Jerry Garcia's Conservative Children

The New York Sun ^ | 8/9/05 | John P. Avlon

[qam1]

Think back to the ringing guitars, the spinners, the patchouli oil and the haze of pot smoke hanging over an arena - the psychedelic country rock of Grateful Dead concerts seem like an unlikely cradle for today's conservative commentators.

And yet, 10 years to the day after Jerry Garcia's death on August 9, 1995, no less than three of Generation X's most high-profile young conservatives remain dedicated Deadheads: Deroy Murdock, Tucker Carlson, and Ann Coulter.

[MeanWestTexan]

I saw 2-3 Dead shows when in college, just back from GWI -- could not have been more conservative.

[JFC]

My mid 20's sons are both deadheads, have college degrees, and love Ole Jerry. They both voted for President Bush and have W sticker on their cars.

Now they follow String Cheese, and Widespread.

By the way, what is up with the teddy bears? I was not that cool back in the 70's.

[Sam Cree]

Mid forties is still kind of a kid, though...

[CollegeRepublican]

http://www.deadlists.com/default.asp

http://www.gdlive.com/dead/

Here are some links to alot of dead bootlegs.

[kstewskis]

By the way, what is up with the teddy bears? I was not that cool back in the 70's.

The Dancing Bears?

Those, and the Dancing Skeletons were part of their "logo" during the day.

The stuffed "Grateful Dead Beanie Bears" came out in the 90's when the Beanie Bear craze was going.

[subterfuge]

Never understood the attraction to the Dead.

Melodies sucked.

Vocals sucked.

Musicianship sucked.

But hey, they played REALLY long sets.

[joesnuffy]

Al and Tipper love them to

[Pippin]

Hi, Coleen!

Thought you might want to see this thread.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

I always preferred the anti-Dead myself.

[Pippin]

Oh, I see you already found the thread!

(teaches me to read the whole thread before posting)

[Always Independent]

We all sail the Ship Of Fools!

[Pippin]

Yep!

[johnb838]

Went downhill after 84? It wasn't till 84 or later that they got professional enough to be able to put a reasonably consistent product on the table night after night.

[johnb838]

Ah, I remember the tension of going to the concert with tapers... "Shut the F up, I can hear you two talking!"

[GVnana]

Since I grew up in Northern Cal, The Dead were ubiguitous. Last concert I did was probably '74. (Yes. I was in on the early days.)

Garcia was an able manager, and multi-talented. A few years before his death he married in an Episcopal ceremony, was running his fashion design company, still doing concerts, and trying to clean-up his drug habits. Ironically, he didn't survive the "treatment".

[Freebird Forever]

I've been in the room were Jerry died, long story, know a lot of inside details I shouldn't talk about.....

Ah, go ahead.

Rock Scully pretty much spilled all the sordid beans in his book Living With the Dead: Twenty Years on the Bus With Garcia and the Grateful Dead

[johnb838]

They smell better than your illegal mexican labor friends.

[JZelle]

Is he really a conservative?

[BBell]

I heard it on the radio on the way to the birth of my first child. While she was being born I commented that if it's a boy We'll have to name it Jerry. NO ONE knew what I was talking about. I told them Jerry Garcia had died. They were all still clueless. My daughter was ten on 8/9/05. My wife wouldn't approve Geraldine (we could have called her Jerry for short). Oh, and if my daughter ever drops hints about what day is coming up I just tell her, "yea I know, the anniversary of Jerry Garcia's death is coming."

[Cuttnhorse]

If you like the bluegrass side of Jerry Garcia, I recommend, Grisman and Garcia...a great album with plenty of mellow acoustic picking and good vocals.

This is a good CD as well:

Garcia, David Grisman and Tony Rice were jamming at Garcia's home studio and the pizza delivery guy swiped some tapes that were laying around and they ended up on the bootleg market. It's great stuff, unrehearsed and spontaneous with a lot of banter between the three.