Grateful Dead Archives

Tegnap este, a Morcheeba koncertbe mentem és nagyon, nagyon jól volt!! After the show, a friend celebrating his 19^th birthday sent me this text message: hope you too had something like orgasm there! No kidding. Ross Godfrey’s guitar playing is right up there with the best of the lyrical guitarists of our age and their new French vocalist was excellent, a perfect fit for Morcheeba's swooning, bluesy tunage. The ticket cost more than i paid to see the Rolling Stones last summer, but no complaints. It’s probably about as close as i’ll come on this continent to a traditional Bay Area musical experience, which is to say that i came out in a different – much improved - state of consciousness than i had going in. “What more is there?” asks the closeted rock & roll junkie, the languishing deadhead, the misplaced citizen leaning towards misanthropy.

What more? Indeed, there are always the archives…. tangible proof that the power of good music never stops. Last week, the Grateful Dead announced they are gifting their archives to my alma mater, the University of California, Santa Cruz. i’ve always been proud to be a UCSC grad, but perhaps never moreso than now, when they’re about to become Dead Central. i’ll be damned. A pedestal of my own counter-culture foundations is being enshrined for research posterity, it’s an exciting thing to have happen. For those of similar persuasion, or who otherwise might be curious about why i’m going all gaga over the folder files maintained by what’s still called a 1960s rock band, it appears that the press conference (which i watched live on iclips) will go up on the Dead’s website soon – check here for it. The press conference was actually hilarious, with questions like “How will my girlfriend find her ticket order envelopes?” and “Bobby, will you be archiving a pair of your cut-off shorts?” For more info about the archive, check here at UCSC’s Special Collections,

The librarians said they’re already getting requests for loaning the material, so even though the band themselves have stopped touring, their wild collection of art and sundry will continue to travel North America. Hopefully beyond, as well. It’s fun to think of people lining up outside Moscow’s Pushkin Museum for an exhibit called The Grateful Dead: LSD and American Anarchist Experience. Just think of the changes in consciousness that could bring about – mind-boggling possibilities. Or maybe it’s too late for the “dead phenomenon” to have that kind of impact, since it’s one of those “you just had to be there” kind of things? Yet i’ve got this friend here, a Brit, always quizzing me about shows and personages, etc. lamenting the fact that he missed it all… but on a deeper level, he’s totally got it, even though he never experienced a live show. The magic is in the mystery unfolding, i guess. For those of us who drove from Santa Cruz all over California to share in that particular bit of magic, this recent news leaves us with nothing else to do but smile, smile, smile.