Something really nice from Newsom. Something Trump would NEVER WRITE, or allow to be ghost-written for him.

[Miles Archer]

Here's the thing. I know "fans of" The Grateful Dead. I know people who are tie-dyed-in-the-wool "Dead Heads." And I know people who are just not into the band. And all of that's OK, because all of the people I just mentioned RESPECT each other. They KNOW that some of us were REALLY into the Dead, thought Bob was such a cool and quirky and unprecedented kind of guy. And if you watch the Netflix documentary "The Other One: The Long Strange Trip Of Bob Weir," , you know that the band was no more prepared for the trajectory they'd take than the audience and "rock journalists" were.

There was no one like Bob Weir...adopted by a family in what was at the time one of the single most affluent cities in the USA (Atherton, CA). Discovered Acid and Ken Kesey and Neal Cassidy and "got on the bus" as a teenager, deciding school wasn't for him, becoming instead one of THE architects of psychedelic rock and every jam band that followed.

And it is OK if that means something to someone, or if it doesn't, because Bob meant something to millions of people, and now is the time to respect that, assuming someone is "made of the stuff" that respects others.

Like, for example, Gavin Newsom.

Like, NOT for example, Donald Trump.

I have a tribute to Bob on my show tomorrow. He meant something to me. Kudos to the Gov. Takes five minutes to write something like this, but only if you're a decent human being with empathy toward others.

Gov. Gavin Newsom worte, “Bob Weir was a true son of California who helped create the soundtrack of a generation. He was — and will always be — a king of psychedelic rock. Bob will be deeply missed, and his music will forever live on.”

https://bestclassicbands.com/bob-weir-tributes-1-11-26/

[AZJonnie]

1. Pretty sure Atherton retains that status to this day, but yeah.

Bob was one-of-a-kind, and will be deeply missed. Love that he kept on touring almost through to the end of his days.

Bob Weir

[Miles Archer]

2. I wasn't sure...I moved out of California in 2012.

When I first moved there, we lived in Redwood City, right next door.

Menlo Park was next to that. Palo Alto, where Bob met Jerry, right next to that.

Atherton was an oddity because it was a relatively smaller town. The main drag going through it all was El Camino Real. There used to be a Jack In The Box on the corner of El Camino & 5th Avenue in Redwood City. Cross over El Camino into Atherton and all of a sudden the median home price was one million bucks (and that was in the SEVENTIES).

I respected Bob's tenure in ALL of his post-Dead bands. The final one, Dead & Company, took a measure of critical heat for not being the Grateful Dead, because that's just how "rock journalists" think. They punished the Beatles for years after the breakup for not being Beatles. Bob didn't care. He found musicians he respected who could work with him and keep the Dead's music alive. That's praise-worthy in my book.

[AZJonnie]

3. Yeah I left before you but I'm in the Bay Area fairly often still for family

As we both known the entire area has more risen up in wealth as opposed to Atherton shifting downward in any way. IIRC a big reason the median income is so high in the town of Atherton is that the smallest lot allowed is like a 1/2 acre, and nearly all properties are over an acre. Plus there's almost zero commercial zoning. It remains routinely (not always but often) ranked as #1 richest town or city in America. The same is true of the 94027 zip code in general, consistently top 5, some surveys it's #1.

Agree about Bob 100%! I still remember going to the Memoriam concert a few days after Jerry passed in '95 at the Polo Grounds at GGP. The size of the crowd and collectively grieving (1000's of people crying their eyes out) in that time and place may never be matched for a musical figure.

Bob and Jerry and all the others

[padfun]

8. That Jack-in-the-Box is still there.

as are all those rich homes.

[Miles Archer]

9. I was in a rock band in high school...

...our drummer lived in Atherton, but it was on the Redwood City edge...at the Jack In The Box intersection, if you crossed El Camino into Atherton, there were older, single-family homes, closer to what you'd see in Redwood City. My father worked for a billionaire who lived in a mansion.

That whole area, Atherton / Redwood City / Menlo Park / Palo Alto / East Palo Alto made for a really interesting...and volatile mix of personalities...at Sequoia and Menlo-Atherton high schools (I went to M-A).

Went to school with a couple of Don Jr / Eric Trump types. Guys whose fathers owned lumber yards, and would walk into a VP job right after graduating Stanford, etc etc etc, not particularly bright guys, just like Don and Eric. But the whole spectrum from Atherton to East Palo Alto and all points in between was a challenge for me, because I was born in Massachusetts, and my family moved to California at the end of my Sophomore year.

I was lucky enough to have two teachers who were mentors. One formed the aforementioned rock band for a high school dance and enlisted me to play guitar. The other was an English teacher who got me on the literary magazine. That was my sole "belonging" for two years.

[EuterpeThelo]

11. Redwood City!

Born and raised! Moved to L.A. in 2002 but my best friend of almost 40 years still lives there!

[Codifer]

4. Perhaps

it is merely a cultural myth that, at one short span of time in the sixties, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and The Jefferson Airplane lived in the same neighborhood in the Haight?

What a trip that would have been.

[flashman13]

5. There is nothing more to say, "Bob will be deeply missed, and his music will forever live on."

Hats off to Bob, Gavin, and the whole Dead Head family.

[calimary]

6. The Best!!!

Sitting here waiting for my doctor’s appointment, and boogieing along with some of the best “smilin”-as-you’re-rockin’” music ever!

Two OR MORE thumbs up - ALWAYS and FOR ALL TIME!!!

[Mr. Evil]

7. I was never a big Greatful Dead fan but,

I was a fan of Bob Weir. He was basically the front-man of the GD for nearly (if not more) a half a century. They made a shit-load of fun songs and they made a shit-ton of people happy. Even if only for a brief moment in their lives. Why wouldn't, literally thousands of people, follow them around the country while they're on tour. However they found a way to pay for that adventure is not for me to judge but, they did it, they survived and they lived on. I think they're some of the brilliant people, if we actually pay attention, that we hear from on websites like this.
Bob Weir made a lot of people smile. For a lot of years. I can get behind that.

[Miles Archer]

10. He got a glimpse of the life he wanted at an early age, and resisted all peer pressure as he walked that road

To their credit, his adoptive parents made their preferences known, but they ultimately supported his decisions and were very proud of him when he became successful. It's all in that Netflix doc.