Remembering Phil Lesh :: A Legacy In Lysergia and Melodic Mastery
The holy house band of the world, The Grateful Dead, has been poetically providing spiritual sound, collective consciousness for our culture and society as well as rhythmic reverberation for the better part of over half a century. Without divulging too much into the harmonious history of the band, because what could we say that's not been said, or expressed before? But something happened yesterday on the 25th of October 2024 that you can only write about once in real time and that's the final departure of bassist, tonal trailblazing teacher of all things fluorescent and free, Phil Lesh. While this is still being absorbed by longtime listeners, Deadhead alumni and sonic scholars around the world, the visceral vessel of the band’s sophisticated spirit drops off on the front marble steps to the gates of the gospel, another atmospheric angel. From one retro realm to the next, Lesh’s oscillating output and cosmic contribution is sincerely unmeasurable and can’t be accurately captured in just one, brief inhale from the vibrational vial of galactic gas. It takes years, decades, a lifetime…
The first group to ever have fans transition into students, The Grateful Dead established the electrifying elements of obsession, harmonious honor and the gravity of graduation once you step into their magic circle of cosmic content and familiarness of family. It was never a matter of how much, or how big of a Dead fan you were, but how you connected with the music at any given moment in time, no matter who, or where you are. The deep dark depths of their endless exploration is up to you and how far you're willing to take it and, just like that, the soulful swells of their esoteric ecosystem blend the holistic with the harmonious in a way that engulfs the senses and suffocates the body into a near-death experience filled with complex colors and a Mountain View of the band playing live to alchemical audience of youthful spirits drenched in melody.
“If, as some savants of consciousness suggest, we are actually agreeing to create, from moment to moment, everything we perceive as real, then it stands to reason that we’re also responsible for keeping it going in some harmonious manner.”
So where do we go from here? Would it be so wise as to dive into select titles, specifically isolated years, days and dates throughout the band’s bottomless ecosystem into the calculated chemical chambers of iconic influence? Or do we simply put on our favorite albums, sit with friends, or colleagues of cosmic constitution and effortlessly exhale into the musical memories brought on by the band and its cultural constellations that hang high above our heads? How do you mourn music and its veteran creators, especially if you’ve never actually met, or shared anything personally with them? Just a few questions without consequences, or any sort of navigational responsibility. Phil Lesh was and will forever be this now even more rare artifact of art in the business of inspiration, while in dire hopes of changing, or simply motivating people to continue reaching for higher and brighter things that are simply out of this world. The soundtrack to our lives, Lesh and the Family of the Dead, did something you can’t repeat, but to reflect, which can never expire. The only thing eternal is what’s already behind you and boy did they leave a compelling body of work, harmony and history to be sifted and sorted through by us mere mortals of the past, present and future.
