-"One More Saturday Night"- Robert Hunter/Bob Weir
That's right, crimestoppers, it's Grateful Dead Season again(See March 25th, 2005 in the archive for further explanation- I ain't not no super genius with this here internets, so I don't not know how to link-you'll just have to check it out on the side there)....Those boys have taken over my head again...And it feels GOOOOOOOOOOD !!! Non-Stop since Tuesday- Dozin' at The Knick, Philly in '72, Philly in '74, Iowa in '78, Alpine Valley in '82...It's happened a little earlier this year, I suppose that the warmer weather here in the Hassee has something to do with that...I think that maybe the joy of RLB and LAB being in my life might be a factor(by the way, they enjoy the Grateful Dead already-they have good taste even at 6 months)It's also because of something specific that happened last week...I found a copy of a show that I have been searching for for 12 years !! 12 YEARS !!! Let me give you the story...First of all, the show in question is from September 17th, 1993 at Madison square Garden in NYC...I was there with My Special Lady, and they played a version of Standing On The Moon(which turned out to be our wedding song 9 years later...awwwwwwwww) that had Jerry just wailing away during the outro- it was fucking INCREDIBLE!!! And it turned out that my cousin could get me a copy of the show, in fact, she got me the whole Garden run from that September(except for the Rex Foundation Benefit, which was a horrendous show- just god awful)...I was in heaven...I listened to them all the time..Fast forward to April of 1994, I am preparing to move to Los Angeles to follow my dreams of film directing stardom(never happened, but I DID get in several car accidents, and was implicated in the grand larceny of the company I was working for- great story, but for another time) and I needed to buy a new car, the 84 Monte Carlo I had been driving had been having carburetor problems and had been parked in my parents driveway since it had started accelerating on it's own- I shit you not, I stopped on a flat road and took my foot off of the brake, and the thing started moving, it was up to 25 mph after about 100 feet...Anyway, I decided on buying an 88 Chrysler LeBaron GTC(Who would come to be known as Althea- my dear companion for a drive to L.A., 8 years in L.A., a move to Chicago, and one Chicago winter- may she R.I.P.)...I drove the Monte Carlo over to the dealer so they could figure out the trade in, (I wasn't expecting much, I was just hoping to not have to pay someone to come get it) and test drove Althea while they sized up the Monte...I was shocked when they told me they would "only" give me $ 750.00 for it...I agreed and drove the Monte Carlo back home and parked in the driveway( I would drop it off in a few days, when Althea was ready for pickup), then I took my parents car to my job as a Fuel Allotment Technician at The Texaco Station in Cresskill, New Jersey. My Dad stopped in, and I told him that they had given me 750 for the Monte Carlo, and he looked at me strangely and said..."Didn't you hear the sirens ?"..."No", I said..."The car caught fire in the driveway, it's gone. In fact, the police want to talk to you at home at lunch." I was floored. I drove home and there it was a smoldering blue hunk in the driveway...The tires were melted to the driveway, they had thrown the air filter through the front window to release the air inside the car...As I walked around the car in shock, I noticed that the flames had buckled the aluminum siding on my neighbor's house...Then it hit me...The second set of 9/17/93 at MSG was in the tape deck..It too was now gone...The police questioned me because they thought that the fire burned suspiciously fast, and they thought I had set it on purpose for the insurance money...Luckily for me, I didn't have comprehensive on it, and when I told the cop that I had just gotten 750 in a trade for it, he quickly closed the case...Now, of course, I was glad I(or anyone else) wasn't in the car, glad it didn't burn the neighbors or my parents house...And REALLY glad I didn't leave it at the dealer, because what if it had burned the cars on their lot ?...But I was still bummed about the tape...And it turned out that the guy that had given the tapes to my cousin had turned all weirdo, so she had no desire to talk with him again...So that tape was just gone...Until this Tuesday...When through a Grateful Dead group on the internets, I found a place called Archive.org which has a myriad of live Dead stuff, INCLUDING 9/17/93 at MSG !! Whoo-fuckin'-Hoo !!!!! And now that we have DSL, I can download them in less than the 50 hours that dial-up would take !!!How about that ? So, that is my tale for this Grateful Dead season !! What am I listening to right now, you ask ? Why The Grateful Dead, live from RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.- 6/14/91- Bobby is currently singing "Estimated Prophet" which will give way to "Dark Star"...
"Shall we go
you and I
while we can ?
Through
the transitive nightfall
of diamonds"- Dark Star- Hunter/Garcia
Garciya Later...
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