Hart is Tart, Lesh is not Fresh!

I didn't want to write this article. I have tried my best to avoid these words, but they're gurgling around like a backed up septic tank. Fact is I was a Garcia junkie. For years I thought I was hooked on the entire Grateful Dead. In the early eighties when I caught East Coast Garcia shows (acoustic & electric) I was convinced that it wasn't Jerry that was the deciding factor that made the Dead so transcendent. But then in 1985 when I moved to California and saw my first Jerry show in Palo Alto, I came to a different conclusion that is with me still. The Dead were the Dead because of Garcia. Fact is JGB shows were just as good and even higher than many Dead shows. The intensity and soul of JGB far surpassed many lame Dead shows. But even the lamest Dead show was still great, in that, Garcia was there to keep it real and rockin'.

Anyone that experienced any other band members solo projects would have to agree that, nothing could touch the stellar performances that Garcia was able to pull off with any number of players he paired off with. So what would be the conclusion here? Well, my conclusion would be that it was the genius of Garcia that made the boys, "THE BOYS!"

Garcia's death was heralded world-wide in the same way and perhaps even more so than the passing of greats like Coltrane, Mother Theresa and John Lennon. For me it signified the passing into a new phase of life. I wasn't ready to simply find a new musical guru or aggregation to follow around. Perhaps I'm musically monogamous by nature, perhaps no other player could ever get me rocking as hard. But, due to constant pressure from my friends, I went to see the Other Ones. I even caught a show where Kreutzman came out to jam. But, nonetheless, I found it to be a hollow symphony of tunes, devoid of direction and soul. More than ever, I felt that the fans were deluding themselves.

But I'm all for, "letting kids have a good time," and, "giving those a chance to hear the music that I loved all those years," etc. Even though I would fight my friends tooth and dread when they would try to tell me that the "music was just as good," and that, "the jams were incredible," I let it all go with a "sigh."

Unfortunately, I had the opportunity to get free tickets to Dylan and Lesh here in Northern California last week. Now I know tour talk like the best of them, and anyone who knows, knows that not many heads stay for Dylan's set and that, when Dylan comes on stage, it's time to head to the lot. But you know what? Dylan is a genius, someone who is equal to Garcia in the amount of talent that pours out of him. Dylan's looking great, sounding great and his band really rocked. It may not be music that takes you to the places the Dead would take you, but it takes you into the heart of the matter. Dylan blew me away and I felt badly that I had dismissed him so many times over the years.

Now here comes the real rub. Lesh. I've got to say that this guy is milking the cow for all it's worth and to my taste the milk is bitterly sour. As I recall it, Lesh was never the friendliest guy in the band. In fact I remember the time he said that he wanted to mow down the crowd at Nassau Coliseum with a machine gun. I remember the time in a hotel lobby at Merriwether Post Pavillion he referred to all the heads as "turkeys." Now I'm not disagreeing with his comments, or even saying that his humor was lost on me, my point is that Lesh always seemed to be the Beatle who was nasty and acidic. But apparently, his born-again transplant has softened the old meanie to the point where his reclamation on life has caused him to turn the other cheek and embrace the masses that he had previously thought asses.

So great, I'm glad a guy who gave so much for so many can still rock out into his golden years. BUT, I get the feeling that Lesh is trying to pass his schtick off as something similar to a Dead show. And the thousands of kids that are going to see Lesh, believing that they are experiencing what a Dead show was like, are being fooled and manipulated. No matter how many $40 tye-dyes they buy and how much heroin-laced ecstasy they eat, it will not get them a genuine experience.

When I see Lesh I don't think, "wow he's breaking out songs the Dead hadn't played in years," or that he played second set songs in the first set. I think, "man, I've already heard this song done the best ways it could ever be played by the best players." Lesh is not fresh! You know how when the Dead would play Cryptical and Lesh would let loose with that tremendous bass riff that would shake the entire world? Well, that riff is gone, but Lesh still hit's with a wave and flourish of the hand as if to say, "look at me, thank god I'm still alive." And I am glad Lesh is alive, but you can bet that if it were Lesh that left us and Garcia that stayed, that the music would still have its vision, it's breadth and it's beauty.

And since this will be my only tome on the disaster known as the Lesh and Friends tour, let me address Phil's voice. I never cried, "Sing Phil," during a Dead show. I prayed that he wouldn't sing. If I wanted to hear Phil sing, I put on Mars Hotel in the privacy of my home. I would put on American Beauty and genuflect to Box of Rain. Lesh's public displays of vocal warbling are terrible. Now many claim that Garcias voice became quite harsh in his later years, and while I disagree and think that Garcia was always able to sound sweet, Lesh never sounded good. Garcia's voice gave the songs we know and love their meaning. My opinion is that any song that Weir or Garcia sang should be off limits to Lesh.

This is not to say that Hart's unit is any better. The two camps seem so bitterly divided an antithesis to everything that the Dead seemed to stand for. Do I really care what the infighting of the Dead BOD is, or who controls the archives? No, I don't. And I think it's lame the divided Hart, Lesh camps mock each other. But perhaps it's correct, since they equally suck. Here is another cornerstone of my irate tirade here. The Dead were awesome and meaningful because fans thought there was something special and mystical about their interaction. Outwardly they all said that they couldn't have succeeded without each other, it was common knowledge that they espoused their lack of individual ability and commented upon their combined synergy. Lesh would refer to Theodore Sturgeons book, "More Than Human," as a literary example of the Dead's power. And without a doubt this was true, except of course that Garcia was great with whomever he played with. So now what?

I say that Kreutzman, Hart, Welnick, Weir, Lesh, and if we must, Bruce Hornsby (but only god knows why) kiss and make up. Then they do tours with rotating lead guitarists. Kimock, Santana, Clapton, hell, get the kid from Hanson. My point is that, I believe only through experimenting with all the members, and using the guitarist as a conduit to the ethers, will a transmigration of the soul take place. Will the new guitarists know all the songs? Who cares! Play Around and Around for three hours and see what happens. My main point of contention is that to play it safe in two divided camps is to dishonor the tradition of the Dead and to discredit the special bond of trust that it took 30 years to develop between the band and its audience.

You're a Deadhead who disagrees with me, let me know at DNA@shocking.com