Obit: Bobby Weir (Grateful Dead)

10 Jan 26 - 06:46 PM (#4234105)
Subject: Obit: Bobby Weir (Grateful Dead)
From: Amergin

I've been a Dead fan since my late teens/early 20s. I got to see them live when I was 20 years old. It still is one of the best shows I've ever been to. Chuck Berry even opened. I had plans to save money and follo0w them the next summer...then Jerry died.

Now, we lost another one. Bobby Weir played his last song.

The following is the announcement from his Facebook page.


"It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir. He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could. Unfortunately, he succumbed to underlying lung issues.

For over sixty years, Bobby took to the road. A guitarist, vocalist, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Dead. Bobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music. His work did more than fill rooms with music; it was warm sunlight that filled the soul, building a community, a language, and a feeling of family that generations of fans carry with them. Every chord he played, every word he sang was an integral part of the stories he wove. There was an invitation: to feel, to question, to wander, and to belong.

Bobby's final months reflected the same spirit that defined his life. Diagnosed in July, he began treatment only weeks before returning to his hometown stage for a three-night celebration of 60 years of music at Golden Gate Park. Those performances, emotional, soulful, and full of light, were not farewells, but gifts. Another act of resilience. An artist choosing, even then, to keep going by his own design. As we remember Bobby, it’s hard not to feel the echo of the way he lived. A man driftin’ and dreamin’, never worrying if the road would lead him home. A child of countless trees. A child of boundless seas.

There is no final curtain here, not really. Only the sense of someone setting off again. He often spoke of a three-hundred-year legacy, determined to ensure the songbook would endure long after him. May that dream live on through future generations of Dead Heads. And so we send him off the way he sent so many of us on our way: with a farewell that isn’t an ending, but a blessing. A reward for a life worth livin’.

His loving family, Natascha, Monet, and Chloe, request privacy during this difficult time and offer their gratitude for the outpouring of love, support, and remembrance. May we honor him not only in sorrow, but in how bravely we continue with open hearts, steady steps, and the music leading us home. Hang it up and see what tomorrow brings.

?? Chloe Weir"

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10 Jan 26 - 09:36 PM (#4234109)
Subject: RE: Obit: Bobby Weir (Grateful Dead)
From: GerryM

I was 21 when I first saw the Dead. I was accustomed to rock bands starting their concerts half an hour or so after the announced starting time; I was astonished to find that, when I arrived at the announced starting time, the band had already been playing for half an hour.

At one point, they started a song, broke it off to jam for a while, started a second song, broke that one off to jam for a while, played a third song all the way through, jammed a little more, finished the second song, jammed some more, and then finished the first song. I recognized this as a FILO structure ("first in, last out") from a computing course I had taken, another thing I had not expected to see at a rock concert.

After that, I was hooked on the Dead, and went to see them many more times.

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11 Jan 26 - 04:19 AM (#4234123)
Subject: RE: Obit: Bobby Weir (Grateful Dead)
From: GUEST,gillymor

Jerry Garcia, his long-departed band mate, called him "the best rhythm guitar player on wheels" and there's plenty of recorded evidence to support that claim.

Sleep in the stars...

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11 Jan 26 - 05:05 AM (#4234126)
Subject: RE: Obit: Bobby Weir (Grateful Dead)
From: GUEST,gillymor

ESPN aired a tribute to him this morning that included Bob discussing his lifelong 49'ers fanhood.

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11 Jan 26 - 06:38 AM (#4234127)
Subject: RE: Obit: Bobby Weir (Grateful Dead)
From: GUEST,gillymor

The Empire State Building goes Tie Dye to honor Bob. The Dead were big in NYC.

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11 Jan 26 - 09:55 AM (#4234140)
Subject: RE: Obit: Bobby Weir (Grateful Dead)
From: GUEST,Richard Robinson

"I was accustomed to rock bands starting their concerts half an hour or so after the announced starting time; I was astonished to find that, when I arrived at the announced starting time, the band had already been playing for half an hour."

Yes. I heard them in London, '74. They started on the dot of 7.30 exactly as it said on the ticket. They played, they took a break, they played some more, they took another break, they played on until the dot of midnight, when the management cut the power mid-song.

The Dreadful Great.
"When they were good they were very very good,
And when they were bad they were horrid."

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