Jerry Garcia Hispanic, Jerry Garcia Latino, Grateful Dead Shakespeare
BLOG #7
August 20, 2024
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Jerry Garcia and His Ties to Shakespeare and to Latinidad
August 3rd was Jerry Day, an annual celebration established in San Francisco in 2002 in honor of posthumous Grateful Dead front man and music icon, Jerry Garcia (1942-1995). Garcia wasn’t Latino and he wasn’t involved with Shakespearean performance, but I mention him here for several reasons.
In fact, the only explicit connection that Garcia or the Grateful Dead had to Shakespeare that I am aware of is the song “Althea” (1980). “Althea” was written by Robert Hunter and Garcia composed the musical arrangement. With lyrics taken from Richard Lovelace’s poem, “To Althea, From Prison” (1642, published in 1649) and references to Hamlet, the song has given fans much to ponder.[1] In Christopher Coffman’s excellent analysis of the Shakespearean meanings in the Dead’s “Althea,” for which he also brings in 2HenryIV, he notes that the Dead also sang two other songs—"Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,” and “Desolation Row”—with Shakespearean references; both songs are by Bob Dylan.[2]
That said, Shakespearean drama also makes a cameo appearance in a backstage pass from the Dead’s 1994 tour that strangely had a picture of Orson Welles dressed as Macbeth.[3]
Other moments of intersection only occurred through headlines and happenstance. The long-standing scheduling of rock concerts at Boulder’s outdoor Folsom Field has several times conflicted with Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s productions at nearby Mary Rippon Theatre, and in 2018, the scheduling of Dead & Company at Folsom Field for two days in July caused the two-day cancellation of CSF’s production of Love’s Labour’s Lost.[4] San Francisco’s Jerry Garcia Amphitheater, located in McLaren Park, reopened in 2021 after a $1.45M renovation, with San Francisco Shakespeare’s production of Pericles: Prince of Tyre.[5]
My reason for writing about Jerry here is that his musical excellence and cultural sainthood have inspired millions of fans (myself included), some who periodically attempt to interpret his music and musical influences through his cultural background. Garcia’s father was of Galician descent (northwest Spain) and was himself also a musician. Jerry talked about his interest in “Latin music” as part of growing up with American music.[6] The Dead’s connections to Spanish music were largely forged through jazz. [7] He played with Carlos Santana and Ruben Blades, but the only time I am aware that he sang in Spanish was when he sang “La Bamba” in 1987. Jerry didn’t speak Spanish, but neither did Ritchie Valens. And in the recordings of the Dead’s version of “La Bamba,” it sounds as if Jerry gets some of the lyrics wrong.[8]
The film La Bamba (dir. Luis Valdez) was released in 1987, and with it, Los Lobos’ cover of Ritchie Valens’ song of the same name. “La Bamba” was a Billboard success, hitting #1, and Jerry played the song at several concerts that year. He had played with Los Lobos in November 1986 and Los Lobos opened for The Dead in 1988 in Monterey, California. But at Dead shows in 1987, he interspersed the song with “Good Lovin’”.[9] He sang “La Bamba” at the concerts in Landover, Philadelphia, Providence, and Madison Square Garden, all in September 1987.[10]
NB: In a moment of true folk song circularity, Los Lobos later sang “La Bamba” to the tune of Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone”[11] and reversed the Dead’s version by sandwiching “Good Lovin’” between two parts of “La Bamba.”[12]
To my knowledge, it is the only time that The Grateful Dead covered a number one song, while it was still at number one. But does it have anything to do with a Spanish-Latinx connection?
I last saw Jerry in concert in RFK Stadium in Washington, DC, in late June 1995, less than five weeks before he passed away. It was a double-header in the summer heat: Bob Dylan opening for The Grateful Dead. My friend and I rushed the field and sat about eight feet from the stage. There was a lightning storm, and people were dehydrated and passing out from the heat and drugs. It was an amazing show, with Jerry coming out to sing some of Dylan’s songs with him.
That summer, every salsa club became a macarena club. “Macarena” by Los Del Rio was the song of the summer, and people who typically do not rush to the dance floor knew the moves and could feel comfortable executing them. I spent ten weeks in Washington, DC, with an internship at the Patent and Trademark Office through the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). There were over 200 interns, and I made friends I still have today.
