In this letter, a public response to an email from someone named Sean, Hunter says explicitly something I have believed/known for years: “Play the recordings. I put as many clues there as I could. In a way, they are one long letter to the Grateful Dead.”
More excerpts:
In the aftershock of the tragic death of Vince, an amiable man and a fine musician, the Grateful Dead is once more a target of public disdain, fueled by passion and indignation. Its ethics and humanity are being publicly questioned on a deeply troubling level. Sic transit gloria mundi. Do I know the score? To a degree. But I’m not concerned here with either justifying or condemning the attitudes which make a group of musicians, who must seal themselves together in that intimate time capsule called a tour, make the decisions they do concerning who they want to travel with and why. It’s not necessarily democratic and it’s not always pretty. They choose what they choose for reasons as much personal as professional.
Some people are angry at what they perceive as the band’s throwing over of Jerry’s chosen keyboard player. That’s off base. We all chose him. I listened to the auditions and said “He’s the one.” Everybody was in agreement. As for saying anything further, stick your arm in the sink of gossip and it rises to suck you in. The attacks on the band members are heartfelt and, were they based on accurate assessment, could be accounted righteous. One must not entirely discount a touch of ‘rising to the occasion’ in the bias of the information shaping perceptions of purported evil doing in the wake of this sad event. But grief is like that, it brings out extremes. Who is entirely guiltless? Not me.
Are you willing to throw over something you truly prize on the basis of hearsay? Listen – I know these people. Ihey’re bastards. Yet I find myself here trying to interject a little perspective into their public scorching because they’re my bastards. They played the songs I helped write with love, taste and sublime dignity. You know what I’m saying because you heard it too.
But people demand answers. Failing answers they go away. Please don’t do that. Just don’t expect golf balls from a walnut tree.
thanks for the link – buncha good stuff in there – esp liked the friend of the devil/nrps entries…takes me back to a show just a few days prior to the one you are broadcasting…10-17-78, 1st time I heard FOD slowed down…
Answers at their best, serve a purpose for some type of understanding into the human condition. This condition being whatever reason you think your existence is related to other people. If there are any answers to why people choose to take their own life, we’ll never know…for that is their choice to make. Respecting that decision and the complexities of a person’s mental health, there is probably not an answer in this case, but rather a personal struggle with everyday life. Giving each other the space to achieve both personal succcess and failure seems to have been going on for quite awhile. Most people seem to be able to grasp this and when they can’t…they move on to other things. In this scenario…I bet the bulk of crowd will continue to enjoy both types of trees.
I have learned from past experience the troubles and tribulations with the human condition, depression, and the taking of one’s own life, and I have to say what a horrible mess it all is, but it is a part of life. I am 18 years old, and in the past couple of years my whole life changed as a result of my father and the problems he had after he was blackballed in his industry. He fell into depression and had accidents and was heavily medicated through the entire process, and I remember the pain it caused me to watch the demise of the man I loved as my father for the early part of my life. His life eventually ended after he left my family due to his own inabilities to handle the pressures of a family with four boys ranging from the ages of ten to twenty, that were at that point facing bancruptcy. I have to say that I do understand Vince’s problems, and his demons were his own. I have learned that you can do so many things that you think will help, only to be dissapointed in the end. It really is a tragic occurence, espescially right now, but if there is one thing we should not be doing, it is attacking the rest of the band for something that they could no more have prevented than the next guy.
Yes, Vince had many issues retaining to his own life as well as that of Jerry’s, and he was a very depressed man, but i can only hope that people would cherish him for the role that he played in this legendary history, and not slander his fellow mates for their roles. I can remember the pressures of life that i took on myself after my father passed away, and they have made me mature much faster than any person my age should, but it is life, and it keeps on rolling just like it has for years upon years. Nobody can prevent a man from something he has set his mind on, and although it is a sad, sad thing to do, we must respect Vince for his achievments, and not for his demons.
As for all of you out there in space slandering the Dead, I have lost respect, and feel like crying not only for Vince, my father, and the rest of those lost assosciated with the band, but for your lack of understanding. It is sad for me to read those posts and hear those, because i can personally say that my father was very much like Vince, minus the keyboards and legacy of course, because he went from everything to nothing in the batter of an eye, and I know what it feels to be like that. It’s like the song Sitting Here In Limbo. All i really wanted to say, is that the music is what brings us all together, and it is of course the reason we are wrting these messages here on this page. They give us the music, and all that some of you can do is whine and moan when something goes wrong. Vince was a very special man, and although he was not my favorite Grateful Dead keyboardist, i support him and would never blame his previous band for his death. Bobby, Phil, Mickey, and Billy all deal with their problems in their own ways, as we have seen since the start way back when Bobby and Jerry first met in that music store on New Years Eve, and their is no reason to attack our heroes for this loss. Peace to Vince, and I apologize to him, wherever he may now be, for all of the squabbles and rants that he must be enduring right now. He and Jerry are probably laughing about this mess right now, and Vince is probably wondering why so many loyal fans misread his death and chalked it up to dissatisfaction with his band mates. Shame on you Deadheads who lack the support and love, I never even saw Jerry or Vince, but I sure as hell will never blame another man or men for his tragic departure, espescially those who saved him from his money issues in 1990, when Vince was thinking of going to Mexico.
Thank you David Gans for allowing this outlet for me. I love the Dead Hour, and we have talked multiple times, I am one of the two brothers from Columbus Ohio who goes by the name DaddyGreenJeans, and you keep our love alive. Hoping to actually meet you at Gathering of The Vibes this year in the VIP section, and try to come through OHIO some more, we sure do love ya out here
Thank you for your wise post, moobyman. See you at Nelson Ledges July 4 weekend?