Dead Songs in Depth

    

Tell us about yourself.
  

    
Hi, I'll kick it off. I'm David Dodd, a co-host of this conference, and I'm
a librarian who enjoys literature and music. I work at the Marin County Free
Library in San Rafael, at the amazing Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Marin
County Civic Center. I maintain the Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics web site
(online since 1995), and have co-authored two books about the band. My
education is in German Literature,  and I have a master's in Librarianship.
I have a wife, Diana Spaulding (with whom I co-authored the Grateful Dead
Reader), and two great kids, ages 6 and 3. I play piano and banjo, and most
of my spare time these days goes towards developing a Unitarian Universalist
congregation in Petaluma, California, where I live.

The lyrics of the Dead are my touchstone--I can almost always dip into that
well for a new take on whatever situation I may be in. These lyrics have
helped me through the deaths of close friends and family, through travels,
loves, career, and creativity or lack thereof. I see the lyrics as a
wellspring and as a vessel into which I can pour my own meaning, or into
which new meanings are constantly poured for me. So I love hearing other
peoples' takes on the words, and look forward to this conference being a
good place for a long conversation on the topic! Furthur.
  

    
hi, i'm alan

to me dead lyrics are like liturgy.
you hear them over and over but, often, something jumps out at you
that you've never noticed before. ...and when that happens, the text
seems to be meaningful, somehow.
  

    
WeLL... I'm horrible at this sort of stuff, as I might not know
exactly who I am one day after another, and I tend to stammer over
intros... but here I go.

My buddy and kindly tormentor, Mike, turned me on to the Grateful Dead
(and much more) back in '74, but I was already hungry for the bait
having heard "Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad" n' "I Know You Rider"
from the infamous "Skull Fuck" album while passing by a soon-to-be
friend's dorm room a month or so earlier. I knew that there was
something interesting and different in that mix, but couldn't quite
place it.

Still can't. Keeps me wondering. Ain't that grand!

Anyhow, 30 years have passed thus far, and I can't count how many
shows, how many nights spent stayin' up past my bed-time spinning those
LPs 'till they wore out and got replaced by CDs and more recently
burns of live shows and much GD-related music... the Music Never
Stops...

The GD was my doorway into so many musical forms and bands, everything
from classical music (Bach!) to Reggae, Punk, DIY Garage Music, and
into poetry and Myth... thank you, RH!

Today I'm a Tech Analyst (whatever the hell that means) with one foot
in the world of things digital, and another into the applications of
tech in Art and Commerce. My third foot is still well stuck in the
great goop of Grateful Dead Music and Lyrics. It seems that this
paisely puddle is without a bottom, and I'm just blowing bubbles,
gulping for more of the Magick Breath of Inspiration.

I guess that's it.

Oh... Thank you, <ddodd> for all you've done to add to this compost of
seething, mutating inspiration and information.
  

    
Oh... and I forgot to mention Musique Concrete (sp?), Coltrane, Bird,
Miles, English ballads from the 1700's... I could keep going, but I
think the point is made.