NationStates Jolt Archive

For my first post, I will address a somber issue:

Let us all have a moment of silence and remember Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead, who passed away ten years ago as a result of a heart attack. He was in rehab when this happened. Exactly a month before this happened, The Dead played their last concert ever, at Soldier's Field. He was the mainstay for The Dead, providing the lead guitar and vocals. One of the greatest rockers ever. If you have a Dead album, get it out and play it as a tribute. The Grateful Dead, elected into the Rock Hall in 1994, one of the greatest bands ever, and the Dead Heads provided an extraordinary fanbase. Jerry Garcia was 53.

"Sometimes the lights are shining on me,
Other times I can barely see,
Maybe it occurs to me,
What a looong strange trip it's been."

I realize that yesterday was the ten year anniversary, but oh well.

When I lived in San Francisco, I lived about four blocks from where Jerry Garcia was born and lived until he moved to the Haight as an adult. I went past his house a number of times and filled my prescriptions at the same drug store where he used to read comics as a kid. I lived in the Excelsior, just over the hill from McLaren Park where they just renamed the amphitheater in his honor.