it’s a long long long way to go home.
i’m sad to hear of the passing of vince welnick; former GD keyboardist. he had the most dangerous job in rock n roll.
the first time remember seeing vince play with the boys (*without bruce). was the first show of the EC tour; buffalo, ny. (i had skipped the west coast shows after the spring tour, to do some ‘regrouping’) i took the train up/over from boston. armed with a 60lb+ backpack full of handmade dresses and my bead box. after a long and drunken train ride,(which was totally exciting since i was being served in the bar car, and i was underage…ha. the cheap thrills of youth.) i arrived a day early, it seemed the lot was already in full swing. i met up with my friends and set up camp; and passed out, perhaps? the next day after lot adventures and whatnot; we decided it was time to head into the show. steve miller was opening.(and why on earth did we want to catch that? no.freaking.clue.) someplace between camp and the walk to the venue we puddled.
for some unknown reason; which still perplexes me to this day; we found seats…. at nearly the top of the stadium and sat down to watch steve miller… the only thing i remember about steve miller was him saying ‘this one is for bob and jerry’ and it was take the money and run… and this spurred an interesting chain of events; the people behind us were really trying to freak our shit out… with some of the bizarro crap they were saying .. the kind of shit dick heads say to two obviously tripping out of their skulls young women. (but, that day came back to haunt that dude, as i would bump into him at every venue from there to the jerry tour that summer…. and that freaked him out…)
i digress.. the boys came out and opened with touch.. i remember thinking it sounded a bit odd. but chocked it up to auditory hallucinating with the odd acoustics of sitting at the freaking top of the back of the stadium. (section D) it took me until althea for me to realize that bruce hornsby was not plaing keyboards… these were the days before i was plugged into the well. so i had missed any news of him not taking the job, yada. this set off an unstoppable train of events. (almost a train wreck…) i totally thought bruce hornsby had fallen victim to the ‘keyboard player curse’… and i completely lost my mind. the weirdo’s behind us did not help my crazy theories as they were saying crap like ‘jerry sacrificed bruce to the devil’ and shit like that…. (really messed up; but not nearly as messed up as the time some frat boys tried to light my dreads on fire during D/S at the last boston garden shows. you don’t even want to know what i was going to do in retaliation for that… lets just say that i’m glad i didn’t find anyone with a vial [or two] or i would be suffering the karmic effects of that for eternity.)
anyway, the evening was saved once we made our way home to the hallways. the wheel was particularly amazing to me that night. ( i have since obtained a copy of that show, and it seemed less than stellar; but whatever. i was plugged in and had achieved levitation.
i have to admit, i never warmed up to vince. and i was one of the people who would do other things while ‘long song‘ was being played. i was attached to brent just like my family who reared me on tour were attached to keith and my brothers and sisters who said the grateful dead were over once pigpen died. (unfortunately i was only 9 months old when that happened, so i can not weigh in on that one.)
grief is funny, it has been 10 years since jerry left this realm, and it still is as fresh as it was on 8.9.95. i miss all of those magikal moments i spent with myself and 200,000 of my closest friends and family. those days are gone, and our freedoms are slowly silping past our fingers faster than clutching grains of sand.
my deepest condolences go out to vince’s friends and family. the world lost another bright light; and the universe has a tear in it today.
Any which way you are tempted to roam
It’s a long long long long long long way
Way to go home
I remember hearing it on the radio that papa bear died. I was frantic to call as many people as I could because I kept envisioning people hearing it as they were driving and there were a few people I knew would cause accidents from the horribleness of the news.
I always liked Vince, not as much as Hornsby (but he’s his own thing, his sound and soul). Vince made me hop around, wiggle, giggle, take it all less seriously. Hornsby sticks me in my head, which was good for winter shows, but in the summertime… Vince’s sound was like faerie dust.
June 3rd, 2006 | #
I was sad, too, but I started to play some random tape and I realized it’s all right here, in my heart, and in yours, too. It’s not about who’s playing and who’s dyeing because we all will, it’s about how you live your own life, and how that spirit keeps you going every day, and it won’t fade away!
June 10th, 2006 | #