Grateful Dead

Yeah, yeah, I know. We’re all supposed to be somber as we approach 9/11.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was part of a historic ticketing injustice.

Ticketmasters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped (ECW Press) is a fascinating and informative book that explains in exhaustive detail how the concert business — and particularly the ticketing side of it — got to its current infuriating state.

What if on August 10, 1995, you opened up your morning newspaper and read the following: “Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia was rushed to a Marin County, California, hospital late last night and underwent successful quadruple bypass surgery. Garcia, 53, was said to be resting comfortably and joking with doctors and nurses.

One of the few things you can count on in this world—besides death and (Republican resistance to) taxes—is that Mickey Hart will keep moving forward, following the Great Rhythm Muse to come up with fascinating and compelling new directions for his music.

In some ways, Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was my version of what Kerouac’s On the Road was for a lot of people 10 years older than I: a book that blew my mind wide open and pointed to all sorts of directions and possibilities.

If you’re reading this blog post in mid-July, chances are I am sunning myself on one of Kauai’s white-sand beaches, or gazing at a humuhumunukunukuapua’a through my snorkel mask, or sipping a mai tai under graceful swaying palm trees. Then again, maybe it’s pouring rain on the North Shore and we’re stuck playing Uno in the house.

I was surprised at how deeply I was affected by the news a few weeks ago that Clarence Clemons had died unexpectedly of a stroke at 69. I knew he’d had health issues for a number of years, but those were mostly related to knees and hips; stuff that happens to plenty of us as we grow older. And the initial reports following his stroke on June 12 were encouraging.

Continuing on with last week’s theme—Robert Hunter—I want to turn the spotlight to his post-Garcia songwriting collaborations, many of which are excellent.