The Grateful Dead in 1995

Reading that article, it sounds almost like the whole Grateful Dead enteprise - by this I mean what it had become by the early 90s - helped to kill him more than anything else. It doesn't sound like his heart was metaphorically in it - or at least what it had become - and literally his heart and health couldn't take it, the constant touring. Maybe Jerry just needed to settle down and take a year or two to himself, away from the Dead at least, away from anything major - rest, recuperate, and reassess.

 

I never went to 1995 shows thinking "this could be the last time." I had ordered tickets for 15 Fall Tour show (Fall Tour was their best part of 1993 and 1994). Yes........Jerry had a lot of bad nights - especially agree about 6/15 Giants Stadium.....but never thought Summer 95 would be my final shows.

My last GD show - 6/30/95 Pittsburgh - was actually good.

 

musically and physically 1980 seemed to be the turning point. they had released their last album for years and had their triumphant 15th anniversary tour after that the lifestyle really took its toll. it wasnt just the dead but many others were coming to the end at that time. in 86 it was almost all over

 

Perhaps, although most books put it around 1977 or 78 that Garcia and others in and around the band began using heroin.

 

I was at the Pittsburgh show too. I was only a casual fan, but I thought it was a great show. My deadhead friends later told me it was an unusually good show for that tour. I personally was shocked when he died about a month later.

 

Yes, Jerry was a diabetic, but also one who functioned better on heroin/drugs than "sober". I remember hearing/reading stories he had struggles when he tried to wean himself from the drugs. IMO it's amazing he lived long as he did doing the drugs AND being a diabetic. Me - I went totally nuts with non-control for a 10 year period and in the end, it almost killed me. Jerry was doing more "powerful" stuff than I ever could imagine. And by me, I was just drinking my a$$ off. Insulin and booze, NOT a good mixture.

 

I saw 6 shows in 95 in the spring and summer,my last 2 being RFK in June of 95.You could tell things
werent right with Garcia,but he had always bounced back and i remember that being the genuine
consensus that he would bounce back and start ripping it up again.Fall tour 95 was highly anticipated
as the big rumor was a St Stephen breakout to close down the Boston Garden.Think it was sound checked
in 95 but not sure on that.

 

He was in generally poor health during the period, and had dealt with several years of health issues. So while he was in a detox facility, his drug dependency was only part of the issues plaguing his body. Certainly there are others on this forum who have a much greater insight into what happened, but generally speaking, his health had been failing him for quite some time.

 

It was soundchecked near the end of 94.

 

That rumor went around the east coast every year when they would play Boston Garden and MSG on the same tour. "In and out of the gardens he goes."

 

At one of the summer stadium shows that Dylan opened (RFK I think), Dylan's guitarist J.J. Jackson played "St. Stephen" during the soundcheck to playfully feed the Stephen-mania.

 

This should explain it.
http://www.chickenhead.com/stuff/jerry/index.html

 

yes, it is, u understood in right way.

 

My last show was 10/1/94-Boston Garden. Garcia appeared frail but his performance was strong. I was definitely concerned and had been off and on going back to late 70s when it sort of became obvious that something was up( no pun intended). I was really happy when it looked like The post -coma Jerry would stay clean and relatively heathy. And then a few short years later 1991?-word was out Jerry was exhausted, diabetic, heart issues, carpal tunnel etc and wanted to take a break. But it never happened folks. Whose fault? The band members desire for money and lifestyle, his sense of obligation to the employees or? I wasn't there so I don't know but Jerry got his "rest" I suppose on his own terms. And he left the world way too young and too soon. I wasn't shocked but I was very sad when I heard the news and I was also angry that he wasn't allowed off the merry-go-round as he requested. For my $ he was the absolute best warts and all.

 

God yes. Anyone who had a baseline love/understanding of what the band and scene had been like up to this point could see/feel the difference. I mean muscially it was very lean and the scene was an absolute **** show. By the end of the tour in response to Deer Creek the band (Phil) had sent a letter to their famous letter to the fans w/ the " **** you we'll do what we want" closing sentence. Things had been dark for a while, and the music started to really fall off. Garcia looked like ****, and the lack of energy/spark was obvious.

I absolutely adored the Grateful Dead but there was nothing there anymore. I remarked to my friend in the lot at the final Soldier Field show that Desolation Row had come to life. The worm had definitely turned.

 

Hmmm, interesting that looking back people can say they knew it was coming. The fans were devastated. Nobody knew he was about to die, I don't care what anyone in this thread says. I saw the end for Lane Staley about 10 years before it actually happened. I've been expecting to hear about Keith Richards death for 20 years. Looking back it's easy to identify the signs. It's easy to "know".

