Nine years ago today . . . .

[ET Awful]

We lost one of the great ones. In memory of Jerry, I offer the wonderful elegy that Robert Hunter wrote for him.


Jerry my friend,
you've done it again,
even in your silence
the familiar pressure
comes to bear, demanding
I pull words from the air
with only this morning
and part of the afternoon
to compose an ode worthy
of one so particular
about every turn of phrase,
demanding it hit home
in a thousand ways
before making it his own,
and this I can't do alone
Now that the singer is gone,
where shall I go for the song?

Without your melody of taste
to lend an attitude of grace
a lyric is an orphan thing,
a hive with neither honey's taste
nor the power to truly sting.

What choice have I but to dare and
call your muse who thought to rest
out of the thin blue air,
that out of the field of shared time,
a line or two might chance to shine.

As ever when we called,
in hope if not in words,
the muse descends.

How should she desert us now?
Scars of battle on her brow,
bedraggled feathers on her wings,
yet she sings, she sings!

May she bear thee to thy rest,
the ancient bower of flowers
beyond the solitude of days,
the tyranny of hours-
the wreath of shining laurel lie
upon your shaggy head,
bestowing power to play the lyre
to legions of the dead.

If some part of that music
is heard in deepest dream,
or on some breeze of Summmer
a snatch of golden theme,
we'll know you live inside us
with love that never parts
our good old Jack O'Diamonds
become the King of Hearts.

I feel your silent laughter
at sentiments so bold
that dare to step across the line
to tell what must be told,
so I'll just say I love you
which I've never said before
and let it go at that old friend,
the rest you may ignore.
_________________________

We miss ya Jerry. Such a long, long time to be gone and a short time to be there.

[Rainbowreflect]

1. We miss you Jerry!

I remember the day he died so well.
I was at work and a not-so-nice coworker walked up to my desk and said "your a dead head aren't you". Then she blurts our that she just heard Jerry Garcia died.
For the first time in my life I really know what they meant when they said "felt like someone kicked me in my stomach". I could not breath. We had just seen them at Deer Creek. I could not believe he was gone.
When I got home that night my new Grateful Dead news letter was in my mailbox. The headline was "One Way or Another This Darkness Gotta End". There was an article on the violence that was happening at the shows. That was not the way any of wanted it to end.

[ET Awful]

2. I remember it as well . . .

I was working a temp job at a law firm, and an attorney friend from the law firm I'd just quit working for called me to let me know. He was actually very good about, he even made sure I was sitting down.

I left work early that day and made the 2 hour drive or so down to the vigil that was going on at Griffith Park near LA. We cried, we laughed, we told tour stories. We had the largest drum circle I've ever seen (before or since).

The last shows I saw were at Shoreline, and Jerry wasn't doing well then. I could tell he'd been using again, as could most of the friends I was with. I had heard rumors he was going back into rehab, and it made me REALLY hopeful for the fall tour, thinking I'd see the real Jerry shining through again.

:(

[commander bunnypants]

3. wow 9 years

thanks for the smiles Jerry

DDQM