LastFlash.com

"The rainbow was real."

--Paul Hoffman, Lighting Director for the Grateful Dead

According to news reports that surfaced after this rainbow occurred in Santa Clara, California on June 27, 2015 during The Grateful Dead's Fare Thee Well show, it was unbelievable to some reporters who raised speculation it was a contrived event. There was a magnificent rainbow arching over the entire stadium, with perfect timing showing up during the final song of their first set on this first night of "Fare Thee Well", and morphing into a double rainbow. Billboard.com stated it was not Divine intervention or Mother Nature's unusual weather. One report claimed The Grateful Dead spent $50,000 to stage this rainbow. An ABC News report stated it was possible. "What a great way to create a buzz, for a run of shows that have been nothing if not buzz-worthy from their very first announcement." After all, the Merry Pranksters were there. According to reports, The Grateful Dead orchestrated this rainbow by placing 600 special lights on a building two miles away. Of course they had to bring in the cloud cover, and a few raindrops fell on this crowd in a rainless drought-stricken time, and for the climax, a spectacular incredible sunset fills the sky. Billboard did a retraction by quoting a Deadhead, "This is the band that jams with God."

Promoter Bill Graham famously said of The Grateful Dead

"They're not the best at what they do, they're the only ones that do what they do."

Quest for the Best

An Intimate Connection with

THE GRATEFUL DEAD

by Uncle John

"What I want to know

Where does the time go?"

(Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia)

"Lord, the band kept us so busy, we forgot about the time."

(John Perry Barlow/ Bob Weir)

This work is a contemporary narrative with a musical motif, narrated by the author with personal testimony, and dialogue with artists, authors, musicians, dancers, singers, poets, songwriters, and stars. This journalistic odyssey observes the world's most interesting band, whose brilliant creative performances, and individual intellectual insight, provide us with this historical literary account. On the road & at home with The Grateful Dead and their family of bands and musical company, this book records a distinctive recital of spiritual events, revealing a new orchestrated portrait, a sculptured arrangement of golden memories. There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert! It is a unique and unconventional experience.

Excerpts

KEITH GODCHAUX

STUDIO R

I am visiting Grateful Dead members Keith & Donna Godchaux at their home in Stinson Beach. Keith asks me if I would like to join him in Studio R, adjacent to his home. I follow Keith and sit with him at his grand piano. He says that whenever The Grateful Dead are off the road, Jerry Garcia, who lives down the street from them, would come over and the three of them would come in here to play old gospel songs-

I ask Keith, "Do you believe in magic?".

"Definitely!" he answers. There is a deck of cards on top of his piano that I pick up. I cut the deck and show him a card.

"Is that you, Keith?" I ask, and he gestures with his hand and arm to the giant poster on the wall, an image of Jesus Christ.

I look at the card. It´s the King of Hearts.

The release of “Terrapin Station”, a lyrical, musical, & artistic masterpiece, a suite of songs, by lyricist Robert Hunter & musical genius Jerry Garcia,

gives birth to an extended Grateful Dead web of family bands and lyricist Robert Hunter and Comfort come on the scene as a new band.

COMFORT IN A COWBOY TOWN

Robert Hunter & COMFORT

Rio Theatre, Rodeo, California

Robert Hunter & Comfort
Robert Hunter - vocals, guitar
Rodney Albin - violin, mandolin
Ozzie Ahlers - keyboards
Kathleen Klein - vocals
Larry Klein - bass
Pat Lorenzano - drums
Marlene Molle - vocals
Kevin Morgenstern - lead guitar

Rodeo is a cowboy town. The locals crowd the bar down the street from the Rio Theatre at a place called “The Marquee” where the ladies in their refined dresses and men in their cowboy casuals, dance to a decent imitation of Waylon Jennings between pizza and beer.

Comfort´s country jazz and rock ´n roll is gratefully acknowledged by a full house this evening in the expansive Rio Theatre, and the honky-tonk dance floor is active. The acoustics blend well in the snug environment here.

Robert Hunter arrives backstage dressed in an English overcoat and Irish scarf. He is the meticulous picture of a perfect country gentleman. He changes into casual clothes before the performance.

Comfort, already a proven band of its own, is an accomplished act with songwriter Robert Hunter on board.

Larry Klein is an innovative six string bass guitar player. He and lead guitarist, Kevin Morgenstern, mold a powerful sound in a creative and spellbinding musical arrangement.

Rodney Albin´s the band´s utility player. He´s an ace on the fiddle, and entertains us on banjo and mandolin too. He´s been playing music in the Bay area for a long time, a showman with endless talent, and is known in his neighborhood as “The Wizard of Page Street” and “Mayor of Haight Street”.

I am standing behind the curtain with Kathleen Klein and Marleen Molle, the vocalists, who are watching for their cue to go onstage.