Cracks me up the people that lament the dead of the band and the scene was so lame in 1995. Blah blah blah. Maybe it wasn't what it was in the 70's and I was just a bright eyed college kid. But the experience in the parking lot and shows was nothing short of magical and something everyone should have been allowed to see.

Jerry was inconsistent at this point but the shows were magical to my ears, even on a bad night. I saw the last 3 shows at Sam Boyd stadium in Vegas in '95. Friday was a poor show but it was the DEAD! it was still fun. Saturdays was great. Sunday I was pretty burned from 3 days of trippin' but i'm sure it was fun. Didn't hear one person say they knew Jerry was about to die. Never dosed again.

 

A few hours before he passed I commented as I walked out of the first ever Ratdog show that "it was nice to hear these songs without having to wonder if Jerry was going to remember how to play a guitar solo." Three of the last 4 shows I saw (Giants and RFK), Jerry was truly embarassing. Fortunately he was competent at my last ever show - 2nd night RFK (215th time I saw Garcia play).

I was not surprised by the news at all.

 

I hadn't seen them since '85 or '87 or so (the last of the eight or so of their shows that I saw), so didn't know that Jerry was so bad off.

His death crushed me... literally crying... called a high school buddy I hadn't spoken with in years.

The only other musician deaths that affected me to that degree were Lennon, Harrison, Keith Moon and, just the other day, Dan Hicks.

.

 

Until the late 70's Garcia was a versatile genius who could do an amazingly diverse range of things with incredible verve: play brilliant electric and acoustic guitar, sing beautifully, write amazing songs, play world-class bluegrass banjo, play gorgeous pedal steel, make a solo album playing almost every instrument, make a movie, talk your head off with great intelligence and humor. An icon of freedom and life-affirming possibilities

The narrowing of that scintillating, inventive guy down to a increasingly worn-out cog in the lucrative but musically non-innovative Dead and JGB touring machines on a grim death march to '95 was unbearably sad.

 

"Blah blah blah"?

I didn't get to see them in the 70s. I came on board in '87, and the difference in their performing ability and the vibe surrounding them, was day and night different from then to '95. We are not collectively making it up.

A "highlight" from my next-to-last show (below). I didn't know he was going to die, but it was clearly obvious that he was in serious trouble.

Relisten »

 

I saw the Dead twice in 1994 and for the last time at RFK June 25, 1995. I may have felt like Jerry was losing a step or two, but it never occurred to me that it was so close to the end. I remember thinking more about Weir's guitar being inaudible than Jerry breaking down. Any consensus on how that last show I saw ranks among the "he's doing OK" vs. "OMFG" shows that summer?

 

I went the night before, thought it was a pretty weak performance overall. My friend left town and I sold my tickets in the parking lot for the 25th.
I still had a good time, but they were nothing like they had been the summer before, and miles behind '93 when I saw the most shows.
At no point did I think "wow, he'll be dead before fall".

 

I saw Jerry 118 times between 1981 and 1995, four shows in '95 (the first two shows in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and Deer Creek). I remember returning home from Deer Creek knowing it was the end for me personally. I just could not handle the scene outside the shows, at Deer Creek I was ashamed to be a Dead Head, I couldn't get out of Indianapolis fast enough. It really had become a degenerate low life scene full of self entitled a$$holes.

Musically there were some moments, Pittsburgh was good overall for '95, and I remember the Sugaree in Atlanta as being exceptional. Jerry was using some kind of pitch bender effect extensively that year. I'll never forget the Scarlet>Fire in Deer Creek were Jerry just got lost, maybe he did fall asleep! The jam in Fire just disintegrated (they never finished it!) and Weir stormed into Victim perhaps to wake Jerry up. I remember exchanging glances with friends in attendance, like WTF is going on? What an awful night, with the gate crashers and learning later about the death threat on Garcia. Strange times indeed.

In retrospect they really should have taken a year or two break after Brent passed.

 

At least Weir has some interesting licks in the Wharf Rat -- nice tone on his guitar, throughout.
Garcia is a mess on guitar throughout - his voice isn't too bad, esp once he figures out what song he is singing - the last half.

I was at the last show -- even though, I was bummed with Jerry's playing and appearance and it wasn't my best musical experience, by far, I didn't expect him to die so soon afterwards, but I wasn't shocked or surprised - just real, real sad.

When Brent died - I was shocked. I didn't realize, at the time, of all his drug and drink issues. I guess I wasn't in the loop of talk and rumor. Granted, I was only 18 and had two shows under my belt.

 

I gave up on the Grateful Dead in 1980, shortly after they returned from Egypt. Not because I didn't like the Dead, I couldn't take the Deadhead crowd any longer. The shows had been a lot of fun, but not for me after that year. They still continued to put out great music, but for some reason it wasn't the same for me.