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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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We miss you Bro.
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Kalimon
Trad climber
Ridgway, CO
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"I must turn down your offer,
but I'd like to ask a break . . .
You know I'm ready to give everything for anything I take . . .
Some folks would be happy just to have one dream come true,
but everything you gather is just more that you can lose" . . .
Thank you for everything Jerry G. and Robert H.!
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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Jeremy, sorry you are threatened by folks who have positive things to say and music to love. A wise man said we should smile at those with frowns, they are in need of a smile the most.
So here's a smile for you Bro!
Have a fruitful and productive day.
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drljefe
climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 9, 2010 - 03:46pm PT
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That Jeremy's a classic!
Thanks for the bump, now go climb some mud will ya!
Just thinkin' about the road, finding fun in the uncertainty, knowing that when you reached the next city there'd be familiarity.
Things we've never seen will seem familiar...
Most of all, thinking about Garcia and the sound of his voice and guitar.
Those sounds have soothed my soul since I was knee high to a snake dick.
I miss Jerry. Just knowing that whatever the season I could drop everything and go...
Shine on, keep on shining!
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72hw
Trad climber
Pasadena, CA
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That story about the usher is classic - I recall being at shows where if you lit a cigarette they would be all over you like flies on sh#t, but they would merely give the finger wag and motion for you to hide it when you lit up the bubbler!
15 years... such a long long time to be gone...
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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the silence,
as humbly requested by the soul
is infinitely louder than the noise demands, as generated by a culture.
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Kalimon
Trad climber
Ridgway, CO
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Phish in Telluride tonight and tomorrow night . . . no I don't have tix, but it will be interesting to see if they play anything to commemorate Jerry.
"Ten years ago I walked this street, my dreams were ridin' tall . . .
Tonight I would be happy Lord for any dream at all . . .
All the things I planned to do, I only did half way . . .
Tomorrow will be Sunday, born of rainy Saturday . . .
There's some satisfaction in the San Francisco rain . . .
No matter what comes down the Mission always looks the same" . . .
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Kalimon
Trad climber
Ridgway, CO
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Thanks for sharing that Pate, I'm glad the Bay Area is giving Jerome his due . . . kind of a strange coincidence though!
"Come Again"!
F*#k yeah Bobby and Phil!
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Norwegian
Trad climber
Placerville, California
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Aug 10, 2010 - 01:08am PT
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tonight i will dream with jerry.
i will sit upon a picnic table along side jerry while he noodles some new chords out on his guitar.
as i hear the tune i will coax from jerry the lyrics to st. stephen.
meand jerry go a ways back, at least a few lifetimes.
sir, your stay here made better mine.
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drljefe
climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 10, 2010 - 02:05am PT
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See here how everything
lead up to this day
and it's just like any other day
thats ever been.
Sun comin' up and then
the sun it's goin' down.
Shine through my window
and my friends they come around,
come around.
I guess it doesn't matter
anyway.
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FireIntheCity
Mountain climber
from t'Hate-haunted canyon of human despair
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Aug 10, 2010 - 10:36am PT
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Pate
Trad climber
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Aug 11, 2010 - 01:26pm PT
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Aug 14, 2010 - 09:55pm PT
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Spent that dY on sph with an iPod took communion with lynnie and Yerian that night. Sent my own fire on the mtn Tuesday on Conness;
"Long distance runner what you standing there for?"
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Kalimon
Trad climber
Ridgway, CO
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Aug 14, 2010 - 11:34pm PT
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The more that you give, the more it will take . . .
To the thin line beyond which you really can't fake . . .
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kbstuffnpuff
Sport climber
State of Confusion
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Aug 31, 2010 - 05:59pm PT
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What The Grateful Dead go best with:
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drljefe
climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 5, 2010 - 11:38pm PT
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Breakfast with the Dead...
US Festival 28 years ago today.
