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91-430: The Grateful Dead returned to the studio at the end of March 1974, having readied another batch of songs. The majority were again composed by lead guitarist Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter and featured Garcia's lead vocals. However, "Pride of Cucamonga" and "Unbroken Chain" were both written and sung by bassist Phil Lesh with the assistance of poet Bobby Petersen. This was the only time he would sing two songs on

182-507: A Funk & Wagnalls dictionary to an entry for " Grateful dead ". The definition for "Grateful dead" was "a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial". The band's first reaction was disapproval. Garcia later explained the group's reaction: "I didn't like it really, I just found it to be really powerful. [Bob] Weir didn't like it, [Bill] Kreutzmann didn't like it and nobody really wanted to hear about it." Despite their dislike of

273-511: A jug band called Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. Around this time, the psychedelic drug LSD was gaining popularity. Garcia first began using LSD in 1964; later, when asked how it changed his life, he remarked: "Well, it changed everything [...] the effect was that it freed me because I suddenly realized that my little attempt at having a straight life and doing that was really a fiction and just wasn't going to work out. Luckily I wasn't far enough into it for it to be shattering or anything; it

364-500: A Beautiful Day , and many more. In 1995 Garcia played on three tracks for the CD Blue Incantation by guitarist Sanjay Mishra , making it his last studio collaboration. Throughout the early 1970s, Garcia, Lesh, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart , and David Crosby collaborated intermittently with MIT -educated composer and biologist Ned Lagin on several projects in the realm of early ambient music ; these include

455-523: A Dead studio album, and they would be his final lead vocal work for the band until 1985. Rhythm guitarist Bob Weir contributed "Money Money" with writing partner John Perry Barlow . The band chose to return to Coast Recorders on Folsom Street in San Francisco, where they had recorded "The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)" as a single for their first album , in 1967. The studio had since been purchased by CBS Studios and refurbished. They produced

546-475: A brief correspondence, he began his relationship with her in mid-1974. This gradually strained his relationship with Adams and culminated in Garcia leaving Adams for Koons in late 1975. The end of his relationship with Koons in 1977 precipitated a brief reconciliation with Adams, including the reestablishment of their household. However, she did not agree with the guitarist's persistent use of narcotics and moved with

637-443: A former girlfriend from the early 1960s, reentered Garcia's life for a brief period. Meier claimed that Garcia had considered her to be the "love of his life" and proposed to her during a Hawaiian vacation shortly after their relationship recommenced. Garcia's "love of his life" sentiment was not reserved for one lover, as he expressed the same feelings to several other women in his life. At Garcia's 1995 funeral, Koons declared that she

728-494: A harmonic bridge between all the things going on rhythmically with two drums and Phil [Lesh's] innovative bass playing. Weir's ability to solve that sort of problem is extraordinary. [...] Harmonically, I take a lot of my solo cues from Bob." When asked to describe his approach to soloing, Garcia commented: "It keeps on changing. I still basically revolve around the melody and the way it's broken up into phrases as I perceive them. With most solos, I tend to play something that phrases

819-513: A home. Through Grant, Garcia met Dave McQueen in February, who, after hearing Garcia perform some blues music, introduced him to local people and to the Chateau, a rooming house located near Stanford University which was then a popular hangout. On February 20, 1961, Garcia got into a car with Paul Speegle, a sixteen-year-old artist and acquaintance of Garcia; Lee Adams, the house manager of

910-540: A mother, is depicted as a madonna . The image was created from a group photograph taken in the lounge of the Cadillac Hotel in the Tenderloin district . An edit of "U.S. Blues" was released as a single ( b/w "Loose Lucy"). Four of the songs from the album remained in live rotation throughout the band's existence. "Scarlet Begonias" in particular became an extended-jam highlight, later usually paired with

1001-595: A novice on the pedal steel, Garcia routinely ranked high in player polls. After a long lapse from playing the pedal steel, he played it once more during several of the Dead's concerts with Bob Dylan in the summer of 1987. In 1988, Garcia agreed to perform at several major benefits including the "Soviet American Peace Walk" concert at the Band Shell, in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, that drew 25,000 people. He

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1092-501: A number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician . He was well known for his distinctive guitar playing, and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone ' s "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story in 2003. In the 2015 version of the list he was ranked at #46. In 2023, Garcia was ranked 34th by Rolling Stone . Garcia was renowned for his musical and technical ability, particularly his ability to play

1183-521: A passing of stacks of paper backstage at a Dead show. His annual shows at the Weir Gallery garnered much attention, leading to further shows in New York and other cities. Garcia was an early adopter of digital art media; his artistic style was as varied as his musical output, and he carried small notebooks for pen and ink sketches wherever he toured. Roberta Weir continues to maintain an archive of

