European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 10, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse The dead Are alive again by John Swenson United press International Jerry Gaft Cia looked around the grateful dead s rehearsal studio and s Good Lono said Garcia who lapsed into a three Day near fall diabetic coma in july of last year. In the next room the rest of the band joked and prepared for rehearsal within weeks they were scheduled to begin a historic tour with heir newest member Bob Dylan Dylan dubbed Spike because we already have one Bob in the sat on one of the unpretentious studio s altered couches. He was an ethereal presence a private withdrawn spirit who made Lille attempt to pass pleasantries. As soon As the band set up to play though he crackled with a kind of musical electricity his body coiled and spitting pure Energy. Once they Start playing the grateful dead and Bob Dylan Are such a natural combination that you wonder Why it took them this Long to got together. In Lack the dead have been playing Dylan songs Lor years and the feeling during rehearsals is that these moments recall Dylan s momentous basement tapes recordings with lha band in the Lale 60s. His approach is very much like said vocalist guitarist Bob Weir. He s Loose and we jus rattle around from song to it s hard to added drummer Mickey Hart. He s a great musician one of the most important poets of the Century. He brings this whole feeling with him. His smell musically. We re playing All kinds of songs. We treat it All like grateful dead music. We Don t play them like they Are on Dylan s records we just treat them the Way to Leel them reinterpreting the work changing the rhythms changing the tempos making it our own collective work Dylan and the grateful together they cover a staggering Range of material Folk blues Rock Jug band music. From a near heavy Metal version of serve somebody to a floating sleet guitar laced Knockin on heaven s door Dylan s songs Are infused with new life in this collaboration. A lot of the songs i know said Garcia but his versions of them now Are sometimes very different irom the ones i know. It s a lot of fun. Vou got three or four of those serious Dylan rushes every Day that s the fun part and it s authentic it s the real Dylan appeared onstage with the dead Lor two songs last year in what was almost Garcia s last performance Ever on july 7, the last Date of the dead s co headlining tour with Dylan backed by the Tom Pelly band. Dylan sat in on his two songs. It s All Over now. Baby Blue and desolation Row he had played Wilh the dead Tor Iho first time a few Days before in Akron. Ohio. We were playing with him and Tom Petty and the hear Breakers said Weir. I watched How he played with them analytically took in apart and put it Back together made Little notes about what i d change and what i would t. To had t rehearsed the material it was pretty simple Weir started singing and Dylan joined in Progress. I just kind of crowded him into it Weir said i knew thai he would remember most of it if i got him started and he did it was big fun. But after it was Over we look a break end went backstage and Garcia was in horrible condition. He was stricken by a sudden Onset of whatever it was. Diabetes we did t know it Al the Lime we just knew he was real sick i know he has a real aversion to neat and it was real hot there so i Houghl he was just suffering from that but after that set it became apparent that something was three Days Laler Garcia collapsed at his Home. I was kind of in Weir recalled i knew it was serious but on the Olhorn hand i had a whole lot of Faith that the worst would t everybody was concerned said Han. I was the first one there Al the Hospital and in was really scary seeing him there with lubes hanging out of every orifice in his body. It was t Garcia came out of the coma after three Days in the Hospital. I remember the moment in the Hospital when he was recuperating said Hart. Once to came out of his coma you could see thai he had me Back in him the first thing he asked for was his acoustic Guilar. He must play he s an animal. He s like a thirsty animal like a shark always eating always playing. If he can breathe hell play. Garcia was released from the Hospital aug. 1. And was playing with his own group the Jerry Garcia band by october. He says he never realized How serious his condition was. I did t fool like i was in a me or death Garc a said. I did know what happened but i did t feel 1 was threatened. I was unconscious Lor the part where they a Ere dragging me around and doing All kinds of things to me. Worrying Helhor i d survive or not. So i missed he scary part and i did t oven know it had born that bad until much later " in mid december the dead resumed to the stage at Oakland auditorium. Garcia opened up Wilh touch of Grey the Anth Emic Celebration of aging he whole a few years ago with the late lyricist Robert Hunter. There was t a dry Eye in Iho House he said after the show. Marcla it recovery catalysed the group into action. The dead Wen Back on the Road finished a concert film they d been working on for years then recorded their first album in seven years in the dark. In order to make the record the band simulated live conditions by recording