October 15, 2010

Jerry Garcia looks for audience tapers.

10 comments:

In general I have a no-pictures policy on this site....but I couldn't resist this one.

It comes from Sam Cutler's recent book, "courtesy of Ray Slade". Jerry is, fortunately, not looking for bootleggers to blow away, but out at target practice circa 1970 with Cutler and Slade.

As a trivia note, originally the back cover of American Beauty was to have a picture of the Grateful Dead carrying guns like cowboys. (At the time, they considered themselves to be much like wild-west outlaws.)But Robert Hunter vetoed it. He said: "When American Beauty came out, there was a photograph to go on the back which showed the band with pistols. They were getting into guns at the time, going over to Mickey's ranch, target shooting...they were just enjoying shooting pistols. (For example, we got a gold record and went and shot it up.) I saw that photo, and that was one of the few times I ever really asserted myself with the band and said 'No - no picture of the band with guns on the back cover.' These were incendiary and revolutionary times, and I did not want this band to be making that statement. I wanted us to counter the rousing violence of that time. I knew that we had a tool to do it, and we just didn't dare go the other way."

I know...I await new posts as much as anyone. There are many things still to write about, and I'd post much more rapidly if I could. (I also get bugged when I see blogs that haven't been touched in weeks - especially my own!)

But life gets in the way. Sadly, due to time pressures, I can't write more of the big posts I've been planning until January or February. But, I'll try to write some shorter posts to keep the site active til then...

There are a few '60s pictures of the Dead with guns - playing cowboys & Indians in the woods, Bill with a rifle, Pigpen brandishing a rifle on the 710 Ashbury steps or drawing a revolver - and this classic of Pigpen with an M16: http://archive.org/post/561582/take-your-hands-out-of-your-pockets