1274-583: A performance, the band checked into their rooms, only to be quickly raided by police. Approximately fifteen people were arrested on the spot, including many of the road crew, management, and nearly all of the Grateful Dead except for Garcia, who arrived later, outgoing keyboardist Tom Constanten , who abstained from all drugs as a member of the Church of Scientology , and McKernan, who eschewed illegal drugs in favor of alcohol. According to Bill Kreutzmann,

1365-674: A radio show for the progressive, community-supported Berkeley radio station KPFA . Using an old Wollensak tape recorder, they recorded " Matty Groves " and " The Long Black Veil ", among several other tunes. The recordings became a central feature of a 90-minute KPFA special broadcast, "The Long Black Veil and Other Ballads: An Evening with Jerry Garcia". The link between KPFA and the Grateful Dead continues to this day, having included many fundraisers, interviews, live concert broadcasts, taped band performances and all-day or all-weekend "Dead-only" marathons. Garcia soon began playing and teaching acoustic guitar and banjo . One of Garcia's students

1456-531: A result of mutual tax exigencies. Despite the legal codification of their union, she remained in Oregon, while Garcia continued to live near the Grateful Dead's offices in San Rafael, California . Garcia lived with a variety of housemates, including longtime Grateful Dead employee and Jerry Garcia Band manager Rock Scully . Scully, who co-managed the Grateful Dead throughout the mid-to-late 1960s before serving as

1547-403: A result, Garcia was given a general discharge on December 14, 1960. In January 1961, Garcia drove to East Palo Alto to see Laird Grant, an old friend from middle school. He had purchased a 1950 Cadillac sedan from a cook in the army, which barely made it to Grant's residence before it broke down. Garcia spent the next few weeks sleeping where friends would allow, eventually using his car as

1638-508: A segue into "Fire on the Mountain," while "U.S. Blues" was a preferred encore. "Ship of Fools" and "China Doll" were played with less frequency. For many years, Deadhead lore maintained that "Unbroken Chain" would only be performed at the band's final concert; it was finally broken out on the band's penultimate tour in March 1995 and performed at their final concert on July 9, 1995. "Money Money"

1729-467: A variety of instruments and sustain long improvisations. Garcia believed that improvisation took stress away from his playing and allowed him to make spur of the moment decisions that he would not have made intentionally. In a 1993 interview with Rolling Stone , Garcia noted that "my own preferences are for improvisation, for making it up as I go along. The idea of picking , of eliminating possibilities by deciding, that's difficult for me". Originating from

1820-543: A wood splitting accident, while the family was vacationing in the Santa Cruz Mountains . Garcia later confessed that he often used it to his advantage in his youth, showing it off to other children in his neighborhood. Less than a year after this incident his father died in a fly fishing accident when the family was vacationing near Arcata in Northern California. He slipped after entering

1911-527: The Grand Ole Opry . His elder brother, Clifford, however, staunchly believed the contrary, insisting that Garcia was "fantasizing all [that] ... she'd been to Opry, but she didn't listen to it on the radio." It was at this point that Garcia started playing the banjo, his first stringed instrument. In 1953, Garcia's mother married Wally Matusiewicz. Subsequently, Garcia and his brother moved back home with their mother and new stepfather. However, due to

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2002-672: The Grateful Dead , collaborating principally with Garcia. The two involved themselves in the South Bay and San Francisco art and music scenes, sometimes playing at Menlo Park's Kepler's Books . Garcia performed his first concert with Hunter, each earning five dollars. Garcia and Hunter also played in bands (the Wildwood Boys and the Hart Valley Drifters) with David Nelson , who would later play with Garcia in

2093-576: The Ottoman Empire , where it often carried mystical associations. An informal Australian newspaper experiment identified 10 true mirror-writers in a readership of 65,000. A higher proportion of left-handed people are better mirror writers than right-handed people, perhaps because it is more natural for a left-hander to write from right to left. 15% of left-handed people have the language centres in both halves of their brain. The cerebral cortex and motor homunculus are affected by this, causing

2184-894: The Trinity River , part of the Six Rivers National Forest , and drowned before other fishermen could reach him. Although Garcia claimed he saw the incident, Dennis McNally, author of the book A Long Strange Trip: The Inside Story of the Grateful Dead , argues Garcia formed the memory after hearing others repeat the story. Blair Jackson, who wrote Garcia: An American Life , notes that a local newspaper article describing Jose's death did not mention Jerry being present when he died. Following his father's death, Garcia's mother Ruth took over her husband's bar, buying out his partner for full ownership. She began working full-time there, sending Jerry and his brother to live nearby with her parents, Tillie and William Clifford. During

