deadpatch

Weird, strange and true

Stories inspired by the Grateful Dead and their songs

by Uncle John

Drawing by Justice Rose

SWEET BABY

Keith & Donna @ Winterland

"Sweet Baby" Link: HERE

I first met Zion Rock Godchaux when he was about nine months old at his home in Stinson Beach, California. He is a picture perfect baby with jowls like his Dad, Keith Godchaux. He is in the kitchen sitting with a cookie, and I watch his little fingers play with the cookie, and he didn´t put it in his mouth, and he was  very content. Donna Jean Godchaux, his mom, shares how Jerry Garcia came over one day and started to draw "Zion´s thoughts". They superimposed Jerry´s art work over a picture of Zion, on the cover of their first album, Keith & Donna. That evening was so special. I am sitting with Keith in the living room while Donna is putting Zion to bed. She sings to her baby in complete surrender, powerful,  loudest, best ever sound. Like an angel she can sing! I felt goosebumps from her tremendous love and light, and I´m sure the whole town could hear her.

Now that Zion is grown, he has his own musical band, BOOMBOX´, and playing music with Kinsman MacKay, his brother from the same mother.

GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD FEELIN' BAD

Record aisle @ KMUN Radio station in Astoria, Oregon

My take on the Robert Johnson legend from what I read and heard about him, singin' the blues on street corners, in juke joints, Saturday night dances and known as the "King of the Delta Blues Singers". Robert Johnson is on Highway 8 singing “Lonesome Road Blues.” He reminds me of Job in the Bible who encountered the Devil while enduring overwhelming suffering and loss and opened a dialogue with God. Robert Johnson lost his wife and child who died at childbirth. Robert taught himself to play the guitar and learn the blues and he’s laughed off the stage. His playing then was terrible. He left Mississippi and went to Arkansas for six months and had a musical mentor who taught him to master the guitar, ride and slide. He’s singing now on his way back home, “Well, I’m a-goin’ down this road a-feelin’ bad, Lord, Lord. I’m a-goin’ down this road a-feelin’ bad. I’m a-goin’ down this road a-feelin’ bad, bad, bad. And I ain’t a-gonna be treated thissa way.” Robert Johnson comes to the Crossroads trying to get a ride before dark when the dreaded curfew comes. This was the Jim Crow South and being there after curfew is the scariest thing to a black man like Robert Johnson. His real fear was "the dark would catch him there". He never said he met the Devil there. Robert Johnson sang, "I went to the Crossroads, I fell down on my knees. I cried the Lord above have mercy, save poor Bob if you please."

Hounded by demonic forces, haunted by demonic feelings,  and the legend that surfaced that he met the Devil,   who promised him all the talents, he already had, if he would trade his soul. The Great Deceiver holds no final decision over the fate of any soul.  Robert Johnson is a Christian man, raised a Baptist, and he never forgot who his Lord is. Robert Johnson’s last words were, “I pray that my redeemer will come and take me from my grave.”

“Well, the death of life, then come the resurrection.”

--Bob Dylan “Saving Grace”

CASEY JONES

Casey Jones

Part 1

I had been following the Grateful Dead for about two years and moved to San Francisco to work as a high school poetry teacher. I knew an artist, K.C. Jones, who lived in the same building I did. I would hang out with K.C. in his space and he would always be sitting at his desk drawing and painting. He is a talented artist. While he painted, I would sit on his couch smoking weed and writing poetry. One day I brought a guitar to write music/chords to a song poem I had written there,  and I asked K.C. if he´d like to hear it. He said yes, turned around to listen and then said he liked it. I was curious about whether he knew the Grateful Dead since we hadn´t talked about them until that day. I asked him if he knew them and he answered me by saying that the Grateful Dead started a small radio station in the space across the hall. I was also curious about Robert Hunter, listed as Jerry Garcia´s songwriter. I said to K.C. ¨You know, I don´t think Robert Hunter exists. He never shows up onstage, I´ve never seen him in photographs, and I don´t know anyone who has ever seen him. Jerry Garcia is a humble man, but if you listen to his songs you know Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter are one, and I think Hunter is like, the fig newton of Jerry Garcia´s imagination.” K.C. jumps up, goes to his record box and pulls out Workingman´s Dead. He points to the last man in line next to Jerry Garcia on the cover. ¨That´s Robert Hunter!¨ he says. He puts the record on the turntable,¨Uncle John´s Band¨ plays.

Standing on the Moon

Stories in the vault:

SWEET BABY

Sugar MagnoliA

I NEED A MIRACLE

uncle John´s Band

SCARLET BEGONIAS

Cumberland Blues

BLACK MUDDY RIVER

The Music Never Stopped

Sitting On Top Of The World

Standing On The Moon

Brown-Eyed Women

Crazy Fingers

Touch Of Grey

Shakedown Street

Box Of rain

Stories in Queue:

SAINT OF CIRCUMSTANCE

Estimated Prophet

Drums/Space

Eyes Of The World

Friend of the devil

Bertha

BIRD SONG

tRuckin´

THE FIRST DAYS...

exclusive excerpts from

LASTFLASH.com

Quest for the Best

An Intimate Connection with

THE GRATEFUL DEAD

by Uncle John

"What I want to know

 Where does the time go?"

(Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia)

"Lord, the band kept us so busy, we forgot about the time."

(John Perry Barlow/ Bob Weir)

This work is a contemporary narrative with a musical motif, narrated by the author with personal testimony, and dialogue with  artists, authors, musicians, dancers, singers, poets, songwriters, and stars. This journalistic  odyssey observes the world's most interesting band, whose brilliant creative performances, and individual intellectual insight, provide us with this historical literary account. On the road & at home with The Grateful Dead and their family of bands and musical company, this book records a distinctive recital of spiritual events, revealing a new orchestrated portrait, a sculptured arrangement of golden memories. There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert! It is a unique and unconventional experience.