A few things you didn’t know about the Dead

From:

MAJOR MINOR: The Beatles, Grateful Dead, Mighty Diamonds

http://www.theotherpaper.com/articles/2010/09/15/music/doc4c91319ccd74e836454132.txt

By John Petric
September 15, 2010

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A few things you didn't know about the Dead

By weird coincidence, I've been reading Rock Skully's book Living
With the Grateful Dead, his account of managing and hanging out with
the legendary San Francisco hippie band that provided the soundtrack
to a lost decade's drug trips. The scene and the scenesters were
never innocent, though maybe they were naïve.

I've learned a few things I didn't know, like how impressively
dedicated and disciplined Jerry Garcia was, continually working on
his guitar technique and theory, and pursuing other musical side
projects, from the moment the Dead would come off the road.

I also learned how good Bob Weir wasn't, his playing being so
unreliable that Garcia at one point asked Skully to fire him.

But two things really surprised me.

First, Garcia absolutely hated anything associated with death,
particularly bones and skulls. How he ended up in a band with the
word "dead" in its name, and with skull logos, is very strange.

Second, Weir was considered a right winger and was never down with
the hippie outlook­except when it came to LSD. Skully says he liked
to use an eye dropper to drip liquid acid into his eyes. Wow.

Despite writing in a humorous style, Skully ultimately paints a
picture of a band whose soul is rotted. Drugs, drugs, drugs. You
can't imagine the loathsome behind-the-scenes behavior one reads about here.

Nevertheless, you've got to admire the Dead's roadies who, on the
first night of the band's German tour, allegedly destroyed a Munich
whorehouse while chanting, "Fraulein, sucken mein dick!"

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