Jerry Garcia
The improviser who turned every concert into a journey
Jerry Garcia was born in San Francisco in 1942 into a musical family; his father was a professional musician. At four he lost much of his right middle finger in a wood-chopping accident. He received his first electric guitar around his fifteenth birthday and absorbed rock and roll, blues and country. In the early 1960s he dove into the Bay Area folk scene, playing banjo and guitar in bluegrass and jug bands, including Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions.
In 1965 Garcia and friends formed the Warlocks, who soon renamed themselves the Grateful Dead. The band became central to the San Francisco psychedelic scene, and Garcia's long, exploratory solos defined their sound. The live album Live/Dead (1969) captured their improvisational flights, while Workingman's Dead and American Beauty (both 1970) showed a new focus on songwriting and harmony, much of it written with lyricist Robert Hunter. The band's reputation, though, rested above all on its concerts.
Garcia was restless and prolific outside the Dead. He played pedal steel with the New Riders of the Purple Sage and on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's “Teach Your Children,” picked banjo in the bluegrass group Old & In the Way, and released his first solo album, Garcia, in 1972. The Jerry Garcia Band became his long-running outlet for soul, R&B and Bob Dylan covers, and he recorded acoustic music with mandolinist David Grisman.
Health problems caught up with him, and in 1986 he fell into a diabetic coma, having to relearn the guitar afterward. He returned stronger, and In the Dark (1987) gave the Grateful Dead their only US Top 10 hit, “Touch of Grey.” The band became one of the biggest touring acts in America. Garcia was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Dead in 1994 and died in August 1995, shortly after his last concert.
The 10 greatest Jerry Garcia solos
- 1Grateful Dead · solo by Jerry Garcia · 1977
- 2Grateful Dead · solo by Jerry Garcia · 1969
- 3Grateful Dead · solo by Jerry Garcia · 1973
- 4Jerry Garcia · solo by Jerry Garcia · 1972
- 5Grateful Dead · solo by Jerry Garcia · 1975
- 6Grateful Dead · solo by Jerry Garcia · 1973
- 7Jerry Garcia · solo by Jerry Garcia · 1972
- 8Grateful Dead · solo by Jerry Garcia · 1974
- 9Grateful Dead · solo by Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir · 1972
- 10Grateful Dead · solo by Jerry Garcia · 1975
The sound
Garcia's playing is conversational and melodic, rooted in bluegrass banjo and country picking as much as blues. He favoured clean, bright tones and long, flowing lines built from scale runs, triplet patterns and chromatic passing notes, often drifting between major and minor colours over a single chord. Rather than repeating licks, he treated each solo as an exploration, listening closely to the band and developing ideas over many minutes. His touch, slightly behind the beat and full of gentle bends, sounds almost vocal, and his custom guitars gave him a warm, articulate tone even at high volume.
- Doug Irwin “Wolf” (guitar) Custom guitar delivered in 1973 and a mainstay through the 1970s.
- Doug Irwin “Tiger” (guitar) His primary guitar from 1979 into the 1990s, with a heavy, layered wood body.
- Doug Irwin “Rosebud” (guitar) Introduced in 1990, with onboard electronics allowing MIDI effects.
- Travis Bean TB500 (guitar) Aluminum-neck guitar he played in the mid-1970s.
- Fender Stratocaster “Alligator” (guitar) His main guitar in the early 1970s, named after a sticker on its body.
- McIntosh MC2300 power amplifier (amp) Provided enormous clean headroom for his rig from the 1970s into the 1990s.
- Mu-Tron III envelope filter (effect) Gave his playing its bubbling, quacking tone on late-1970s material.
Covers
- Morning Dew, originally by Bonnie Dobson The Dead transformed a folk song into a dramatic, slow-building epic.
- Turn On Your Lovelight, originally by Bobby “Blue” Bland An extended R&B workout sung by Pigpen, with Garcia's guitar driving the jam.
- Not Fade Away, originally by Buddy Holly (The Crickets) The Bo Diddley-beat rocker became a longtime concert singalong.
- Wild Horses, originally by The Rolling Stones A bluegrass setting with Garcia on banjo gives the ballad a rustic new feel.
- Tangled Up in Blue, originally by Bob Dylan One of many Dylan songs he reinterpreted with his own band, stretching it into a long, building jam.
- Dear Prudence, originally by The Beatles A slow, meditative reading that became a highlight of his solo-band shows.
Timeline
- 1942 Born in San Francisco
- 1946 Loses part of his right middle finger in an accident
- 1957 Gets his first electric guitar
- 1965 The Warlocks form and soon become the Grateful Dead
- 1969 Live/Dead released; the band plays Woodstock
- 1970 Workingman's Dead and American Beauty released
- 1972 Europe '72 tour; first solo album Garcia released
- 1986 Falls into a diabetic coma and relearns the guitar
- 1987 “Touch of Grey” becomes the band's only US Top 10 hit
- 1995 Plays his final concert in Chicago and dies in August
Facts
- He lost about two-thirds of his right middle finger in a childhood wood-chopping accident.
- He played pedal steel guitar on Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's “Teach Your Children.”
- He was credited as a musical and spiritual adviser on Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow.
- He played banjo in the bluegrass group Old & In the Way.
- The Grateful Dead played more than 2,300 concerts during his lifetime.
- “Touch of Grey” was the band's only single to reach the US Top 10.
- Ben & Jerry's named its Cherry Garcia ice cream after him in 1987.
- After a 1986 diabetic coma, he had to relearn how to play the guitar.
- His guitar Wolf sold for about $1.9 million at auction in 2017.
- His artwork was used on a popular line of neckties.