Jerry Garcia Tribute Night with the SF Giants

Artifacts of the Week: Jerry Garcia SF Giants Bobblehead and Rhythm Devil's Kazoo

Tape of the Week: Videos of the Grateful Dead'ish National Anthems

Well, it's been 15 years since Jerry Garcia checked out and passed on into the less-physical of perception fields...is that really possible? Wow, next stop...50th anniversary.  Time flies with the Dead. While most folks seem to celebrate Jerry and the Dead on August 1st with Jerry's birthday, I've always been more of a macabre type and have always celebrated the death anniversaries...Garcia, 8/9. Lennon, 12/8. Jones and Morrison, 7/3...etc.  This year, things really got ramped up a few notches, as Bill Walton, Jerry's daughter Annabelle, and the remaining living members of the Grateful Dead (night of the living dead part 15) came together to knock one out of AT&T Park in San Francisco on the 15th anniversary of Jerry's death (to the day!). It was for charity, and it was one for the ages.

First off, we have to start things with a bit on the Jerry Bobblehead!  Don't you find it strange how FREE items can be sold on ebay before they exist for very large sums of money?  Well, this one was a real doooozy.  I saw these San Francisco Giants / Jerry Garcia bobble-heads going for upwards of $100 a few weeks before the game (update: $650 on craigslist today!)!  Amazing. And who are these bobblehead collectors and where do they stash their prizes? I see the hula chick on a few dashboards, but what about all these baseball bobbleheads? Mental note: must do future post on this strange breed of collectors.

As my folks were out visiting my wife and I to meet our new son, I was able to snag a few hours of bonding time with my dad and bring him to the game.  As our family grew up in the burbs of Chicago, I knew he'd enjoy the Giants vs. Cubs match-up...while he knew I would enjoy the Lesh/Weir national anthem and general grateful weirdness.

As I was able to pick up some of the Grateful Dead Rex Foundation charity tickets in the bleachers, we were entitled to get one of these fancy Jerry bobbleheads, as well as a Mickey Hart/Bill Kreutzmann blessed kazoo to help break the world record for largest kazoo ensemble (I now hear-bye dub ye the Grateful Jerry Uptown Kazoo Champions). Mickey, Billy and Bill Walton were going to lead this record breaker off in the 7th inning stretch.

But before records were to be broken, the show had to begin!  Opening things up was the Dead cover band, Cryptical.  These guys set up on top of the Cubs dugout and kicked their set off with a very solid Shakedown Street.  Very weird to see a Dead cover band in a baseball stadium!  Was that a Modulus bass I saw strapped to the bass player?  Meanwhile, down in the private party zone, a Jerry cover band had just wrapped up their pre-show set.  The rest of the stadium got some late-80's Dead blasting through the PA with some nice leads by Brent Mydland and Bobby Weir on a blues-based set with tunes like Little Red Rooster.

After Cryptical wrapped up, Mickey, Walton, the baseball COO and Jerry's daughter, Annabelle, were down at home plate to talk about Jerry, the Rex Foundation (a nice $40,000 was raised for the charity at this event!), how many center-fielders are actually usually tripping their brains out most game nights, and how special this Jerry night was going to be.  Bill Walton then gave the most heartfelt, NBA-Hall-of-Fame-worthy, Jerry-worshipping speech I have ever heard in my life.  I admit, the first of many tears came up for me this night.  And damn, that is a TALL deadhead!  Almost as tall as that freaky animal in a tie-dye that kept rubbing against Mickey Hart like he was in heat.

Onwards to the National Anthem.  Now, if you're a deadhead like those of us at Dark Star Palace, you know that the Dead have their ON nights and their NOT so on nights...and you learn to just cringe a bit before the boys jump in as you never know which way the wind is blowing that particular night.  Well, the winds were blowing us all safely home this Monday night on the bay, as Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Jeff Pehrson of Furthur just hit home run after home run on the vocal duties.  Phil sang in key!!  Bob didn't spit all over Phil that much! Jeff couldn't figure out if he just got beamed out of Mork-from-Ork's spaceship because how in the hell do you land this gig with these freaks anyway???

