“The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir” opens with old footage of Jerry turning to Bobby and saying, “I guess it’s you and me, Bob.”
Cut to Bob Weir, in modern day, driving his car across the Golden Gate Bridge from Sausalito to San Fran, explaining to the camera, “I’ve stood on stage more than any other, at least for the 3000 ‘Grateful Dead’ shows.”
Mike Gordon from ‘Phish’ shared this comment about Bob:
“If you don’t have an ego, you can be #2 on the planet, and that’s what makes Bob so special.”
Born in San Francisco on October 16, 1947, co-founder, vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of “The Grateful Dead,” wild child, Bob Weir, was kicked out of play school, and suffered from dyslexia, however, it was never diagnosed. His adopted parents worried about him, especially when he chose to be a musician. Bob met banjo player, Jerry Garcia, on New Year’s Eve of 1963-64 in Palo Alto, California at ‘Dana Morgan’s Music Store,’ and they instantly hit it off, formed a jug band, then a rock and roll band, and set off from Palo Alto, to San Fran, to the world.
On October 1, 1965 began the psychedelics, having taken one hit every Saturday for one year, riding along in the bus with Ken Kesey, the Merry Pranksters, and Neal Cassidy, going to Kool-Aid parties, and having a difficult time playing the guitar when the neck was turning into a ‘snake like critter’. Bobby explained that it was ‘permissive bedlam’. The once red, now purple, 710 Ashbury Street, where Neal Cassidy was his roommate. Bobby was considered the best looking and the heart throb of the band. He recalled his first real adventure with songwriting, “The Other One,” was a story trying to be told.
Once they realized that they could get paid to perform, they hit the road and didn’t look back.
The doc goes on to discuss the whole subculture, when they realized that the faces in the front row were the faces from the front row from a different city the night before, how Jerry was like a big brother to Bobby, the Dead’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and how Jerry felt the R&R Hall of Fame was just a cult of personality, Jerry’s reverence for American Musical Tradition, his coma, their popularity through MTV music videos with 1987′s “In the Dark”/’Touch of Gray’, the drugs, the yoga, diving trips in Kauai and Pahoa, Hawaii, rehab, Jerry’s death on August 13, 1995, the obligation Bob felt to carry on for the fans, settling down and having 2 girls at age 50, wanting to find his biological parents, making sense of the endless depth to life, and searching for timelessness.
Beautiful.
One World Cinema