One night we were at a salsa club, and the macarena was playing. It was, and it remains, the only time I have been in club or bar when they have stopped the music to make an announcement. Right in the middle of a verse, the music halted, and a voice came over the crowd, “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sorry to announce that Jerry Garcia has died.” There were gasps, and I was in shock, but before I could comprehend the news, the music cut to the Dead’s “Black Muddy River.” Some young man who I didn’t know and will never know, but who was near me in the "Macarena" formation, immediately started leading me in a slow dance. Everyone was coupled up dancing, a stark contrast to the Latin "line dancing" from a moment earlier. The DJ must have realized that “Black Muddy River” is over seven minutes long, and a damper on nightclub atmosphere, so after about a minute, the music abruptly switched back over to “Macarena,” and the entire crowd picked up where we left off.
It is a minute of my life I have never forgotten, a stolen moment to honor someone who changed music history. At the time, I didn’t connect Jerry’s Spanish heritage to the Spanish-language music in the club, or his Hispanic background to the Hispanic and Latino group I was part of. But as time has passed, I have wondered if the connections are tenuous and revisionist, or if there was some element of his interest in “La Bamba” and Latin music that had to do with his Spanish heritage. I will never know.
I have written previously about how some want Latinx Shakespeares to always be about an overt political statement, that Latinx adaptations and productions of white western classics must always be a forward-facing engagement with (anti, post, or de-) coloniality. This is a pressure to make something narrowly political when it perhaps has more to do with the love of theatre, or inspiration, or its familiarity and the fact that it is free to use. Sometimes it is simply that the stories move people, and they wish to engage with them, just as the music from Spain and Mexico and from across the Americas moved and inspired Jerry and he engaged with it. I will never know if Jerry was connecting with his Spanish heritage via a centuries' old Mexican folk song or if he just wanted to cover it like hundreds of other singers, but I do know that he looked genuinely happy when he put his spin on it. Sometimes it is the same for Latinx theatre-makers; it is the pleasure of putting a different spin on centuries' old plays. We create something new entirely - mixing cultures, languages, styles, and time periods - to be enjoyed as new classics.
[1] For the lyrics to “Althea” with annotation, see https://genius.com/13148996. For a general overview of references, see Chris Huber, “The Meaning of the Grateful Dead’s Althea,” Extra Chill, 20 July 2024. https://extrachill.com/the-meaning-of-the-grateful-deads-althea. For the connection to Adam Smith’s “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” see https://www.reddit.com/r/gratefuldead/comments/atr2l9/althea_annotated/.
[2] Christopher Coffman, “Clowns in the Burying Ground: Ovid, William Shakespeare, and the Grateful Dead,” Literary Matters, 15.3 (Spring 2023), https://www.literarymatters.org/15-3-clowns/
[3] Welles played the titular role in the 1948 film version of Macbeth that the directed. The film was controversial, panned in the U.S., yet well-received in Europe.
[4] Jim Kimball, “CSF’s July 14 ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ Play Canceled,” CU Presents, 25 January 2018. https://cupresents.org/series/shakespeare-festival/2018/01/25/july-14-loves-labours-canceled/
[5] Jaime Ferrell, “The Jerry Garcia Amphitheater Has Reopened After a $1.45M Renovation,” Secret San Francisco, 13 September 2021. https://secretsanfrancisco.com/jerry-garcia-ampitheater-opening/
[6] “Jerry Garcia on His Latin Musical Influences.” https://www.facebook.com/deadvideos/videos/419570195789339/
[7] For an excellent blog on The Dead’s “Spanish Jam,” inspired by Miles Davis’ “Sketches of Spain,” see Blogger Light Into Ashes, “The Spanish Jam,” Dead Essays Blogspot, 8 July 2021. https://deadessays.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-spanish-jam.html
[8] “La Bamba” starts at 4:15 in this recording at Madison Square Garden in September 1987. https://www.dead.net/song/la-bamba
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pfp8EQz4bI
[10] https://headyversion.com/song/368/grateful-dead/la-bamba/ To note, he had also played the song in Brooklyn in November 1970, just before “Good Lovin.’” https://archive.org/details/gd70-11-11.aud.cotsman.17081.sbeok.shnf/gd70-11-11d2t07.shn One blogger also stated that The Dead played it privately inside “It’s a Sin” in 1966.
[11] See song 23 here. https://archive.org/details/LosLobos1997-12-31.sbd.flac16/Los+Lobos+19971231+Chicago+Riviera+CD2+(08).flac
[12] See song 14 here. https://archive.org/details/LosLobos2023-06-24/LL20230624.omt4.2448-14.flac