Before the show begins, someone from the audience shouts out “North To Alaska” and Rodney Albin picks up Hunter´s guitar and plays the song, note for note and word for word. The song was recorded by the rockabilly country artist Johnny Horton, who is known for his history inspired narrative songs, and also wrote “Battle Of New Orleans”, a song that Rodney sings and plays with this band.

Hunter flows with the mood. “I´m taking requests for anything you want to hear, old Beatle songs, my old songs, any old songs", and the band picks up the beat to Johnny Cash´s “I Walk the Line”. Rodney sings a humdinger, “My Little GTO”, and “Mustang Sally” followed.

Someone shouts for “Silver Tongued Devil”, and more people in the crowd join in until it becomes a chant, but Hunter ignores them, and signals the vocalists to join him as the band launches their show with “Tiger Rose”. I return to the audience to be with my lady friend and dancing partner. Robert Hunter & Comfort perform about sixteen songs including “It Must Have Been The Roses”, “Rum Runners”, “Jesse James”, “Friend of the Devil" > "Promontory Rider”, “That Train”, "Wild Bill", “Ariel”, “Alligator Moon Suite”, “Cruel White Water" > "Last Flash of Rock ´n Roll”.

“That's the last flash of rack and roll
A jack-beat boogie with a two-stroke roll
It was never new, it will never grow old
That's your last flash of rock and roll”

It was such an uplifting night with Comfort´s support for Hunter´s songs, and Comfort adding some of their finest compositions to the mix of country rockin´, jazzy jiggin´, cowboy howling, rolling music. We all pranced and danced and boogied. Some twitched and trembled, shouted and swirled, twirled and twisted, spiraled, skipped, leaped and bounced, bopped and hopped, flit and fluttered, swaggered and staggered, flipped and flopped, wobbled and wavered, strolled and trolled, trundled and throbbed, as we are all bobbin´ to the beat.

It is a spontaneous and energetic night.

Robert Hunter exits the stage and turns to me and says,

“Silver Tongued Devil, huh?”

Silver Tongued Devil, they cried.

“The Silver Tongued Devil and I”

(Song by Kris Kristofferson)

TOUCH OF GREY

It took the Grateful Dead 22 years to get a top ten hit, “Touch Of Grey”, from their album "In The Dark", on the Billboard charts. I share with my cousin, this story about Bob Weir: "I'm riding with Bob Weir in his car in San Francisco one sunny autumn afternoon. We're talking about songwriting and how do you write a top ten hit. While he’s driving, Bobby is talking about having a hit on the radio and how the Grateful Dead would like to make one of those. Suddenly, he calls my attention to the car in front of us. The license plate reads HIT. "Is that God or coincidence?" Bob asks me.

Iy is one of the weirdest miracles I’ve seen in my life. It happened the night when I am driving my cousin, David Remillard home from a Jerry Garcia concert in Albany, New York.

David is a local firefighter who lives on the same farm he grew up on in Schaghticoke, N.Y. On the ride home, we talk about the Grateful Dead and God. I share with him that story about Bob and how the Grateful Dead are different from any other band because of their spirit, magical songs, philosophical connection to God, their universal reach, relevance, and love for all the cultures of mankind.

We ride through Mechanicville, and Stillwater, then get on a long road leading to Schaghticoke. It’s a new moon and cloudy night and there are no lamps or lights out here. I’m talking to David about God because he’s become a disbeliever. I share stories about the Grateful Dead who have helped me understand without question, the existence of God and the Devil. Suddenly, the car stops and we’re out of gas. I’ve never seen it this dark outside and there are no vehicles in sight. We have a flashlight, get out in the darkness, and walk around the car in the middle of nowhere. On the side of the road is a clear plastic bottle with something of amber color in it and my cousin says “Johnny don’t touch that” It’s somebody’s pee, he`s sure. I uncap the container. “It’s gasoline” I tell him. “No it’s not, it’s somebody’s piss,” he replies. “We’ll see when we put it in the tank.” I respond. He is in shock when the car starts, and we remain amazed as the radio comes on and the Grateful Dead’s top ten hit “Touch Of Grey” from their album IN THE DARK is playing, Jerry Garcia singing “We will get by, we will get by, we will survive.” Every cloud has a silver lining and every silver lining a touch of grey.

“Is that God or coincidence?” I ask David.

BOX OF RAIN

One night I was at the Shady Grove, a small cafe on Haight Street in San Francisco, to see Robert Hunter perform with his band. Hunter approaches me on the floor and says "I have something to give you". He tells me this story about the song he wrote with Phil Lesh, "Box Of Rain". "When Phil Lesh' dad was dying, Phil wanted to sing a song to him, and he wrote the music and put it on a cassette and gave it to me. As I listened to the music, the words just flowed, in one take. If ever a song wrote itself, this was it."

SIX NIGHTS OF THE FULL MOON

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An Intimate Connection With The GRATEFUL DEAD

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