Photo Credit: Jay Blakesberg
The global music community is reeling from the loss of Phil Lesh, the original bassist of the Grateful Dead. Tributes are pouring in, each one a poignant reminder of the profound impact Lesh had on the world of music. In the wake of the musician’s passing, bandmates Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann collectively and independently responded.
Prior to the arrival of separately scribed tributes, Weir, Hart and Kreutzmann posted a united response to via the Grateful Dead’s official social media platforms, using the space to address their audience and honor the Lesh’s legacy as a cultural icon who had a significant impact on the development of the beloved San Francisco jamband, as an improvisational stalwart, intellectual of the craft and mastermind behind the bass.
Today we lost a brother. Our hearts and love go out to Jill Lesh, Brian and Grahame. Phil Lesh was irreplaceable. In one note from the Phil Zone, you could hear and feel the world being born. His bass flowed like a river would flow. It went where the muse took it. He was an explorer of inner and outer space who just happened to play bass. He was a circumnavigator of formerly unknown musical worlds. And more.
We can count on the fingers of one hand the people we can say had as profound an influence on our development – in every sense. And there have been even less people who did so continuously over the decades and will continue to for as long as we live. What a gift he was for us. We won’t say he will be missed, as in any given moment, nothing we do will be without the lessons he taught us – and the lessons that are yet to come, as the conversations will go on.
Phil loved the Dead Heads and always kept them in his heart and mind. The thing is… Phil was so much more than a virtuoso bass player, a composer, a family man, a cultural icon…
There will be a lot of tributes, and they will all say important things. But for us, we’ve spent a lifetime making music with Phil Lesh and the music has a way of saying it all. So listen to the Grateful Dead and, in that way, we’ll all take a little bit of Phil with us, forever.
For this is all a dream we dreamed one afternoon, long ago….
Following the arrival of the remaining members collective response, Weir took time to reflect on his own relationship with Lesh, and the bassist’s impact on his musical ascent:
At the age of seventeen, I listened to the John Coltrane Quartet, focusing on McCoy Tyner’s work, feeding Coltrane harmonic and rhythmic ideas to springboard off of – and I developed an approach to guitar playing based off of it. This happened because Phil turned me on to the Coltrane Quartet.
Early on, he also introduced me (and us) to the wonders of modern classical music, with its textures and developments, which we soon tried our hands at incorporating into what we had to offer. This was all new to peoples’ ears. Igor Stravinsky’s work wasn’t news to me at that point, but what he did and how he did it were ongoing topics of discussion for Phil and I – and boy, did I ever grow.
Concurrent with all this was the ongoing conversation about the things (ideas) we present outside of music, and the effect it would have in shaping the world around us – let’s just say Phil wasn’t particularly averse to ruffling a few feathers. We had our differences, of course, but it’s not platitudinous to say that that only made our work together more meaningful.
Our conversation and interaction will last, at very least, ‘til the end of my days.
The Muse gives us the people and tools to work with. Where we go with that work emerges from somewhere between our intuition and her inspiration. It’s a process always cloaked deep in Mystery, and at its best, the Mystery is forever lasting after its rendering. *Look out of any window…* has that ring to it.
Meanwhile, given that death is the last and best reward for a life *well and fully lived*, I rejoice in his liberation…
Like Weir, Mickey Hart reflected on the significance of Lesh’s affect, drawing on the indistinguishable motif akin to his bandmate’s experience; exposure to influential music, a matured guide for his brothers in later years, and forever brazen bass god.
Phil Lesh changed my life. There are only a few people you meet in your lifetime that are special, important, who help you grow spiritually as well as musically.
He turned me on to the world’s music, gave me my first Alla Rakha record when we lived on Belvedere Street, changing forever what I thought was musically possible.
Phil was foremost an improvisational and taught me, all of us. Phil was bigger than life, at the very center of the band and my ears, filling my brain with waves of bass. All those years we all rode the third rail together creating something that cannot be defined in words. Phil was a master of a style ge invented, he was singular, an original, nobody sounded like him, nobody. He has wisdom, was older and showed us the way. Later he before first and foremost a family man.. There is no one who loved his wife and sons more than Phil and no one was more dedicated to the Grateful Dead. His sound is indelibly embedded in my mind as is Jerry’s sound… and always will be.
Bill Kreutzmann’s statement was poignant, presenting his own apt send-off:
Phil Lesh was my brother. Not by blood but still by family. I’ve heard so many of you tell me that the Grateful Dead changed your life. Yeah, well… Phil Lesh changed mine.
Phil turned me onto John Coltrane. Back in the early days of our friendship, he wasn’t just like a brother to me – he was like an older brother. A roommate. A bandmate. A mentor.
All lifelong friendships and family relationships are complicated and dynamic, but ultimately stand the test of time. So keep only the good memories, for they are the only ones that matter. That’s what I’m going to do. Because love is real, not fade away.
Thank you Phil. I’ll miss you, darn it.
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Relix will continue to compile these tributes and messages of support as they arrive in the coming days.
Stay tuned for further remembrances as we pore over our archives to honor an artist for whom this outlet was formed. With heavy hearts, and with fans everywhere, we are eternally grateful.
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