Grateful Dead - 1970 - American Beauty

  

I moved to Marin County at age 20 in 1990. I was hippie-ish (LSD), but never had been into the Dead. Anyone from Marin has a familiarity with the Grateful Dead. (When Jerry died, it got a LOT harder to get
LSD... a day I remember to this day. RIP Jerry.) 

My first job when I moved to Marin and lived with Nick and Glen (Glen and I moved together from Minnesota), was at "The Bedroom" at Harbor Way. I helped load a futon into Jerry's Benz. I barely knew who he was, but my co-workers were like "Holy SHIT".  Jerry tipped me $5, which is still a good tip, but in 1990, was like $17.

 Years later, in 2000, I was house-sitting for my dear friend Ariel in Oakland. The Oak wasn't quite gentrified yet.. shit, it was still gangsta as fuck. Anyway, I would come home that week, put a mixed disc in (The Doh of Shlep series!!) and read. I remember I read Lenny Bruce, P.J. O'Rourke and Hunter S. Thompson during that week.

Ariel's CD player held six discs, and I was so into the Lenny Bruce book, that I didn't notice when my Doh of Shlep mix had ended and shifted to the next disc in Ariel's CD player. It was this album, and "Box of Rain" stopped me in mid-page.

 Gloriously beautiful. A perfect album.

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