I enjoy the Grateful Dead’s music but I was never a “Dead Head”. For three nights in September,1979 we immersed ourselves in the Grateful Dead experience. For me, the music being played was merely a soundtrack to a psychedelic field trip with the gyrations of a wild variety of participants and true believers exploding all around us. It was interesting to be sure, but ultimately this scene was not my bag. It was fun but we were truly spectators at somebody else’s happening.

I worked with a guy who used to follow the Grateful Dead around as a teenager, selling posters in the parking lots to support his road trips. He exhibits bipolar tendencies now and I have always believed that his brain is misfiring because of all the acid he took during these formative years.

I just saw Bruce Hornsby play at City Winery in New York on Friday. While his albums do not really do it for me for the most part, Mr. Hornsby and his band are extraordinary musicians who played the Grateful Dead’s “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Tooddloo” as a nod to Bruce’s years playing with the Dead after keyboardist Brett Mydland died in 1990.

I love the Grateful Dead, and they certainly have created the blueprint for just about every jam band to come down the pike since they invented the 45 minute drum solo, but they just have never been my preference for extensive musical exploration.

Feel free to discuss.

The Other One

Rock on

GQ