I walked in to my high school American Literature class and there leaning against the chalkboard at the front of the class was a record cover with a fantastic picture of a skeleton with roses in on its’ head and the words Grateful Dead above it. I had read about the legendary band in Rolling Stone and heard a song or two on Beaker Street AM radio from Little Rock late at night and on KUNI-FM public radio but I had never seen one of their records, it beckoned to me throughout the class. I couldn’t wait to hear it. Towards the end of class we got to have music in the background while we read for 20 minutes. The volume was pretty low but I liked the rhythms that I heard. My friend Archie and I started talking after class and he told me it was his record and I asked if I could borrow it.

I took it home, placed it on the stereo and looked at the picture of the band inside the cover. Wow, these guys are real hippies, with tie dye shirts; they are not pretty boys, that’s cool. Out of the speakers jumped Bertha with the loud bouncing bass line, a sweet lead vocal, nice harmonies, an organ, curious rhythm guitar and a great guitar solo. This was not Grand Funk Railroad or Black Sabbath; hey these guys are really good. They might be as good as Jefferson Airplane or Santana or CCR or maybe even Cream or the Doors. I turned the song way up and rocked and then what ? A country song? What is this? Mama Tried? Merle Haggard? Hell, I was trying to avoid that shit, I lived in the middle of Iowa corn country and it was everywhere. But hey it sounds pretty good the way they do it, I had to admit. Big Railroad Blues, a pretty good rocker and Playing in The Band, that one cooks. Play the next side and what? A drum solo, they are starting a record with a drum solo? But then there is this great bass line and really intense energy and great guitar and then it slows way down and speeds up and slows down and speeds up; this is different than any rock and roll I ever heard . But I think I like it, I think I like it a lot, I think. It’s kind of weird though. That must be the psychedelic part, but I kind of think I like it, lots, I think. Funny name, The Other One. OK, more rockers, Me and My Uncle, Big Boss Man, Me and Bobby McGee, Johnny B. Goode, great. Then a really slow song, “Wharf Rat”, I like the voice, but this is really kind of slow. Hey wait a minute, he just said fucker on a record! Wow, I think that’s cool. Then more great rockers Not Fade Away and Goin’ Down the Road.

I must have played the whole album 20 or so times in the next week or so and played Bertha, Playing In the Band, Me and Bobby McGee, Johnny B. Goode and Not Fade Away about 100 times. Seriously, I was hooked. Finally Archie demanded he get his record back. I picked up a copy the next time we went to Cedar Rapids, 40 miles away.

Next one was Europe 72 and I swear on the bridge between China Cat Sunflower and I Know You Rider some of kind of inner switch was turned on. You know what I mean. If you are here you understand. Then Truckin’ and the beauty of Morning Dew just strengthened it, whatever it was. I felt like the music was inside of me, like it was a vital part of me, an inner force.

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
Wiliam Blake

Next buy was Anthem of The Sun and I was just amazed by the complexity and power and the 1st record with Viola Lee Blues which I played over and over and thought was mind blowing. Then came Live Dead with Dark Star, St. Stephen and the Eleven and it seemed as though I had just been given the key to open the gates to the universe. There was just a tremendous opening that happened. This was a new reality. I was on a cosmic journey. Then American Beauty and Workingman’s which just seemed to wrap around me and hug me with comfort and pleasure in simplicity and the roots and an appreciation for the little joys and the rural blue collar world I lived in.

I was 16 and it was 1972 when I heard Skull and Roses and the world was exciting and I knew I was going to eventually get out of this farming and manufacturing town. I also knew that I was not going to end up in some war in Asia shooting at someone or being shot at for Tricky Dick or his bunch of idiots, no way, I knew I would find a way to avoid that, that was the big part of any future plans. My friends and I were becoming Freaks. We were reading books by Abbie Hoffman, Alan Watts, Kurt Vonnegut, Carlos Castaneda; The Greening of America, Future Shock, A Child’s Garden of Grass, The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, The Making of A Counterculture, Zap Commix and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and underground newspapers from Iowa City and turning on. We listened to the bands from Woodstock and San Francisco and David Peel and Bob Dylan and Firesign Theater and of course the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Who. As time went on our identification with the Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were part of what gave us our common brotherhood and made us stand out. Some of you are smiling now as you read this because you were there with us in different places throughout the country. We were the Freaks!

