Here are my slides from the conference. I offered to host slides and comments from other participants and/or to link to them offsite. We’ll see if anyone takes me up on the offer.

Naturally this deck is just a skeleton of my half hour talk, but I’d be happy to discuss it further here if there’s interest. Also, I got a bunch of good leads that would help me flesh this out further if I can ever find the time (including a reminder about Sonic Youth, surprising info about Shane MacGowan, a hint about Richard Lloyd, and a few other tidbits).

Born Lawrence Shurtliff, he was raised a country boy in eastern Oregon and once won a county fair blue ribbon in cattle judging. He got the name Ramrod from Kesey while he was traveling through Mexico with the author and LSD evangelist, at the time a fugitive from justice.

“I am Ramon Rodriguez Rodriguez, the famous Mexican guide,” he boasted, and he was known ever after as Ramrod.

…

“I remember when he first showed up at 710 Ashbury,” said Dead drummer Mickey Hart. “He pulled up on a Harley. He was wearing a chain with a lock around his waist. He said ‘Name’s Ramrod — Kesey sent me — I hear you need a good man.’ I remember it like it was yesterday.”

Ramrod joined the Dead in 1967 as truck driver and was held in such high regard by the members of that sprawling, brawling organization that he was named president of the Grateful Dead board of directors when the rock group actually incorporated in the ’70s. It was a position he held until the death of guitarist Jerry Garcia in 1995. Like the rest of the band’s few remaining staff, he was laid off last year.

…

Ramrod went to work setting up and tearing down the band’s equipment for every show the Dead played. He puzzled his way through elaborate situations and circumstances: from the myriad psychedelic dungeons the band played through the ’60s, to a concert at the base of the Great Pyramids in Egypt in 1977 to the baseball parks the Dead filled on the endless tours of the ’80s and ’90s up until Garcia’s death.

…

A protege of Neal Cassady of the Merry Pranksters, the intrepid band of inner-space explorers who gathered around Kesey, Ramrod absorbed lessons from Cassady, a Beat era legend and model for the character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac’s landmark novel “On the Road.” “He knew Neal better than anyone in our scene,” said Weir.

…

Guitarist Weir said he could barely remember the Dead before Ramrod. “When he did join up, it was like he had always been there. I won’t say he was the missing piece, because I don’t think he was missing. He just wasn’t there. But then he was there. And he always will be. He was a huge part of what the Grateful Dead was about.”

Robert Hunter’s Elegy for Ramrod

Kettle Joe’s Psychedelic Swamp Revue, a band formed several months ago by Donna Jean Godchaux, formerly of the Grateful Dead and Heart of Gold Band; Mookie Siegel, formerly of Phil Lesh and Friends and the David Nelson Band; Wendy Lanter; and The Zen Tricksters, has announced a series of spring and summer performances. Consisting of a mix of traditional venues and festival appearances, the band will play select markets between June and August. Following a brief break, the band will then launch a full U.S. tour next fall.

Kettle Joe’s was formed out of a chance happening - the coming together of these seasoned and highly regarded musicians at a benefit concert. According to Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay, “When we teamed up in New York City” last November, “we immediately realized that playing together was something we wanted to pursue further. We decided early this year to bring in Mookie on keyboards and work a week in a rehearsal space. We tried it out with a couple of shows, and not only were we thrilled but so were the audiences, so this is now our full-time touring band.”

Adds Jeff Mattson, one of the co-founders of The Zen Tricksters, “This is not some part-time thing we have to fit in around our other projects. This is now, for all of us, a full-on commitment and while we have to fulfill some obligations we have all made this summer, we’re already rehearsing and working up new material. Starting in the Fall, Kettle Joe’s Psychedelic Swamp Revue will be touring regularly, playing lots of original music contributed by the various members of this band, plus some choice covers. We expect every show to be an incredible, special experience for our fans and for us as well.”

