Grateful Dead Tabs

Grateful Dead Tabs and Jerry Garcia's jacuzzi washes onto eBay

I don’t know about you but I caught this one a little late.  However, I would have bought something.  Not a Jacuzzi (which in a sort of way would have been kind of gross) but something simple like a door or even just a door nob.  The idea of having something that has Jerry’s and integrating it into my home in some subtle way would have been kind of nice. (Not a lot of Grateful Dead Tabs on eBay).

Jerry died (and so did my dedication) before I met my wife and had kids.  During  my short stint following the dead (1993 - more on that later) I would often see young families and think how great it would be to bring my wife and kids to a show.  Well, the sequence of life didn’t fall in that way for me so now I wonder what it would be like to turn Jerry’s door knob to get into the den and pen you a note.  Enough of all that… here is the thing I wanted to show you.

By Lester Haines → More by this author Published Friday 27th July 2007 09:16 GMT Deadheads will undoubtedly be flocking in their thousands to an eBay auction which will next month offer diehard fans the chance to snap up exciting Jerry Garcia memorabilia including his stereo speakers, jacuzzi and yes, the Grateful Dead guitar botherer’s kitchen sink.

According to Reuters, Henry Koltys, 55, of Marin County, California, bought Garcia’s pad a decade ago, and wisely stored stuff removed during renovations on the off chance someone might one day set up an online tat bazzar ideal for disposing of such must-have plumbing accessories.

(You can read the full article here.  You can get a book of Grateful Dead Tabs by clicking on the link.)

Finding Grateful Dead Tabs Online

When I first heard the phrase, “Grateful Dead Tabs” I had no clue what it meant. I’ve fooled around with an acoustic guitar (which now admittedly sits in the basement) but never heard of the fret fingerings referred to as tabs. Shows you how advanced a musician I grew to be. Regardless, I thought I’d explore their music in this blog and along the way, work to understand my own experience with The Dead and how it shaped me.

My first experience with the Grateful Dead was I think in 1992 (or was it 1993 - I’m sure someone will correct me). It was at Foxboro Statdium with Eddie Brickell opening. It was my friend (then and now) Jo-Ellen who introduced me to the dead. She was there along with this miserable guy Rob (who I thought was cool at the time) and my date Sam (short for Samantha). More about that experience later. What I wanted to write about today was this great tid-bit I picked up from Winkipedia about how the Dead named themselves.

The name “Grateful Dead” was chosen from a dictionary. Some claim it was a Funk & Wagnalls, others, the Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book Of the Dead), but according to Phil Lesh, in his biography (pp. 62), “…Jer (Garcia) picked up an old Britannica World Language Dictionary…(and)…In that silvery elf-voice he said to me, ‘Hey, man, how about the Grateful Dead?’” The definition there was “the soul of a dead person, or his angel, showing gratitude to someone who, as an act of charity, arranged their burial.”

All the best… Thanks for stopping by.