2275-525: The Chateau and driver of the car; and Alan Trist, a companion of theirs. After speeding past the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital, the driver encountered a curve and, speeding around 90 miles per hour (140 km/h), crashed into the guard rail, sending the car rolling turbulently. Garcia was hurled through the windshield of the car into a nearby field with such force that he was literally dislodged from his shoes and later unable to recall

2366-547: The Dead forced him to opt out of the group. He appears as a band member on their debut album New Riders of the Purple Sage , and produced Home, Home on the Road , a 1974 live album by the band. He also contributed pedal steel guitar to the enduring hit "Teach Your Children" by Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young . Garcia also played steel guitar licks on Brewer & Shipley 's 1970 album Tarkio . Despite considering himself

2457-730: The Grateful Dead for the band's entire 30-year career (1965–1995). Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders–Garcia Band (with longtime friend Merl Saunders ), the Jerry Garcia Band , Old & In the Way , the Garcia/ Grisman and Garcia/ Kahn acoustic duos, Legion of Mary , and New Riders of the Purple Sage (which he co-founded with John Dawson and David Nelson ). He also released several solo albums, and contributed to

2548-557: The Mars Hotel was released on June 24, 2024. A three-disc CD, it includes a remastered version of the original album, with two bonus demo tracks. It also includes a live concert recorded on May 12, 1974, at the University of Nevada, Reno (missing only the opening song, " Promised Land "). Additionally, the original album was re-released in several different vinyl LP versions. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau wrote of

2639-756: The New Riders of the Purple Sage and contribute to several Grateful Dead album songs. In 1962, Garcia met Phil Lesh , the eventual bassist of the Grateful Dead, during a party in Menlo Park's bohemian Perry Lane neighborhood (where author Ken Kesey lived). Lesh would later write in his autobiography that Garcia reminded him of pictures he had seen of the composer Claude Debussy , with his "dark, curly hair, goatee, Impressionist eyes". While attending another party in Palo Alto, Lesh approached Garcia to suggest they record Garcia on Lesh's tape recorder and produce

2730-557: The Other One", "U.S. Blues", " Sugaree ", and "Don't Ease Me In"). In addition to the Grateful Dead, Garcia participated in numerous musical side projects, including the Jerry Garcia Band . He was also involved with various acoustic projects such as Old & In the Way and other bluegrass bands, including collaborations with noted bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman . The documentary film Grateful Dawg , co-produced by Gillian Grisman and former NBC producer Pamela Hamilton chronicles

2821-700: The Zodiacs (on bass), the Black Mountain Boys, Legion of Mary , Reconstruction , and the Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band . Garcia was also a fan of jazz artists and improvisation : he played with jazz keyboardists Merl Saunders and Howard Wales for many years in various groups and jam sessions, and he appeared on saxophonist Ornette Coleman 's 1988 album, Virgin Beauty . His collaboration with Merl Saunders and Muruga Booker on

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2912-430: The accordion for a Danelectro with a small amplifier at a local pawnshop. Garcia's stepfather, who was somewhat proficient with instruments, helped tune his guitar to an unusual open tuning . After a short stint at Denman Junior High School, Garcia attended tenth grade at Balboa High School in 1958, where he often got into trouble for skipping classes and fighting. Consequently, in 1959, Garcia's mother again moved

3003-434: The acrimonious collapse of the band's independent record labels over the next two years, Garcia became increasingly dependent upon both substances. These factors, combined with the alcohol and drug abuse of several other members of the Grateful Dead, resulted in a turbulent atmosphere. By 1978, the band's chemistry began "cracking and crumbling", resulting in poor group cohesion. As a result, Keith and Donna Jean Godchaux left

3094-470: The album Seastones (released by Ned Lagin on the Round Records subsidiary) and L , an unfinished dance work composed by Ned Lagin. In 1970, Garcia participated in the soundtrack for the film Zabriskie Point . Garcia also played pedal steel guitar for fellow-San Francisco musicians New Riders of the Purple Sage from their initial dates in 1969 to October 1971, when increased commitments with

3185-742: The album themselves with engineer Roy Segal. According to Segal, Garcia liked the room because it had a more "live" sound than the Record Plant, where the band had recorded their previous album. Garcia had played in CBS Studios earlier in the year with Art Garfunkel during the sessions for Angel Clare . Many of the Garcia-Hunter songs had been played live for up to a year or more. "U.S. Blues" had started life as "Wave That Flag" in February 1973 before being dropped and heavily rewritten; however, "Scarlet Begonias" had been introduced only in

