Fare Thee Well, Phil Lesh

    It's time for a different post, one not about an album or an EP or a show or a compilation. This is about Phil Lesh, the creative and soaring bassist throughout the entire 30-year run of the Grateful Dead's history. Even beyond that, Lesh had a musical career that spanned across nearly 60 years' worth of live performance and studio work, and much of his brilliant work can be immediately heard tuning into any Dead album or show, whether it's a soft reflection on life in the poignant opener to American Beauty that is "Box of Rain" or a thundering, thumping intro beginning "The Other One" during jams, or even if its more subtle, brilliantly melodic parts throughout any number of Dead songs throughout their career, Lesh's voice as a musician, songwriter, and singer was a crucial component of their identity.

    Yesterday morning, that token of their identity has left this world for the next—he had just turned 84 in March of this year. There is little doubt in my mind that Lesh has not lived as full a life as any man could live—look at all he's left behind. He's left the world with a legacy of music, joy, and love throughout his entire life, and his impact will live on for many, many years. Any time someone puts on Live / Dead and is greeted with the iconic four note intro, or whenever someone plays American Beauty for the first time and hears his poignant "Box of Rain", they will be spinning his legacy on and on. I myself was devastated when hearing the news, even as I have only recently entered the status of being a Deadhead—while I don't write about it at the minute, I've spent the last couple months spinning various Dead shows throughout 1966 up to 1968, while also slowly working my way through the Europe 1972 tour, but that's all quite possibly for another time.

    One thing remains certain, though—Phil Lesh was a brilliant, joyful soul, and the world is greater from the fact that he was even with us in the first place. He'll be rejoining Jerry, Pigpen, Keith, Hunter, Barlow, Vince, and Mydland once again. May the four winds blow him safely home.

-λ