If there are any doubts, I have to put it out there that this was the greatest version of the National Anthem I have ever heard...all the heads in the bleachers were just RIPPED with energy, joy, pride and love for the guys and Jerry.  When Phil threw up his hand near the end... and you just know how emotional he was about Jerry being gone and his love for weirdness and for creativity and for freedom...man, it was something.  Check out the video below for a very linear taste of this magic:

FLASHBACK: Now, back in 1993, I can remember being in Boulder, Colorado between anthropology classes and tuning in to watchbobblehead just 15 years later! Beware of Athems.....Check out a video of this performance to flashback a bit yourself (and look for the UFO that flies overhead a few minutes in):

Next up, Annabelle hit the pitchers mound and threw out the first pitch.  Another tear-jerker.  I mean, what parent would NOT crack up a bit to see their kid throwing out a first pitch on their behalf...and throw like such a girl too!!  Just kidding Annabelle...you've got a great arm.  You know papa Jerry would have been/ is so proud (and can't you seem him cracking up with that big grin over by the dugout?).

As for the game, it was a hot one....the Cubs hitting very strong from the first inning on.  It wasn't looking good for the Giants, but they kept coming back to tie things up.  By the 7th inning, I wasn't sure that they were going to pull the bus through the Texas paint-slick....then came the 3 amigos, the tres burrachos, the Rhythm Devil Walton express.  All the freaks in our zone busted out their bright kazoos and just let the tune rip.  Speaking of ripped, Billy looked like he might fall of the dugout roof.  Epic.  Did we break the World Record for largest Kazoo band????  I haven't seen the final tally by the world record keepers yet, but I'd give it a thumbs up for the highest kazoo band in the world!  I swear, my dad thought we were sitting the medicinal section of the bleachers. And that kazoo sure does resemble something else, no?

Here's a bit of info from dead.net on the history of the 7th inning stretch and the famous sing-a-long (aka Harry Carey after a few cold Budweisers):

“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is a beautiful love story where baseball decides the fate of a young couple.

The most popular baseball song in history, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" was originally written as a 1908 love story. The words written by a Tin Pan Alley composer named Jack Norworth, the music by Albert von Tilzer who while riding a subway train, was inspired by a sign that said "Baseball Today — Polo Grounds." In the song, Katie's beau calls to ask her out to see a show. She accepts, but only if her date will take her out to the ballgame. Von Tilzer and Norworth finally saw their first Major League Baseball game 32 and 20 years later, respectively. It was played at a ballpark for the first known time in 1934, at a high-school game in Los Angeles, and researchers think it made its debut at a major-league park later that year.

Most people are probably only familiar with the song’s chorus which has since become popular during the 7th Inning Stretch. However, there are verses at the beginning of the song that instills a sense of camaraderie and connects people together for the love of the game and in vocal harmony. The song transcends team rivalry.

The earliest known recordings (see following web links) of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" come from a 1908 Edison tin cylinder. (Version #1) and two 78 rpm discs (ver#2 and #3) just discovered at the Library of Congress' "Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation." Versions #2 and #3 can now be heard in the newly restored copies.

1908 Version

Katie Casey was baseball mad,

Had the fever and had it bad.

Just to root for the home town crew,

Ev'ry cent Katie blew.

On a Saturday her young beau

Called to see if she'd like to go

To see a show, but Miss Kate said "No,

I'll tell you what you can do:"

[Chorus] Take me out to the ball game,

Take me out with the crowd

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks

I don't care if I never get back

Let me root, root, root for the home team

If they don't win, it's a shame

For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out

At the old ball game.

Katie Casey saw all the games,

Knew the players by their first names.

Told the umpire he was wrong, All along

Good and strong

When the score was just two to two

Katie Casey knew what to do

Just to cheer up the boys she knew

She made the gang sing this song:

[Chorus] Take me out to the ball game,

Take me out with the crowd

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks

I don't care if I never get back

Let me root, root, root for the home team

If they don't win, it's a shame

For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out

At the old ball game.

And in the end, the Giants DID beat the Cubs 4-3....in the 11th inning...yes, THE ELEVEN, and you know Jerry's ghost was satisfied.  My ears still hurt from the drunk heckler who was behind me yelling swear words at the Cubs center-fielder, and I too felt like the magic was back by just seeing Jerry up on the big screen, dead tunes blaring over the sound system, and 40,000+ heads yelling with joy as Phil, Bob, Mickey and Billy were together again with close friends, warriors and members of Jerry's family. Bobblehead!!

Until next time at the Palace....