3276-461: The album: "Brighter and more uptempo than Wake of the Flood (which is not to claim it's 'high energy'), with almost as many memorable tunes as American Beauty . Robert Hunter is not progressing, however—even 'U.S. Blues,' an entertaining collection of conceits, seems received rather than found. And a Weir-Barlow song about money is just one more way for rich Marin hippies to put women down." It

3367-526: The artwork of Jerry Garcia. Perhaps the most widely seen pieces of Jerry Garcia's art are the many editions of men's neckties produced by Stonehenge Ltd. and Mulberry Neckware. Some began as etchings, other designs came from his drawings, paintings, and digital art. Garcia's artwork has since expanded into everything from hotel rooms, wet suits, men's sport shirts, a women's wear line, boxer shorts, hair accessories, cummerbunds, silk scarves and wool rugs. Garcia met his first wife, Sara Ruppenthal, in 1963. She

3458-403: The band in February 1979. Mirror writing Mirror writing is formed by writing in the direction that is the reverse of the natural way for a given language, such that the result is the mirror image of normal writing: it appears normal when reflected in a mirror . It is sometimes used as an extremely primitive form of cipher . A common modern usage of mirror writing can be found on

3549-581: The band tours. In a 1991 Rolling Stone interview, Garcia stated that "we haven't really lived together since the Seventies". During the autumn of 1978, Garcia developed a friendship with Shimer College student Manasha Matheson, an artist and music enthusiast. They remained friends over the following nine years before initiating a romantic relationship in Hartford, Connecticut on the Grateful Dead's spring 1987 tour. Jerry and Manasha became parents with

3640-458: The band's American Beauty , Grateful Dead , and Europe '72 albums. The front depicts an actual San Francisco building, juxtaposed in an extraterrestrial landscape. The real Mars Hotel was a derelict flophouse , at 192 Fourth Street, that had been the temporary residence of Jack Kerouac and was previously used as a location in David Bowie 's promotional film for " The Jean Genie ". It

3731-795: The band's "advance man" and publicist, was dismissed by the group in 1984 for enabling Garcia's addictions and for allegedly embezzling the Garcia Band's profits. Another housemate was Nora Sage, a Deadhead who became Garcia's housekeeper while studying at the Golden Gate University School of Law . The exact nature of their relationship remains unclear, although it is believed to have been platonic due to Garcia's addictions. She later became his art representative. While they would briefly reunite following his diabetic coma, Garcia and Adams ultimately divorced in 1994. Phil Lesh has subsequently stated that he rarely saw Adams on any of

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3822-507: The band's reward was recording a song. They chose " Raunchy " by Bill Justis . Garcia stole his mother's car in 1960 and was given the option of joining the U.S. Army in lieu of prison. He received basic training at Fort Ord . After training, he was transferred to Fort Winfield Scott in the Presidio of San Francisco . Garcia spent most of his time in the army at his leisure, missing roll call and accruing many counts of being AWOL . As

3913-416: The band's use of cocaine accelerated throughout the early 1970s. After using heroin in a brothel in 1974 (likely on the band's second European tour), Garcia was introduced to a smokeable form of the drug (initially advertised as refined opium ) colloquially known as "Persian" or "Persian Base" during the group's 1975 hiatus. Influenced by the stresses of creating and releasing The Grateful Dead Movie and

4004-484: The band, wrote the lyrics to all but a few of Garcia's songs. Garcia was known for his "soulful extended guitar improvisations", which would frequently feature interplay between him and his fellow band members. His fame, as well as the band's, arguably rested on their ability to never play a song the same way twice. Often, Garcia would take cues from rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, remarking that "there are some [...] kinds of ideas that would really throw me if I had to create

4095-585: The birth of their daughter, Keelin Noel Garcia, on December 20, 1987. On August 17, 1990, Garcia and Matheson married at their San Anselmo, California home in a spiritual ceremony free of legal convention. In 1991, Garcia expressed his delight in finding the time to "actually be a father" to Keelin in contrast to his past relationships with his children. A year later, Garcia dedicated his first art book, Paintings, Drawings and Sketches , "For Manasha, with love, Jerry." In January 1993, Barbara "Brigid" Meier,

4186-521: The children to the Eugene, Oregon area, living near Kesey, in 1978. Following Adams' departure, Garcia had an affair with Amy Moore. She was a Kentucky -born member of the extended "Grateful Dead family", and the mistress of Texas oil heir Roy Cullen. Their affair lasted circa 1980–1981, and inspired the Garcia-Hunter song "Run for the Roses." Adams and Garcia were married on December 31, 1981, largely as

