# return

*Entered: in emacs on XyloPi* 
*Date: 20240521*
*Soundtrack: Grateful Dead live at Frost Amplitheater 1986-05-10*

When I was a teenager I discovered the Grateful Dead. I had
the first album, Working Man's Dead, Europe 72, and Skull &
Roses on vinyl, and Built to Last on tape. I had planned on
following the band, but didn't have the means to travel.
Then Jerry died when I was 19.

In the last year or so, I have rekindled my love of the
Dead. When I was young, my favorite GD was early stuff. I
didn't really connect with jazzy dead. Now, though, my
favorite era is 1980s dead. I have a growing collection of
concert recordings. Well, a collection of files, and some
will balk at using the word "collection" to refer to digital
music files. However, I travel for a living. I was on
precisely 170 flights last year (2023). Carrying physical
media would be a chore, and I don't have a lot of timw to
listen at home when I am there. 

I still listen to some metal, but then I have a hankering
for Sugaree, or Scarlet Begonias, or Help is on the Way...
this has also led me to the Byrds, Mike Nesmith's solo work,
New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Flying Burrito Brothers,
and more.

I was in the Denver airport on Monday morning and a long
haired dude with a big beard stopped and talked to me
because of the Steal Your Face pin on my backpack. He told
me his uncle had owned a studio in New Jersey back in the
day and the Dead had recorded there. "I've got songs most
people have never heard, man. Give me your address and I'll
burn you a CD and send it to you." No hesitation in an
emphatic, "yes" from me.

## maybe it's the drugs?

Hehehe, maybe. I was tripping so hard last weekend that the
air was full of three dimensional geometrics. The Ceiling
was 4 inches of clear mountain water with a strong current.
I meditated on governance and the nature of wants (needs are
only belonging to our biology, our mind only wants). During
this, yes, a Grateful Dead show was playing - Winterland
1978-12-31.