A place to talk about the music of the Grateful Dead
old man down wrote:Don't forget Martin Fierro in March
First Jer, then John, and now Merl.
Very sad day, indeed.
old man down wrote:Yeah, that is a great song. Almost wore out that LP.
I'm reading Searching for the Sound and I was looking at the pictures the other day, and there was one of Merl and I thought *good old Merl*.
A very rare recording of his, which some of you may know, is from the album Fire Up. This song is only found on the album and was not included on the CD. The song is Charisma and it is a gem if you ever get to hear it, and may be the only song on the album that did not have Jer playing on it. It was Tom Fogerty, I believe, on guitar.
First Jer, then John, and now Merl.
Very sad day, indeed.
Crazy 9.5 Fingers wrote:I shared this story before here but it's worth another recount. In 2001, right before 9/11 I was up at Jorma's Fur Peace Ranch. I was taking Jorma's fingerstyle acoustic class for the second time and my buddy was taking Merl's keyboard class, the only one Merl was able to do up there as he had a stroke right before he was on the slate for next year.That is an absolutely great story!!! From all accounts he was just majorly loved and a nice guy....
I brought up my acoustic up, and I also brought my electric and my amp ('77 Ibanez GB-10, and '66 Fender Princeton Rvrb) up so I could sit in with the keys class from time to time. Jorma was totally cool with me splitting time so I was basically Merl's guitar player for the week with his class and when we did class performances. I ended up staying with Merl's group most of the time. And props to Jorma for letting me do what I wanted. He knew how psyched I was to workshop with Merl.
Can not say how friggin' nice of a guy he was. Not even just musicians, but he was one of the nicest people I have ever met period. Told great stories about Jerry and life, and how thankful he was to be so tight with Jerry. They were pretty much brothers from what I gathered.
Anyway, my friend and I got really tight with him over the camp session and we went one night out to watch some Sunday night NFL on TV. Merl loved football and LOVED his Niners. We went out to sports bar there in Athens, OH and there were a few heads sitting at a table near us. I was wondering if any of them would recognize him and none of them did, it was kind of funny.
The highlight of the whole weekend was jamming out "Keepers" with Merl and ripped one of my better solos at the time and he had that awesome nod of approval that basically said "Right fucking on man." as only that nod can say. I also sat in with him and the keys class for the performance day and we did "Strugglin' Man". Another great memory and Jorma gave me props for my skank chops. I do love the reggae.
I guess the stroke he had the next year really messed him up from what we heard. Not sure how much he ever recovered but I am glad to know that tonight he'll be jamming away with Old Jerry and Kahn and doin' it up fuckin' straight up right.
As for me, it's bath time for my baby boy and I think we will be listening to some Merl and Jer from the Keystone tonight.