4277-416: The days of the " Acid Tests ", these improvisations were a form of exploration rather than playing a song already written. Later in life, Garcia struggled with diabetes . In 1986, he went into a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after the incident, he continued to struggle with obesity, smoking, and long-standing heroin and cocaine addictions. He

4368-465: The deep, long-term friendship between Garcia and Grisman. When Garcia and Grisman released Not For Kids Only, Hamilton produced their interview and concert for NBC. After several years of producing stories on the Grateful Dead and band members' side projects, Hamilton interviewed Bob Weir for a feature on Garcia's death marking the end of an era. Other groups in which Garcia participated at one time or another include Jerry & Sara (with his first wife),

4459-409: The ejection. Lee Adams, the driver, and Alan Trist, who was seated in the back, were thrown from the car as well, resulting in abdominal injuries and a spine fracture, respectively. Garcia escaped with a broken collarbone, while Speegle, still in the car, was fatally injured. Lee's reckless driving and crash served as an awakening for Garcia, who later said, "That's where my life began. Before then I

4550-576: The family to a safer environment, to Cazadero , a small town in Sonoma County , 90 miles (140 km) north of San Francisco. This turn of events did not sit well with Garcia, who had to travel by bus thirty miles (50 km) to Analy High School in Sebastopol , the nearest school. Garcia did, however, join a band at his school known as the Chords. After performing in and winning a contest,

4641-663: The fiction of Jack Kerouac , whom Garcia later cited as a major influence. In June, Garcia graduated from the local Menlo Oaks school. He then moved with his family back to San Francisco, where they lived in an apartment above the family bar, a newly built replacement for the original, which had been torn down to make way for a freeway entrance. Two months later, on Garcia's fifteenth birthday, his mother bought an accordion for him, to his great disappointment. Garcia had long been captivated by many rhythm and blues artists, especially Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley , leaving him craving an electric guitar. After some pleading, his mother exchanged

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4732-492: The five-year period in which he lived with his grandparents, Garcia enjoyed a large amount of autonomy and attended Monroe Elementary School. At the school, Garcia was greatly encouraged in his artistic abilities by his third grade teacher: through her, he discovered that "being a creative person was a viable possibility in life." According to Garcia, it was around this time that he was opened up to country and bluegrass music by his grandmother, whom he recalled enjoyed listening to

4823-438: The front cover, as rotated mirror writing . The rear cover depicts the band as the "ugly roomers", in the guise of cartoon characters lounging in a room in outer space, watching television. Lesh wears a pharaonic nemes , Garcia a space helmet and Kreutzmann a galea . Weir is a space-clown marked with a "Z". Keyboardist Keith Godchaux bears a halo of lightning bolts and backing vocalist Donna Godchaux , who had recently become

4914-411: The front of ambulances , where the word "AMBULANCE" is often written in very large mirrored text, so that drivers see the word the right way around in their rear-view mirror . It is also on fire engines and police cars too. Some people are able to produce handwritten mirrored text. Notably, Leonardo da Vinci wrote most of his personal notes in this way. Mirror writing calligraphy was popular in

5005-459: The group's live performances between 1970 and 1975) played synthesizer on "Unbroken Chain". Singer Sarah Fulcher (who was uncredited until the 50th anniversary reissue) provided backing vocals to "Money Money". Fulcher had provided vocals on Wake of the Flood and was part of Jerry Garcia's band with Merl Saunders in 1973, she can be heard on Garcia Live Volume 12 . As previously, the band felt stifled by studio confines. Commenting later about

5096-435: The ink just put down would smudge as his hand moved across it. Writing in reverse would prevent such smudging. An alternative theory is that the process of rotating the linguistic object in memory before setting it to paper, and rotating it before reading it back, was a method of reinforcement learning. From this theory, it follows the use of boustrophedonic writing, especially in public codes, may be to render better recall of

5187-970: The knee when he attempted to block a train carrying weapons to military dictatorships in El Salvador. Having previously studied at the San Francisco Art Institute as a teenager, Garcia embarked on a second career in the visual arts in the late 1980s. He created a number of drawings, etchings , and water colors . Garcia's artistic endeavors were represented by the Weir Gallery in Berkeley, California from 1989 to 1996. During this period, Roberta Weir (unrelated to Garcia's bandmate Bob Weir) provided Garcia with new art techniques to use, sponsored his first solo show in 1990, and prepared blank etching plates for him to draw on. These would then be processed and printed by gallery staff and brought back to Garcia for approval and signature, usually with

