Is there life after the Grateful Dead? Sure. Hard to understand to many? Yep, you betcha, but, the Dead live on!

This was not just a band. They were a culture or better yet an institution. Momo, I can hear the faithful blowing chunks at the thought of the beloved Dead as an institution.

I was a marginal Dead fan back in the day. (Why? Tony Momo was trapped in a car driving across country many years ago with a guy who had nothing but Grateful Dead bootlegs to offer to the cassette deck for 2500 miles. 8 versions of live Sugar Magnolia filled my Dead quota for about a year…Luckily, I bounced back).

In Chatham Twp, NJ you were either a Dead fan or you had no friends, social life or connection of any kind with your peer group. I grew up in Madison (the town next door) and had several friends from the “township”. These friends introduced me to the band and culture . Strange, now that I think of it, these folks were among the most preppy people I had ever met…not exactly what might be considered the rabid Dead fan core. Ahhh…the point. Who were the core?

One did not have to travel in a VW microbus billowing weed smoke following the band around the country to be part of the culture. For the most part, any and all were welcome with the only link being the love of the music and atmosphere.

I was reading an article in the Chicago Tribune Leisure blog, “Turn it Up” by Greg Kot. The Chicago penultimate site for rock, pop and rap. 

The band as brand: The Dead dealt not just in T-shirts and hats, but in flip-flops and golf gloves. Frisbees, mugs, bar stools and license-plate frames. Key chains, a board game and socks. Magnets, patches and pins. Baby-clothes “onesies,” hoodies and a miniature pyramid. The band also spawned a cottage industry of books, DVD’s and even a syndicated radio show (“The Grateful Dead Hour”). The Dead became synonymous not just with a style of a music or a certain era, but with a way of life that transcended generations

The Grateful Dead were ahead of their time on many levels…cross socioeconomic, cultural and generational.

Tony Momo - Love you live!

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