Buy Me a Gin Fizz, Love

I never listen to the Grateful Dead anymore. There was a brief stint toward the end of highschool and the start of college when I attended a few shows and got a bit intrigued by the whole thing. That was over 10 years ago, so I've filed away all of that somewhere in my brain.

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the Hard Rock Cafe in DC with some folks from a work conference. I hadn't noticed it, but we were sitting underneath some Dead photos. A young girl at the table pointed to a photo and asked, "Is that Jerry Garcia?"
To which I replied, "No, that's Brent Mydland, he played keyboard for The Dead. He died pretty young, around ten years ago."

It was weird--the information just flowed out from some dusty corner in my brain. I forgot I knew the names of any of those guys. In fact, I kind of forgot about the Grateful Dead. Most of their music isn't really what I'm into listening, but I've now remembered (and will be downloading), Black Peter and Stagger Lee, among others. I've also found the first Dead show I went to online to download.

I think part of why I liked the above songs so much is that they each tell a story. Stagger Lee tells an old story from 1895. I believe Black Peter was written by Robert Hunter (perhaps with Bob Weir) for a dying relative. They both fit in with the more (albeit, alt) country that I listen to often.

Anyway, it was good to remember what I forgot I liked, about a band I don't ever think about anymore.