Vinson’s Variety: The Dead is living proof
Concerning the vast attention afforded the recent, three-day Bonnaroo rock festival, held on 600 acres of farm land in neighboring Coffee County, I have opted to remain mum on the local legal/political aspect of it, and instead focus on a religious aspect of the Bonnaroo festival, complete with mosh pits, naked bodies, mass consumption, and raucous rock-n-roll.
No, I’m not talking about some clergyman making the rounds on the grounds during that three-day event, quoting scriptures, and attempting to persuade those in attendance to see the light and purge themselves of damning iniquities. (If it could be proven, though, I wager there were some legit clergymen at Bonnaroo, digging on the sounds.)
Rather, what I’m talking about is a rock group that performed at this year’s Bonnaroo, The Dead, a post Jerry Garcia band featuring original Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, and Bill Kreutzman. (Founding Grateful Dead member Jerry Garcia passed away in 1995.)
In our world there are a few items, and only a few, that achieve a status of immortality. The iconoclastic rock group the Grateful Dead indeed has carved out a spot among those chosen few. And I use the term iconoclastic for this reason: More so than any other group, the Grateful Dead, their music as well as the band members? personalities and lifestyles, captured, and reinforced, a societal attitude that served as the fulcrum on which America did a significant pivot from the right to the left and moved from the late ’60s into the ’70s with a whole new perspective.
I once heard a famous musician say that during his days with Electra Records, he used to visit the Grateful Dead at their “Governor’s Mansion” in Haight-Asbury. He said the doors to the mansion, an old Victorian house – complete with throw-down bean bags, psychedelic graffiti on the walls, and galvanized tubs to keep cold the drinks – were ever evolving with an eclectic mix of luminaries coming and going: Prankster-author Ken Kesey (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”), Hell’s Angel president Sonny Barger, and an endless assortment of well-known musicians and other artists.
Over the course of their illustrious career, the Grateful Dead proved to be both the scorn and praise of music critics. It was said that on some nights they were the worst band in the world, and on other nights they were the best band in the world. Regardless, the Grateful Dead kept a deaf ear to the critics and an open ear to the unique brand of music their hearts? desired: an impromptu jam style that welcomed all contributions.
Yes, when I recall the late ’60s and early ’70s in America, I think of a period defined by civil unrest, free speech, unbridled experimentation, long-haired, bead-donning hippies flashing peace signs and protesting the Vietnam War, and, yes, the Grateful Dead, one of the most influential bands ever.
I think it was pop culture guru Timothy Leary who said that the legion of people – known as “Deadheads” – devoted to the Grateful Dead more resembled a religion than a fan base, so great were/are the number. Things of truly great quality never actually die. The Dead is living proof.
(Mike Vinson is a Warren County columnist. He can be reached by e-mail at: [email protected].)