Chords for Grace Slick, Jerry Garcia and Bill Graham interview 1984

[B] The airplane [G] took off in the 60s, symbols of all [Gb] that was the counterculture. _
_ _ [E] _ All _ that was is [B] history and [G] Grace Link is in the 80s now and off on a new trip, flying [Bb] high on the [D] Jefferson Starship.
[Gm] _ _ [E] _ _ The Grateful Dead is another [A] rock group that's synonymous with the [E] 60s San Francisco sound and [A] Jerry Garcia is [E] synonymous with the [D] Grateful Dead.
But unlike the old Jefferson [A] airplane, the Grateful Dead is alive and well and living in the 80s.
Just this [D] past weekend, they performed in concerts in Berkeley.
The San Francisco sound, then and now.
[Eb] Grace Link with us this morning, very early in the morning.
Welcome, so is Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead and the man who set the stage for this [Dm] music and is still setting the stage for rock group's promoter, Bill Graham.
Welcome [Bb] to you all.
Grace is just here from a party, a big party, Willie Brown, of course, down on the front.
How was it?
Oh, I loved that because it was little sets of San Francisco, [D] pieces of San Francisco that are famous all around and remind me of when I was a kid.
I went to MGM and there were little sets [Bb] around.
I felt like I was in [Ab] [N] Wonderland or something.
It was a good deal.
You and Jerry have almost gone separate ways since those times in the subject of punk rock.
You say it turns you [Bb] on.
Why?
Well, I like the energy of it.
In other words, _ I guess during the 70s, I went to Studio 54 and there's a bunch of people in [G] Halston dresses with a bunch of quaaludes.
I mean, it was like the zone, you know, and that doesn't represent too much energy.
[Bb] Then I went to England to do some press and saw all these kids walk with this orange hair and, you know, wild looking stuff on.
I thought, good, [B] there's [Bb] that desire to express yourself, a desire to be open again.
Yeah, it looks good in London.
Yeah.
In London, but not here, right, Jerry?
It looks good here, too.
It's a matter of point of view.
It's nice to have something that has that there can be some controversy about it.
It's juicy.
And to look at something and talk about it.
Yeah, there ought to be some kind of friction.
Music should have some punch.
The music itself [N] sometimes lacks it, but at least the surface has it, you know.
Bill, looking back on the 60s and punk rock, how [Eb] do you see the development of music over the years?
Are you disappointed the direction it's [Bb] taken?
Yeah.
_ _ _ Why is that, Bill? _
Well, [Eb] more of it is key toward earning a living at that craft, which is OK when it's also good.
And 15, 20 years ago, the reason most of the groups started was to make good [Bb] music.
I know the Airplane and The Bed and all the others [N] did it because they wanted to play music.
[Eb] More often than not, groups become, they become [B] groups and they become [N] musicians.
That's the way they want to earn their living.
We all think that we'll get [Ab] better and better and better, but [Eb] maybe we just earn more money along the years.
Some of us.
I wish.
It's possible to get better and better and better.
Yeah, but you have to hope that [Bb] that can happen.
I mean, you have to build it in and really showbiz, the formulas in rock and roll don't encourage that.
They really say, repeat your most [Ab] successful gesture, [B] do the thing that you're famous for.
And it [Abm] ends up freezing people in these attitudes.
And it's one of the reasons why there are waves of things rather than people getting better and better.
I mean, it _ doesn't encourage it.
But if you imagine [Eb] you can, you can.
It can happen.
It does happen.
Some musicians.
Grace, has music lost something since the 60s?
I don't think so.
I think things change.
I don't think they lose [Bb] necessarily.
I mean, if they were lost in front, [Eb] they're still lost.
[Bb] But I don't think it's lost anything.
It changes all the time.
I love synthesizers.
The idea of being able to get any kind of sound.
It's infinite now.
There's no like a violin is limited.
A guitar is limited.
Not that they're ugly instruments.
I'm not saying that, but they are limited.
But now we've got that explosion of being able to make any sound you want to make.
It's [Ab] all it's just up to the human mind to program the thing.
And any [Bb] video you [Ab] can make to write.
You've [Db] jumped into that [Eb] full force.
Would you have handled the Jackson tour like they did?
The ultimate promoter?
[Fm] No.
How would [N] you have changed it?
_ _ Would have been a little more concerned about the public that really made the Jacksons who they are.
Did you see the street people?
Did you feel that as you've been [B] watching the Jackson tour going around the country?
[Bb] Tickets a concern?
I haven't seen the Jackson show.
[G] I'd have to see the show to tell you.
[A] Great.
[Bb] Don't get me wrong.
They're great.
Everybody would [G] agree.
I think it's the controversy that's grown [Bb] up around [B] the tour itself.
You [Eb] involve people who don't do that for a living all the time.
It's like asking somebody to pitch in the World Series and they don't know what baseball looks like.
And they're pitching in the World Series.
The group is fine.
[Bb] The surroundings are questionable. _
Maybe the best way would be to ask [B] somebody who has a kid who has seen the show, say, what did you think?
Did you like it?
Yeah, I loved it.
What about [Bb] the ticket price?
Hey, it was worth it.
I love Michael.
You know, because they talk about [E] playing in stadiums.
And I know there's been a [Bb] member of our group or two who object to stadiums.
But if the kids want to go and have a party in a stadium, why not play a stadium?
[Abm] _ _ [B] I'd rather play a [Bb] nightclub.
I mean, a small place.
But, [B] you know, it's up to the kids.
[Abm] To ask a [Bb] street person or a laboring person or a third world person [E] to gather [Bb] three friends, raise $120, [N] send your money to New York.
You may get it back in a month.
You may get the [Eb] tickets.
_ [Bb] Who are you dealing with?
These are the people who supported you.
I know that was cruel.
[Ab] That was like unusual.
That was [Bb] a lot of part.
I [Ab] don't believe that's an effect anymore.
I don't know whether it is or not, but it seems to me that they only backed [Bb] away from that.
You don't try out [Bb] on Broadway.
No, New Haven.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
[F] See, that's the money argument that really supports you.
Does anybody just in a few seconds ever want to go back to the 60s and recapture it?
Everybody [Bb] looks at you, though, and they say, I want to go back to that time.
We were there once.
[Ab] You say, well, I laughed [N] at you.
Do you want to go back to high school?
Yeah.
Not high school.
You brought the best of it with us.
You know, it looks like a time of freedom.
And you're associated with so much success then.
Good times.
There are people who are still in jail from back then.
I mean, you know, I don't I mean, you know, it may have looked like time of freedom, but it was when people talk about the good old days.
I never believed they were until I [F] have good old days.
And those were great old days.
And not to go back, but they were wonderful [E] days.
And meeting [Eb] these strange people with a wonderful experience.
So what's ahead, Grace, in the music business?
What do you see in the next few years?
I don't know.
All I see is business getting more complicated because it has.
_ And you have to pay more attention to it as a musician, unfortunately, [Bb] because I'm not really that fond of it.
But as far as the music goes, the music is always good.
It's always something that you have when everything else is [Eb] kind of out the window.
So the music will always any kind of music will always lift people, to use a corny word.
The business, that's another thing.
But the [B] music will keep changing and keep getting [Bb] interesting.
[A] Everything [Gb] changes.
Jerry, my 18 year old daughter is going [N] to your concerts.
Yeah.
And I hope she's enjoying them.
_ I think she is and driving a long way.
Thanks to all of you, Bill and Jerry and Grace, like for getting up especially this early in San [Gm] Francisco.