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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Owsley, 44 years today,
Liner notes for Rare Cuts and Oddities.
1966.
Year of the Fire Horse, a year said by the Chinese to be very unique, full of interesting, even disruptive events.
For me it was very much a unique and strange year. I met Grateful Dead that year and became their soundman. Of all the interesting and wonderful things that I have had an opportunity to do in my life so far, it ranks at the very top of the list. The Dead were young and raw, full of a special kind of energy. They had been a band for only about 6 months and most of their repertoire was covers- but what an eclectic and odd bunch of covers they were. I don't think there has ever been anything quite like them, before or since.
At the time I volunteered to be soundman there was no such thing as a dedicated music PA. Musicians either plugged their mic into their guitar amp, or used whatever was at the venue, usually nothing, but sometimes a church or stadium or small theatre might furnish the venue, and there was something. Most bands did not have soundmen anyway. I decided that we had to build a real system to furnish good sound. I asked a friend, Tim Scully who was heavy into electronics to come aboard and help us, He designed a central preamp and distribution system for all the instruments as well as the vocal channel, and we used McIntosh HiFi amps to power Voice of the Theatre speakers. At first the actual vocal system was my home Hi Fi, which happened to be Voice of the Theatre. At the time there were only really three kinds fo PA systems all primarily used for voice rather than music- there were small systems in churches, and in movie theatres, lastly in large baseball and basketball stadiums. Needless to say, they did no have either the power handling capability or the frequency range needed. The PA became a long term project which would lead over the years to such innovations as the Wall of Sound, and the founding of Meyer Sound Laboratories. The instrument struggles would lead to the creation of Alembic Guitars.
At the time, however the band were playing their instruments through this weird unitized system which was very horn heavy- each speaker setup had a bass cabinet and a small HF horn. The sound was thick and 'horny', which was (and is) like nothing else. Garcia at that time preferred a hollow body Gibson electric and coupled with the speakers it has a sound I have never heard any other guitars make. All this is very apparent on the tracks on this CD. For a while we had a bass augmentation speaker, called a 'Superbass', which we hooked up to Phil. it had an 18" dual voice coil Electrovoice speaker on the bottom pointing down and had passive moving sides made of stiffened styrofoam. We all felt this gadget made a huge effect putting out ultralow frequencies, but it may just have been our imagination- no one saved the box for us to measure later on when we got to the stage we were doing that sort of thing. We may have literally used it up, wore it out, it was intended for the living room Hi Fi..... In the beginning we were hanging on to what seemed like a rocket sled, everything needed work and no-one knew much about what to do. But we were determined to bring R&R music technology into the modern age.
From the very beginning I felt I needed to keep a record of what I was doing as I mixed the PA. I used a stereo reel to reel recorder with the (mono) PA signal in the left channel, principally vocals and drums and a few instruments, with the instruments which were not in the PA- that is, most of them- in the right. The PA was flat out just managing he drums and vocals in those early days. This resembled the Beatles first 'stereo' record, and had a lot of 'space' or 3d effect. I later had to put the vocals into both channels because, as the band started to listen more and more to my tapes, they wanted it to sound more 'conventional'. But panning the vocals destroys most of the space, unfortunately. Floor or ear monitors were still in the future, so the band had trouble keeping the vocals tight and together, and like most young bands, had a distinct habit of rushing the beat, both of which are evident on the tracks. But in my opinion the sound they made in those early days was very special and I am glad my oldest sonic journals have survived this long, so people who have come along recently can hear the sound which captivated my heart and soul close to forty years ago.