Kettle Joe’s Psychedelic Swamp Revue Tour Schedule:

6/8 The Shoals Theater, Florence, AL 6/9 Riverbend Festival Chattanooga, TN All Ages 6/23 The 8 x 10, Baltimore, MD 6/24 The Gathering III Pulaski, NY
7/2 Gratefulfest, Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, Garrettsville, OH 7/8 Oregon Country Fair, Veneta, OR 7/10 John Henry’s, Eugene, OR 7/20 The Canal Room, New York, NY 7/21 A Bear’s Picnic, Miton, PA 8/16 The Stephen Talkhouse, Amagansett, NY 8/17 Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA 8/19 The Gathering of the Vibes, Mariaville, NY

For more information please visit KettleJoesPSR.com
Management: Neil Glazer, Mindful Artists, LLC
Publicity: Randi Mattson

The Grateful Dead was originally a regimen of Special Ops. Army forces used to assassinate Soviet and Chinese officials in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, as well as to carry out psyops against the populations of both North and South Vietnam. Firm believers in the slogan “Better Dead than Red” they named their organization in honor of civilians killed in the bombings of North Vietnam who they believed were grateful to no longer be living under Communist rule. To keep their mission top secret, the leaders of the group made frequent trips to their adopted home of San Francisco between missions, attempting to blend in with the local population. During one such trip in 1967, Lt. Colonel Jerome “Jerry” Garcia and Majors Robert “Bob” Weir and Phillip “Phil” Lesh became concerned about the growing unrest they saw with the war at home. It was then that they met with West Point graduate and CIA operative Timothy Leary who helped them devise a strategy. Leary introduced the soldiers to Ronald “Pigpen” McKernan - venture capitalist and corporate raider, William “Bill” Kreutzman (a high-priced lawyer whose clients included the John Birch Society, Exxon, The Daughters of the Confederacy, and The Walt Disney Company), and Robert Hunter, a lobbyist for the nuclear power and coal industries, who also had a side business running safaris to hunt endangered species.

Bill has some jazz he recorded in Hawaii, plus some Serial Pod (w/ Trey Anastasio and Mike Gordon) recorded last December, and we’ll listen to some Grateful Dead as well, of course.

Justin has a recording of Rachel Fuller and Pete Townshend, and some new projects to talk about.

8:00-10:00 pm PST tonight onKPFA 94.1 fm in northern California, KFCF 88.1 fm in Fresno, and online at kpfa.org and kfcf.org

Playlist will be updated as we go at logblog.gdhour.com

P.S. Justin has a transcript of Bill’s last KPFA appearance on his site.

Between sets, Bobby and the boys crowded into the control room and took some calls from listeners.

On this logblog entry, you’ll find photos by Susana Millman and Sue Weiand, plus audio of the between-sets amusements. The entire two-hour program is archived on KPFA’s site.

DG

Improvisational Space: The Sonic Field of Postmodern Community

• “Crying Leonardo Words from out a Silk Trombone”: Surrealist Impulses and Consensus Consciousness, Mark Tursi, College of Misericordia
• “And Then Flew On”: Improvisational Moments of Rhizomatic Assemblage in Grateful Dead Musical Experience, Jim Tuedio, California State University, Stanislaus

And at 10:00 we have “Grateful Dead 10”:

Tribute and Anti-Tribute Songs

Panel Chair: Christian Crumlish, Independent Scholar

Discussants:

• David Gans, Musician and Host, Grateful Dead Hour
• Gary Burnett, Florida State University

Then tonight, the big house party with Gans performing, a hootenanny, and all kinds of purely academic I sure you forms of debauchery.

Panel Chair: Alan Lehman, University of Maryland

• Mourning for Jerry Garcia, Rebecca Adams, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
• Mourning the Loss of Jerry Garcia: A Cultural Communication Analysis, Natalie Dollar, Oregon State University, Cascades (unable to attend at the last minute, but she sent her paper to Rebecca)
• Playing in the Band: Online Memories of Jerry Garcia, David Gans

At 2:30 we have “Grateful Dead 6,” which includes my second contribution:

Mixed Marriages: Deadheads and Non-Deadheads

Panel Chair: Rebecca Adams, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Discussants:

• Christian Crumlish, Independent Scholar
• Kathy Burnett, Florida State University
• Eric Levy, University of Illinois at Chicago

At 4:30 we have “Grateful Dead 7”:

Panel Chair: Nicholas Meriwether, Editor, Dead Letters

• Mendocino Dreaming: The Origins of the Sir Douglas Quintet, Steve Davis, Kingwood College
• Human Errors and Creative Variation in the Music of the Grateful Dead: Here Comes Sunshine, Mark E. Mattson, Fordham University

And we finish today at 6:30 with “Grateful Dead 8,” which has had some attrition from people not able to make it at the last minute (I’ll update the participants when I find out who does what):

Towards a Grateful Dead Archive

• Forensic Oral History: Raising the Dead, Nicholas Meriwether, Editor, Dead Letters

(Other areas include Atomic Culture, Biography, Chicana/Chicano Literature, Cormac McCarthy, Rap and Hip-Hop Culture, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Shakespeare on Film and Television, Women’s Studies, The Beat Generation and the Counterculture, Computer Culture, and much, much more!)

