By Jeb Wright
Who would have ever thought that one day a member of the
Grateful Dead would do a benefit for a classical orchestra full
of “real musicians”? These are not freethinking, creative rock
musicians who crave musical expression and find joy in
improvisation. At one time many of the orchestra probably
scoffed at bands like the Grateful Dead for being untrained and
liking jazz music. Seems Bob Weir has traveled a long way since
the days of playing Merry Prankster parties where the LSD flowed
and homemade light shows tripped out visiting members of the
Hell’s Angels.
Its not like the Dead haven’t been recognized for their
charitable efforts, few bands have done more to help those in
need, as well as their own fans. That said, one wonders if the
Marin County Orchestra will be wearing tie-dyed tuxedos when
they perform with Bob on Saturday, May 7, 2011. The event is
titled The First Fusion Special and will help raise much
needed funding for the nearly six-decade-old orchestra.
In was special, on a personal note, to meet Bob Weir as my
daughter, Cassidy, was named after the song of the same name,
written by Bob. In fact, before the interview started I told the
rock n’ roll hall of famer that “my daughter, Cassidy, said to
tell you ‘Thanks for the name.”’ Bob seemed pleased to hear this
and asked when her birthday was. When I replied that he had
missed it by only a few days he reflected and said, “Tell her
she is most welcome. Say hello and wish her a happy birthday
from me.”
In the interview that follows Bob and I discuss the upcoming
event, the challenges of getting an orchestra to improvise,
Bob’s solo band, Ratdog, and how the Grateful Dead balance their
hippie ideals with corporate American merchandising.
Jeb: You are doing a benefit for the Marin Symphony. Why and
how did this come about?
Bob: They came to me and wanted me to do a benefit. At the
time Ratdog was my hot hand but the ticket prices they needed to
raise money couldn’t be raised; Ratdog would not have been able
to sell out the theater. One thing led to another and they said
that I could play with the symphony. They let me use an
orchestrater and we put together some Dead tunes that could be
done by a symphony. We are also doing smaller ensembles that
will play other renditions of Dead tunes.
Jeb: Was it your idea to play Grateful Dead songs?
Bob: Yes, otherwise they would be playing Beethoven or
something like that. I figured as long as I was going to be
drifting into that territory that I might as well just sort of
look around. It was a great opportunity for me to learn what I
really need to learn.
Jeb: It is fair to say that the Grateful Dead’s catalog is
bigger than most bands. How did you choose the songs?
Bob: It was a matter of what goes best together and what
makes a complete show. I kicked it around for a while.
Basically, it was like writing a couple of sets. Once I came up
with them we started flushing them out.
Jeb: Will you be getting the orchestra to do some Grateful
Dead style improvisation?
Bob: In the second set I don’t know how much Dead style
improv will go on. I will be looking for that because that is a
nut I want to crack. I have been watching a lot of orchestras
that played with rock bands and I have not seen that done yet.
The first set is more about that. With the smaller ensembles
there will be a lot of improv. With the second set, with the
full orchestra, I really need to get a grip on that. We may have
some improv moments as I am trying to work that in. I really
need to get a better feel for that setting and then maybe in a
future work I can make more improvisation. Most symphony
orchestras do not do any improvisation at all. They are
technicians. They figure that their job is to interpret what is
on a page of sheet music and to perform it precisely and try to
breathe life into it. Their notion of breathing life into it is
more in terms of inflection and how they play rather than how
they play around it.
Jeb: In my head I can hear the entire “Terrapin Station”
piece with an orchestra.
Bob: We didn’t do it this time; we’re saving that one. Some
of my considerations when I went into doing this was looking
down the road and trying to figure out how I can get some improv
of out orchestral musicians. If we get time in rehearsals then I
will get to that. I saved a lot of the tunes that would be no
brainers, if you had an improvising orchestra, for down the
road.
Jeb: Have you played with an orchestra before? What
challenges are different in that setting as opposed to The Dead
or Ratdog?
Bob: The number one challenge is that a rock n’ roll trap
drum kit is twice as loud as a symphony orchestra by itself,
un-amplified. The first time The Dead ever played with a
symphony orchestra was in Buffalo, New York. We took the
smallest amplifiers we had, they were Fender Princeton’s and
they were only seven watts loud. Even then we had to turn them
down to the point where we couldn’t get any tone out of them.