Track list for Rare Cuts
1. Walking The Dog - 5:38 (unknown location, early 1966)
2. You See A Broken Heart - 2:50 (unknown location, early 1966)
3. Promised Land - 2:31 (unknown location, early 1966)
4. Good Lovin' - 2:41 (unknown location, early 1966)
5. Standing On The Corner - 2:55 (unknown location, early 1966)
6. Cream Puff War - 3:37 (unknown location, early 1966)
7. Betty and Dupree - 5:35 (unknown location, 3/2/66)
8. Stealin' - 2:53 (unknown location, 3/2/66)
9. Silver Threads and Golden Needles - 3:00 (unknown location, late 1966)
10. Not Fade Away - 3:51 (unknown location, early 1966)
11. Big Railroad Blues - 3:10 (unknown location, Feb/Mar, 1966)
12. Sick and Tired - 3:19 (unknown location, Feb/Mar, 1966)
13. Empty Heart - 6:18 (unknown location, Feb/Mar, 1966)
14. Gangster of Love - 4:35 (Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, 7/3/66)
15. Don't Mess Up A Good Thing - 2:56 (Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, 7/3/66)
16. Hey Little One - 5:02 (Danish Center, Los Angeles, 3/12/66)
17. I'm A King Bee > - 6:01 (Danish Center, Los Angeles, 3/12/66)
18. Caution - 9:18 (Danish Center, Los Angeles, 3/12/66)
cool artwork from owsley>
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Dr.Sprock
Boulder climber
I'm James Brown, Bi-atch!
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On Psychedelics
There has been a trip taken by many people over a number of years, starting in the 1960's. It is a trip to renew our connection with the planet we live on and its lifeforms. It seemed as though this journey was a natural and important one for our survival and the survival of the world as our home. We thought of ourselves as exploring new ways of looking at the universe, but as it turns out, the adventure is almost as old as man himself.
One of the ideas that developed throughout this period was that the psychedelics (I still feel most comfortable with this old term coined by Humphrey Osmund) were some sort important hormone -like substance which was necessary to the human race, like the various hormones which the body produces within its structure. Unlike these hormones, there are others, perhaps you could call them "planetary hormones" which the plant world produces for the use of animals, and are part of the Gaia or conciousness of the biomass of the whole planet. Healing plants are part of this category. The ones which alter our state and perception of the universe around us are no less important to our development as enlightened entities than those which heal our bodies. Research into the ethnobotanical practices of indigenous peoples around the world show that only the "modern" or western (ie. ours) cultures place any opprobrium on the use of these plants. In fact only the "west" is in the business of trampling on the environment with out regard for the conciousness of the whole or of its importance to us as a part of it. Indigenees almost universally hold that the planet is something alive and that their role is as the protectors of that life. The concept of "owning" the land is nearly impossible for these people to grasp.
I thought that we might just survive and the planet with us if we could manage to get enough people to experience the view which the psychedelics sacraments give. I know that some of you who will read this will object to the term sacrament, but the word is completely appropriate. With the advent of Christianity sacrament has come to be divested of the old meaning and to assume a more ephemeral definition. The magical plants used by folks for tens of thousands of years have been for the most part forgotten. People need to alter their perception of the world around them, in fact it seems to be something done by all animals. In the west there is only two permitted options Alcohol and tobacco. I'm not going to belabor the point, but this "choice" is not something which leads in any way to higher ground.
Shamanism and the use of plants to alter conciousness has a long and respected history in the development of human society. Today it is still found in parts of the world, coexisting with the modern forms of accepted religious activity. In fact, in places like the remote areas of Mexico some of the old ways are openly part of the worship rituals of the Catholic church. Not usually the plants, but the Native American Church in the US has certainly achieved a synthesis of sacred plant use and a form of Christianity. Perhaps this (the inclusion of aspects of Christianity) was necessary to be accepted as a real religion, although that seems odd, the scientologists have succeeded in having their organization accepted as a "church", and it has nothing even remotely suggestive of a spiritual nature about it. Or perhaps it's to do with the fact that the people are the dispossessed Indigenees of a land of colonial immigrants. Or with the fact that they are using the plants.
