The Grateful Deadcast returns for its 13th season, beginning with a 2-part tribute to the great Bobby Weir, mixing interviews with archival audio to tell the story of how a teenage Atherton folkie found his singular jazz-informed musical voice (dropping a few water balloons en route).
Bobby Weir, Part 1 supplementary notes
by Jesse Jarnow
Bobby Weir left an unfathomable musical legacy when he departed in January, one which we’ll only begin to sketch as a broad overview during our extended two-part Deadcast tribute to his recording and performing career.
We’ve made several Weir-centric episodes over the past few years, several built our own interviews with him, including Sugar Magnolia, Ace 50, and Bobby 75 (made just as he was beginning his collaborations with orchestras in 2022), as well as deeper looks at Weather Report Suite, Money Money, The Music Never Stopped, and Sage and Spirit, with hopefully many more to come.
During this episode, we were able to zoom in on some of Weir’s isolated guitar parts thanks to the Playing in the Band mini-site, which includes the instrumental tracks for selected songs from Sunshine Daydream concert on August 27th, 1972, Wake of the Flood, From the Mars Hotel. and Blues For Allah.
For these Weir tribute episodes, we are even more indebted than usual to David Gans, who interviewed Weir numerous times starting in the late 1970s, and has graciously shared audio with us. The original interviews can be read in Conversations With the Dead, This Is All A Dream We Dreamed, and other works.
This year marks the centennial of the late Neal Cassady, Weir’s occasional roommate at 710 Ashbury, the legendary “Cowboy Neal” sung of in “The Other One.” Those curious about Cassady might still be directed to Steve Silberman’s essential primer, “Who Was Cowboy Neal?” Lately, Cassady’s fellow Merry Prankster George Walker, has investigated Cassady’s untimely 1968 death in Mexico at the age of 41.
Last year, Culture Factory released Jorma Kaukonen’s Wabash Avenue, featuring early archival recordings.
