Grateful Times

 

Growing up, I had a strange conundrum which my 3- 16 year old self never really understood, and that was my dad's love of a band called the Grateful Dead.   To young me, the sounds coming from my dad's stereo systems in the house sounded like howling coyotes, but to him they were an amalgam of tremendous talent and creative skill.   I remember asking my mother, quite literally, "Why does daddy listen to coyotes?"   She would patiently explain again and again, but I just didn't get it, and quite honestly I hated it.   It was dad's thing though, so Dad did what dad did even if he had no taste for music in my young opinion.

It wasn't until I was much older I began to appreciate the music a bit more.   I began to understand the harmonies, the improvisational style and impressive range of the band.  By that time they'd mostly retired, but Dad remained such a stalwart fan and he had his whole set up to listen to their music or other music in general.   I remember when I was younger I thought it strange that the band was called what it was, since I couldn't understand why anyone would be grateful to die.   They certainly had the look down on their posters, with skeletons and other ghoulish things but they weren't ghoulishly themed like some bands.  Why then did they also have colorfully dancing bears, and why were the colors so weird on everything?   It didn't make much sense til I was a teen and understood the history of rock in the 60's or the drug culture of that time.


My Dad never participated in any of that.  He was a fan of the music, he understood it.  His mathematical brain, ingenious as he is, picked up the harmonies and eccentricities of each member of the band.  He could tell me about the movements of a show, about how there would be a section where the band just broke into a long improvisation and were so in tune with one another that it just worked.  Jerry Garcia and his ilk were like Mozart in a way.   

As I approach the age Dad was when I was young, I have come to recognize and appreciate The Grateful Dead a lot more as I said.   They sound a little less like coyote, though I will never get over that apt explanation of the way their voices sound, and I enjoy their lyrics and songs.  Growing up, they were a part of the music that informed my life, and I am grateful for their influence. 

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/GDDancingBears.jpg)