Today the followers of the Grateful Dead have been preyed upon by law enforcement at many of the venues the Dead visited. They could not peacefully practice what is to them a true religious practice without persecution. I guess it'd be the modern version of feeding Christians to the lions practiced by the government of Rome a couple of thousand years ago. So much for the rhetoric of "freedom of religion", so oft repeated nowadays. So what if the psychedelic of choice is LSD rather than peyote? Is it OK to eat peyote if you are a native American indigenee but not if you are a white or black or other native of America? Since when is there any difference? Why should there be some sort of barrier to joining any religious group? There is only one answer: you are not allowed to be different, to think original thoughts, to act as if you were really free. You are not supposed to experience the world in any way differently to the way those in power wish you to.
It is a fairly modern turn which has led us to this point in time. Plants have only in recent times been unlawful. Although there have been reactions to the introduction of various kinds of psychically active plants into social use...coffee caused a bit of a stir when it was first introduced, as was chocolate. Still, the prohibition movement is a phenomenon of this century. First the war against alcohol, which failed to successfully introduce laws through Congress outlawing booze (the Supreme Court declared that Congress didn't have the authority to do that), succeeded in pushing through an amendment to the Constitution. This was a terrible mistake, and the country still has a powerful Mafia as a direct result of the huge "money for nothing" fees people paid to have access to the drinks they wanted. Even the Volstead amendment didn't criminalize use or possession.
With the repeal, those used to the easy money, having acquired money and therefore power, set about to have introduced new laws which would recreate the money tree. This time they were able, by claiming that the drugs represented a "health and safety" problem, to get passed and approved by the court laws outlawing a variety of plant derived drugs from cannabis to coca and opiates. The inclusion of cannabis may have been the desire of certain industrialists to limit the competition hemp fibers presented to the emerging synthetic fiber industry. Funny thing the court actually said that a tax stamp created with the express intent of never being issued, therefore a defacto prohibition was constitutional! Harmless and joyful cannabis, the wonderful plant which has adapted itself so completely to the service of man, was depicted as a Killer of Youth, Creater of Madness, with all the power of a popular press in the full vigor of its prime. Whether Hearst was paid off to do this, or just thought that anything sensational enough to sell newspapers was ok, will probably never be known.
Today we are seeing a more moderate approach to the hemp matter. People are rediscovering all the uses to which this plant can be put, from making paint to paper. Still there is a weird aversion to the medicinal and recreational values so celebrated throughout history until recent times. "Drug free" strains are touted for the production of fiber and oilseed. What a load of nonsense, as if the conventional recreational drugs were safe and desirable? Even the opiates wouldn't be much of a problem if they weren't illegal, forcing a myriad of eager dealers into the streets for the money for nothing of the black market created by the laws.
Society should never intentionally create a black market. All black markets are a danger to the community due to the lack of controls and the high delivery fees that they force on the delivery system. Likewise there is a huge loss in revenue to the normal flow of commerce through the community. The amounts of money available leads to the inevitable corruption of all who attempt to interfere in the flow of goods in this black market. Black markets made fortunes to the entrepreneurs of the world wars. Tires, fuel and meat made fortunes for those who could divert supplies to their clients. Anything can be a black market. The only thing required is scarcity, or illegality, and a demand for the items.
The use of psychedelics as a part of the religious experience has forced literally hundreds of thousands of otherwise law abiding people into the black market for their supplies. Due to the dangers and costs many have had to turn to dealing to gain access. Within a community which is devoted to the ingestion of these sacred substances there are many who feel that it is a noble calling to be the source for their friends and fellow worshippers. Hold on, some may say, what about those who are merely thrill seekers? Well, maybe the first time a person uses LSD or the other entheogens, they may be motivated by such a motive. The nature of the experience is that of a profound union with the universal mind. This takes place over time, at first things happen one way, then they change with further trips.
The term, "War on Drugs" is a non sequitur. There cannot be a war on anything except people. The question is, why does the government want to wage a war against its own people%
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