Bob Weir (1947-2026)
So the kids, they dance, they shake their bones / And the politicians throwing stones / Singing, "Ashes, ashes all fall down" (ashes, ashes all fall down)
Good evening,
I know a good few of my readers are at least part-time Deadheads, and a few of you are all-in. I’m saddened to report that Bob Weir has left us.
He was a founding member of the band. He met Jerry Garcia at age 16 and took guitar lessons from him. Weir was said to be the Dead’s rhythm guitarist, but musically, it’s slightly more complicated than that.
He helped define the band’s sound and, as I understand it, played guitar parts piped into Garcia’s in-ear monitors designed to push Jerry to play more interesting leads. A master of inversions, he could probably rattle off 10 ways to play every chord up and down the guitar neck.
With lyricist John Perry Barlow (Oct. 3, 1947 – Feb. 7, 2018), he wrote some of the band’s best-known songs. Barlow and Weir are among many artists who form the basis of my “Libra Rock Star” theory of astrology and music.
I’ll have a proper tribute to Bob’s life and work on this coming Friday’s Planet Waves FM, but I wanted to share this most excellent (and last-ever) “Weather Report Suite” with you, from Winterland, Oct. 18, 1974.
Bobby was and is now forever one of the Grateful Dead.
I’ve included last night’s Planet Waves FM, The Great Wave, which dismantles the Renee Good tragedy in Minneapolis, including its astrology and my perception of the agenda running behind it. David Bowie tribute included.
I’ll be back with you Thursday evening. Inner Light customers — look for Aquarius Sunday evening.
Till next time — you know where to find me.
with love,
I have a fun Bob Weir story…not anything to do with him as a member of The Grateful Dead but as a person.
I worked as hostess in a restaurant The Avenue Grill in Mill Valley, CA in the mid 80’s. Bob Weir was a frequent customer at The Grill. One night we had closed the restaurant but Bob and some of his friends stayed on. We opened up some nice bottles of wine and there were some nice ”party drugs” that got our little private party going. Bob had a mix tape (a CD really) of the best ‘dance music’ compilation I had ever heard. We put the CD on the restaurant’s stereo and danced the night away. At 2 AM we moved the party up to Bob’s house in the hills of Mill Valley.
He had the most amazing music collection of vinyl and CD’s. And even though I was very “high” that night, I still remember it vividly. RIP Bobby Weir.
Thanks so much for this, Eric!!
RIP Bob, thanks, for over 50 years in my own life. First saw the Dead 8/15/71 (Berkeley Community Theater), I recognized Jerry, Phil and Bill via their photos on David Crosby's album If I Could Only Remember My Name, and had seen Pigpen's photo somewhere, but i was wondering who that other guy was, who looked so mainstream from the front, and then he turned around to, what else, mess with his amp, :-) and noticed a ponytail half way down his back. A hard core Zen trickster was he. And some of the band's most adventurous tunes were his contributions. I'll come back with a list soon.
For the moment, 9/12/81 was a GREAT show, my second Dead show at the Greek (the previous night was the first), and this show is CONSENSUS GREAT.
"Master of inversions" INDEED. I learned so much for him about how to use inversions to create rhythm lines which are practically leads, good for playing contrapuntal lines with Jerry's leads and Phil's bass runs.
I must have known this, but forgot, Barlow was born just 13 days before Weir, both were born within 4 weeks of my birth.