5278-532: The likes of Jefferson Airplane (most notably Surrealistic Pillow , Garcia being listed as their "spiritual advisor"). Garcia himself recalled in a mid-1967 interview that he'd played the high lead on "Today," played on "Plastic Fantastic Lover" and "Comin' Back to Me" on that album. Others include Tom Fogerty , David Bromberg , Robert Hunter ( Liberty , on Relix Records), Paul Pena , Peter Rowan , Warren Zevon , Country Joe McDonald , Pete Sears , Ken Nordine , Ornette Coleman, Bruce Hornsby , Bob Dylan , It's

5369-492: The month prior to recording. Weir's "Money Money" was arranged in the studio. A separate version of "China Doll" (also introduced in February 1973) was recorded for the previous album Wake of the Flood , but not used. Lesh had recorded demo versions of his two tracks during sessions for that album. Though Garcia had played pedal steel for the band, John McFee (of Clover ) guests on the instrument for "Pride of Cucamonga". Electronic composer Ned Lagin (who frequently sat in during

5460-399: The name, it quickly spread by word of mouth, and soon became their official title. Garcia served as lead guitarist and one of the principal vocalists and songwriters of the Grateful Dead for the band's entire career. Garcia composed songs such as " Uncle John's Band ", " Dark Star ", "Franklin's Tower", and " Scarlet Begonias ", among many others. Robert Hunter, an ardent collaborator with

5551-531: The person to be able to read and write backwards quite naturally. In an experiment conducted by the Department of Neurosurgery at Hokkaido University School of Medicine in Sapporo, Japan, scientists proposed that the origin of mirror writing comes from damage caused through brain trauma or neurological diseases, such as an essential tremor, Parkinson's disease, or spino-cerebellar degeneration. This hypothesis

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5642-475: The roughneck reputation of their neighborhood at the time, Garcia's mother moved their family to Menlo Park . During their stay in Menlo Park, Garcia became acquainted with racism and antisemitism , things he disliked intensely. The same year, Garcia was also introduced to rock and roll and rhythm and blues by his brother, and enjoyed listening to Ray Charles , John Lee Hooker , B. B. King , Hank Ballard , and, later, Chuck Berry . Clifford often memorized

5733-466: The sessions, drummer Bill Kreutzmann said "The studio felt contrived. It couldn’t offer the freedom of playing something live, nor the satisfaction." While recording the album, the Grateful Dead were testing a massive touring P.A. system called The Wall of Sound . A contemporaneous test performance of the sound system was released as Dick's Picks Volume 24 . The album's cover art was created by Kelley / Mouse , who had previously created artwork for

5824-512: The spring of 1993. They married on February 14, 1994, in Sausalito , California. Garcia and Koons were married at the time of his death. Because of their public profile, Garcia and his collaborators were occasionally singled out in the American government's war on drugs . On October 2, 1967, 710 Ashbury Street in San Francisco (where the Grateful Dead had taken up residence the year before)

5915-499: The streets doing funny things and just having a helluva time". During this time, Garcia also studied at what is now the San Francisco Art Institute . At San Francisco Art Institute, Garcia was taught by Wally Hedrick , an artist who came to prominence during the 1960s. During the classes, he often encouraged Garcia to draw and paint, noting that Garcia had skill in both areas. Hedrick also introduced Garcia to

6006-506: The text in the reader. Matteo Zaccolini may have written his original four volume treatise on optics, color, and perspective in the early 17th century in mirror script. Pictorial texts also known as calligrams arranged in mirror symmetry were popular in the Ottoman Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries among the Bektashi order, where it often carried mystical associations. The origins of this mirror writing tradition may date to

6097-501: The vocals for his favorite songs, and would then make Garcia learn the harmony parts, a move to which Garcia later attributed much of his early ear training . In mid-1957, Garcia began smoking cigarettes and was introduced to marijuana . Garcia would later reminisce about the first time he smoked marijuana: "Me and a friend of mine went up into the hills with two joints, the San Francisco foothills, and smoked these joints and just got so high and laughed and roared and went skipping down

6188-441: The way the melody does; my phrases may be more dense or have different value, but they'll occur in the same places in the song. [...]" Garcia and the band toured almost constantly from their formation in 1965 until Garcia's death in 1995. Periodically, there were breaks due to exhaustion or health problems, often due to Garcia's drug use. During their three-decade span, the Grateful Dead played 2,314 shows. Garcia's guitar-playing

6279-406: The word "authentic" was embossed in a vertical column on the left margin of the cover. The working title for the album was "Ugly Roomers". Kreutzmann said it was "a self-deprecating dig at ourselves, but we changed it to 'rumors' out of respect to the boarders at the hotel." After another title change to From the Mars Hotel , the punning spelling "Ugly Rumors" was retained in stylized Aztecan text on

