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Entries Tagged as 'Grateful Dead'

Taylor Swift, the Grateful Dead and The Beat Generation

November 30th, 2023 · 28 Comments · Grateful Dead, Kerouac and The Beats, Music

. Why this Deadhead Beatnik Beatlemaniac loves Pop’s Princess   I’ve been into Taylor Swift since a New York Times profile in 2008 talked about her confessional songwriting and use of social media — at the time, MySpace.  (!)  Her second album Fearless was set to come out (and would go on to win Album […]

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The Grateful Dead: Jack Kerouac Manifested As Music

April 28th, 2018 · 10 Comments · Grateful Dead, Kerouac and The Beats

. The Grateful Dead were Jack manifested as music. Their essence was born of the road and adventures.  They worked in improvisational music like spontaneous prose. They broke every rule of showbiz … then broke every concert record there is — just as Kerouac broke every rule of grammar — then had over 50 books […]

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Red Roses, Green Gold theater review

October 17th, 2017 · 13 Comments · Grateful Dead, Movies, New York City

New Hunter-Garcia Musical comes up Roses . . Hear ye!  Hear ye!  Behold — a re-imagining of the Hunter-Garcia songbook.  New life.  New arrangements.  New band.  New set.  New stage.  New story. If you’d like a fresh way to approach Grateful Dead music — go to this show. If you like the Dead and theater […]

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How The Beats Begat The Pranksters

September 17th, 2017 · 3 Comments · Grateful Dead, Kerouac and The Beats, Merry Pranksters

How The Beats Begat The Pranksters . Beat Carolyn & Prankster Babbs, Boulder ’82 . It all started on September 5th, 1957 when a certain book got published . . . Or no . . . it all started in April 1951 when a guy sat down at a typewriter with a long scroll of […]

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Falling In Love in The Summer Of Love

July 30th, 2017 · 46 Comments · Grateful Dead, Kerouac and The Beats, Merry Pranksters, Weird Things About Me

Falling in Love in the Summer of Love . Yeah — it can still happen.  To anyone anywhere anytime.  Me mid-50s, she just over 40. We’d met a year earlier at a Prankster Family Reunion.  I thought she was stunning.  But she had this boyfriend.  It was one of those couples that didn’t seem to […]

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Long Strange Trip – Grateful Dead doc review

May 2nd, 2017 · 16 Comments · Grateful Dead, Movies

. Let There Be Songs To Fill The Screen . . I remember when I first saw the long-in-the-works Beat Generation documentary “The Source” at its premiere in Manhattan with McClure, Amram and all these other luminaries and we all went to the afterparty at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and everybody was freaking out that […]

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Going Furthur film review

June 3rd, 2016 · 6 Comments · Grateful Dead, Merry Pranksters, Movies

. On The Bus and On The Road . . “Put your good where it will do the most,” …….. as Ken Kesey said, and Wavy Gravy recounted in the luminous new documentary, Going Furthur. This movie is really funny — and not in a you-had-to-be-there way.  A huge part of the Merry Band of […]

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Rolling Stone Book of The Beats, Power of The Collective

March 6th, 2016 · 5 Comments · Grateful Dead, Kerouac and The Beats, Merry Pranksters, New York City

Floating Universities  — The Power of The Collective in Art . Give me your befuddled masses, Your rejection slips, pink slips, verbal slips, all; Knock down the gates, throw open the bars, The artists are havin a ball. Teach me, show me, let me in; Challenge me, push me, help me win. Athletes have their […]

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Grateful Dead Farewell in Chicago

July 11th, 2015 · 20 Comments · Grateful Dead, Music, Real-life Adventure Tales

  I saw the best minds of many generations, dancing, hysterical, naked … at the Farewell send-off of the Gratest live band in history. While The Grateful Dead were breaking the all-time attendance records for Soldier Field stadium in Chicago — I was seeing them in a small venue from about 5th row center.  I […]

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The Phil Lesh Story

June 24th, 2015 · 40 Comments · Grateful Dead, Hitchhiker's Guide to Jack Kerouac, Kerouac and The Beats, Music, Real-life Adventure Tales

Getting My Phil at The Crossroads . . It’s the Father’s Day weekend, 2015, and my bassist bud Al Robinson tipped me that PhilZone.com had its countdown clock to the next Phil show indicating Sunday night.  That was the only lead I had. I was out in the Bay Area where, a few years ago, […]

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