Bob Weir, who helped construct the Grateful Useless from the Haight-Ashbury scene right into a cultural establishment, has died at 78.
SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
Bob Weir, one of many founding members of The Grateful Useless, has died at 78 years previous. NPR’s Isabella Gomez Sarmiento experiences.
ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: The Haight-Ashbury scene of the Nineteen Sixties rejected typical American society, and Bob Weir turned certainly one of its most outstanding ambassadors. He was born in 1947 and grew up in a San Francisco suburb. He had undiagnosed dyslexia and received kicked out of a number of colleges. By the point he was 17, he dropped out and joined the circus of a sort – taking part in guitar in a jug band, led by Jerry Garcia. It turned The Grateful Useless in 1965.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “COLD RAIN AND SNOW”)
THE GRATEFUL DEAD: (Singing) Properly, she’s comin’ down the steps combin’ again her yellow hair.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: In a 2022 interview with NPR, Weir described the origins of his songs utilizing the phrase hippie metaphysics.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
BOB WEIR: They’re guests from one other world, one other dimension or no matter you wish to name it, that come by means of the artists to go to this world, take a look round, inform their tales.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: For many years, The Grateful Useless amassed a loyal following that trailed them on tour and traded bootleg tapes. Weir composed and sang lots of the band’s most notable songs, together with “Sugar Magnolia,” “Taking part in In The Band” and “One Extra Saturday Night time.” His full-throated and fiery vocals have been the right foil to Garcia’s mellowed out fashion.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ONE MORE SATURDAY NIGHT”)
THE GRATEFUL DEAD: (Singing) Hey, Saturday night time. Hey, Saturday night time.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: The Grateful Useless formally got here to an finish with Jerry Garcia’s dying in 1995. However for the three a long time that adopted, Weir devoted himself to carrying the band’s legacy ahead. In 2024, he mirrored on being embraced by the mainstream.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
WEIR: Again not so way back, we have been form of outsiders. Now, all that is type of modified.
GOMEZ SARMIENTO: By refusing to evolve, Bob Weir helped create an American sound in contrast to every other. Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR Information.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PLAYING IN THE BAND”)
THE GRATEFUL DEAD: (Singing) Dawn on the land.
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