THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 11, 1995 TAG: 9508110236
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GUY FRIDDELL
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
Three days ago if you had asked me who Jerry Garcia was, I'd have said, instantly, he was a defensive lineman in the National Football League, probably with the Green Bay Packers.
Garcia already had cast his sway over a cult of music lovers for four decades, a mix of all sorts in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
Since Garcia died of a heart attack Wednesday in a drug rehab center, those in their 50s, 60s, and even antic 70s are aware he led the Grateful Dead.
The group developed a way of attracting a family of followers ranging from hippies of the 1960s to coat-and-tie careerists of the 1990s.
The band was lavish in playing long after other bands would have shut down. One devotee spoke on public radio of its creating ``a moment that went on five hours.''
Another noted that the Grateful Dead had given 10 benefit concerts for the schools of Marin County in California. Admirers speak of the music's optimism and spontaneity.
Instead of banning taping equipment at concerts, the band installed recording ``trees'' into which Deadheads could plug recorders.
Brisk trading of tapes assured that at each arena not a seat went unsold. A young critic, attuned to music since the mid-1960s, said that unlike bands that distort sound through heavy-handed amplifying, the Grateful Dead sought clarity.
``The crowd,'' he said, ``wasn't disruptive. Fans were laid-back, listening and communing. They just kind of hung out, a hippie version of a cocktail party. The band was nearly a backdrop in the stadium.
``The focus was more dispersed than it was when everybody was riveted on the Rolling Stones.''
What with drugs, endless concerts, bus trips and partying, little sleep and no exercise, the lifestyle can be unhealthy at best, and if a person becomes addicted to the worst, it is destructive.
``Where a normal person had 10 or 20 parties a year, the band had that many in a month,'' the young critic said. ``Garcia wore out his body; he used it up.''
Some say that Garcia's withdrawal to a rehab center was a message to his followers.
But it was belated, tragically.
Other rock stars are discovering that use of drugs is disastrous. One after another is cleaning up, and their performances are as good or better not only in technical proficiency but also in creatively exploring new directions, said the critic.
Aerosmith, enforcing all-clean tours even to roadies who set up the stage, ``is at the top of its form.'' Eric Clapton is having his greatest success. Mick Jagger is as fit as an aerobics instructor. Younger groups who haven't cleaned up are ``degenerating into mush.''
As are some young fans. Ambushed by the myth that drugs are hep, they come to grief. An abbreviated life is a horrific price for artificial stimulus in a phony setting.
Even as life spans rise, some youths, blinded by glitz, cut theirs short. It mocks the sweet music. by CNB