream.blogspot.com/ http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=633338979 Spanish Jam

i believe you make a little mistake,there has to be thousands of us who stayed beside the road while the bus kept rolling....pigpen,keith,brent,jerry,vince...and thts only the group!how many lost there life on the road(i said life,NOT SOUL).......!!there has to be a pretty big DH-community up there,having fun with all the other guys.why should they come back..ibelieve that living is only a school to be prepared for what comes next......may you all rest in peace fellow souls!!!

To answer the first question succinctly; there are a lot of us here, so it's not over, just different. But I'm here to pose a different question (possibly a related but new topic). This is a rather awkward query that requires a real leap of faith, and answers may not be forthcoming...yet. The debate about the "the afterlife" is as old as mankind. Answers range from "there is none" to "melting back into the great spirit/reincarnation" to "entities intact on the 'other side'". I personally don't pretend to know, but there HAVE been some very odd personal experiences in the vicinity of a loved one's passing that have piqued my interest. I was intrigued enough to read books by several mediums, who contend from their own experiences that there are intact entities "there". These entities reportedly usually congregate with other deceased former family members and loved ones, and also reportedly engage in activities in their other-side alternate-time/timeless state ranging from teaching and orientation, to menial activities such as playing checkers with their Grandad Joe. So my query is; Does anyone have a "medium" story to suggest that Deadheads congregate on the other side? This may be a premature question as there aren't a load of dead DeadHeads (20 years' time might be a more appropriate time to start compiling stories, if they exist), but if the dearly departed DO what they liked to do in life, then it would follow that like souls (possibly misfit souls?) would attract. I presume this would be a philosophical question at present, but would be curious if such reports will emerge (particularly from notable mediums) in time. Does anyone have a story to get the ball rolling?

Nicely put Frankly!

since i had my first dead experience (..and thats 26 years now),i lost interest in anything that comes out of music buisness.My dreams became true when i had 3 possibilities to see them in concert which steamed up my interest in their music by lightyears and in fact until today if i want to settle down,having a good time than the only band i turn to are the dead !!sure as the day goes by i listen to music from elsewhere,but when i think about it,its mostly dead oriented.How could we be living in th past?with jerry passing away the GD where over.but that was the end of the band.not of an era!and here we are 12 years later and going through the forums there must be millions of people out there who love this band as if it stil was around.in fact i think that the boys influenced the world in a way we may never know,but they were playing hundreds of gigs in front of thousands every year.they played at universitys(dead at cornell,my alltime favorit)and if you count this together than there must REALLY have been millions of people who got a grasp of deaddom and we never know how these guys change the world we live in(think of jason lanier)but one is for sure.a huge musical legacy is left and as long as there is one new tune one can listen to,than we are present,past and future!

There isn't a band out there that can put me in the kind of state the Dead put me in everytime I hear a song. As silly as it sounds, I like the fact they make me smile everytime and that I feel just a little bit better after. I've heard comments from the non-belivers that it's all about nostalgia but I don't buy that at all! I just wish the boys would realize that time's a wastin and summer is around the corner.

Like Shakespeare, the Dead is timeless and will always be... Everyday there are new dead heads being born to this world and will grow up to somehow, someway begin enjoying The Grateful Deads music. There will always be dead heads in the world, old and young.Eventually there will be a generation of dead heads who will never have experienced a live show or even a gathering for that matter, but will love their music. There are people who are dead heads and don't know it! Either way, I was listening to the dead long before I knew I was a dead head.The music just hit home for me. Its where its at for me. I'm surprised the rest of the world hasn't caught on by now but whatever. There are so many songs and sounds that anyone should be able to find at least one they can identify with or like for whatever reason. Its universal timeless music. Rock N Roll!