6370-777: The word "rumors". The group Animal Collective sampled "Unbroken Chain" for their song "What Would I Want? Sky", on their EP Fall Be Kind . It was the first sample ever cleared for use by the Grateful Dead. Notes On April 17, 2024, a collection of alternate takes and alternate mixes from the Mars Hotel recording sessions entitled From the Mars Hotel: The Angel's Share was released in streaming and digital download formats. Grateful Dead Additional musicians Technical personnel Reissue personnel Billboard Jerry Garcia Jerome John Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995)

6461-621: The world music album Blues From the Rainforest launched the Rainforest Band . Garcia spent a lot of time in the recording studio helping out fellow musician friends in session work, often adding guitar, vocals, pedal steel, sometimes banjo and piano and even producing. He played on over 50 studio albums, the styles of which were eclectic and varied, including bluegrass, rock, folk, blues, country, jazz, electronic music, gospel, funk, and reggae. Artists who sought Garcia's help included

6552-545: Was "the love of his life" while paying her final respects, whereupon Meier and Ruppenthal, who were both in attendance, simultaneously exclaimed, "He said that to me!" The affair with Meier marked the breakup of Garcia's family life with Matheson and Keelin. Garcia ended the affair with Meier forty-five days later while on tour in Chicago with the Grateful Dead after she confronted him about his drug use. Shortly thereafter, Garcia renewed his acquaintance with Deborah Koons in

6643-737: Was Bob Matthews, who later engineered many of the Grateful Dead's albums. Matthews attended Menlo-Atherton High School and was friends with Bob Weir , and on New Year's Eve 1963, he introduced Weir and Garcia. Between 1962 and 1964, Garcia sang and performed mainly bluegrass, old-time , and folk music . One of the bands Garcia performed with was the Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers, a bluegrass act. The group consisted of Garcia on guitar, banjo, vocals, and harmonica, Marshall Leicester on banjo, guitar, and vocals, and Dick Arnold on fiddle and vocals. Soon after this, Garcia, Weir, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan , and several of their friends formed

6734-427: Was always living at less than capacity. I was idling. That was the slingshot for the rest of my life. It was like a second chance. Then I got serious". It was at this time that Garcia began to realize that he needed to begin playing the guitar in earnest—a move which meant giving up his love of drawing and painting. In April 1961, Garcia first met Robert Hunter , who would become a long-time friend of and lyricist for

6825-500: Was an American musician who was the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and a vocalist with the rock band Grateful Dead , which he co-founded and which came to prominence during the counterculture of the 1960s . Although he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader of the band. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 as a member of the Grateful Dead. As one of its founders, Garcia performed with

6916-458: Was asked to play by longtime friend and fellow musician, Pete Sears, who played piano with all the bands that day, and also procured all the other musicians. Garcia, Mickey Hart and Steve Parish played the show, then were given a police escort to a Grateful Dead show across the bay later that night. Garcia also played with Nick Gravenites and Pete Sears at a benefit given for Vietnam Veteran and peace activist Brian Willson , who lost both legs below

7007-619: Was demolished during the Yerba Buena redevelopment – footage of which is seen in The Grateful Dead Movie  – and is now the site of the Moscone West Exhibition Hall . In competing against existing distribution channels, albums on the Grateful Dead label became subject to counterfeiting. In response, and to help consumers recognize higher-quality, official pressings,

7098-464: Was eclectic. He melded elements from the various kinds of music that influenced him. Echoes of bluegrass playing (such as Arthur Smith and Doc Watson ) could be heard. There was also early rock (like Lonnie Mack , James Burton , and Chuck Berry), contemporary blues ( Freddie King and Lowell Fulsom ), country and western ( Roy Nichols and Don Rich ), and jazz ( Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt ) to be heard in Garcia's style. Don Rich

7189-422: Was happening in the late Fifties and early Sixties, like Freddie King." Garcia's style could vary with the song being played and the instrument he was using, but his playing had a number of so-called "signatures". Among these were lead lines based on rhythmic triplets (examples include the songs "Good Morning Little School Girl", "New Speedway Boogie", "Brokedown Palace", "Deal", "Loser", " Truckin' ", "That's It for

7280-414: Was herself born in San Francisco. His parents named him after composer Jerome Kern . Jerome John was their second child, preceded by Clifford Ramon "Tiff", who was born in 1937. Shortly before Clifford's birth, their father and a partner leased a building in downtown San Francisco and turned it into a bar, partly in response to Jose being blackballed from a musicians' union for moonlighting . Garcia