in a theater in Marin county. Thai s How the Energy got into in said Garcia. It a Nice Little theater and it has great sound. We rented a moved our Slutt in and set it up just As though it were a live show and played As though we were playing this time around the dead produced themselves with remarkable results. A lol of the producers we be worked with Don t understand How grateful dead music works said Garcia. There s real Structure 10 a there s real architecture to it and Here s real conversation like in a siring quartet to it. The instrument speak to each other. Unless you mix it 30 that s intelligible then i s nonsense. Thai s something i can t communicate to a producer but i can hear in the a is packed with songs Deal ind to become classics. Touch of Grey when push Cornea to shove Black Muddy Fli Verand West la. Fad away Are As Good a collection of Hunter Garcia songs As hey be Ever recorded while Weir and John Barlowe added two gems hell in a bucket and thrown stones and keyboardist Brent mydland contributed tons of steel. Weir confirmed that the group s Relief Over Garcia s recovery spurred hem on. He bounced of his Little Brush with deals said Weir and the momentum ural he picked up carried through o the this is a hot year for us said Garcia. Since 1 know intellectually that i almost died it s something i can build on and its. Helped me. I think it helped me out. Whatever 1 was before i m not the same person anymore bul for me that s the part i can l do anything deadheads of the world still United by Susan Krohn United press International Ernie Bildman 42. A respected Oral surgeon in Birmingham. Ala., often spends his fays of in a tie Dye to Shirl bopping Cross country to a concert by his favorite band a genuine Deadhead Bildman is one of an estimated 300,000 followers of the grateful dead. He s heard the 60s band play everywhere from Berkeley to Baltimore. Although some think of deadheads As eternal hippies scruffy Young people or drugged out counterculture remnants. Bildman jus sees hem As faithful fans of a group that has remained True to its roots Lor �2 years it s a network thai includes doctors lawyers police officers and computer programmers being a Deadhead can t be categorized by occupation or lifestyle or the cloth is thai you drawled Bildman there s a spiritual Side to their music and people who Are into the dead Are positive oriented people who look Al the Good Side of things or Al Casl Don l locus on the negative " Pam Hucy. 37. Deputy press Secretary in Washington. , Lor preside Raal Conditi ii sen Paul Simon. D Iii. Has been a Deadhead Seco 1970 in her College Days i like the concerts because people dance All around and they re into the music More than people Are Wilh other groups almost As if they re transfixed by the music Huey said. Glenn mar 24. A systems analyst for Pacific Bell in Concord calif., has 500 hours of live Gra Elul dead music on tape and an impressive collection of dead t shirts. He s been to More than 60concerts in the last three years. Deadhead have been around since the band was formed in 1955, bul their numbers have mushroomed in the 1960s to include people in a variety of shapes sizes Ages and occupations possibly heir Only common if aits Are an obsession with he band s free form Rock n Roll and a love for the peaceful joyous bustling scene Al a concert the deadheads Aie unique and extraordinary they re the said Mickey Hart one of the band s two drummers. Without them we could t have made it this Lar. They be created their own world we be just been playing the soundtrack Lor their world but they have created in. The whole thing. Around us they Lake this music very concerts Are usually the High Point of the Deadhead experience but Between shows followers Trade thousands of hours of concert tape talk on computer networks All Over the United states and dance to the music of dead clone bands monday August 10, 1987 there Are As Many differ enl kinds of deadheads As Here Are baseball lans said David Gans 33, a Tang Lime Deadhead who hosts a nationally syndicated weekly radio show called the Deadhead hour and has written a Book about the dead playing in the band there Are scorekeepers Sheie Are lovers of the game there Are people who just want to get a a concert is Tho Best place to see the spectrum of deadheads there Are those in their 40s who have been going to concerts since the band lived in san Francisco and played spontaneous concerts on Flat bed trucks now they bring their kids to the shows. Then there Are the mosses Olleen agers who love the dead. Take 13-year-old Robert milks of Portland. Ore he has collected half of the band s 19 albums and enjoyed his first dead show in Eugene Ore. July 19. Most deadheads though arc m their �0$ and Early 30s and have Only been convened in Iho last 5 to 10 years Blair Jackson 33. Who Wilh his wife. Regan Mcmahon. Publishes a grateful dead Ian Magazine Wilh a cumulation of 5.000 called the Golden Road feels the band will have its first i i single this year. I think their time has come Jackson said. It s a response loan uptight age a response to he fact that so Many bands Are rigid m their Lorma in their music is appealing in a Lime when things Are so restrictive and regulated the stars and stripes Page 17
