They were slaves to tunes with words that glowed with the gold of sunshine, slaves to crowds of the faithful who basked in it with them. Over and over and over again,The Dead have emptied themselves, endlessly going down the road feeling bad on some days and good on others, predictable in some gigs and prone to jaw-dropping serendipities in others, taking the music of the people, by the people, and for the people to the people. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians 2: 5-11, NRSV Let the same mind be in you that was * in Christ Jesus, But “Ripple” sings their souls. They never saw the music as a mere commodity for them to own and control. They could have retired to the studio in Marin County 40 years ago and they’d still be remembered as an awesome band today. Who can lead us there, in any case? But the song draws us in and on. We hold it near as if it were our own, and that’s just how the Dead wanted it. We may not get home, if there is such a place. It warmly embraces the mystery with joy and hope. “Ripple”’s message of uncertainty is borne by a lulling tune that might well be hummed by a mother rocking her child in a hammock on a sweet summer’s day. The lost chord plucked on a stringless harp. Something subtle is at work in the realm of the Dead: a second or third or fourth derivative of ordinary reality. The music isn’t the band, the band isn’t the music. If you sense the ripple, you’ve transcended the pebble. If you look at the pebble, you can’t perceive the ripple. “Ripple” is the catechism of indeterminacy. “Ripple” is the band’s confession that its music transcends itself, that the pilgrimage of a Deadhead leads to a concert destination beyond his or her ken, that Deadheadliness is next to a mysterious kind of Godliness. “Ripple,” penned by the band’s chief lyricist and official fifth member, Robert Hunter, is the Grateful Dead’s Psalm 23-its spiritual manifesto, its Doctrine and Covenants, its Lotus Sutra, its Bhagavad Gita. Grateful dead ripple series#then, convergence!Ī special series on religion and culture produced in collaboration with the Office of Religious Life at the University of Southern CaliforniaĪ microsecond before Jerry hit the riff, we the audience leapt into the air, thrown to the sky by a fountain not made by the hands of men. We spun around to look in the wides of each other’s eyes, mouths agape with awe, hair tossed wild, overwhelmed by the unmistakable, ineffable reality of Something Larger-an emergent property not reducible to the band, the crowd, or anything mortal. The Dead sang, plucked, and pounded inexorably onward toward a palpably approaching ecstasy with no knowable when, where, or how- e xploring the innumerable kabbalistic nuances of a tune played countless times, then freshly interpreting the midrashic connotations of the nuances.Įveryone stood: heads bent, hair on end. They squinted back at him and at each other, and in turn sought the crowd’s unspoken input as the music followed a tune played by a harp unstrung to a destination sensed intensely yet unknown…. His fingers leading by following, Jerry peered over his reflective sunglasses at bandmates Mickey Hart, Bob Weir, and Phil Lesh. We, too, became instruments of the music while Jerry Garcia’s nine fingers ouija-boarded across the frets of his guitar in search of a lost chord. From the veritable wall of sound thundered the roars, riffs, crescendos, and diminuendos of The Grateful Dead’s songs and their long exploratory interstices-sound propagating invisibly through the adobe soil, entering the bones of our feet, crawling up our legs, our spines, and into our chest cavities. These include duties, tariffs and any other fees required by your county.Reach out your hand if your cup be empty,Ī stack of amplifiers three stories tall loomed over the 7,000 faithful arrayed on sun-baked dirt one hot autumn day in the early 1980s at Stanford University’s Frost Amphitheater. You will find total shipping costs for your country at checkout. INTERNATIONAL SHIPPINGĬurrently, we ship throughout the U.S, Canada, and many European countries. On a rare occasion, these packages can arrive outside of the estimated timeframe. When selecting our Next Day Air or 2 day shipping options, please bear in mind that we are only provided with an estimated delivery date from our carriers. We do our best to ensure the timely delivery of all orders. You will receive a tracking number via email when your order is processed. Orders placed Friday-Sunday will ship out Mondays and Tuesdays. Holidays), orders may ship within two business days. Orders typically ship the next business day. Orders after 2pm EST ship the next business day. Prices and estimated delivery times are available at checkout. Priority shipping is available for a fee. Pre-Orders ship at different times and up to two months from date of purchase. Orders should arrive within 3-5 business days after processing time.
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