Grateful Dead

by Jesse Jarnow

Shout out to a pair of podcasts that fed into the Deadcast’s “Scarlet Begonias.” I recently appeared on the Kingston to Cali podcast, talking about the influence of reggae on the Grateful Dead, and host Henry K hepped me to one of those wonderful stories that doesn’t seem like it could be true but seems to be: that Bob Marley almost signed with the Dead’s burgeoning record company in early 1974. And a few years back, I interviewed Phish’s Trey Anastasio on behalf of Osiris’s Alive Again, and the topic of “Scarlet Begonias” came up.

Vampire Weekend’s Only God Was Above Us is out now, as is Taper’s Choice’s History of Taper’s Choice, Volume One (Taper’s Choice).

More information on Steve Hurlburt’s forthcoming sky yellow/sun blue (which will feature essays by a number of voices familiar to Deadcast listeners, including me), where you can find more information about Steve’s various Dead-related projects.

Lee Jaffe’s memoir One Love is available via W.W. Norton, and Hit Me With Music: roots rock reggae will be published in September by Rizolli. Michael Kaler’s Get Shown the Light is available as part of Duke University Press’s Studies In the Grateful Dead series. David Gans once again generously supplied us with never-heard audio from his many books, radio shows, and other projects, available from his site. We are deeply looking forward to Brian Anderson’s Loud and Clear, a history of the Wall of Sound, to be published next year. 

Mary Ann Mayer’s illustration of the Grateful Dead’s PA, circa July 1974, originally published in the Grateful Dead’s newsletter:

“Scarlet Begonias” at Winterland, 19 October 1974: