Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995)

Thursday August 10 - there was open casket viewing of Jerry at the St. 
Stephan's Episcopal church in Belvedere CA.  Jerry was reportedly 
dressed in a black t-shirt and sweatpants.

Friday August 11 - funeral service at the St. Stephan church in Belvedere
starting at about 4pm.  The officiant Matthew Fox was the pastor who 
married Deborah and Jerry last year.  The church is small only holding 
200 to 250 people.   Many people gave eulogies including Bob Weir, Steve 
Parrish, Robert Hunter, John Barlow, Ken Kesey and Anabelle Garcia 
(one of Jerry's daughters).  Hunter recited a poem he just wrote (see 
below).   Musicians in attendance included band members, Bruce Hornsby 
and Bob Dylan.  A very small grave site service was held, it was 
primarily for family and the band.

Sunday August 13 9am - a memorial gathering is scheduled for Golden
Gate Park.  No musical acts (though they are rumors :-) have been 
announced at this time.

It is suggested that memorial donations be directed to:

Rex Foundation
PO Box 2204
San Anselimo CA 94979

An Elegy for Jerry (by Robert Hunter)

Jerry, my friend,
you've done it again,
even in your silence 
the familiar pressure
comes to bear, demanding
I pull words from the air
with only this morning
and part of the afternoon
to compose an ode worthy
of one so particular
about every turn of phrase,
demanding it hit home 
in a thousand ways
before making it his own,
and this I can't do alone.
Now that the singer is gone,
where shall I go for the song?

Without your melody and tase
to lend an attitude of grace
a lyric is an orphan thing,
a hive with neither honey's taste
nor power to truly sting.

What choice have I but to dare and
call your muse who thought to rest
out of the thin blue air
that out of the field of shared time,
a line or two might chance to shine --

As ever when we called,
in hope if not in words,
the muse descends.

How should she desert us now?
Scars of battle on her brow,
bedraggled feathers on her wings,
and yet she sings, she sings!

May she bear thee to thy rest,
the ancient bower of flowers
beyond the solitude of days,
the tyranny of hours--
the wreath of shining laurel lie
upon your shaggy head
bestowing power to play the lyre
to legions of the dead

If some part of that music
is heard in deepest dream,
or on some breeze of Summer
a snatch of golden theme,
we'll know you live inside us
with love that never parts
our good old Jack O'Diamonds
become the King of Hearts.

I feel your silent laughter
at sentiments so bold
that dare to step across the line
to tell what must be told,
so I'll just say I love you,
which I never said before
and let it go at that old friend
the rest you may ignore.

The Perro Sessions (Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra)

The confusion surrounding 'the Perro sessions' is understandable.   Perro, or PER&RO (Planet Earth Rock & Roll Orchestra), refers to a loose agglomeration of players in the San Fransisco Bay area who gathered around Wally Heider's studio during a time of great flux in their respective bands including: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.  Deadheads in particular enjoy the material due to the lack of live recordings documenting the musical relationship between Garcia and Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson/ Hot Tuna). 

A definite high point on this portion of the tape is at 30:24 as Mountains v. 4 reaches its apex (a phenomenal passage in it's own right), when the band led by Jerry starts coaxing out a proto version of  Loser and a brief reprise of Deal including a pause to recapitulate the chords.  Then there is a cold cut in the tape and Jerry plainly recounts the chord progression: C-Em-Am-G-Am.  At which point they go into Deal proper.

The Perro Sessions tapes give us a glimpse into these and other sessions that were never mixed or saved for posterity, the recordings engineer Stephen Barncard is central to the conservation of this material- though perhaps he did not pack the actual pipe of marijuana that was discovered along with the sessions when unearthed.

Planet Earth Rock & Roll Orchestra collaborations have resulted in many songs and formally in two releases; the first credited to Jefferson Starship was the album Blows Against The Empire; the second was David Crosby's solo debut If Only I Could Remember My Name.

Personnel

David Crosby – guitar, vocals
Graham Nash – guitar, vocals
Paul Kantner – guitar, banjo, vocals
Grace Slick – piano, vocals
Jorma Kaukonen – lead guitar
Jack Casady – bass
Jerry Garcia – guitar, vocals
Phil Lesh – bass
Bill Kreutzmann – drums
Mickey Hart – percussion
David Freiberg – viola, vocals

PERRO Discography

1970 Blows Against the Empire by Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship
1971 If I Could Only Remember My Name by David Crosby
Songs for Beginners by Graham Nash
Sunfighter by Paul Kantner and Grace Slick
1972 Graham Nash David Crosby by Graham Nash and David Crosby
Rolling Thunder by Mickey Hart  —
1973 Baron von Tollbooth & the Chrome Nun by Kantner, Slick, and Freiberg 1983 Planet Earth Rock and Roll Orchestra by Paul Kantner

An excellent narrative on the discovery of the 4 reels of 2 track mixes made in 1971 and the genesis of the sessions (along with the original tape box notations) can be found here.

The roots of PER&RO go back a lot further than 1971. 1 guess it had its inception in the early years of the '60s (prior to the Airplane, the Byrds et al) when Kantner, Crosby and Freiberg used to hang out, play music, get high and rap together around Venice Beach. That was the initial bond, the start of it all...

Later, when they were in bands of their own, there were occasional points of interaction - like Garcia sitting in on the 'Surrealistic Pillow' sessions, like Crosby giving "Triad" to the Airplane when he couldn't get the Byrds to record it, like Kantner, Crosby and Stills writing "Wooden Ships"....  

As Grace recalls, "These sessions were like 'Uh, do you wanna play guitar on this one?' 'No, man, I have to go to the bathroom.' 'Okay, David, you wanna play?' 'Sure'. Whoever felt like doing something did it. Parts interchanged, people interchanged."
 

 

Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995)