We are going to have to use equipment that the core quartet,
of which I am included, can actually use. I have two bass
players depending on the piece I will use one or the other. One
plays an electric bass and the other a standup. Our electric
guitars will be slightly amplified but I am still using the
smallest stuff I have. I have a four-watt amplifier and that is
what I will be playing through. It is basically a practice
amplifier but it should be plenty loud enough for this gig.
Jeb: Tell me what you are raising money for?
Bob: The money raised will go to support the symphony. They
have been around a long time and they are always in dire
straits. In today’s economy they really need a lot of help. We
are going to try to film and record the show. We are going to
look at all of those possibilities.
Jeb: If this works then you can add it to your list of
projects.
Bob: If this works then I could take it on the road. There
has already been a lot of interest from the sheds, particularly
back East, where they do the summer Pops shows. When I was a kid
the Boston Pops came to Stanford and played a bunch of Beatles
tunes. My parents took me to see the show. It was pop music and
not really in the classical vein. I want to pull the Dead’s
music into the classical vein. We are being very adventurous
with some of the arrangements. I need to learn about what is
going to work and what is not going to work. If this goes well
then we will be able to take a core group on tour with us and do
some of the big classically oriented shows around the country.
Jeb: It is a good thing you’re doing this in 2011 and not
1967 because you guys would have loosened the orchestra up by
dosing them.
Bob: I don’t think that would work!
Jeb: I was just guilty of it with the last question but I
have always wondered if you think the Dead get remembered as a
drug band instead of a musical entity. Do you feel you get the
respect you deserve for the music you have made?
Bob: I have no doubt that history will remember us for what
we have done and not what the popular assumption that the press,
in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s, said about us because they didn’t
realize what we were up to. I think that future scholars will
understand. I have no doubt that will be the case. We may not be
mentioned in the same sentence as Duke Ellington but maybe we
will be mentioned in the same paragraph. It is a work in
progress. We will see when I can’t see anymore.
Jeb: How can the Grateful Dead straddle the line between
their hippie philosophy and the fact that there is Grateful Dead
merchandise for sale everywhere? How do balance your beliefs
with corporate America?
Bob: I don’t bother with it. People want t-shirts and we
employ artists who make the designs and in turn the people that
sell t-shirts are employed. The people who do the artwork for
the t-shirts are creating their art and they are selling it and
that is how artists make a living. The people who want the
t-shirts are getting what they want and helping those people
make a living. I don’t see a problem there. We are putting a lot
of people to work and we always have and we always will. At the
same time art is being created. I think it is completely absurd
that we should just shut everything down and just play music
when people want more than that from us and we are capable of
providing what they want. Do I spend a lot of my time handling
this kind of stuff? No, I spend my time with music. I play a lot
of guitar.
Jeb: I got the new Chickenfoot DVD and you are hanging with
Sammy Hagar on the bonus features. I would never guess that Bob
and Sammy would hang out together.
Bob: We are neighbors and we are good friends. We have both
been around the world and played thousands of gigs. It is
different stuff but we have both done it. When I sit in with
Sammy I tune down to Eb and play in the key they like to
play in. I don’t play in that style but what I play seems to
work in that context and we have a lot of fun when we do it. I
keep getting invited back so it must be okay. The concern we
have when we jam is not putting butts in the seats; the concern
is having fun. We do that well. We get that job done.
Jeb: Tell me what is going on with Ratdog and what else is
going on in 2011.
Bob: I just built a new studio and it is kind of unique. It
is built as a performance place. That said, it is as good as any
studio that you will find around here and we have a couple of
features that no other recording studios have. It is a very,
very futuristic recording studio but it is not built for that
purpose. We built it for the purpose of Internet broadcasting.
We could broadcast over television but we want to broadcast full
high definition video and 5.1 audio over the Internet.
I have a project coming up for Ratdog in which I am going to
try to get most everyone who has been part of the band, over the
course of its evolution, that are still with us, and do a full
two and a half hour presentation. We will broadcast it and also
record it and make it available.
Jeb: Last one: I am very impressed that you are still
exploring musical possibilities at this stage of your career. I
can’t help but think how much Jerry Garcia would have loved the
project you are doing with the orchestra.
Bob: He would have loved it. I expect that they would have
come to him though [laughter]. Jerry would have done it well. It
has been a lot of work. The learning curve has been immense.
This will render me able to do film scores and other things once
I have this under my belt. I have had to learn a lot stuff that
I have never had to learn before. I had to sit down and learn
ProTools, I had to learn a couple of scoring programs and I even
had to learn Italian.
