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by Stew Sallo, author of “The Deadhead Cyclist.”
Life lessons on two wheels to the tunes of the
Grateful Dead
Robert Hall Weir, né Parber,
October 16, 1947 – January 10, 2026
Let the words be yours, I’m done with mine.
I first saw Bob Weir on October 19, 1974 with the Grateful Dead at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. I last saw Bob Weir on June 14, 2024 as a member of Dead & Company at The Sphere in Las Vegas. Over the course of almost 50 years, it was my privilege to see Bobby perform countless times as a member of the Grateful Dead, Kingfish, Ratdog, the Other Ones, The Dead, Furthur, Dead & Company, the Weir Robinson & Greene Acoustic Trio, and probably others that I have failed to remember.
Other Posts
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 13 - March 23, 1974
Comic book colors on a violin river
A few weeks ago we explored the seemingly oxymoronic nature of Grateful Dead as a band name. “Upon scrutiny” we came to the conclusion that the words, “grateful” and “dead,” are not the strange bedfellows they appear to be, but actually complement each other to perfection if considered in the context of the psychedelic-inspired “ego death” experience the band and most Deadheads were engaged in during the Acid Test years (and, of course, well beyond). Still, if there were a Jeopardy category called, “Strange band names of the Sixties,” Grateful Dead would most likely be the “Daily Double.” And there are plenty of other band names that came out of that same period that appear to defy logic, regardless of how hard you try to spin them.
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 30 - July 22, 1984
Let your life proceed
Free will versus fate. The debate is as fundamental as any other in the realm of human existence, and has been taken up by many of the great philosophers throughout recorded history. Aristotle (385-382 B.C.E.) said, “The man is the father of his actions as of children”; Augustine (355-430) tipped the scale in the other direction with his belief that all things are determined in some manner by God; Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) believed in free will conditionally: “A man has free choice to the extent that he is rational”; René Descartes (1596-1650) suggested that free will lies in our thoughts: “Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power”; and more recently, Nobel Prize winning author Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991) humorously claimed, “We must believe in free will, we have no choice.”
This Week in Grateful Dead History: Week 27 - July 4, 1989
Give me five
Despite Grand Funk Railroad laying claim to the title in their 1973 album, “We’re an American Band,” there is no more American band than the Grateful Dead. Songs like Cumberland Blues (Lotta poor man got to walk the line/Just to pay his union dues), Truckin’ (Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on Main Street/Chicago, New York, Detroit and it’s all on the same street), Me and My Uncle (Me and my uncle went riding down/South Colorado, West Texas bound/We stopped over in Santa Fe/That being the point just about half way), and The Music Never Stopped (There’s a band out on the highway/They’re high steppin’ into town/It’s a rainbow full of sound/It’s fireworks, calliopes and clowns) evoke an indisputable sense of Americana.
All Material Copyright 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 by Stewart Sallo