7371-536: Was involved in a car crash near Twin Peaks in San Francisco. Garcia, who was recording the album American Beauty at the time, often left the sessions to visit his mother with his brother Clifford. She died on September 28, 1970. In the midst of a March 1973 Grateful Dead engagement at Long Island's Nassau Coliseum , Garcia met Deborah Koons, an aspiring filmmaker from a wealthy Cincinnati, Ohio -based family who would much later marry him and become his widow. After

7462-561: Was like a realization that just made me feel immensely relieved." In 1965, Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions evolved into the Warlocks, with the addition of Dana Morgan, Jr. (soon replaced by Phil Lesh) on bass guitar and Bill Kreutzmann on percussion . However, the band discovered a record by another group (possibly the future Velvet Underground or Z.Z. Top , both of which used the name in their early days) called The Warlocks. In response, Garcia came up with "Grateful Dead" by opening

7553-483: Was played three times, in May 1974, and then dropped by the time of the album's release, as the perceived misogyny of the song was worrisome to certain band members. "Loose Lucy" was dropped after 1974 and resurrected in 1990. Only "Pride of Cucamonga" was never played live. With the collapse of the band's label and the move to Arista Records , the album was out of print for many years. In 1984 an audiophile-quality pressing

7644-772: Was proposed because these conditions affect a "neural mechanism that controls the higher cerebral function of writing via the thalamus." Another study by the same university discovered that damage was not the only cause. The scientists observed that normal children exhibited signs of mirror writing while learning to write, thus concluding that currently there is no exact method for finding the true origin of mirror writing. Leonardo da Vinci wrote most of his personal notes in mirror writing, only using standard writing if he intended his texts to be read by others. The purpose of this practice by Leonardo remains unknown, though several possible reasons have been suggested. For example, writing left handed from left to right would have been messy because

7735-494: Was raided after a police tip-off . Grateful Dead members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were apprehended on marijuana charges which were later dropped, although Garcia himself was not arrested. The following year, Garcia's picture was used in a campaign commercial for Richard Nixon . Most of the band was arrested again in January 1970, after it flew to New Orleans from Hawaii. After returning to their hotel from

7826-416: Was raised as a Catholic . He was influenced by music at an early age, taking piano lessons for much of his childhood. His father was a retired professional musician and his mother enjoyed playing the piano. His father's extended family—which had immigrated from Spain in 1919—would often sing during reunions. In 1946, two-thirds of four-year-old Garcia's right middle finger was cut off by his brother in

7917-475: Was released by Mobile Fidelity Records , using half-speed mastering. The album's first CD release was in 1985, and it has remained in print since a 1989 CD self-release by Grateful Dead Records. It was remastered and expanded as part of the Beyond Description (1973–1989) box set, in 2004. This version was released separately by Rhino Records , in 2006. A 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of From

8008-568: Was staying in a California drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995, just eight days after his 53rd birthday. Garcia's ancestors on his father's side were from Galicia in northwest Spain. His mother's ancestors were Irish and Swedish. He was born in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, California, on August 1, 1942, to Jose Ramon "Joe" Garcia and Ruth Marie "Bobbie" (née Clifford) Garcia, who

8099-762: Was the sparkling country guitar player in Buck Owens 's " the Buckaroos " band of the 1960s, but besides Rich's style, both Garcia's pedal steel guitar playing (on Grateful Dead records and others) and his standard electric guitar work, were influenced by another of Owens's Buckaroos of that time, pedal steel player Tom Brumley . And as an improvisational soloist, John Coltrane was one of his greatest personal and musical influences. Garcia later described his playing style as having "descended from barroom rock and roll, country guitar. Just 'cause that's where all my stuff comes from. It's like that blues instrumental stuff that

8190-458: Was voted number 556 in the third edition of Colin Larkin 's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). While studying law at St John's College, Oxford , in the 1970s, Tony Blair ( UK prime minister 1997–2007) helped found the rock band Ugly Rumours , as a singer-guitarist. The group was named after the mirror writing on the front cover of From the Mars Hotel , using British English spelling for

8281-821: Was working at the coffee house in the back of Kepler's Books , where Garcia, Hunter, and Nelson regularly performed. They married on April 23, 1963, and on December 8 of that year, their daughter Heather was born. They divorced in 1967. Carolyn Adams , a Merry Prankster also known as "Mountain Girl" or "M.G.," had a daughter, Sunshine, with Ken Kesey in 1966. Adams married another Prankster, George Walker, but they soon separated. She and Sunshine then moved into 710 Ashbury with Garcia in late 1966 where they would ultimately live together until 1975. Adams gave birth to Garcia's second and third daughters, Annabelle Walker Garcia (February 2, 1970) and Theresa Adams "Trixie" Garcia (September 21, 1974). In August 1970, Garcia's mother Ruth

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