Phil Lesh, Bassist Who Anchored the Grateful Dead, Dies at 84 | Hacker News Reader

Phil Lesh, Bassist Who Anchored the Grateful Dead, Dies at 84

nytimes.com

30 pointsarittr7 comments

I have chills, I believe mostly from reliving 1995 a bit. I was young, and had lots of plans. This is very sad, his music was just starting to reach a fourth (fifth? third?) generation of heads. Maybe now he’s with Jerry, Hunter, and Barlow, Kieth, Brent, and Pigpen, and all the others.

I’ve had the opening bass slide down that kicks off Scarlet Begonias/Cornell 1977 (I was a child lol) stuck in my head for days, my god what that must have felt like to see live. Rattled the bones, like a crack of thunder. I am sad.

The Lesh bass line that sticks in my head is in "Me and Bobby McGee" from a show in Fresno in the summer of 1974 [1]. It's a simple three-chord country song, and the usual bass backing would be a straight oom-pah on the beat. But Phil was all over the place with syncopated counterpoint. I've listened to that recording dozens of times.

[1] https://archive.org/details/gd74-07-19.sbd.symons.12381.sbeo...

Love it, listening now. Here’s a great comment for that show (archive.org taper comments for one of the sources):

  > Phil's bass tone is just how I like it, nice and thick.

My #1 favorite Jerry solo is during Brown Eyed Women at that same concert (Barton Hall).

What a show!

Requiescat in Pace, Mr. Lesh

Listening to the dead channel on sirius xm now, he will be missed, what a guy.

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