This is the ninth year that there’s been a Grateful Dead area at the conference and our caucus has grown steadily, with every year an astounding range of perspectives on the Grateful Dead from a truly multidisciplinary set of academic fields (including oral history, musicology, sociology, psychology, information technology, philosophy, business, statistical analysis, and more).

I’ll do my best this week to post a little something each day about the proceedings.

Things start off today (at 1 pm, in less than ten minutes!) with “Grateful Dead 1” in Pavilion V:

Panel Chair: Gary Burnett, Florida State University:

• My First Dead Show (Adam Perry, Independent Scholar)
• “When the Secrets All Are Told and the Petals All Unfold”: On Joycean Epiphany in Hunter/Garcia’s “Wharf Rat” (Eric Levy, University of Illinois at Chicago)

At 3:00 we have “Grateful Dead 2”:

Postmodern Crossings: Nomad Music, the X-Factor, and Grateful Dead Communitas

Panel Chair: Nicholas Meriwether, Editor, Dead Letters
Discussants:

• Stan Spector, Modesto Junior College
• Jim Tuedio, California State University, Stanislaus

At 5:00 we have “Grateful Dead 3,” which includes my first contribution:

Panel Chair: Eric Levy, University of Illinois at Chicago

• The Grateful Dead’s Anti-Structural Phenomenon: Creating and Negotiating Communitas through Art and Improvisation, Amanda Hirsh, Independent Scholar
• Of Wikis, Archives, and Information: The Challenges of an Online Grateful Dead Community, Gary Burnett, Florida State University
• Get Back Blogging On: A Survey of Grateful Dead Related Blogs, Christian Crumlish, Uncle John’s Blog and Wiki the Flood

And we finish today at 7:00 with “Grateful Dead 4”:

[Note: This panel was cancelled.]

Online Tape Archives and Community

Panel Chair: Amanda Hirsch, Independent Scholar
Discussants:

• Gary Burnett, Florida State University
• Alan Lehman, University of Maryland
• David Gans, Musician & Host, Grateful Dead Hour

OK, now I’m late! I’ll fix any typos later.

I remember in the early 90s when we used to imagine how eventually trading would be digital - it would happen directly online. How cool that would be.

Along the way we lost some of the charm and the social interaction of cassette tape trading.

And, just like one of his commenters, “I still have an unwrapped Maxell XLII 90 min, ready to go!”

See also Remember cassettes? (Part one).

I had enjoyed your program The Grateful Dead Malathon on last Sunday in Japan.

It’s a small community of Deaheads in Japan,but Good old community. There were so nice party named Oshino Dead : Jerry Garcia 10th Memorial Gathering.

Many Dead’s Tribute band appeared and camping among three night with good fellows and Dead music.

We got a message from Phil Lesh . “The spirit lives among you ! “

I send you a photograph of Oshino dead

I hope you keep on broadcast such a nice program for us.

Peace & Love, No war Thank you

Playlist updated live at logblog.gdhour.com

Goes til 1 am PST.

Anyone who remembers the old Fillmore posters is familiar with the work of David Singer. As a long-time staff artist for Bill Graham, David was responsible for the art for nearly seventy posters. David went into the hospital with gallstones in November, and a series of complications has left him in seriously ill condition. He is slowly emerging from an induced coma, but faces weeks more of procedures and a lengthy recovery. His excellent prior health gives us encouragement, but without an income, his family needs help. The Rock Poster Society (TRPS) has set up a relief fund to channel financial contributions to the Singer family. Please send donations to:

             TRPS
             P.O. Box 1967
             Richmond, CA   94802

Please note on your check that the donation be directed toward the TRPS Artists’ Relief Fund and David Singer. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

A forthcoming Discovery Channel/TLC program is searching for old school Dead Head parents and their progeny. The call is out for “families who have children now between the ages of 25 and 45 who raised them on tour or did a lot of traveling to shows while they were growing up.” The casting department for the program adds, “If this description fits your family at all and you have pictures or home movies from when you all were traveling-please send me an email about your family with a picture if you have one!” Send your email to familytripcasting@gmail.com. Aside from the supreme glory of being featured on a Discovery Channel/TLC program, the show’s producers pledge to “send 10 lucky families to relive a trip from the past.”