Today, while I was on hold with Princess Cruises in my very important job (NOT) as a travel agent extraordinaire, I realized that the song I was hearing was none other than a MUZAK version of the Grateful Dead's Uncle John's Band.
I felt very old. How could it possibly be that the music of my most favorite band ever, the band that helped me to be the very me that I am, had been digested by our culture to the point that it was now suitable for the bastardized tin tones shipped over electronic wires to the handset cradled by my ear? I didn't know whether to throw up or to just actually sing along. I honestly was having a spiritual crisis.
And then? Then I visited Dave Winer's blog. Where I found this. Oh the irony. I laughed and laughed. If they had known then that 40 years later their own music would be nothing more than MUZAK for the customers on hold with Princess Cruise Lines, well, I'm almost certain Jerry would have asked you to please share more of whatever it was you happened to be smoking with him because obviously you had the really really good stuff. Groovy, man.
That video that I saw on Dave's blog, however, led me to a brand new discovery. There are lots and lots of videos of Grateful Dead concerts out there, people. Concerts that I attended. Where I am in the audience dancing like an epileptic (yes, I know I have epilepsy, but have you seen a deadhead dance?...nothing short of a seizure re-enactment suffices) and reducing my fine hearing to that of a very old dog because I just had to be in front of that bank of speakers right in front of Jerry, thank you very much. Just had to!
I have just spent the last hour or so enjoying my own flash backs. Hampton '88. One of my all time favorite concerts ever, paid for courtesy of AT&T (we'll talk about that later). Vegas '93 Oh do I have stories to share about that show. But what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. At least for now. Greek Theatre '89 That's the show where Phil accepted some of my Clyde's Cookies! I could just go on and on. What a trip this afternoon has been.
You can take the girl off the tour, but you just can't take the dead out of the girl.
Squint your eyes and look carefully down in the right hand corner. Smack dab in front of Jerry. You'll see me. I'm there. A little bald headed girl who had just survived brain surgery. Dancing and shaking my bones. Thanks to Dave for the trip. I do miss them. I really do.