For our graduation in 1974 we nominated Truckin’ as our class song and it would have won had not all the straights tripped out on the fact that the Freaks were going to have a song by the Grateful Dead be the class song. People were actually lobbied not to vote for Truckin’, girls told their boyfriends not to or else! We lost.

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
Wiliam Blake

Iknowyourider - thanks for your kind words, glad to share and give someone a smile, that's what it's all about and thank you for sharing too

deadicated - the Keith and Donna record wow, I mean the girl with the Keith and Donna record; all sorts of entry points I mean openings I mean portals, to the world of the Dead aren't there?

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
Wiliam Blake

I would say it was my first show. Which (sadly, I never saw jerry :( ) was Phil & friends, July 23rd (i think?), 2001. I was invited by a guy who was the manager of a different department in the garden center I worked at. I had listened to the dead a little, and thought it would be fun. Plus this guy was just sooooo cool and soooo impressed me with his vast knowledge of plants and music and life. He was 2 years younger than me, and so friggin smart! So, I went. And we clicked like souls separated and now drawn together. I loved the music, the atmosphere, and this cute sweet happy little hippy man next to me. He had been to tons of shows since the time he was 16. Had owned this boss VW bus that he sold on his 18th year the day after Jerry died. He IS the ultimate fan if I ever met one. He knows every single song, and his photographic memory helped him to give me this wonderful gift. Alas, he had a girlfriend- live in- that he was to scared of hurting her to break it off with. To him, I was this happy little gypsy-like girl, who was fun, but no one thought we should be together, he should be all business - or whatever. So, about a year later (and 5 shows together), he ran away back home to Florida. I didn't see or hear from him for 5 years. It broke every piece of me. I never felt happy about love, life, or even the music for that whole time.
Then, in about... November of '06 I found him on myspace. He doesn't even have a real page, he just signed up. But I pm'd him, and surprise! He emailed me. We started chatting. I was married and had just had my baby. So, we kept it very nice and proper. Then I guess, when my husband started acting like a complete retard, spending our rent money and then eventually our couples counciling money that his DAD had to give us, on pot. Well, I guess I figured it wasn't worth it. And I thought about how my sweet little hippy man had always said that we were 'tangled up in blue'. That we'd end up having to go our separate ways for now, but that one day, we'd meet again. He'd made me a c.d. (5 years back) with jerry's version, and it killed me to listen to it after he had left. Now I was thinking about how he just happened to come back into my life, and so I told my dumb ass husband, to hit the bricks. And I had my first visit to Florida in July. About 5 years and a month to the day of our last seeing each other, we were together again. And we knew it was fate. I moved here (to Fl) officially on September 3rd. And as we were pulling into the gates of his home, and my new one, with my beautiful little girl in the back seat... everyone's happy and smiling... what do you think came on the radio? Yup, ol' bob dylan, singing tangled up in blue. I threw my notebook and pen that I had been drawing in at my honey and started bawling! I couldn't believe how fate works and how crazy it was! We were out of the blue. We were home. Forever.
On november 17th we're going to see bobby in Boca Raton. Our first show in 5 years. Our first show as a legitimate couple. He's the reason I got on the bus. And he's the reason I will always stay. Because he gave me this beautiful music. From the heart. It stayed in my heart and soul, even while he was away. Jerry sang me back home. Jerry told me that it must have been the roses. Jerry sang about how it looks like rain. And jerry, sang the heartbreaking truth about being tangled up in blue. Now, Jerry sing's my baby to sleep with if I had the world to give, standing on the moon, and ship of fools. He sings Days between while my honey and I make love, and terrapin station while I wash the dishes. I vaccume to franklin's tower, and then I take a nap to stella blue.
My whole life is the bus now. And I am takin it to shakedown street, baby.